Escaping The Cave: The Toddzilla X-pod

"Whoever owns social validation..." Performance addiction and how the masses have become junkies gorging on validation's dopamine stream. How various influencers, including podcasters, have monetized validation mainlining in the name of "brand building". Propaganda, validation, dopamine, and Ellul's "conditioned response." How social momentum works: Tony McAleer on Your Undivided Attention. Also, how ideological boldness is a surefire sign of a propagandee. Listen to "Your Undivided Attention" here: https://humanetech.com/podcast/   --Don't settle for imitations! Be sure you're subscribed to an authentic Escaping The Cave feed!

Of course Putin's playing both sides and assisting Bernie in the Democratic primary. It's about agitation, discord, and eroding the public's already fractured belief it itself, not ideology. This is the perfect insurgent agitation storm: who in this country are more divisive than Bernie, AOC, and Trump? The Russians aren't to blame. We are. Also, why Informational Education programs aren't coming, the simple and cynical reason our for-profit media outlets and political "leadership" won't help us immunize ourselves from foreign propaganda, and Walter Lippmann on free speech and why Facebook must eventually take the fall for our unwillingness to tell truth from falsehood. Includes a quick refresher on 2016's multi-pronged disinformation/partitioning campaign as well as a recap on Jacques Ellul's agitation propaganda material regarding the unleashing of hatred. Introducing: The Rant Alert!   Listen to "Your Undivided Attention" here: https://humanetech.com/podcast/   Don't settle for imitations! Make sure you

On independent thought, authenticity, social momentum, and permitting redemption. Also, You're not the Elephant Whisperer, let Dumbo feed! Detecting doctrinaires, the Warm Glow of the Herd's Fellowship, manipulative monkeys dancing for their lunch, and a mask, the core, and the id walk into a bar.  A format change is underway. Make sure you're subscribed to an Escaping The Cave feed!* More at www.escapingthecave.com. 

Toddzilla's latest Message of Hope formally introduces the loyal listener to Mr. Lippmann: a Man of the People! Touched on are Lippmann's "The Phantom Public", his iconoclastic thoughts on technologically pre-historic data overload, emotional detachment, objective reality, the presumed wisdom of We the People™, and democracy's fate. Have a drink first. Also, institutions and trust are dead, less-not-more is the answer, a defense of the "elites", a need for collective humility, and generalists vs. specialists.    * Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck. * Also check out www.escapingthecave.com and www.christophermedia.net

The Iowa Boner, The Rips Heard 'Round the World, and impeachment fails. All by Wednesday. This is the alternative?  ALSO: Scripture, agitation, and The Herd Mind,  Democracy implodes without the public's consensual trust,  The means, ends, and Salem Witches,  Romney, Amash, Manchin, and the Principled Pit of Hell,  Howard Dean says Democrats will challenge November's election,    * Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck.  * Also check out www.escapingthecave.com and www.christophermedia.net

"Imitation is suicide." How independent thought gets smothered in infancy, the need to belong: why standing apart from the impaired herd is not only hard, it runs against our social and evolutionary grain. Also, collective and self-delusions protecting us from unpleasant discoveries that might destroy our notions of being special, divine, or even "good."   ALSO:  -Tending to personal and commercial attachments -How political and marketing swine manipulate attachments via identity -Meditation and Buddhist philosophy as tools to disconnect -Blank Slatists: Beware -Emerson's Self-Reliance: read it.  -Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck. www.escapingthecave.com and www.christophermedia.net

The next great war: intellectual autonomy. The bold certainty of the herd, the challenges of independent thought and why seeing someone who is genuinely their own Man is so rare, the media has supplanted the church, disengaging from the ideological Holy War in favor of political atheism, and Toddzilla's Paradox: the conflict between intellectual independence and the desperate human need to belong. Still available for children's parties! Now doing bat mitzvahs! ALSO: A quick impeachment fart You want an authoritarian Political Vampires Algorithms, Lippmann, Bernays, and You Silver Spoons: A Hate Crime The filthy Centrus Americanus Friendship: Loyalty & Support vs. Honesty Nothing can be done about climate change Data Overload revisited  * Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck. * Also check out www.escapingthecave.com and www.christophermedia.net

Hilary's flared up again, this time on Bernie's groin while Tulsi sues to find out if Valtrex is right for her. Also, It's time for the Democratic Socialist's Red Tea Party to get off the DNC's guest couch, pack their stuff, and find their own place. Go be a dragon, Daenerys.       Also, Toddzilla didn't kill himself.    * Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck. * Also check out www.escapingthecave.com and www.christophermedia.net    

Wokeflake Twitter was apoplectic when the Richmond pro-gun rally turned out to be peaceful while the rest of world asked, "What? No Antifa? Do they not believe in their holy crusade against Fascismo de Naranja?" Not really. No one asked that. I discuss Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, how it affected Gandhi and MLK, and how that's an unexpected and possible path for gun advocates to reclaiming the narrative. Also: The Invasive Species has a name The Democrat's fracture has gangrene Daenerys and the Utopian Teet Don't call a backdraft a boomerang F**K Twitter * Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck. * Also check out www.escapingthecave.com and www.christophermedia.net

Todd discusses collective human boredom in relation to the need for a sense of purpose, struggle, and the addictive rush of just feeling alive. How a dormant survival instinct comes alive during a crisis and how, absent that, we'll manufacture one just to have something to endure, battle, and survive. Also, some some predictions for the 20's. Book those children's parties now! Also: San Agustin, The Special Tour, and an evening with Pablo Escobar's "chemist" A naked man kills a fer-de-lance Men, middle age, and the power plant Healthy anxiety vs. fear This election won't matter The tyrant is in the eye of the beholder The Titan Tragedy Podcasters: they're spammy and slimy. ^They call that foreshadowing * Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck. * Also check out www.escapingthecave.com and www.christophermedia.net * F**k Twitter       

Happy 2020! Are we ready? After a 2-month hiatus spent illegally hunting rhinoceros and snipe in the wilds of the West Michigan wilderness, Todd welcomes the 20's with a quick episode discussing apocalyptic thinking, the coming electoral season, where to find balanced news coverage, and the rarely-used technique of actually listening to "opposition" media simply to understand where they're coming from. Eureka!  *Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck. *Also check out www.christophermedia.net  www.escapingthecave.com  

This episode focusses mostly on disinformation and interference in the 2016 election and includes selected audio clips from the Your Undivided Attention podcast episode "From Russia With Likes" (#1) featuring disinformation expert Renée DiResta. Her expertise connects incredibly well to my Propaganda series. Topics include: the seemingly innocent methods used by the Russians exploiting personal identity to create online communities that can be manipulated via agitative identity politics later on, The Call to Action: The Manchurian Propagandist, more on the propaganda dopamine connection: validation, attacking trust in political institutions and the media, anger and apathy, exploiting freedom of speech, and the silliness of the "Global Public Square.  Listen to Your Undivided Attention here: https://humanetech.com/podcast/ ALSO: Hillary: probably right about Tulsi Gabbard Hillary: definitely right about Jill Stein Hillary: absolutely a Trump asset Americans subsidize European entitlements Trump's "foreig

Trump's not actually retarded, is he? Pray with me, won't you?  Also:  Quitting smoking: it sucks Nicholas Carr and the "influencer" Goebbels ❤️'s Bernays My poor defenseless podcast is attacked by a zombie Happy Halloween? Fu*k Twitter   *Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck. *Also check out www.christophermedia.net  www.escapingthecave.com

Are you stuck trying to build a well-reasoned, impartial, and detached impeachment snowman from competing piles of steaming cable news shit? Yeah. Me too. The only lens that works: the wide-angle agitation propaganda lens. First, a virtual colon cleanse in the form of a micro-pod.  ALSO:  Fcuk Twitter Twice Hard   *Like it? Share it. You are the "marketing" team. *Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't absolutely suck. *Also check out www.christophermedia.net  www.escapingthecave.com    

An introduction to LeBon, his ideas on mobs, and The Psychology of Revolution--specifically: hatred. The forthcoming electoral reality show, 2020's prepared script, how the spinoffs will be cast, and what happens when our Matrix Avatar Superheroes stumble into the Desert of the Real. ALSO:  Unrealistic expectations inside the steaming pile of Twitter Was it your childhood dream to be Saul Goodman? More on pseudo-environments and internal narratives Fcuk Twitter. (Not a big part of the episode. Just felt like saying it.) *Like it? Share it. You are the "marketing" team. *Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't absolutely suck. *Also check out www.christophermedia.net & www.escapingthecave.com

Institutions fail and democracy descends into mob rule when representative are paralyzed and terrorized by fear of their voters. Trump, Ukraine, and 2020's year-long electoral reality show disguised as an idealistic impeachment. Informational sectarianism and how it's easy to see "their" propaganda. Yours? Never! Their demagogue is your savior. There may be a way for a detaching informational unicorn treat that. MSNBC, CNN, and FOX are Pepsi, Coke, and Dr. Pepper; when everything is spin and propaganda, who's a political infidel supposed to believe?  Also:  Alternate Informational Universes  Half-assed media sophistication: not enough Why can't we watch the opposition's media without going nuts? Our dueling scandals aren't automatically mutually exclusive More on the the Current Events Man  Media isn't free. You are the product being sold.    *Like it? Share it. You are the "marketing" team. * Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and and podcatcher that doesn't suck. * Also check out www.christophe

"The fiction is taken as truth because the fiction is badly needed." A quick introduction to Walter Lippmann and the commonality between him, Ellul, Bernays, Haidt, and Harari. People can't personally perceive the world beyond their own sliver of firsthand experience. Therefore, the Current Events Man is beholden, dependent upon, and therefore exploited by the propagandist and his digital distortions. If democracy is demands an "enlightened citizenry", it's likely doomed from the start. Paradoxically, there's a stab at some hope in here too. Weird.  ALSO: Te Nosce, bitches  Competing Scandals; Competing Networks; Competing Narratives  Smoking, Facebook, and associative dopamine addiction.     The Matrix and the Internet The responsibility and danger of exposing "their" delusion All Cats Meow Why we believe the ridiculous Finding hope in human imperfection More on likability and art The Hobgoblin   Where the hell is Jill Stein? #NeverForget   *Like it? Share it. You are the "marketing" team.  

A rare ETC podcast: one topic. The stage that was once the playground of Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, and even Andrew Dice Clay has been stormed by a mob of Social Vengeance Warriors hell bent on using comedy as a delivery mechanism for textbook sociological and agitation propaganda, complete with its own version of the Ten Commandments (now in print!) and a handy scapegoat Satan. When does the "Thank You, Comrade!" showcase start? ALSO:  Controlling speech is controlling thought; Speechcrime is Thoughtcrime Unless Nickelback is your standard, nothing great has ever come from timid conformity. "Unanimity requires compliance" and defiant creative independence   *Like it? Share it. You are the "marketing" team. *Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and and podcatcher that doesn't suck. *Also check out www.christophermedia.net & www.escapingthecave.com

Agitation propaganda doing its work, speechcrime taking root in the form of virtual media mobs enforcing cancel culture and its point-of-view authoritarianism, the Wokeflake Messiah will arrive soon, Newton's Third Law of Extremism, slave's spirituals and frightened children scrambling to the ideological church to be soothed by visions of a future Heaven on Earth. ALSO:  Toxic Compromise The Election Won't Matter At all. Wokeflakes Becoming Trump We The Authoritarian People *The Propaganda and Social Media Disease theme resumes soon. It's a good time to catch up on what you may have missed.*   *Like the pod? SPREAD IT! You are the "marketing" team. *Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and your favorite podcatcher. *Also check out www.christophermedia.net & www.escapingthecave.com    

Social validation, dopamine, and social media's Walter White; the predictably ridiculous reaction to Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix special and how comedy has evolved from truth telling to Wokeflake proselytizing; more on how people are more willing and eager than deceived when it comes to swallowing fiction and disinformation; choking on data leading to confused gullibility; honestly in a crisis; Sausage Party Hope: children demanding their happy ending. Where's the spring of genuine hope? ALSO:       The Battle of the 21st Century The iceberg bobbing off our bow Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube: Walter White cutting his meth supply?  Pinker's Utopian vs. Tragic Vision Evolution and self-awareness The apocalypse and its "chosen ones" Progress's Myth and becoming organic   *Like the pod? SPREAD IT! You are the "marketing" team. *Also check out www.christophermedia.net & www.escapingthecave.com