The Deprogram is treats not theory. People who treat it like theory, even a little, are extremely frustrating to talk to/organize with.
this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2024
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chapotraphouse
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i like to think of it as basically a dirtbag (hard)left late night talkshow-type podcast
I don't like to be all preachy about peoples treats, I get annoyed when people try to tell me that my slop is bad or somehow dangerous, as if there aren't about 1000 worse ways to burn holes in my brain than putting a podcast on in the background while doing dishes or driving or whatever. I'm a grown ass adult and I read a good amount and have lots of political discussions and organize in my spare time, its not like I'm some teenager being introduced to these ideas for the first, or even the 50th time.
But my dealings with people in their communities,and I've also heard this from other comrades, have been difficult. I don't blame the hosts, but I'm suspicious of these platforms, the way they manipulate creators and consumers of content, it always seems to go badly. Idk maybe I'm just an old fuck
Initial state: A great leftist series on YouTube.
Step 1: Welp, my first video to my own YouTube channel. Nobody's gonna watch this, but hey, it was fun to make, maybe it'll be useful to someone eventually.
Step 2: Ope, I made it big by some fluke of the algorithm! Damn these expectations, I want to keep everybody satisfied, but I just don't have time...
Step 3: But if I make a Patreon, then I can take time off work to make more videos, which means I get to share more knowledge with people...
Step 4: And if I get editors and scriptwriters et cetera, I -- er, my team -- can make more videos, which means I get to share more knowledge with people...
Step 5: Then if I start selling merch I can take even more time off work and pay more people to make even more videos, and spread awareness of this show, which means that I get to share even more knowledge with people...
Step 6: You know, taking time off work is super nice, I should make this my full-time job: I get to live the dream and share even more knowledge with people!
Step 7: You know, I've got all these people on my Patreon, I should give them at least some perks, as a token of my thanks for their support...
Step 8: Wow, uhh, these people are actually paying quite a bit more than I expected when I first started this... I dunno, I guess I'll give them bonus videos? Maybe some early access, too? Those are popular perks.
Step 9: Honestly, I'm exhausted from chasing the algorithm and meeting the demands of my patrons and free viewers alike, but thankfully I've got all this passive income, right? So I'll start posting less to YouTube, they'll understand.
Step 10: You know, I'm surprised by how little I can upload to YouTube and still be able to keep this stuff going. I've gotta keep the patrons satisfied, though... Especially the people at the top tiers, I don't want them spending their money on nothing! So you know what? I'm just gonna move some of these perks up a tier or two. The lower tiers wouldn't mind, right? They didn't mind when I was posting less before, they understood the alienation that comes from YouTube and Patreon stealing my -- er, my team's -- surplus value, those lower-tier patrons are just here to support me.
Step 11: Uh oh, some of my lower-tier patrons are leaving, but at least I've still got this Supreme Soviet level patron who's paying me $4,000 per month, so I'm still doing OK. I guess I'll ask if he could cover the lost... profit... OK, he will if I adjust my content a bit, and it's not like I haven't adjusted my content before, I did have to tone myself down a bit for the algorithm, but it was all for the greater good, right? And after all, all those free viewers and lower-tier patrons are just freebooters, right? Like, my content is worth this much, so that's how much people should pay for it, right?
Final state: Leftist YouTube Series is the 200-episode-long free prequel to Liberal YouTube Series, which releases two free episodes per year as a free trial. The subscription fee to get the rest of the series is your firstborn child. The series is created by Guy Onceler, owner of Guy Onceler Studios Inc. He makes cameo appearances in a few episodes but mostly delegates hosting to two of his employees.
Edit: Damn how could I forget the sponsor deals, pretend that I included something about having to modify the content a bit for the sponsors and then by the end 49% of the free videos' runtime is sponsor deals
Edit 2: Oh and how could I forget how YouTube very explicitly pushes for "toning down" by taking down or demonetizing videos with certain types of content, which encourages Patreon as a place to put uncensored versions of videos.
Turns out the coercive forces of capitalism also applies to anti-capitalists 
Remember: when you see the coercive laws of capitalism at your doorstep, simply say...
if you're trying to turn a profit under capitalism then yeah it sure does
I had extra fiber supplement so I also have a Movement Building
That pig built a movement on his balls
Step one: acquire funds
Return to tradition
Rob banks
Honestly I've never heard of Rob Banks, was he really the guy who coined that phrase?
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Actually I only made this post so someone would give me a pirate link like I got for true anon
Someone posted this link to a Patreon pirate archive the other day. I saved it but haven't checked it out yet. So use adblock and use at your own risk etc.
Using an adblocker and a scriptblocker, I checked it out and it looks legit. It has the episode in question in OP as well as the Streets episode @BigHaas@hexbear.net mentioned in the comments.
At this point I kind of feel like just saying fuck The Deprogram. I used to really like it, as a fan of all three of their individual youtube channels I was a listener from the first episode all the way until like episode 90 or somewhere around there. There was some other stuff that got on my nerves over time, but this switch to paywalling some of their episodes is bullshit. I understand they deserve to be compensated for what they do with the podcast, and I thought it was a great model that non-patreon listeners had to wait a week to hear each episode and that they did live Q&A sessions only for patrons, etc. I'm all for that. But to lock people out of content if they don't pay a subscription fee is just fucking low imo. I realize other leftist podcasts do that too and I think that also fucking sucks. It is hypocritical of them, and it does make me lose respect for them.
Anyway yes, thanks ByteFoolish, the above link should be fine for listening to those payblocked "patron only" episodes.
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This, but unironically.
Y'all, does nobody here even have a subscription that they can just post for everyone else? I swear to fucking god, everyone wants to be a pirate but ain't nobody wants to be a pirate. Being mad about a podcast on organizing and yet showing zero initiative.
Why would anyone spend money on this even if it’s to share lmao. I listen to the boys sometimes for fun but buying hidden item games and cracking them is a better investment than doing so with comedy podcasts because you’ll be learning actual skills.
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The Antifada heads stay winning. It's really The Only Good Leftist Podcast. They have a fraction of the audience of other leftist podcasts and they are using it to organize. They made an org and have irl meetings.
Chapo has 50 000 paypigs and many more non-paying listeners. They are using that platform to complain about the posts that they saw on twitter that day (while playing CS:GO at the same time). We are living in the end times, any leftist platform that has more than 10k followers and isn't using it to do the bare minimum of organizing is 
shit
They release all their stuff for free a week or two later, the patron just gets it early afaik
No this one is patreon exclusive. Also What We Boutta Do 2 - The Streets. Everything cool is paywalled.
Oh my bad. I didn't mean to speak nonsense. IT WILL NOT DO! IT WILL NOT DO!
They still haven't released the full-length version of "What We Boutta Do 2" and that was posted 4 weeks ago
I was mad but now I'm not this is completely reasonable
It’s not true though
Now I'm mad again
This one might release eventually, but a lot of the interesting ones don’t
I'm reserving my mad-ness until we know if it releases for free or not now. This has been a rollecoaster.
Hexbear is an emotional theme park sometimes
Everything I Used To Love Has Turned To Shit™
Now we will never learn how to build a movement. It's over
The Deprogram has fallen.
Millions must subscribe to Destiny
It’s three dudes riffing about organizing who aren’t doing it lol. No hate, I’m certainly busy to dedicate any meaningful time to organizing, but 9/10 times my suggestions aren’t meant to be serious
as a bit: lol
considering the implications of said bit: uhhh bit cringe
They should just become a ttrpg actual play podcast, they're just parasocial slop-mongers either way
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Every "leftist" YouTuber is a grifting liberal aren't they? 
Everyone except Vaush. He's a true Maoist.
lets just say this episode moved them into a bigger building
I thought they released everything for free like a week later. Maybe I'm making that up.
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It's a good bit.
Was it ever worthwhile at all? I remember listening to a few episodes early on but it felt empty, just parasocial shit pretending it's some theory-heavy deep talk.
That said, I never really liked Yugopnik or Second Thought - first felt a bit try-hard (and I was over the dirtbag style when I found him), the other, ironically, too "clean", kind of making himself algortithm friendly in my opinion. Hakim was alright though.
Or maybe I'm just not really into this particular kind of slop.
Second Thought's whole thing is to bring new people into the movement, and hopefully, act as a stepping stone to further radicalization. His stuff isn't really for people who are already communists.
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I don't think that they see themselves as promoting any kind of anti-capitalist organizing (in fact, they have stated a couple of times that they are afraid that they might be doing the complete opposite by providing their entertainment and discussion as a replacement for real organizing), but do believe that they may be doing some good by potentially motivating some very few people of their audience to actually join their local organizations and do something who would otherwise not have done so. As @Juice@hexbear.net said on here, the podcast is mostly only entertainment, and the real organizing happens within the party and on the streets and I think the trio agrees with that notion.
Anyway, JT is on hexbear, so maybe he sees this and says what he actually thinks, rather than my probably inaccurate paraphrasing of the views they expressed on episodes I only vaguely remember.
April Fools episode?
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