What do you think is the purpose of the chapotraphouse comm? Chapo Trap House is a podcast for commentary on news, culture, history, and comedy. The chapo trap house should be a comm for commentary on news, culture, history, and comedy.

!popularculture@hexbear.net

Netanyahu is up for re-election this month, so his opponents have been saying that he knew about October 7 and let it happen so that he could conduct attacks on Gaza. There are somehow further right wing parties in Israel that have been saying that Netanyahu is secretly a Palestinian. Israel political parties are like fascist and even more fascist.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-oct-7-election-netanyahu-hamas-gaza-55d94c750b399e7d89f550ebc8610436

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/14/israels-former-security-chief-sues-netanyahu-for-october-7-defamation

I can tell that someone has accused you of being a Republican before because I haven't accused you of being a Republican. Yet, you have a whole response prepared as if I did.

I'm not saying that you belong in the "republican box". I'm saying that the "narcissism" narrative that you described in your tiktoks fits into every box, because it's populism. Populism is shit that people say to be more popular, but doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Take the phrase "common sense", for example. Tell 10 different people, "I believe in a common sense solution to health care", and each person will think you meant something different. Republican says, "I believe in a common sense solution to healthcare, which means keeping the government out and keeping your private insurer." Democrat says, "I believe in a common sense solution to healthcare, which mean affordability and keeping access to your private insurer." Berniecrat says "I believe in a common sense solution to healthcare, which means medicare for all to bring healthcare access to all uninsured people." All of the people believe that their healthcare policy is "common sense" because the phrase "common sense" doesn't mean anything.

So look at your usage of the word "narcissist". Again, you could tell 10 different people "I think that there are too many narcissists" and most of them would agree with you but they all interpret the sentence in a different way. Republican says "I think that there are too many narcissists, which means that too many entitled people are receiving welfare from my taxes." Democrat says "I think that there are too many narcissists, which means that Trump supports only care about themselves because they are against government policies that help people." Berniecrat "I think that there are too many narcissists, because the billionaires are hoarding wealth while everyday Americans are struggling to make ends meet." The word "narcissist" means something different to every person.

I gave Ronald Reagan's "welfare queen" campaign as a historic example of Republican's anti-entitlement rhetoric. Reagan's campaign used the messaging to spark a moral panic about alleged welfare abuse. I'll give you some examples from my real life since I live in the south and I've talked to maga chuds. A few months ago, there was an contamination of the city water supply and there an advisory sent out to not drink the water. Some guy told me "I hate that people are complaining about the warning to not drink the water. Those people are narcissists." This guy thought that it was narcissism to expect the city water to be clean and drinkable. I've also had many people tell me that wanting to increase the federal minimum wage is narcissistic.

If someone introduces themselves to you and the first thing that they say is that they are against "entitled people", that should be a massive red flag; it usually means that they are a chud. In the 80s and 90s, Republicans were obsessed with 'tort reform'. Tort reform means preventing people from suing businesses for having dangerous practices. If a business hurt you and you tried to seek restitution, Republicans wanted to stop that because they want to protect the capitalist class. The reasoning that Republicans argue though is that lawsuits would cause the business to raise prices for everyone and therefore someone who seeks restitution for damages is "narcissistic" because then everyone would pay higher prices at the business. You may have heard the famous case where an elderly woman was injured by being served boiling coffee at McDonald's. Coffee should never be served at boiling temperatures.

The word "narcissism" means many things to many people. The word "narcissism" is a subjective value judgement. Every person thinks that a different group of people is narcissists. By proclaiming that your worldview is anti-narcissists, you are not placed into 1 box, you are trying to fit into every box. Pursuing a world without "narcissism" is not a real goal because "narcissism" means different things to every person.

The purpose of Marxist socialism is to have an objective view of society ie materialism. 400 years ago, the world was dominated by an economic system called Feudalism. Feudalism meant that there were peasants and feudal lords. The feudal lords owned the land, this is where the word 'landlord' comes from. The peasants worked on the land and then the feudal lords took a portion of the crops from the peasants. Exploitation is a use of power to extract value. The feudal lords had power over the peasants by owning the land, peasants were not able to acquire land, and the feudal lords extracted value from the peasants by taking some of the crops. The capitalist economic system operates in a similar way, though Marx considered Capitalism to be less exploitative than Feudalism. The capitalist class exploits the working class by owning the means of production.

Were the feudal lords motivated by narcissism? Did the peasant class recognize "individual responsibility"? Did the peasant class use drugs as a form of medicine or escapism? These are nonsensical questions. The answers to these questions do not matter. Feudalism did not end because people stopped "narcissism" or recognized "personal responsibility". Feudalism ended when the Feudal Lords did not own the lands anymore, ie taken from them. Capitalism will end when capitalists do not own the means of production.

Additionally, I was not mocking your accent/impersonation videos. I think that impersonations are funny, in a good way, as long as you aren't making fun of ESL people. Impersonations of famous people, such as presidents, is a fun party trick.

I'm not going to go into detail about how the US anti-drug laws were racially motivated and then in the 1970s, the US forced its drug laws onto the entire world through the United Nations. Your anti-drug video was not about how drugs are harmful, you were mocking people for using drugs and declaring yourself to be a better person than them. It was a punching-down video. If you'll notice, I wrote "if you're angry that people self-medicate in a country without access to healthcare, that's just ignorant". People in the US do illicit drugs because they can't go to a regular doctor or psychiatrist or therapist. I don't know why you would bring up the USSR as a counter-example, when the USSR had public healthcare. In your video, you're just saying that other people deserve to suffer because you say that you suffered, and that's just ignorant.

I like modern China (PRC) and I don't agree with all of their drug laws. PRC only made marijuana illegal in the 1980s and they did that because the US told them to do it. I've seen multiple articles from Chinese news agencies say that people die from Marijuana overdoses, which is not a thing that happens. PRC has 50,000 km of high speed rail and healthcare. I think if you asked most illicit drug users in the US if they'd rather have drugs or healthcare and 50k km of high speed rail, they would choose the latter. If US wasn't a hellscape, less people would do drugs. The same applies to other forms of escapism such as video games. US people complain that China has more restrictions on video games. If people in the US had the same material benefits as people in China, then people in the US wouldn't want to play video games so much.

If you have questions about the history of drug use in the United States, post a question or questions in !askchapo@hexbear.net

The movie is going to be released directly to The Daily Wire streaming service, says so on the trailer, so I don't know if normal people will ever watch this movie. The cast being all mainstream actors is what surprises me.

All of The Daily Wire movies are about conservative fantasies, so I think you are correct that it will be written that way.

I can't prove it but I know that JD Vance has something to do with this.

I love this comment because you wrote so much and said so little. Your comment proves me to be correct. You have a bunch of tiktoks that say that societal problems such as sexism, racism, etc are caused by moral failure. I pointed out that societal problems are caused by systemic structures.

You could read your entire comment on your local news stations and then go on to run as a Republican, or Democrat. This is because your comment is not a real critique of society, but empty populism.

Americans love performing the role of oppressed peasants while politicians and society placate them, creating a self-perpetuating club of privileged, enabled people who make excuses for one another, validate each other’s entitlement and then treat people experiencing genuine, devastating hardship with condescension and indifference; meanwhile, people like me are expected to endlessly extend them empathy, understanding and grace that they refuse to extend to us, even gaslighting us by insisting we're more privileged than they are, because apparently facing extreme adversity with dignity, strength and personal accountability while having far less than they do somehow convinces them we're doing better than they are, rather than exposing how deeply they've confused privilege with victimhood.

Re-read this quotation in the voice of JD Vance, Marco Rubio, or Stephen Miller. I know you like to do accents, try it out. The quote would still function in exactly the same way, empty populism. Honestly, it sounds like Ben Shapiro. Try Ronald Reagan's voice, who popularized the "welfare queen" narrative. The reason why this works is because the whole paragraph means nothing. It's a fictional story.

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’
39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.
40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.
Mathew 5:38

I'm not a Christian. I don't follow the bible. I'm using this quote as an example of how "character" is entirely subjective and therefore not a good way to critique society. Some people would say that it is bad character to be petty about how much soda was drank after you offered to share your soda. This bible passage would suggest that if someone drinks your soda, you should offer them more soda. Character is subjective.

Every person believes that they have good character and other people have bad character. Trump believes that he has good character. No person goes around and says "I have bad character and I like to do bad things". If your worldview is "I'm against people who have bad character", then you stand for nothing. That means nothing. "I'm against narcissism" means nothing. It's like people who say "my politics are common sense", it means nothing.

You don't know what is going in other people's minds. You don't know who is a narcissist. Narcissism is immeasurable and immaterial.

My situation is an anomaly, not a universal representation of American life. America is an extraordinarily privileged country by global standards

Your situation is not an anomaly. You exist in a society and you are a product of the society that you exist within. Marx had a concept called 'reserve army of labor', which is how he explained unemployment and underemployment in a capitalist society. The concept is that unemployed people exist as a threat for the capitalist to impose on employed people. The capitalist threaten the worker "If you don't work for less pay, then I'll fire you and you'll end up among the homeless."

US is not just privileged, but imperialist. The reason that the US has more than other countries is because the US takes advantage other countries, something that the Democrat Party has historically enabled. The imperialism created the privilege, the privilege did not create the imperialism. US is an imperialist country but also has exploited underclasses withing it.

Your thinking is all backwards. As I said in my past comment, "The selfishness is the product of the action, not the enabler of the action." Selfishness exists because of capitalism, not capitalism exists because of selfishness.

I like that you have tiktoks that say you are against sexism and toxic masculinity and all that stuff. The anti-drug video was ignorant, drugs are just medication and if you're angry that people self-medicate in a country without access to healthcare, that's just ignorant. It's like you're taking a math test and you somehow arrived at like 80% correct answers but the mathwork that you did to arrive at the answers is all wrong, so the teacher says "see me after class", because it seems like you just copied from someone else instead of arriving at the answers yourself.

Bryan Cranston's instagram post also has suicide hotline at the end.

I’m in deep despair as I write this tonight. RJ Mitte, my sweet son on Breaking Bad has died.
I met him when he was only 14 years old when he was cast as Walter White Jr., a part he played with such joy and enthusiasm.
Born with Cerebral Palsy, he never - ever - allowed that challenge to be an excuse for anything. He met the demanding shooting schedule head on with great determination.
Always listening to the advice that his TV parents (Anna Gunn and myself) gave him - but being a teenager, sometimes mischievously ignoring the counsel in order to learn the hard way… He was one of the stars of a hit TV show - but still a kid.
That kid was pretty raw when we started shooting the pilot in February of 2007, but little by little we watched him grow into a really fine actor. He parlayed his experience on the show to be a vocal advocate for performers with disabilities, and was the head of a philanthropic organization with a focus on helping the disabled community.
All that promise and potential now is such a loss.
It is especially devastating to hear that he took his own life.
Why?
We were texting each other just a few weeks ago - figuring out when we could meet for lunch. I don’t know if that lunch would have changed his future…
But I do know that I loved him, and thoroughly enjoyed being with him throughout the years on the series, and after the spotlight on Breaking Bad dimmed…
I’ll miss you, son.

I can’t stop there without imploring anyone who is contemplating suicide to please call for the support you need at 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (https://988lifeline.org/). There is hope.

It's a method of dehumanization. It's a way for libs to say that anyone who doesn't support NATO isn't a human.

I don't know why you think that I'm trying to debate you or argue with you. My comment was to acclimate you to the website and to Marxism more broadly. You say that my critique is simple and yes my comment is simple because it was written for you to be easy to understand, not as a debate. What good would it be for me to speak in a complex way and then for you to not understand it?

"But material conditions don't eliminate individual agency." Yes, they do. Why are you living in a motel right now instead of mansion? Is it because you chose to live in a motel or is it because you lacked agency in the decision? Material conditions create a power structure. The power structure exists to limit or eliminate agency. Other people's actions are also shaped by their material conditions, even the people who have wronged you. Nobody exists in a vacuum, every person is a creature responding to the system around them.

This is a thought experiment for you. You asked for constructive commentary. If someone wrongs you, imagine the systemic reasons that lead to the person behaving that way. This is not meant to absolve the person who wronged you, nor does it shift the blame to the victim. This is meant to explore systemic structures that cause injustices.

You made multiple videos about your uncle stealing your soda. I suspect there's some deeper reasons why you dislike your uncle and you use this as like a simple explanation for a larger beef, but let's pretend it's actually all about the soda stealing. What is the solution to "uncles stealing soda"? You go on a diatribe about how narcissism makes people drink other people's soda. (No offense) I don't think that moral shaming is going to stop uncles from stealing soda. I think there's probably a systemic reason why uncles would feel that they deserve to drink the soda of their nephews. In at least one video, you mentioned being opposed to the nuclear family. Friedrich Engels writes criticisms of the nuclear family in a book called 'Origin of Family'.

Remember, I'm not trying to argue with you. You see how other commenters reacted negatively to your post. I said that you seem like a real person. I'm not doing a "pile-on". I said that hexbear should give you a chance, metaphorically speaking. I don't speak for all of hexbear. I can see that you are passionate and in a tough situation.

Your argument about some Southern Democrats not being racist is pointless because "southern" is not the only issue with the label. Hexbear does not support Democrats. Democrats are not socialists. Democrats are people who believe that capitalism can be preserved with social safety nets. I don't care whether your grandparents voted for Obama when I don't support Obama.

Democrats are not even the most progressive figures in the history of the South. There were communists in the South. Democrats are not communists or socialists. Democrats are not even left wing, not now and not historically either. FDR is seen as a beloved Democrat figure for his 'New Deal' policies. The ineffectiveness of "old school" Democrat policies is that most of the elements of the 'New Deal' have been utterly gutted. Minimum wage was a policy created by the New Deal and minimum wage in Mississippi is still $7.25. The purpose of the 'New Deal' was to block socialism and look where that got.

I think that it really sucks that you are in a bad situation. My advice to you is that you find a socialist organization in your area, not a democrat organization. Look for either DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) or PSL (Party for Socialism & Liberation). There's a PSL for Mississippi and a PSL in Birmingham AL. There's a DSA in Ocean Springs Mississippi and a DSA in Mobile Alabama. These groups all have pages on instagram. There's some other locations if you google it.

Try to find a socialist organization in your area. See if they recommend other organizations in your area. Try to branch out. Don't tell them that you're a Democrat. Say that you were a Democrat and you feel that you are Left of their policies now. Be open to learning new things. Maybe they can help you or you can help them.

This is the response from Ilhan Omar, 3 hours ago.

https://nitter.click/IlhanMN/status/2109675562344087792#m

Ilhan Omar

I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.

I will not be silenced.