Been a busy day, and earlier today we taped the second episode of Personality Crisis, hosted by Mistermix, DougJ/NYTPitchbot, and me. Our house was Dr. Brooke Harrington from Dartmouth, and we talked about the Broligarchs and their goals:
I will not be watching because I hate my face, my voice, and my mannerisms and facial expressions. You are welcome to watch, but I warned you.
Baud
Oh video. Cool.
ETA: And 38 minutes.
laura
Would very much appreciate it if you could green screen your background to resemble the set from Fernwood Tonight, and maybe check and see if Happy Kine and the Mirthmakers are looking for a side-hustle.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
There’s one other person in the world to admits being able to repeat the prologue from the Canterbury Tales in Middle English!
Okay, I didn’t have it memorized but anybody who clearly took an upper level English class like that one is great!
More to the point of Cole’s questions, her observation:
“Efficiency for whom?”
Key quote.
PsiFighter37
I was a lifelong fan of Balloon Juice. Then New York Times Pitchbot joined a podcast.
zhena gogolia
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Whan that aprille with his shoures soote
I wish we still talked like that
Fair Economist
Congrats. And I totally understand about hating to watch videos of yourself. I’ve done a few YouTube videos, and it’s just agonizing to edit them.
zhena gogolia
@Fair Economist: I can’t even stand Zoom.
Fair Economist
@zhena gogolia: Zoom is OK for me if the screen with me on it is REALLY small.
Citizen Alan
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: After 37 years, I still remember the Prologue to as far as “Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne.” I also remember how much I hated my senior English teacher for reasons other than than the Canterbury tales. She was approximately 35% of the reason I decided to go into music instead of journalism.
Omnes Omnibus
How do you feel about your hair?
schrodingers_cat
You have a great voice and a natural onscreen manner.
Two suggestions:
The video would be much improved if you move the camera to eye level and do something about the glare behind you.
SiubhanDuinne
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I learned it in high school and to this day will recite it at the merest prompt.
Baud
Only Part 1 was 38 minutes. Or half that if you listen on double speed.
No part 2?
Omnes Omnibus
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: We just read the Canterbury Tales. Memorization was for Paradise Lost. “Of Man’s first disobedience and the fruit of the forbidden tree…”
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: I have used Zoom for only one thing. No cameras. I still don’t care for it.
Steve LaBonne
Cole is much better at this than he thinks he is.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: Try teaching on it for several semesters in a row.
zhena gogolia
@Steve LaBonne: Ooh, yeah, he’s really good! I second sc’s suggestion about the camera.
Elizabelle
@PsiFighter37: Well done.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
One of my best final exam essay answers was in my upper level Chaucer class where I discussed why Chaucer was a Lollard using several character portrayals in the Canturbury Tales as to why.
The prof, one of the 1-3 best I had in 6 years at CU-Boulder, didn’t buy it but loved the analysis.
It’s so nice to see others here with exposure to stuff like that, it’s an increasingly lost aspect of why some people go to college for something other than a friggin STEM degree.
Sure, I can’t earn a living (not true but that’s the stereotype) but I can engage at a different/fun/stimulating level with more or less strangers in an Almost Top 10000 Blog. :)
Elizabelle
Big news day, with Pope Leo XIV, and now Cole and company dropping another podcast.
But: have any of you paid attention to its being VE Day, 80 years on?
That seems very significant to me too, with all the backsliding, and Goebbels Volume II, aka the rightwing media complex, persuading too many that fascism is the exciting new flavor. Dare to believe!
Pink Tie
“…because I hate my face, my voice, and my mannerisms and facial expressions” just took me out! I empathize completely.
Doc Sardonic
Best class I had high school was English Lit. We had to recite the prologue in Middle English. Paradise Lost and some of Shakespeare’s plays. Hardest class I had because of all the memorization and recitation, but by far the best. Then while in college I signed up for an English Lit class with the instructor listed as TBA, something I never did because you wanted to know the instructor’s reputation. Drew an inside straight on that one, the gentleman teaching the course was on sabbatical from Oxford. We spent a great deal of time on Gulliver’s Travels, I have since lost the course materials over the years but he gave us the list of who all of the characters was based on, it is a wonder Swift didn’t wind up in The Tower.
eclare
@Elizabelle:
King Charles III addressed the UK at 9 pm their time tonight as that was the time eighty years ago when King George VI declared victory in Europe.
And pubs are allowed to be open an extra two hours tonight.
SpaceUnit
Maybe he should deploy the cat filter.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Elizabelle: You didn’t hear? Trump declared today a holiday “because nobody gives us credit for winning WWII.”
But nobody got the day off because, he also said, and I kid not, “America already has too many holidays.” The dude who golfs more than he Presidents thinks we all get too many days off. Also has no idea about WWII and who gets credit, because what an ignoramus.
He also declared Nov. 11 a holiday to celebrate the end of WW I, which it already is, so why? Just ’cause it’s not really until he says it is, and he haf to flap his stupid gums a little bit more.
SpaceUnit
In case anyone missed it: Cat Filter Attorney
eclare
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
He also posted a photo of Iwo Jima, because it’s in Europe now.
Elizabelle
@eclare: Hadn’t heard. Thank you. Will check it out.
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Hadn’t heard. Thank Dog.
Elizabelle
@eclare: Such a moron. And we are stuck with him for at least another year or two, unless Satan calls him home.
Craig
@SpaceUnit: I forgot about that. It’s still hilarious, guy’s voice is so perfect for the cat filter.
SpaceUnit
@Craig:
It’s a hoot. I love that he feels he needs to explain that he’s not actually a cat.
Omnes Omnibus
@SpaceUnit: Counsel are not supposed to lie to the court. He was taking his duty seriously.
Another Scott
Good show! Very interesting and well done. You’re a good interviewer.
The break at the end makes it memorable. ;-)
Looking forward to more.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
hoytwillrise
Thank you so much, this was so excellent. I never listen to things like this, rather read, but so glad I did.
cain
lol, the sign behind John about the “Fat Cat” made me snicker. yeah, camera should be at eye level. He’ll get there.
Seanly
@schrodingers_cat:
Concur that you have a good voice. I think I sound like the screechy teen on The Simpsons (at age 57). You do say um & uh a lot – both my Mom & my wife have beat that mostly out of me (I don’t say it much when I am on a topic I know thoroughly).
And please tweak your camera angle to center your face. That would add tremendously to the presentation.
Also, mistermix & pitchbot can show the interviewee sooner.
And if you’re not interested in that little bit of constructive criticism then I will just listen to the podcast…
Margaret
Great interview. Thank you!
NightSky
I listened to this while preparing dinner and really enjoyed the discussion. But I want part 2!! when will it appear? Will look forward to more like this. thanks so much!!
Also happened to hear another very interesting interview earlier today of Scott Galloway by Nicole Wallace on MSNBC (probably available on you tube). I really appreciate discussion of specific actions we can take (beyond just calling our reps) to help save democracy, recommended by people like Harrington or Galloway who study such things, not just another pundit saying “yeah, it’s bad!” It occurrs to me that we regular folks could potentially protest/target/call out other “leaders-who-are-cowardly-and-afraid to lead” , not just our reps in Congress. How we do that effectively, I’m not sure, but like Harrington said, the broligarchs aren’t quite shameless, they actually do care about the impression they think we have of them. So how do we effectively direct and magnify our power in that regard to nail/shape these people who are trying hard to make us give up and accept their screwed up world view of them as omniscient and omnipotent ??? Food for thought for Part 2 or whatever… Thanks again!!
Ruckus
They likely cannot actually say openly that they are human. They can’t see that the here and now, the short term, will actually end at some point.
IOW they can’t understand getting old. They can’t look or think about the end and believe that at some point they won’t exist and the world will not slow down or cease to exist. IOW they are not special. They can’t be normal every day humans. The can’t fit into humanity. People like this have existed forever. People like this will exist forever. They aren’t stupid they just do not see humanity in all its forms or understand why they aren’t the top of the pile, because they must be that top. Pompous, arrogant, top of the pile – they are special.
John they do not talk about this because they see it as weak. Belonging is weak. They need to be top of the heap. They don’t know how or that there really is no top of the heap, because the heap changes daily, new pile on, and old die off. They can’t understand that they really aren’t in any way better than anyone else and yet in many ways far worse than many others. Back a hundred or more years ago the size of groups and the communications were far less and therefore they could find places to fit in, which for them is basically top of some heap. The heaps have gotten bigger and far more visual/noisy. The number of heaps has grown and for them that’s OK but the heaps have gotten far more visible and we have far more communications possibilities. They become seen, and often not in any way they want to be seen.
Ruckus
@NightSky:
Part of what you want is what we have right here. The ability to communicate openly among a lot more people.
Real honest, open human communications, something that is actually somewhat rare. We normally communicate on much lighter, far less depth. Maybe it’s time to change that.
kmax
Bravo. Really enjoyed this conversation and I usually prefer to read than listen.
Citizen Alan
@Ruckus: this reminds me of I thought I had many years ago about the koch brothers around the time charles koch died. Basically, I had thought that these assholes acted the way they did because they were getting older and could not accept their own mortality. It infuriated them that not even all their untold riches could keep them alive forever. And in spiteful rage over the thought of dying, just like everyone else, what they wanted was to kill us all just so that they could stick around long enough to outlive all the people they hated and thereby “win the game of Life.” Deep down, they want the entire human race to die in the funeral pyre that would allow them to ascend to heaven because they cannot bear the thought of the world continuing on without their glorious presence.
Ruckus
@zhena gogolia:
@Fair Economist:
The picture we have of ourselves is often far different than how other people see us. And is often not a realistic view of who we are at any one time. For any number of reasons. That does not mean we are bad humans, we are what we are. We can be crappy humans but it really doesn’t take much to not be.
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
There is a valid reason I call him shitforbrains. Because for most of his 80 years he has been exactly the person we all think he is, a useless POS. He envisions himself to be higher up the food chain than any god, when the reality is that he is a useless pile of animal waste.
Ruckus
@Citizen Alan:
I give this a BINGO!
Some people can never see themselves fitting in because that would make them EQUAL, a premise that they cannot see, believe, not in any way, shape or form. In their opinion they are the top of the stack, the pinnacle of humanity. For many the base of that pinnacle is MONEY. Which of course always makes them better, higher up the food chain, maybe all the way at the top. The reality is that we all fill a space, in the same manner as a cow is part of the herd. Human beings are animals, part of the mammal bit of animals. Can’t just be a part, a bit, must be higher up the food chain than any other animal or individual. An animal that is conceived, born, lives, dies. And might just leave a massive mess behind when they cease to be one any longer.
Jim Appleton
You had me at Erving Goffman.
John, you’re really good at this.
Please keep it up.
Sandia Blanca
@Ruckus: For some reason this makes me wonder about Howard Hughes–remember how he became a creepy recluse in his old age? How does he compare to the broligarchs of today?
OtherMJS
Your voice is fine. It reminded me of the late, great Peter Schickele, whom you at least vaguely resemble.
Other MJS
Your voice is great. It reminds me of the late, great Peter Schickele, whom you vaguely resemble.
(Mistyped my nym posting this earlier, please delete if convenient.)
divF
@eclare: It’s hard to believe that it was his grandfather. QE II reigned for a very long time.
Manyakitty
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: ooh, ooh! I can! Had to learn it in undergrad English Lit and it’s still knocking around in there.
Greg Ferguson
Cole, you have a very nice voice – first time I have heard you, even. Wonderful, wonderful interview, too. Thank you so much!!!!