In this episode of What Rough Beast, we talk to David Rees, host of Election Profit Makers and creator of the legendary post-9/11 comic strip "Get Your War On," which skewered the Bush administration's War on Terror through the voices of office workers having profane conversations about cluster bombs and nation-building. We discuss:
Iraq vs. Iran rhetoric: How the arguments for bombing Iran compare to the "extremely stupid" discourse that justified the 2003 Iraq invasion, and why Trump's impulsive approach differs from Bush's ideological war machine
The evolution of American freakiness: How the cultural currency of being anti-establishment has flipped from the counterculture left to Trump's depraved right, making figures like Stephen Miller the new Rumsfeld
Clip art as social commentary: Why Rees chose anonymous office workers to represent Americans during the War on Terror
Protesting in the Trump era: Why young people aren't motivated by "orange man bad" protests but are energized by direct action against ICE, and what this means for anti-establishment politics
The Zohran Mamdani moment: How NYC's presumptive next mayor represents a new generation of unapologetically progressive politicians who terrify billionaires—and why that's exactly the point
This episode is free to all listeners, but please consider becoming a paid Magic + Loss subscriber. Every dollar goes to the continued fight against fascism.
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