The debate between Francesca and Cenk raises valid concerns about tone and strategy. TYT’s focus on unity, justice, and staying true to values remains crucial.
How can we, as both audience members and content creators, foster respect in debates like this while holding power accountable? What shared goals can unite us, even when methods differ?
Maybe you’re right. Upon re-consideration I don’t think of Sanders as an “extremist” with the negative connotations that word has (he seems willing to compromise on some things in a reasonable way). I do seem him as quite firmly socialist however, in the political-economic sense, with respect to some advocating for some sort of minimum socio-economic safety net for all citizens.
However, “blue maga/far leftie” is not necessarily the same thing as an “extremist”, and for that matter, blue maga is not necessarily the same thing as a far leftie. There is a lot of intellectual work for a lot of us to do, to define our terms and develop a better way to look at the political spectrum than the traditional left-right political dichotomy.
Sanders seems historically somewhat comfortable with the word “democratic socialist” and is not afraid of the word “socialist” but seeks to make clear that in his view socialism is not at odds with democracy and that what he is describing is much more like Scandanavian countries and less like totaltarian Russia. To some that is an extremist. Upon reconsideration I don’t think this makes Sanders an extremist, but I do see him as far left in some present-day vernacular of the left-right dichotomy in US society.
Revisiting this article from 2015, there is some good food-for-thought here from Sanders on use of the term socialist.
https://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/14-things-bernie-sanders-has-said-about-socialism-120265
Bernie is far from being an extremist. He is a Center-left politician very far from being a Blue MAGA/Far leftie
The slander continues.
Yes, it just does! Apparently slander is the new Energizer Bunny.
Political Punk likely never watched the full interview. The most likely scenario: Political Punk uploaded the transcript into ChatGPT with a prompt like:
“Identify all of Ana Kasparian’s arguments and suggest ways they can be framed as betrayals of progressive values.”
They then copy-pasted the AI’s most extreme interpretations into their video script.
They reflect the very same grift they accuse Ana of—prioritizing emotion, purity testing, and algorithmic outrage over actual analysis.
“In an age of performative cruelty, being kind is punk AF. Be punk AF” - Daniel Abraham
He is not punk makes us look bad
@robbie0925 @mggbwmn8 @burtsplurt
I’m just wondering who has watched the Megyn Kelly, Political Punk, and other podcasts, including Ana’s Unaligned podcasts. I have, and I can see what the guy in the Political Punk episode is saying. Ana is consistently bringing up things that I find pretty gross, like race issues being better when we were “colorblind,” saying she doesn’t like talking to people of color because she might say something offensive, and complaining about reverse discrimination and saying the legal and penal systems are stacked against White people. And what is it with her and blaming the rampant unhoused population that all have severe mental illnesses or Kamala Harris for everything? Not to mention that she never has evidence beyond anecdotal or personal stories, and then she acts like statistics aren’t really facts when they don’t align with her narrative. In her interviews, whether she is hosting or a guest, she fails to call out when others express mis or disinformation, which drives me crazy, and she constantly and loudly bashes the Left while sane-washing the Right. It worries me that most viewers are unwilling to speak out on or even see this. Also, she has to quit throwing trans people under the bus and get her facts straight regarding gender-affirming care in prisons. One last thing: nodding and smiling while the other person goes on a bigoted rant of how a man cannot be a woman and that people shouldn’t force their ideals on them and then saying she completely understands what they are saying is not helpful–and people are not ideals! Not everyone who disagrees with Ana or Cenk is a grifter using them to be popular; sometimes, they’re just wrong, and it is in their best interest to listen better to the people around them because they don’t always know better.
Yeah totally agree on pretty much every point, i only watched a few minutes and thought he wasnt being very nice so had to have a sook about his user name.
It does worry me, they do have a massive outreach and following. I think those stupid things she has said and agreed with are her personal opinion and she is simply wrong. I watch for a honest and non watered down presentation of news and they all add alot of their own opinions and i try to filter out what to focus on. As an outsider i kind think in a way it matters less what i forgive and forget though compared to you and your totally justified. For example, I have figured Ana went through that horrible instant (on the train i think?) and has been directing alot of her anger towards those particular subjects. Like she experienced some horrific crime first hand and now says crime is rampant (my opinion)
Sorry if it did worry you for not talking out more about BOTH of their really shit takes on certain subjects, i just stood back abit hoping theyd both calm down. Cenk is starting to be alittle ingenuous by giving maga so much benifit of the doubt, but the world has changed in so many ways over the last 20 years and i think he needs to come to terms with it if he is wrong about them.
Long story short if what they said would potentially change a big chunk of the public opinion over here and have impacts to our laws etc i would be as pissed as you, for now ill think to err is human.
I don’t know what the deal lately. The main show lately has large chunks of it spent on the hosts criticizing their critics. Can’t they just focus on the news and put that nonsense all into the bonus episodes?
Is it even necessary to spent 20-minute segments creating labels for different factions of the left? The right wing is going to call anyone away from the center-right as extreme left. They ran their campaign doing that. Kamala Harris had a clip of surgery for trans and they ran it over and over agin. But Kamala Harris didn’t campaign with that messaging. But now the hosts on this network is promoting that as if that was what led to the Democrats’ defeat.
The problem isn’t going on other shows. It’s great to share what’s common policy goals. The problem is going on those shows and slamming on the entire communities in the left for things they didn’t do/claim and finding the best derogatory labels for factions that don’t agree with you.
They can bicker all they want off the shows. When they do that as part of the main show, to me is childish and unprofessional. Cenk used to be really good at controlling himself and Ana whines a bit too much to my taste, but at least it used to be tolerable and didn’t take up minutes of segments scattered through out the entire 2-hr show.
Let me put it this way - none of the other hosts spend time airing out dirty laundry on their shows. But then again, none of them spend time going on right wing shows say how great they are, are different from factions of the progressives etc, that they are the only progressive shows (which they are not).
Also, a recent segment on the main show about mass deportation really soured my trust. If you’re claiming that most of the mass deportation is only on criminals, are you going to show some statistics and credible sources as to what the percentage is? Nobody on the left is saying that there is no crime. It’s annoying when they put words in people’s mouths.
By the way - John Oliver did a great segment on this topic prior to the election.
Cenk has a section in his book dedicating to wedge issues. There’s no need to play into that.
That was the exact sentiment I got when I watched that interview. I was really shocked, actually in how he responded.
I’m getting a different sentiment from my interactions post election.
I don’t know. The left-wing MAGA/ blue MAGA means something different depending on context on his show. Sometimes he’s describing ones that unconditionally rallying being Biden. Sometimes it’s factions on the progressive left.
Whenever the democrats lost, they ALWAYS blame the progressives - all progressives. Harris wasn’t running on any progressive policies and they stilled blamed the progressives. Trump’s campain called her radical left anyway. I get why Cent would be doing interviews with other right wing shows and there’s no problem with that. To me, it’s dumb when he’s blaming the progressives just like all the corporate democrats have been doing.
