Insurance companies soak up staggering amounts, for one thing
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Also, Hospitals!
“Administrative costs”
Basically, insurance execs are charging a shitload and keeping most of that shitload for themsevles.
God listening to Amber talking about Italy being poor is so infuriating. She needs to stick to being the resident tankie instead of pretending to know shit about Europe. Hell, the part of Italy hit hardest is the richest part of the country.
While Cuba has a good healthcare system, its lack of testing has likely led to an undercount in cases of coronavirus. Using that as an example is pretty dumb.
Somewhere on twitter I read “everyone hears ‘Italy’ and instantly sees the Sicilian scenes from Godfather II”
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The only one of them that actually knows stuff is Matt, but he’s (ironically) way too polite to correct the others.
Because it takes the show off-topic. What if Matt jumped in to correct Amber? It’s just a bunch of “Yes it is.”/“No, it isn’t.” responses like it’s Monty Python until they get pissed at each other.
Matt is the backbone of the show. He’s the only Chapo member who cannot be adequately replaced.
They’re pretty hopeless on foreign countries in general, and the over reliance on national stereotypes for their laughs borders on the sort of racism they condemn in their political foes back home.
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Was listening to an Italian on a podcast the other day who said that a lot of the cultural stuff that people say might have contributed isn’t particularly true in Lombardy. That they pride themselves on not being ‘Italian’ in that way, so not living at home till they’re 35 and going round kissing and hugging everyone all the time.
That’s really America in general though. Other countries aren’t really the focus of discussion and education beyond the most superficial information.
A lifetime of stereotyped foreign characters in TV shows and movies will do that to people.
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The insane stereotyping of foreign cultures from Americans comes largely because we are taught that we are superior from birth. If you do it different from us then you are weird/wrong/bad. So of course those tropes have dominated comedy and TV post ww2. I travel as much as I can and it was something I realized after a few trips i had been brainwashed into thinking.
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Speaking of awesome podcast people surrounded by mediocre talent, the 5-4 podcast is hosted by Neil something, who combines superb knowledge of constitutional law with Unstuck-level contempt for lawbros. He breaks down horseshit conservative jurisprudence more efficiently than anyone I’ve ever heard.
His sidekicks are terrible but worth suffering through. One of them constantly giggles into the mike like a 12 year old, so it has to be good for me to sit through that.
I disagree. I think you could get someone as funny as Felix — funnier, even — but not funny in exactly that way. Hot Couch and Michael Flynn is a thot* stuff are the products of a distinctive vision that it’s hard to imagine replacing adequately.
Whereas lefties with a good knowledge of history and political theory aren’t especially uncommon. And Matt’s mouth frequently can’t keep up with his brain, he goes for these verbose pronouncements but ends up umming and ahhing a lot because he’s reaching for a fancy enough word or phrase. Not hard to imagine someone with a quicker or just a less ambitious tongue.
Not that I’d want to replace Matt. I like Matt. But then I like Amber, too. Lot of people listening to Chapo who like exactly one thing about it, it seems.
*ironically, it was Matt who actually used that phrase, but everyone remembers it as Felix because of what follows.
Blowback is excellent. Highly recommend.
Also, True Anon >>> Chapo. Chapo is pretty mediocre lately. Brace is a true OG. Read up on his background if you’re not familiar.
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I may give True Anon another chance, I tried their first couple episodes and had trouble getting into it, but it usually takes people awhile to get into their groove. Waiting on Blowback to finish before diving into it, pretty excited based on the episode 0.
Blowback confirmed excellent. TrueAnon is OK, I’ll listen depending on subject and guest, but as I’ve said I really just have no time for Brace Belden, don’t care about his spell abroad.
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If you’re into weird-trippy-episodic-but-having-some-through-plot-lines podcasts, Welcome to Night Vale is pretty good.
WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE is a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff’s Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.
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Watching TrueAnon on Twitch right now.
- They look exactly like they sound
- They’re doing the we’re so cool we don’t know who any of these other lefty people are. Get over yourselves you have a podcast like a million other people.
- They suck.
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