Totally Classic

"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?

"Are We Throwing Out the Dictionary?" (Pt. 2 of 2)

This week on Totally Classic, Andy & Brendan further explore the phenomenon of the revolutionary proposal of topsy-turvy semantics that undergirds many of the dominant cultural theorems of the left. When did the inflection point happen - culturally? Individually? Is the proposal malevolent or beneficial? Why is no one talking about this ALL THE TIME? 

"Are We Throwing Out the Dictionary?" (pt 1 of 2)

This week on Totally Classic, Andy & Brendan wrangle with the novel semantic system progressives may have somewhat silently proposed. From topsy-turydom of classic semantics (first is typically primary) to embracing novel definitions of "racism" and "gender" and "person," much of the modern progressive philosophical set is based on these proposals. Is new always better? Is ancient wisdom always the best? Is language always evolving or can it devolve? Are these polar opposite approaches a key part of the communication difficulties between the left and right? 
Andy & Brendan try to define terms, define how they define terms and define how they make their way through the modern miasma of "one tongue, two languages!" 

Is Google/AI Racist?

This week, Andy & Brendan inquire as to the conclusions about Google's all time boondoggle of a launch of their AI platform, Gemini. Gemini was swiftly revealed to be racist, intensely politically biased and, perhaps strangest of all, heavily subjective in its output. Many germane questions resound: does AI, like children, require someone to teach them to be racist? Is this a failure of technology or ideology? Is this the summit of DEI failures or the failure to properly understand DEI? Or is this all just a mirror back to humanity itself? As always, one of the most important lessons here is that talking to people who you disagree with remains one of the most relevant tools at our - and AIs - cognitive disposal! 

"Is TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) Real?"

This week, Andy & Brendan play cultural critics (with a side of armchair psychoanalysts), attempting to ascertain whether the popular online diagnosis of TDS is a genuine phenomenon... and maybe a genuine mental illness, to boot?
We consider it highly likely you've encountered someone with TDS in your life. And maybe didn't even know it!
TDS was popularly coined as a term to describe folks who cannot seem to have a rational conversation about Donald Trump, who seem to find just about everything our former president does to be repugnant (even if its something someone they like also does). And while not being a fan of Trump or even in opposition to him much of theme has roots in reason, those with TDS go quite bit further.Our question is... do they go so far they leave the reservation of reality itself?