Totally Classic

"Is Climate Change Real?" Part Two

This week, Andy & Brendan meet back up after a month to explore the literature, the arguments strong & shoddy and the strange manipulations around climate change! From unmodelable clouds to model google usage, from adhd Brittanica forays to conspiratorial arrays, from the ground to the atmosphere and back again... all on this weeks' Totally Classic!Every episode of Totally Classic is a conversation between friends about subjects that have, reportedly, ended friendships. We aim to show how phenomenally unnecessary interpersonal hostility is to talking about even the thorniest of issues!

"Is Climate Change Real?"

This week, Andy & Brendan tackle a subject they are both admitted novices in: Climate Change. They do their best to parse out not only their apprehension of the landscape of theory but seek to posit a means of validating or invalidating those apprehensions, from the place of admitted ignorance. What arguments are convincing, what arguments are weak, who is and isn't trustworthy as a source... and how do we proceed from here?
In one months' time, they'll reconvene and discuss their deeper assessment! What do YOU think?

"Is a Third Party Vote a Waste?"

This week, Andy & Brendan interrogate a popular supposition about the United States' purported two-party system. Does any party "deserve" you vote? Is voting for a third party candidate "stealing" from some other candidate with a larger bankroll? What arguments are tenable that a third party candidate is a "spoiler campaign" for a more likely victor? Is Voting like sports betting or is it an ethical obligation wherein one selects the best candidate possible (regardless of "odds")?What do YOU think? 

"Should We Vote Based on Identity?"

This week, Andy & Brendan wrestle with a question about elections, in part spurred by the sudden new Democrat nominee for President. Should a citizen vote for a candidate based on what identity categories that candidate falls under? It is hypocrisy? Machiavellian? One last gasp of error to right the past? A chance to be part of representational history?Or is it just positive-spin racism or sexism? Let's talk about it!

"Have I Fallen for a Media Hoax?"

This week, Andy & Brendan stroll down media memory mayhem lane, remembering and analyzing a trio of Media Hoaxes they've fallen for and why.
What fears did they prey upon? What biases did they tickle? What do they tell us about our media and ourselves? What Media Hoaxes have YOU fallen for?
 

"Is Circumcision Appropriate?"

This week, the conversation goes a bit below the belt. 
This episode is relatively uncut, but the two conversants are. 
Puns misbegotten aside, this episode Andy & Brendan wrangle with the seeming lack of forethought put into removing foreskin. Is this mild form of genital mutilation cultural appropriation, a patriarchal ritual meant to humble the future man or provoke him to violence or something else entirely? 

"Is JK Rowling Transphobic?"

In just 4 short years, it's become more of an assumption than even a belief that author JK Rowling, who altered the literary landscape for more than a decade in the 90s & 2000s, is "transphobic." But is this assumption accurate or inaccurate?Andy & Brendan try to sleuth, feel and reason it out!
What do YOU think?

"Has DEI DIED?"

Andy has worked in the DEI space, both professionally & passionately.Brendan is skeptical of DEI as a methodology of social justice. But they can still talk to each other - even about this. DEI might be the modern antidote to racism. DEI might the modern manifestation of racism. Either way, DEI has had a climactic rise and a calamitous fall, in just a few years. Is it on deaths' door? Is it simply due for a tune up? What does the present look like and the future hold? 

"Are the Gaza Protests Charlottesville 2.0?"

A much repeated perspective on the series of protests against the Gaza War is that they're anti-semitic. While antisemitism certainly is extant in the protests, does this make the movement entire essentially so? Having heard the oft-repeated comparison of these Free Palestine rallies to Charlottesville (VA, 2020!), this week Andy & Brendan question whether this is a salient comparison, an offensive one, or something in between? Is it intellectual lazy or dishonest to sum up an entire event according to the ideas or actions of the minority there? Or is it simply a consequence of evolution that we think this way? Is it bad faith to assume the worst of one protest movement but not another? What do YOU think? How are they alike? Dissimilar? 

"Is This the End of the US Empire?"

The demise of the American Enterprise, the US Empire, has been ballyhooed since the very first ballys in stars & stripes were freshly hooed. The signs were there, are there... and thanks to non-stop, custom-made media content flushing out our ocular and aural units on a near continual basis, the signs have never been louder in our collective subjective reckoning. But is that sensible or just submission to the repetition of sensory overload? Is the US Empire collapsing before our eyes or are our very eyes collapsing?