530 Comments

I’m obviously in the minority here, apparently significantly, but my vote is no. I’ve been a huge fan and patron of your podcast for a long time l, and I think you do truly incredible work. From the brief time I followed you on Twitter, it’s also clear that you and I have very different politics. That’s fine, I don’t need to live in a bubble where I never hear anything I disagree with. But I really appreciate the firewall you’ve maintained between your martyrmade work and your personal politics and commentary on current events, and I’m not a fan of seeing that line disappear. There are vanishingly few places left, online and off, where you can take a break from all culture war all the time.

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Your comment is interesting to me. I’m interested why your not interested in his opinion on this topic. Personally I love hearing a well made argument against my opinion.

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Darryl's opinion is always worth listening to. The question is what I want from my martyrmade subscription. What I want, if asked (and I was), is martyrmade content, not current events and contemporary politics.

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To be frank, you can hop on Twitter if you Daryl’s take on culture war topics. Before I finally quit that site, he was rarely silent on the latest culture war flame war.

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Good point! I don’t do SM for that very reason - the ongoing hyper politicization that has bled into everything leaves me feeling exhausted and claustrophobic. I, too, need some critical distance between the issues and the people - and me.

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funny, i paid b/c I want to hear the unvarnished Darryl. I want to hear what you have to say about Rittenhouse. I think it's a pretty pivotal moment in the direction America is going and I'd welcome a discussion here.

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I appreciate your desire to have oases of intellectual pursuit that are free from culture war vitriol and I generally share it. May I ask - given the events in Kenosha, and the facts discussed in the trial - does this even qualify as "culture war" territory any more?

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It’s absolutely a culture war issue. The war is being waged on US citizens by our government, or factions within our government. Their goal is total capitulation of any resistance.

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I believe you’re correct. Unfortunately.

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Appreciate your take, Jason!

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I’m in a very similar position to you. The culture war stuff is cancer in my opinion and I’m convinced it makes people dumber. I’m fine with more content so I said yes. But I’m hoping this a one off thing. I can get my culture war hot takes from a ten thousand other podcasts if I wanted that.

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Hey Jason! Really good thoughts - and if he were asking about election politics or policy discussions before the senate or house - I'd probably agree. I get inundated with that garbage via social media and what little MSM I accidentally bump into.

This is a distinct and different "thing". I can't quite put my finger on it to give it a one word label - but it's a moment. When you consider the Jonestown podcast or the Israeli podcast - you see each had a multitude of ingredients converging on the moment that led to things turning into things. The most interesting part of Jonestown for me wasn't actually all of the Jonestown - but me realizing that the "Right" has lied to me as much as the "Left" with regards to the labor movement and some of the very real and necessary fights that were being waged (but were ultimately taken over by bad elements).. And it seems like there are so many ingredients out there right now swirling around and possibly converging on a point.

The Rittenhouse trial and the coverage of it - right in the midst of the entire raw trial and proceedings being available - and the reaction to the coverage is actually a scary moment to be living through. One could say the same happened during Trump press conferences on CoVid (even if you think he was an idiot - the coverage still never lined up) but this is a more "apolitical" example of the lack of a media which cares for us. There are ties into Afghanistan. Ties into the 2016 election lies. Ties to the machine running against us.

I believe this is an important thing to cover and I think we'll find Team Red and Team Blue are equally at fault here.

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Hopefully you are doing ok now that you've realized that your American system of belligerent politicization and media circusification (c'mon, that's a great word!) of every single thing isn't really serving the common citizen. I sincerely do hope you're doing well given the many attempts to radicalize you.

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Sort of an interesting comment there. Textual makes voice and tone disappear. That one could be taken in a bunch of ways.

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Definitely meant to be taken literally. I do hope that if you've just realized that both parties, and all politicians are full of shit, that you're doing ok. When viewed from the outside American politics and media seem like they would be borderline traumatizing for most citizens. Also when viewed from outside it's hard to tell that there's any change from 10, 20, 30 or even 240 years ago. Again, I have many American friends and family, and hope they can get above this and thrive.

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Oh. I've known for years. Been building towards that. I'd say it's an age and awareness thing ;-)

Up until 20, I was a bed-wetting lefty.

From the early 20s to early 30s - Right Team Red guy.

Since my early 30s I've been a right-leaning libertarian type who cares more about my faith, myself, my family, and my local community ;-)

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Love it! I'm sure many of us go through a similar evolution. It probably explains generational friction. We older types have truly "been there done that" and the younger types are always full of ldeals that may be somewhat unrealistic. I actually enjoy that friction, because if we just get old and stop listening to young folks entirely then we'd still have Archie Bunker and I'd be wearing something called 'slacks' at my age. I'm no expert, but in my opinion your remedy for what ails society is spot on.

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I’m still rolling ‘circusification’ (which spell check wants to change to “circus fiction”) around in my mouth like a three-day-old jawbreaker.

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Ha! Maybe the OED will accept it and I'll be rich! That's how it works, right? Oh man, I cannot wait to be so rich I never again have to think about any of you non-Oprah-rich folks.

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Maybe this me assuming I have a similar take as Darryl but I’ve enjoyed the tension between different sides in the history he’s covered. I’m worried his take will fall into a box that won’t really expand my view of it.

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1000% agree with all of this

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I hear that, but... I thought I "knew" where Darryl was coming from politically after an intro to one of the Israel/Palestine episodes during the summer of discontent. I was shocked when Darryl's thread on the media caught fire a few months ago. One could make an argument that the "culture war" has always been there in everything. Whether you see (hear) it or not depends in large part on whether what's being discussed relates to one of your personal hot-button cultural issues.

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That is true. I was stunned to discover the number of C19 like viral pandemic movies made well before Covid that could best be described as “disturbingly prescient.” What was it about DC’s thread that shocked you? Why do those things seem contrary to what you heard in his podcast?

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The "shocking" part is probably limited to me. It wasn't what he wrote in the thread (the one that was read on the Tucker show on Fox), it was that he had written it. I was dead certain I had Cooper pegged politically based on a 2-hour exposition leading into one of his podcasts (which I found entertaining and illuminating). Then I read the thread and realized that I was wrong and Cooper's thinking doesn't fit in the normal boxes. That's why I signed up for the Substack.

My point here is that when we say things like "keep politics or cultural issues separate from history or current events podcasts", our own perspectives on those issues color whether we think they've already been included or not. It's already happened. The wall Jason would like (which I totally get and understand the desire for) has already been breached. People with political/cultural perspectives that align with those previous breaches just take it all as fact and moral certitude and don't even notice.

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I don’t remember him writing anything about COVID in that thread.

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I didn’t mean to imply that he did; it was an easy example of a cultural narrative that a large number of people had been focused on for a lengthy period that I was oblivious to until Covid happened. It may seem like Covid came out of nowhere, but if you rifle through the old video bin at Walmart, you’ll see no shortage of pandemic anticipation going back the last 20 years - you may not have noticed it if you were focused on other things. The idea that a “culture war” is some recent emergent threat exists similarly.

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No. Here is why: its not because we have different politics, as far as I can tell, they are fairly similar. But your long term brand will be better off if you not talk about current day politics. 5 years from now, 10 years from now, people will be digging up stuff you've said about then current stuff to discredit your views about history on the next Israel-Palestine series (or whatever). The reason that series worked so well, partly, is that you weren't a known quantity, and people from all points of view listened in. This is more along the principle that has kept Michael Jordan so well-liked, he knew that "Republicans buy sneakers too."

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Maybe it should be a whole different pod/sub stack? Dan Carlin does it that way

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I feel the substack is already a different thing. Everyone here has already listened enough to fork over some cash. It is already selected for those that want to here he has to say

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This is a really good point

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That'd work for me.

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I think DC already has enough soundbites between Fear and Loathing and God's Socialist to get him cancelled multiple times over. It's not really a matter of how inflammatory he is, it's a matter of how popular he gets. Even if he avoids hot button topics, once he's popular enough it's only a matter of time before the anti-wrongthink squads show up and try to get him cancelled.

So I don't think it really makes much of a difference in the long run if he tries to avoid controversy. Even if he's squeaky clean, they'll come for him eventually regardless, so no need for him to limit himself.

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It would just as bad to isolate yourself until you are just speaking to an echo chamber. That's why I view twitter as especially insidious, I genuinely think it can only hurt you in the long run. The risk/reward is too high. It's the equivalent of trying to pick up pennies in front of a steamroller.

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Depends on whether he is trying to do outreach or is just trying to speak his mind and share his research. If it's the former, then what you say makes sense.

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Nov 12, 2021
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That's a fun meme quote, but whose truth? An honest question. It's not universal deceit. We've just realized that there are a lot of voices out there that have relevance, like DC's. The easy answer, and the comfortable one, is to go tribal and call everyone else a liar. I like Darryl because I haven't heard him do that so far. He brings difficult context. Heck, I could understand why people drank the generic kool-aid after the Jones podcast. I don't agree with their choice, but I could understand. This is important. That doesn't make anyone a liar. It just exposes the truth as a mercurial beast.

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This is the best 'No' argument.

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If you’d asked up front if I wanted to hear 25 hrs of your thoughts about Jim Jones I would have said no, but it was amazing.

If you have something to get off your chest and you think it is valuable go for it.

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Staying away from contemporary politics on the podcast or things related seems wise. so, strong no

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Lone vote for no. Love the well researched episodes. Save the NatPop content for twitter.

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Yeah. I’ll be skipping and I’m probably fairly aligned with DC’s politics. I just need a break.

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Yes. This is not a current event, it’s a turning point in America. Are we the nation we were or the mob justice nation we are becoming? That is what this trial is showing. More people need to see this for what it is. You have a great perspective both historical and current, please don’t shy away from this.

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At first I was a yes, but reading the responses below there is minority, maybe a small one, but a minority of listeners that make a very good point: I come to the martyr made in the hope of a little informative yet a-political downtime. Your exhaustively researched casts are such a refreshing event in my listening life, I feel that to keep to the historical, the wild and the wonderful, would be best. Current affairs may be best left to Twitter, YouTube and the discussions of The Unravelling. It’s a no from me I think, but whatever you decide I will happily listen and absorb either way!

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I’d be really interested to know the breakdown of responses between people who had followed the podcast for a while and people who started following after the Twitter thread.

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Quite topical, considering the series DC has in production at the moment! Hard to seperate the man from the media, but I guess it’s important to know the content of the man who is drizzling honey into your ears for hours on end! It’s the slightly fringe perspective of DC’s work that lured me to Fear and Loathing, then hook line and sinker through the 100+ hrs of martyr made and unravelling. I don’t tweet, so I guess I will remain blissfully ignorant to the rest - to be honest I would prefer to know more of what DC has to teach than what he has to tweet! But there I am, a little bit old school for the pace of social media!

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you gotta believe in your own creative vision more brother. If you think its a good idea, follow through; If people believe in you enough to pay for your substack, they believe in you enough to hear your thoughts on the Rittenhouse trial.

TLDR: yes.

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Well said. Yep.

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This is true…. We wouldn’t be paying dollars to hear your musings if we didn’t think they were the goodness… maybe you should have polled on whether you should poll on topics instead! 😜

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Yes. Though I'm afraid of my reaction to your thoughts, Darryl. I'm downright scared and angered at where blue checkmark Twitter, "journalists" and progressive left world is handling this.

I've watched every second of the trial and then reviewed the "conclusions" drawn by then. It's derelict at best. But it's downright seditious and they're asking for the next Kenosha riots.

Cover it. Cover it hard. And keep it just for us.

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There does seem to be a substantial disconnect between people of a particular professional &/or academic pedigree and the rest of America, doesn’t there?

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I am puzzled by the “no” replies that mostly read like “please don’t offer a perspective that’s not aligned with my pre-existing opinion and political leanings”. I thought the point of starting a podcast or offering content behind a paywall was that you’re able to fend off the cancel culture mob and continue to speak your mind. I certainly didn’t stop listening to Sam Harris or Dan Carlin when they endorsed Brandon. Why is there so much resistance to hearing anything outside your comfort zone? If you think Rittenhouse deserves to hang I want to hear it even though I think this is a show trial

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No. I'm European and there's a limit to my interest on US/US current events, if they don't reflect on the rest of the World. Probably you'd habe an interesting take on it and I'd learn something, but if it distracts from better content I'd rather you didn't. I've never even heard of the guy and I like to think I'm well informed. The US focus is inevitable, given that you live there, but that would be too detailed and I'd probably give it a pass.

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No. Find a historical parallel and discuss through that lens, it will be far more impactful and resonant imho.

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I said yes initially but find myself on the fence now after reading others responses. This is an excellent idea, though it would likely take more time, and I think the idea may be for it to be quick so DC can get back to his historical subjects.

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Don’t get distracted by the shiny object. Twitter is a better platform for that content.

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I vote yea. I subscribe for whatever you have to offer.

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I think it’s great that you ask for opinions here but if you’re interested in discussing the issue then you should do so. Whatever your take is I think we trust it to be well thought out and articulate.

If someone doesn’t want to listen to a particular episode then they don’t have too. And whether someone agrees or disagrees with you is irrelevant. So long as you present the best version of the argument, I don’t think it would be fair for anyone to judge you on it. And if they do then it’s their problem.

People are more than the opinions they hold on any singular issue.

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I said the same thing. Your podcast is yours. Do what you want

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My decision to subscribe to the martyrmade sub was base on your epic work on Jim home and Israel - personally I am paying for you to do more of that and develop into the next Dan Carlin.

I also follow the unraveling which is where I think a discussion of the rittenhouse case belongs.

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Completely unrelated, having just re-read my comment and noticed my typos - is it possible to enable editing of comments for corrections?

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You can copy the text, then delete the comment, paste the text back in, then edit.

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