The Unsociablists

Episode Notes The CIA, despite how embedded of an institution it seems today, was not always a facet of American foreign and domestic policy (even if they are technically barred from domestic interference). Before 1947 and the National Defense Act there was no Central Intelligence Agency. President Harry Truman and the increasingly powerful, post-war "military-industrial complex" birthed this aggr...

Episode Notes All the episodes from your favourite family comedy sitcom in one place! Listen as the Balts' grips on reality slip away in the comforting miasma of laugh tracks. Kyle and Phil also have a short discussion on the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, angry emotes, or whatever that you'd like to send us, please reach out at UnsociablistPod@gmail.com or...

Episode Notes Should we really call them "films" these days? What with Netflix being the specific platform for this one, and most of the theater releases having concurrent streaming options, feels like the words "film" or "cinema" are pretty obsolete. I mean, I love movies. I like sitting in the seats and taking in a 100 minute story. Oh well. The world is ending; cinematic experiences going away...

Managua About Town It isn't well-known among most Americans that the U.S. has invaded Nicaragua 12 times in our history. From the filibustering adventurers of the 19th century to funding death-squads in the 1980s, American meddling in Central America has a long history. Today, Phil and Kyle discuss two particular episodes surrounding the man who tried to reinstate slavery in Nicaragua - the "freeb...

Episode Notes Nihilism, a word that we've often heard but rarely discuss. What does it mean to be nihilist? Is it an abdication of responsibility to the world around you, or is it an acceptance to only change what can be changed? As much as anyone can really be an adherent of some philosophy, Kyle and Phil have dabbled in nihilistic beliefs to greater and lesser extents. One thing we've certainly...

Episode Notes From the studio that brought you Capital F comes a new and exciting story about two aliens - pacifist by nature and by training - who must confront the evils of the galaxy in ways they never imagined they could. Zorzon and Oglob take center stage to fight Mokrath, the Depletor , and must make strange alliances to succeed. Can our heroes maintain their commitment to peace and justice...

Episode Notes Reading series No. 1: Phil brings us a piece about how we should not complain about being stiffed for our work and Kyle reads a NYT opinion piece about how the conservative right can't use the left's _obvious bad behavior (screaming) to justify their slip into anti-democratic beliefs. Oh, the guys who wrote it? One's a Brookings Institute fellow and the other worked for Reagan and bo...

Episode Notes One of the best sitcoms of the 2000s and maybe of American Television ever, 30 Rock - for those of you who haven't seen it - is a satirical analogue for working behind the scenes at SNL. As such, the cast draws from former SNL stars and is written and led by alum Tina Fey. It's funny, it's smart, it's got, like, lukewarm lib messages, but whatever enjoy a show for once, jeez. Watchal...

Episode Notes Trigger Warning for those ahead: discussions will include the violence experienced by victims of the anticommunist crusade that American empire waged against the Global South and "Third World" which may be graphic and disturbing. Indonesia, a country that today has in the realm of 270 million inhabitants, is a large island chain to the south of mainland Asia. A long and diverse histo...

Episode Notes Why is it that almost every network procedural seems to be centered around cops? Detectives, Navy Investigators, Homicide units - all these cop shows and all these stakes. Through endless coverage and entertainment programming people absorb the belief that cops are always, without question the "good guys." But we know that to be untrue. Policing in America is nothing like NCIS or Bon...

Episode Notes Mutual Aid for people effected by the tornadoes in Kentucky: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YTzQFT4ANDcChivFDfUW9oC0gJWDyT9FHoDrAD2VA7A/htmlview Published in 1922, the novella Siddhartha follows a young man, son of a Brahmin, on his journey through life to find a “true” Self.  The boy’s name is one commonly associated with the physical manifestation of the Buddha - Siddharth...

Episode Notes Religion, belief, faith - social and personal structures that have followed and intertwined with human development for millennia. It's a broad topic, but we - woefully unqualified as we are - decided to take a stab at it. Do we live in a world where belief is entirely dissolved by capitalism in our supposedly secular society? Or are there other, sinister forces that have taken the pl...

Episode Notes We review a fine and dandy show "Squid Game" about playing a bunch of childhood games under the watchful eyes of our capitalist overlords. If you have any Watchalong Suggestions, thoughts, angry emotes, or whatever else that you'd like to send us, please reach out at UnsociablistPod@gmail.com or on Twitter @Unsociablist. I recognize posting this will bring us spam and I dare you to d...

Episode Notes How does one self-actualize under the regime of capital and wage relations? Squander your youth and vigor on the menial tasks dictated to you by your boss and employer - that ought to make you feel fulfilled, right? Kyle and Phil discuss the tippy-top of that pyramid in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Self Actualization. After dispensing with physiological and psychological needs, one f...

Episode Notes Batman. He's the most complicated of super-figures. He's got dead parents, a conscience-wielding butler, and a boat load of cash. Maybe not so complicated, I guess. Anyhow, we hop into the 78 minute animated movie and pseudo-detective-flick Batman: the Mask of the Phantasm. Released in 1993 as a longform attachment to the Batman: Animated Series . The film follows Batman as he rememb...

Episode Notes My world's on fire, how 'bout yours? Today we discuss the thing that depresses us the most: climate change. The world's heating up, the water is rising, and there's nothing one person can do about it, which is why this week we really need to remember to share love and solidarity with each other. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, angry emotes, or whatever that you'd like to send...

Episode Notes In this Unsociablist Watchalong, Phil and Kyle revisit an old favourite of the two's childhoods: Doug. An empathetic child making his way through junior high with an eclectic cast of fellow students whose troubles tend toward the silly. The art style is fun, the music is great, and the gags are funny as hell, but there's also a good message to be found underneath the trappings of thi...

Episode Notes Phil and Kyle talk about the distorting effects of mediated reality, a society of individuals creating their own versions of the world, and the self absorption of those enmeshed in our Spectacle. Kyle has been reading; it's a terrible habit. Don't do it kids. Definitely don't believe that your consumption habits are praxis either. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, angry emotes,...

Episode Notes One of the seminal features of the Saturday morning cartoon lineup, Samurai Jack was and remains one of the coolest kid's shows to ever exist. Look, I'm old now, but this show is still neat. Themes of life and death and tragedy and conquest and sacrifice - this show is a righteous call to action for the stoic that little Kyle could have been when he was a weepy little 7 year-old. And...

Episode Notes A romp through the memory-holed times following 9/11 and the American war machine on auto-pilot. The American Service Members Protection Act is a direct refutation of the UN's institution of the International Criminal Court. This 2002 Bill sponsored by Jesse Helms in the Senate and Tom DeLay in the House authorized the President to send forces to invade the Hague in the Netherlands i...

Episode Notes When we spell Family, we spell it with a Capital " F ." Welcome to the inaugural, full-sized pilot episode of Capital F. The plucky Balt family will continue to weather through some of the worst and most ideologically baffled times in America, and you'll get to enjoy their sorrows and pain from the comfort of your couch. So flip that channel over to Dimelodeon and stay tuned for this...

Episode Notes Welcome to the Internet! Phil and Kyle are having a look around. Today we review the stand-out "standup" special from music man Bo Burnham. Confronting once again the question, does culture mean anything? This is the first in an upcoming, sporadic series of Unsociablist Cinema Corner Reviews. Burnham's newest special Inside roused the attention of many left-media consumers. Does this...

Episode Notes who is outside my window yelling "WE ARE BACK TO NORMAL"? show yourself. coward. i will never be normal. We revisit the through-line that has connected this podcast from its humble beginnings to the towering heights upon which we now stand. How normal have things been for you? Well the pandemic has ended, so any problems you are facing are entirely your fault and the new administrati...

Episode Notes Session Nine: Jamming With Edward. Click play at 7:10 to watch along! Cowboy Bebop, a magnificently animated show about bounty hunters and their tangles with love, death, despair, humor, and the unknowable. Far and away one of the most beautiful animes ever created, Bebop takes viewers along for an anthologically structured trip through a future of gangsters, poverty, obscene wealth,...

Episode Notes What happens when union participation is at a near historic low? Precarit-ization and neofeudal constructs are asserting themselves more forcefully in the First World economy. While these relations have always existed at the periphery of capitalist empire and in the exploited Global South, the contradictions of contract work and elimination of hard-won gains by labor are exposed ever...