- 9.6 – The Lesbian Mask Bar Meltdown and the Future of the Left
In reaction to the viral “lesbian mask bar meltdown” story which appeared in the Boston Globe on sept 22, 2026, activists and influencers on the left started openly discussing, disparaging and mocking cancel culture for the first time in 15 years.
Why did it take so long for this to happen, and what does this mean for the future of left wing politics?
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cover: Love and Rockets #1 (1982) by Jaimie and Gilbert Hernandez
00:00 how do you do fellow kids: cancel culture on the lizard left
03:46 the lesbian mask bar meltdown
05:53 nothing new: the abortion rights NGO implosion
07:35 something new: liberal normies discover that cancel culture exists
10:17 does hasan piker watch what is politics?
11:55 how did comedians become right wing??
13:42 the institutional backing of cancel culture
15:51 trump’s election evaporated institutional support for cancel culture
16:50 why did it take so long for leftists to talk about this?
19:36 the short window in which to stop woke 2.0: marxist-leninist-maoist-moronism
25:09 the clergy class incentive problem
26:00 socialism: mass movement or theocracy?
https://archive.org/download/9.5-wicked-witch/9.5%20-%20WICKED%20WITCH.mp3WHAT IS POLITICS? is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/
14 October 2026, 5:09 pm - 9.5 – Why “Woke” is a Right-Wing Ideology
It’s fifteen years too late, but the left is finally starting to have a debate on “woke”. Sort of.
But what is “woke”? And what do we do about it?
Is it embarrassing terminology that we should distance ourselves from, like out of style pants?
Is it simply social justice politics that we should be doubling down on, lest we abandon our principles?
Or is it a parasitic monster that we need to be drag into the sunlight so that it burns to death, and also drive a stake through its heart, so that it stays dead, and stops sucking the blood from our veins?
In this episode we define the terms Woke, D.E.I and Cancel Culture and look at the effect that they’ve had on left wing politics, and how the left should react to “woke” if we want to advance left wing goals and policies, from social justice to democracy, to economic redistribution.
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cover: rowdy roddy piper in “They Live” sees the aliens with his special glasses which represent understanding the definitions of left and right and what the concept of ‘lizard left’ is, while AOC laughs off ‘woke 1’ as ‘craaaazzzy’. you’re welcome!
00:00 Hello fellow kids: Worbs
https://archive.org/download/9.5-what-is-woke/9.5%20-%20WHAT%20IS%20WOKE.mp3
00:43 the left debate on woke: un gros caca mou
03:06 the Lizard Left: left wing politics in right wing disguise
04:04 what Left and Right really mean
05:17 Why are Stalin and Hitler on opposite ends of the political spectrum?
06:56 Israeli hasbara pinkwashing
08:24 British imperialism and women’s rights
09:19 results vs stated goals of DEI and Woke discourse
16:19 mini history of woke: from black consciousness to white cult
19:30 Woke: domination disguised as social justice
20:12 Woke as a religious vs political ideology
21:45 the reaction to NAZA: PMC turf war tantrum disguised as left wing politics
24:31 conformity enforcement vs left wing results
25:39 imperviousness to evidence: rastas and dyke dreadlocks
25:58 the religion of the ‘clergy of capitalism’
27:54 functions of woke: sabotaging economic redistribution
29:23 functions of woke: sabotaging social justice concepts
29:36 “microaggressions”
30:06 “black people can’t be racist”
30:50 “privilege”
31:59 “defund the police”
32:34 “not my job to educate you”
33:06 functions of woke: hiding individual self-interest behind identity
35:01 DEI: the institutional application of woke
37:34 Cancel Culture: the enforcement mechanism of all right-wing religious cults
40:47 the left is about equality of power, not better elites
44:05 how should left wing politicians respond to their problematic woke statements?
46:11 Coming Soon! HELP!!! Seeya!WHAT IS POLITICS? is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/
22 September 2026, 1:21 pm - 10.5d – The Real Dawn of Everything pt. 4: the origins of modern life and prospects for the future
Why did social liberalism become widespread again, after thousands of years of socially conservative tribes, monarchies and empires?
How did democratic states re-emerge after thousands of years of the state being primarily a tool to help ruling classes steal grain and rice from peasants?
Why did the ballooning inequality of the industrial revolution suddenly contract into the social welfare state era that’s now being undone? And what can we do about it?
Cover art: The Abisnthe Drinker, Viktor Oliva, 1901
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00:00 hello fellow kids: theory and action
7:00 states and the growth of commerce
8:56 egalitarian cities? the indus valley civilization
10:53 urban religious orthodoxy vs rural resistance and idiosyncracy
13:57 urban life, commerce and social liberalism
16:22 from grain extraction empires to oligarchal commerce states
21:25 commerce, printing and the decline of state religion
24:57 the agricultural and industrial revolutions
25:50 enclosure: the business controlled the state versus the population
29:31 urban life and social liberalism
31:09 capitalism, property rights and the new urban working class
33:24 the urban working classes organize
34:06 when the clergy clashes with the nobility
38:17 how capitalism breaks the standard political compass
39:56 capitalism as a system of (authoritarian) government
42:54 the rebirth of democracy: back to the first quadrant
45:17 similarities between people living in welfare states and hunter gatherer societies
46:02 the neo-liberal era: not so fast, star trek fans!
47:39 current material conditions and hopeful prospects for the future
51:53 flushing elitism out of the left
53:41 more hopeful prospects for the future
https://archive.org/download/quadrant-04/04%20-%20QUADRANT%2004.mp3WHAT IS POLITICS? is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/
21 June 2026, 1:28 pm - 10.5c – The Real Dawn of Everything: from democratic chieftains to despotic monarchs
This segment outlines the role that bargaining power plays in:
1. how social classes and economic hierarchy emerged around the world in cultures that initially had tribes made up of equal families
2. how authoritarian kings and emperors emerged, where previously there had only been charismatic or democratically elected chieftains
3. the emergence of the exploitation state
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00:00 hello fellow kids: class structure is all about bargaining power, as determined by practical conditions
03:48 recap – from egalitarian socially liberal bands to conservative tribes
05:10 quadrant 3 preview / gimme
07:01 from charismatic/democratic chieftains to hereditary chiefs and monarchs
9:51 pacific northwest coast hierarchical feasting
11:18 vikings, from democratic to hereditary chieftains
13:08 chiefs vs kings
14:42 tribal vs nationalist solidarity
15:58 state and civilization: how ancient sumer went from democracy to despotism
19:25 states vs pastoralists
20:05 alliance of church and state
21:08 the nomadic pastoralist route to statehood
22:23 The purpose of the pre-democratic state
23:23 empire and clergy
26:13 incentives for social conservatism from above and below
27:07 the prohibition on pig meat
28:42 social conservatism as protection from superiors
29:20 recap
30:52 next time, gimme, seeya
https://archive.org/download/10.5c/03%20-%20QUADRANT%2003.mp3WHAT IS POLITICS? is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/
1 June 2026, 10:10 am - 10.5b – The real Dawn of Everything: from socially liberal bands to conservative patriarchal tribes
How did human societies go from socially liberal, gender equal band societies to male dominated, gerontocratic, socially conservative tribal societies?
Why did some societies maintain gender equality despite adopting gerontocracy and tribalism?
Part 2 of a 4 part series tracking how human social evolution tracks the four quadrant political compass, and what we can learn from this to help create a better future
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BIBLIOGRAPHY: (see bibliographies of episodes 6, 7, 7.1, 8, 10.1, 12.2)
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(bandcamp)
(sportify)0:00 Hello fellow kids / episode 1 recap
2:43 Episode 2 preview: from liberal egalitarianism, to conservative egalitarianism
3:53 Origins of agriculture
6:36 Agriculture, population pressure, surplus management and war
7:33 The Neolithic revolution
8:52 Origins of male dominance
11:36 Chronic conflict and patrilocal residence
13:40 Effects of lower female bargaining power
18:03 Patriarchal ideology and strict gender norms as a function of male bargaining advantage
20:00 Culture as an adaptation to material and social environment
23:05 Origins of sexual conservatism
25:35 Origins of tribalism and gerontocracy
26:16 Social conservatism, but economic egalitarianism
27:37 Pastoralism
30:13 Extended tribal organization
31:38 The Honour code
32:35 Male vs female honour
33:44 The neolithic y chromosom bottleneck
35:57 Economic and male political egalitarianism in pastoralism
37:42 Socially liberal tribal societies
38:37 Origins of matrilocal residence
39:56 Dudebros in matrilocal societies
40:55 Gender relations in matrilocal societies
43:36 Sex norms in matrilineal vs patrilineal societies
46:50 The importance of learning this stuff
48:19 Gimme
49:49 Next time, seeya
https://archive.org/download/10.5-quadrant-02/10.5%20-%20QUADRANT%2002.mp3WHAT IS POLITICS? is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/
14 May 2026, 12:20 pm - 10.5a – The Real Dawn of Everything: why our early ancestors were egalitarian and socially liberal
Can we stop our civilization from collapsing into more and more inequality and less and less democracy? Are our only choices to be ruled by an owner class of infantile, out of touch zillionaire lunatics, or else an intellectual class of moralizing authoritarian psychopaths?
In this 4 part series we do what the authors of Dawn of Everything failed to do: we learn how social change happens, so that we can grasp the opportunities and limits for social and economic change inherent in the conditions of the 21st century.
And we do this by looking at how human social evolution tracks the common political compass meme template – one episode per compass quadrant!
Human social evolution explained in 4 E-Z political compass memes…
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BIBLIOGRAPHY: (see bibliographies of episodes 6, 7, 7.1, 10.1)
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ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE (bandcamp) (sportify)
0:00 Hello fellow kids / the world today
2:12 Do we really have to eat da poo poo?
4:00 What is the four quadrant political compass meme?
4:42 Human agency, material determinism and hope
6:06 Four phases of human social evolution
7:37 The 2016 US election voter compass chart
9:35 Innit a bit racialist (and inaccurate) to talk about stages of social evolution?
11:36 Quadrant 1: immediate return hunting and gathering
12:28 Economic equality, political equality and individual liberty as functions of equality of bargaining power
16:04 Gender equality
17:46 Political equality and social liberalism: gender roles
19:34 Permissive sexual norms, polyamory and jealousy
20:07 Religious liberty and agnosticism
20:37 Equality and freedom as the natural state of human beings
21:30 Next time
22:29 Gimme
23:22 Upcoming Q&As
24:12 Upcoming long awaited episodes, seeya!
https://archive.org/download/10.5-quadrant-01/10.5%20-%20QUADRANT%2001.mp3WHAT IS POLITICS? is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/
12 May 2026, 9:54 pm - 9.4 – Noam Chomsky: what does the evidence actually say about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein?
Why was Noam Chomsky – scourge of the american elite – BFFs with Jeffrey Epstein, the personification of the worst aspects of that elite?
Why was Chomsky giving Epstein advice on how to deal with attacks against him in the media, months after a series of exposés appeared in the press detailing the extent of his crimes?
Why was Chomsky bemoaning the “hysteria about the abuse of women” to someone accused of having sex trafficked dozens of under age girls?
At first glance all of this seems completely as inexcusable as it is incomprehensible. Chris Hedges’ declaration that Chomsky was seduced by the pimpin’ jetset superstar lifestyle that Epstein gave him access to, seems to be the only sensible explanation.
But when you actually read the relevant emails, and look at them in the context and timeline of the accusations, and of Chomsky’s life and contemporary events – things very quickly start to make sense, and what becomes inexcusable is Hedges and the army of posturing leftfluencers throwing Chomsky under the bus so quickly, without even examining the evidence first.
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00:00 Hello fellow kids: into
1:06 Chomsky’s Intellectual class: the Clergy of Capitalism
4:06 “Brand of Me” politics and cancel culture
5:46 Chomsky’s early activism vs. O.G. cancel culture
8:24 A lone left voice in the 1980s to early 2000s
9:39 Chomsky’s message vs Capitalists, Stalinists and Post-Modernists
12:50 The accusations against Chomsky
14:18 What most people knew about Epstein in 2015
15:57 Epstein’s 2008 conviction
17:31 Jerome Seinfeld vs Noam Chomsky
18:34 How did Chomsky and Epstein become BFFs?
20:28 The crime of hanging out with “literal fascists”
24:11 Chomsky vs Finkelstein: why we need to read a variety of authors
24:46 Chomsky’s shocking advice to Epstein in context
29:05 The total incongruence of Chomsky’s advice vs Epstein’s crimes
31:10 Chomsky’s advice in the context of late #MeToo and peak cancel culture
35:36 Interpreting the evidence: Professor Hedges X vs Normal Humans
38:21 Chomsky vs. Leftfluencer rat finks: who would you rather have as a friend?
39:56 Chomsky & Epstein vs other great buddy combos
41:48 Another bad call that Chomsky made that was also used against him
43:13 Who benefits from ignoring the evidence?
44:15 Michael Parenti vs Noam Chomsky?
50:23 Tuition increases replace left wing scholars with pseudo-left wing wankers
54:57 Chomsky vs. Parenti continued: what is socialism?
57:52 Why the USSR became authoritarian
59:13 Go do something!
https://archive.org/download/9.4-chomsky-4-ever/9.4%20-%20CHOMSKY%20SMASH%20OR%20PASS.mp3WHAT IS POLITICS? is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/
25 March 2026, 3:43 pm - 9.5 – Why the “Left” is full of Cancel Goblins, Stalinist Gooners, D.E.Idiots and Post-Modern Tallywankers
As inequality gets worse and worse, hostility for elites is at all time highs, and huge majorities of voters want higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy to pay for social programs, all the conditions are perfect for the left to be overwhelmingly dominant as a social and electoral force around the world. Yet instead the left flounders as the far right is on the rise.
Why is this happening, and what can we do to stop the decline of civilization?
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ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE
0:00 How do you do fellow kids!
2:57 Four reasons why the left is weak and unpopular
5:10 What does the left even stand for?
7:16 The left becomes the right, the right pretends to be the left
9:46 Equality as synonymous with democracy
10:10 Bureaucratic, urban and anti-rural socialism
11:52 Why can’t the left deliver anymore?
13:17 The crises of the 1970s and the birth of neoliberalism
16:42 Why socialists gut the welfare state
18:16 What it will take to implement serious left wing policies in the neoliberal era
20:14 How D.E.I. spells D.I.E. for the left
21:31 Discrimination as a tool for competition over resources
23:35 Racism and american unions in the 1930s vs 1950s
25:09 Why left wing parties abandoned class for identity politics
26:47 How class-first politics fights discrimination
31:03 How identity-first politics creates discrimination
39:33 Identity-first politics as right wing politics in left wing disguise
40:14 Racial imperialism: buying off minority elites
43:01 Cancel culture: burning witches is right wing religious politics
43:33 Free speech as inseparable from democracy
44:42 Censorship of the Nazis in Weimar Germany
45:20 Cancel goblins accomplished more for the right than anyone since WW2
47:07 Cancel culture is the greatest right wing election campaign ever invented
49:48 How cancel Chucky-dolls benefit when the right to wins
51:34 Moving forward: flushing the toilet of the left
52:40 Cooperating with cancel gremlins, Stalinists, DEIdiots and other right wingers
54:05 Looking outside the bubble: Charlie Kirk viewers
55:08 Ditching a majority of the fake “left” in order to gain the majority of the population
https://dn721801.ca.archive.org/0/items/9.3_20260227/9.3%20-%20FLUSHING%20THE%20CANCEL%20CULTURE%20TOILET.mp3WHAT IS POLITICS? is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/
5 March 2026, 12:53 pm - 17 – Socialism for Conservatives, Free Markets for Socialists and the Tyranny of Property Rights
Today, free markets are championed as the foundation of capitalism, while socialists argue that free markets cause growing inequality and exploitation of the working classes, and thus need to be constrained by the state, or else abolished entirely.
But in the 19th century, it was socialists who touted the wonders of the market and decried state interference with free trade, which they blamed for causing the inequality and oppression of the working classes.
This is the introductory episode in a series aimed at “flushing the toilet of the left,” which will demonstrate that it’s the rules of unlimited property rights, backed by the state, that are the cause of inequality, exploitation, and lack of freedom, while the market is simply a form of democratic decision-making, which is entirely compatible with socialism and socialist ideals.
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0:00 Intro: Property rights lead to dictatorship unless constrained by democracy
1:36 the Matthew Effect
3:23 Markets vs capitalism and unlimited property rights
4:20 Adam Smith vs economics 101
6:03 Mercantilism vs. markets
7:13 Smith’s free market as an equalizing force
8:40 Adam Smith vs unlimited private property rights
9:12 The state forms to protect the wealthy from the poor
9:38 Property as power: rent and enclosure
12:15 Contracts as coercion by property owners, backed by the state
14:34 Contracts between equals
15:35 Contracts between unequals: master and hireling
16:29 Adam Smith: prophet of socialism
17:55 Thomas Hodgskin: property rights as modern feudalism
19:42 The Labour movement and Adam Smith
20:48 From free market socialism to communism in the era of laissez-faire
23:59 Marx and Bakunin: anti-market socialists
26:12 Summary / next time
https://archive.org/download/17-adam-smith-vs-karl-marx/17%20-%20ADAM%20SMITH%20VS%20KARL%20MARX.mp3WHAT IS POLITICS? is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/
28 January 2026, 10:35 am - 16.1 – A Realistic Solution to the Forever Housing Crisis (make it happen!)
In this episode we outline:
How to build enough affordable housing for everyone using an existing housing model that’s proven to work.
How to pay for it.
How to convert existing market rate housing into affordable housing.
How we can accomplish all of this even within current neoliberal economic constraints.
THIS IS NOT AN INTELLECTUAL EXERCISE, IT’S A REAL POLICY PLAN, MAKE IT HAPPEN!
Art by Khosro Berahmandi
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ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE
Gary Stevenson – Why Is Housing So Expensive?
Gary Stevenson – Inequality is Driving Everything
Gary Stevenson – Why the Rich Get Richer
Gary Stevenson – The Covid Inflation Crisis Explained
Gary Stevenson – How Covid Makes the Rich Richer
0:00 Hello fellow kids / Introduction
2:32 Khosro Berahmandi’s $435, 2 bedroom apartment
4:08 The no-equity cooperative
8:12 Why aren’t there more cooperatives?
9:58 Financing cooptopia
10:41 Problems of taxation
13:04 Problems of borrowing
13:51 Problems of printing money
14:53 How to overcome these problems
18:00 The problem with public housing
19:15 How to deal with inflated land costs
20:19 Densification vs building new neighbourhoods
21:27 How to phase out rental housing
22:40 Gremlin children of landlords
24:25 A massive boon to the economy
25:33 Freeing landlords from rent dependency
25:54 Rent control
26:59 Try a test run in your city!
28:03 Do dis now!
28:30 In the meantime / gimme
https://archive.org/download/khosro-coops/16.1%20-%20KHOSRO%20COOPS.mp3WHAT IS POLITICS? is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/
16 December 2025, 5:57 pm - 12.3 The Great Land Theft (secret history of Israel / Palestine pt. 3)
In this chapter of Secret History of Israel/Palestine, we look how the small urban elite stole much of region’s land from it’s rightful peasant owners, turning them from an independent tribal peasantry, into a class of impoverished, indebted tenants on their own land.
These events set the stage for much of the conflict to come between Zionists and the majority fellahin class.
We also look at the 19th century origins of Palestinian identity, and early stirrings of proto Arab nationalism.
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ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE
0:00 Hello fellow kids
1:59 The Tanzimat: the great 19thC reform programme
3:29 Political reform: disenfranchisement of the fellahin
7:21 Land reform: theft of the fellahin’s land
10:00 My horse! My money!
14:35 From tribal peasants and sheikhs to capitalist tenants and landlords
18:37 The underlying philosophy of “What is Politics?”
20:16 The Nobility, Clergy, Bourgeoisie, Financier and Professional classes, all rolled into one
22:17 Patrons and clients in unequal societies
32:21 Who were the Ay’an?
38:08 The middle class
39:25 19th century Palestine as a backwater in decline
46:51 Palestinian identity
52:59 National identity vs political consciousness
56:234 Palestinian identity continued
59:12 South Syrians?
1:00:33 The 19th Century origin of Palestinian identity among urban classes and Christians
1:06:41 Democratic reform and the 1876 constitution
1:07:47 Islamic arguments for democracy
1:09:21 Abdülhamid II shuts down the parliament and constitution
1:10:37 Proto-Arab-nationalism
1:11:54 Next time on Secret History of Israel/Palestine
1:12:48 Gimme, seeya!
https://archive.org/download/12.3-tanzimat/12.3%20-%20TANZIMAT.mp3WHAT IS POLITICS? is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/
23 November 2025, 2:01 pm - More Episodes? Get the App