Give Them An Argument

Ben Burgis was on the Joe Rogan Experience last week so a good chunk of this is devoted to going over some clips from that but the main event tonight is a crossover w/the Valley Labor Report podcast to debunk the terrible arguments in employer-sponsored anti-union propaganda. This was a fun one. Watch the full appearance: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0UmjhCbyz0oG6bWUKlnNeF Order the book Ben w...

Fan-favorite returning guest Lillian Cicerchia (co-host of "What's Left of Philosophy?") comes back to talk to Ben Burgis about Marxist accounts of exploitation--how the concept relates to a useful description of capitalist economies and why it's important to the case for socialism. Producer Jake, whose day job is "union organizer," talks abut the gathering wave of St...

Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew talk about all the big dumb controversies of the week (Rogan, Whoopi) and try to extract from them at least a couple of things that actually matter. Noami Karavani, a comedian and correspondent for "Redacted Tonight," joins Ben to debunk some Prager U videos. Dr. Jenn comes on for a philosophy segment and the one and only Conan Neutron is on deck t hang out i...

Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew talk about Hitchens and lesser figures who "left the left." Slovenian anti-capitalist philosopher Slavoj Zizek returns to the show to talk about subjects ranging from communism to AOC's boyfriend's feet. There's a preview of the last patron episode w/Conrad Hamilton, Professor Jennifer Burgis comes on for a philosophy segment, and Ethan Hershen...

Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew talk about the Democrats rapturous embrace of Dick Cheney. The main guest is Scott Horton, talks about the hlighlights of his recent debate with neocon all-star Bill Kristol. After a quick preview of the patron-exclusive episode from the weekend w/Matt McManus ("Season 3 Episode 26: To Beat the Right We Have to Understand Their Arguments"), Professor Jennifer...

Ben Burgis wrote a book about Christopher Hitchens--it came out on Saturday! You can snag a copy from worker-owned Red Emmas at this link: https://redemmas.org/titles/36536-christopher-hitchens--what-he-got-right--how-he-went-wrong--and-why-he-still-matters Ben and Djene Bajalan watch and discuss some clips of Christopher, and we unlock Ben's previously patron-exclusive interview with Christo...

Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew watch Tucker Carlson and a guest talk about how the military should be full of people who want to sit on a "throne of Chinese skulls." Repeat GTAA guest Paul Prescod talks about his campaign for PA State Senate. Emma Vigeland joins Ben Burgis to break down the antics of Jordan Peterson, Josh Hawley, and Ben Shapiro. Professor Jennifer Burgis comes on for a ph...

Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew watch Christopher Hitchens vs. Sean Hannity on the legacy of Jerry Falwell and then transition to a quick debunk of Prager U's "Healthcare is Not a Right" video. For the main event, Very Bad Wizards co-host David Pizarro and philosophy professor Ryan Lake join Ben to talk about some intersections between socialist political philosophy and the issue of fr...

James Lindsay is very very worried about communists. He sees "communists," "wokeists," "woke Marxists" and "CRT neo-Marxists" under every bed and stashed in every cupboard and he wants the government to pass laws to stamp out the threat although he also sort of thinks they control the government. (Confusing!) So Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew brought on an act...

Slavoj Zizek comes back on the show to explain what he means by "communism" and how it relates to other ideas about socialism and capitalism. Later, in the philosophy segment, Ben and (since Professor Jennifer Burgis is still sick) Matt McManus discuss the question apparently being asked in the Washington Post about whether Immanuel Kant was a Critical Race Theorist. Also, Ben and the cr...

Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew watch a U.S. Senator say (really) that people who believe that man-made global warming is a serious problem are "Trotsky-like wokesters" and Ben Shapiro says climate change isn't a big deal since only a few thousand people will die. Havey J. Kaye discusses his recent Twitter run-in w/Shapiro. (Actual) friend of the show Ana Kasparian comes on for a deep...

Marxist analytic philosopher G.A. Cohen wrote a book called, "Why Not Socialism?" Libertarian philosopher Jason Brennan wrote a response called, "Why Not Capitalism?" Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew debunk some claims that Brennan makes in a lecture  on all of this. Also: Ben's going to be teaching a three-week class on both books (and his larger critique of Brennan and defen...

Ben Burgis debates Charlie Kirk on "democratic socialism vs. Trumpian populism." Yes, that's right, we can finally air this. Ben and the crew do about half an hour of introductory material, discussing Kirk's role on the contemporary Right and the "platforming debate" as well as showing a classic TMBS clip with Michael Brooks, Matt Lech, and David Griscom weighing in o...

Ben Burgis talks to Jacobin's Meagan Day about Erik Olin Wright's analysis in his book Class Counts of all the different (and sometimes contradictory) class positions different people can have under capitalism, and how that analysis helps us understand the current limits of oppositional groups like DSA, the class coalitions defining the PMC-dominated Democratic Party and the Trumpified R...

Ben Burgis talks to "Left Reckoning" hosts Matt Lech & David Griscom about cryptocurrency. Ben and his wife Professor Jennifer Burgis unpack Charlie Kirk's confusion about social contract theory and Rawls. Ben and Producer Jake talk about Charlie's "sexual anarchy" rant and Gene Epstein's argument against minimum wage increases. Independent creators rely on y...

Ben Burgis is back from Arizona where he debated Charlie Kirk. Sadly the video won't be available for a few weeks but we'll be sharing some thoughts about it now. Ben and Producer Jake talk about that, as well as Sam Harris's conflict with Bret Weinstein. GTAA graphic designer J. Andrew World joins to talk about IATSE's strike vote. (Sign the petition! https://actionnetwork.org...

Ben and the crew watch Charlie Kirk and Jen Psaki say revolting things about Haitian migrants and talk about the Democrats rejecting a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and claiming the Senate parliamentarian made them do it.  Cataylst editor Vivek Chibber (honestly one of the best and most valuable Marxist thinkers alive today) makes his debut appearance on GTAA to talk about (a)...

Ben Burgis has Joshua Blanchard ( https://twitter.com/philoshua ) on the show, who is currently a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Oakland University in Michigan. Ben and Josh discuss a paper that Josh recently wrote that addresses epistemic peer disagreement, and more specifically, being in bad company when it comes to those who agree with you about something. THIS IS A SEGMENT OF A...

[Note: This is actually from last Thursday--just getting to sticking it up on the podcast feed now. The plan going forward is that (a) the new Thursday Night Debate Breakdowns will go up on the podcast feed for everyone the morning after they're on YouTube, and (b) over the course of the next several months, the 29 Sunday Night Debate Breakdowns we did over the course of Seasons 1 & 2 wil...

So much good stuff in this episode. One of our favorite people, David Griscom, returns as the main guest. The new weekly philosophy segment with Jennifer Burgis debuts at the end of the episode--she weighs in on Ayn Rand's angry rant about the influence of Immanuel Kant. But here's the bad news: We're spending almost the entire episode watching and discussing Prager University video...

Charlie Kirk has said that democratic socialism is "the greatest scam in history." Ben Burgis has said that "Charlie Kirk is full of shit--like all Trumpists, he pretends to care about working-class people in the heartland but he doesn't want to raise their wages or give them healthcare." Ben thinks he and Charlie should have a discussion about this, and a lot of people se...

"American Prestige" co-hosts Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison join Ben for a deep dive on foreign policy. Follow Danny on Twitter: @dbessner Follow Derek on Twitter: @dwdavison Follow their podcast: @AmPrestigePod Donate to help people in need and also pressure Charlie Kirk to debate Ben: https://townsircle.com/events/89 Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you...

Ben and the crew talk about Cori Bush's protest and what a socialist housing policy might look like, Ben and Cale discuss the new Contrapoints video and preview and discuss Ben's conversation with Matt McManus (dropping for patrons on Thursday), and Ben talks to Lillian Cicichera (prerecorded) about an interesting philosophy paper she wrote about class: https://www.academia.edu/49996564/...

Matt Lech (Left Reckoning, Majority Report) comes back on GTAA to take patron questions. Independent creators rely on your support to create the content you want! Support Give Them An Argument on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benburgis . Patrons get a bonus episode every Thursday, a postgame every Monday night, access to the Discord server, a “Sopranos” Recap Bonus Episode every month with Mike...

About a week and a half after the Capitol riot, Ben co-wrote a Jacobin article with fellow TMBS alumnus Daniel Bessner in Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/trump-capitol-riot-fascist-coup-attempt Ben and Danny think that the case they were making in the article has only gotten stronger in the last several months. Their friends (really, not just a courtesy, we like these guys) Matthew Sitman...