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  • Navigating Reality and War During the Age of AI Propaganda

    Navigating Reality and War During the Age of AI Propaganda

    · Angry Planet

    On the morning of April 21, Trump posted an image of eight women on Truth Social, claimed they were Iranian dissidents set to be executed, and demanded that Tehran release them. Detractors, and several Iranian sources, claimed the women were AI-generated. A day later Trump claimed the women would no longer be executed and that he’d saved them.


    The truth is that the women are real and many are still in danger. Trump’s post made real Iranian women who protested the Iranian regime appear fake. The story speaks to a moment we’re in where it’s become impossible to parse truth from lies online. This was already difficult before AI-generated pictures and video. Now it feels impossible.


    On this episode of Angry Planet, Mahsa Alimardani is here to tell us the story. Alimardani is the Associate Director of Technology Threats and Opportunities at WITNESS.

    Eight real women turned into AI propagandaReal crimes bastardized into regime propaganda“We need to come to terms with the fact that our information environment is structurally different.”Content Credentials as a partial solutionHow AI is supercharging our chosen reality tunnelsThe cycle of uprising and repression in IranThe structure of Iran’s internet and how its blackouts workDomestic intranet as an alternative form of communicationAI-generated Lego propaganda videosIran ReframedExplosive Media’s deep connections to the Islamic RepublicPolitics as fandom, fandom as politics“Everything is becoming flattened.”“The onus on the person scrolling is a bit unfair.”

    Mahsa Alimardani’s LinkedIn


    The Real Iranian Women Protesters Trump Made Look Synthetic


    In the Room With Iran’s Social Media Savants


    How AI Content Detection is Being Weaponized in the Iran War


    Iran Is Winning the AI Slop Propaganda War

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  • Christianity Shaped North Korea’s Cult of Personality

    Christianity Shaped North Korea’s Cult of Personality

    · Angry Planet

    Kim Song Ju, the man who would become Kim Il Sung, was born to devout Presbyterian parents. Billy Graham’s wife was born to christian missionaries in China and went to high school in Pyongyang. American protestants once spread the gospel in northwest Korea and found fertile ground for their gospel message. Kim listened, learned, and used those teachings to shape a cult of personality that rules North Korea to this day.


    On this episode of Angry Planet I’m joined by Wall Street Journal China bureau chief Jonathan Cheng to talk about his new book Korean Messiah. Cheng’s work is an exploration of the origins of North Korea and Kim’s deep ties to American Christianity.

    Share

    Angry Planet as dress rehearsalBilly Graham in the Hermit Kingdom19th century Protestant missionaries in KoreaPresbyterians in the untamed northwestUntangling the history of a self-made godkingThe Kim Song Ju nativityWomen without namesAttending church during the Fire and Fury periodThe Soviet eraLeading from beyond the graveKim bombs his first public appearance

    Buy Korean Messiah

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  • Making the Case America Was Winning in Iran

    Making the Case America Was Winning in Iran

    · Angry Planet

    Recorded March 24, 2026. Subscribe at angryplanetpod.com to hear episodes first and commercial free.


    Last week an article published in Al Jazeera by an academic at the University of Doha in Qatar proposed something that felt crazy to some western war watchers: America and Israel’s strategy in Iran is working.


    On this episode of Angry Planet, author Muhanad Seloom is here to explain his position. Seloom is an assistant professor of international politics and security at the University of Doha. He’s also an Iraqi who lived through the Iran-Iraq war and both US invasions. From his perspective, the US has degraded Iran’s ability to hurt its neighbors in the long term and changed the regime.

    What comes next is a more complicated question.

    Why did this war even start?Setting aside morality and legality to look at ground truths“Iran is much weaker”Missile production, missile rangeThe highly enriched uranium is in one place“The regime has changed. Whether we like it or not, the regime has changed.”The case against the new KhameneiWhat is it like to live nextdoor to Iran?There’s a reason no one is standing up for IranWhy isn’t the GCC doing more?What happens if we pick up and leave?What’s the plan for what happens next?“It’s not easy to rise up.”Charging tolls on Hormuz“I have to say this: I am against the war in any way.”What about the JCPOA?A great unanswered question of historyAir campaigns don’t win wars
did America really lose in Afghanistan and Iraq?“War is hell.”

    Labelling Ethno-Political Groups as Terrorists


    The US-Israeli strategy against Iran is working. Here is why

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  • Neutralizing Iran’s Nuclear Material During a War Is ‘Nearly Mission Impossible’

    Neutralizing Iran’s Nuclear Material During a War Is ‘Nearly Mission Impossible’

    · Angry Planet

    America went to war in Iran, we’re told, because the idea of the country developing nuclear weapons was intolerable. Nukes are complicated and technical weapons that require scientists and experts to build, maintain, and manage. Highly enriched uranium (HEU) is core to the design and unless all of Iran’s HEU is accounted for the threat of it becoming a nuclear power will linger.


    So what would it take to get rid of Iran’s stockpile HEU?


    François Diaz-Maurin is on Angry Planet today to answer that question. Diaz-Maurin is editor for nuclear affairs at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists where he recently published an article outlining what it would take for US troops to neutralize Iran’s highly enriched uranium.

    How a civil engineer becomes a nuclear journalist“You can’t bomb away nuclear material.”“Technically, it’s nearly Mission Impossible.”How much highly enriched uranium (HEU) was left after last year’s strikes?Moving HEU around IranWhat we can learn from satellite photos and the International Atomic Energy AgencyWhy 60%?Managing scuba tanks full of gaseous toxins in a war zoneWhy blowing up the cylinders won’t work“Let me throw something weird at you.”Downblending versus exportingWe’re living in the third nuclear ageDeterrence works and that’s, maybe, not great?

    Trump may send US troops to neutralize Iran’s highly enriched uranium. There are no good options


    Netanyahu says Iran no longer has uranium enrichment capacity


    Iran willing to dilute uranium stockpile as fresh protests erupt

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  • The ‘AI as Nuclear Weapons’ Obsession

    The ‘AI as Nuclear Weapons’ Obsession

    · Angry Planet

    AI enthusiasts love to say that the technology is as revolutionary and important as nuclear weapons. Even the Trump administration has adopted the metaphor. The President and the Department of Energy have repeatedly referred to the development of AI in the US as “Manhattan Project 2.0.”


    But is the buildout of LLMs and machine learning systems really as important as the development of the atom bomb? And what are the lessons from the atomic age that AI scientists should then learn? Do we need an AI Non Proliferation Treaty? An AI International Atomic Energy Agency?


    On this episode of Angry Planet, Ankit Panda comes on to talk about the uses and limitations of the “AI as nuclear weapons” metaphor. Panda is an expert in nukes and a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He’s been sharing his extended thoughts on the AI-nuclear connection at his Nukesletter Substack.

    Stanislav PetrovAI as nuclear weaponsWhy nuclear weapons resonate with people in the AI fieldThe Strategic Air Command storyThat time we spilled nuclear material all over Greenland and SpainNNSA and AnthropicAI as the next Manhattan ProjectA massive infrastructure projectFissile material as siliconWhat’s the AI version of an NPT and IAEA?AI and nuclear are both dual useOn AI wintersWhat AI is actually being used for, what it might be used forThe socialization around AI will change.

    AI Arms and Influence: Frontier Models Exhibit Sophisticated Reasoning in Simulated Nuclear Crisis

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  • A Killer True Crime Fandom & Islamic State’s Digital Caliphate

    A Killer True Crime Fandom & Islamic State’s Digital Caliphate

    · Angry Planet

    Things have gotten very surreal in the dark corners of the internet. AI-generated prophets are preaching jihad in Facebook groups, Minecraft servers host digital caliphates, and school shooting fandoms gather to study their heroes and plot how to up beat their score. It’s a double bill on this episode of Angry Planet as two experts from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a nonprofit that studies and works to mitigate violent extremists, discuss the brave new world of online-born violence.


    First up is Milo Comerford, the co-author of a study about nihilistic violence. Then we’ve got Moustafa Ayad to talk about how the Islamic State is circumventing bans and pushing its message on social media.

    Staying sane on the internetViolence without ideologyThe Comm764True Crime CommunitySaints CultureWhen fandom becomes a killingAn aesthetics driven movementOnline and offline have mergedModeration is impossibleYou don’t have to hand it to ISISBroken text postingCopyright strikes and the Islamic StateFacebook professional as the gold standardAI resurrects dead influencersJihad influencersEven IS is obsessed with the Epstein filesVirtual caliphates in Roblox and Minecraft“We must be careful about what we pretend to be.”Once again, it all comes back to 4chanSaying nice things about twitter dot com

    Beyond Extremism


    ‘The Comm’: The Group Linked to a Nationwide Swatting Rampage


    How the True Crime Community generates its own killers

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  • When Americans Became ‘Splendid Liberators’

    When Americans Became ‘Splendid Liberators’

    · Angry Planet

    America spent most of the 19th century at war with itself. It conquered its western expanse then collapsed into civil war. Once the North beat the South, partisan politics consumed the country for a generation. A string of assassinations, progressive firebrands, and civil service reforms burned people out on domestic politics and a bored and febrile nation began to search for meaning beyond its borders. It noticed the Spanish Empire was awfully close.


    In Splendid Liberators, award winning journalist Joe Jackson chronicles the beginning of the American myth of the “good war.” He’s on the show today to talk to us about Teddy Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and a general who lay in state at the Alamo.

    Recurring patterns in American historyRoscoe Conkling jumpscareRemnants of the Spanish-American War in South CarolinaWhat did liberty mean in the 19th century?Clara Barton, Leonard Wood and the dual American personalityThe first modern concentration campsThe Battleship of MaineWhen Congress used to fight, physicallyDrones won’t win a warThe US in the Philippines‘The water cure’American historians facing reality in the PhilippinesTeddy, finallyLaying in state at the Alamo

    Buy Splendid Liberators


    A Defense of General Funston

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  • Puffins, Zyn, and ‘Polar War’

    Puffins, Zyn, and ‘Polar War’

    · Angry Planet

    Greenland fever has faded for now but it will return. The world’s polar region, you see, is pretty damn important. As the planet heats and the ice melts, what was once an impassible warren of ice and snow has become a geopolitical opportunity.


    On today’s Angry Planet, we host journalist Kenneth R. Rosen who just published the book Polar War. He’s spent the past few years among the ice and snow, embedding with troops, yearning for snus, and smoking cigarettes with morticians in the long dark.


    Rosen knows what makes the Arctic so important and can see the truths that undergird the obsession with Greenland.

    Getting bombastic and angry about Greenland“We already have Greenland”How is Turkey “near Arctic?”The Greenland obsession as proof of climate changeWhat makes a good Arctic forceAccession to NATOServicing subs in the ArcticTrying to embed on a nuclear submarineMispronouncing place namesThe most powerful navy in the world doesn’t have an icebreakerSpies in the polar regions“It should have been an article.”Smoking under a tree in the darkSnus vs ZynThe death drive of the penguin

    Buy Polar War: Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic


    US Army Poorly Prepared for Arctic Operations: Finnish Troops Forced Them to Surrender During Exercises in Norway


    Can we just appreciate the fact State secrets were just leaked on this sub?


    Life Aboard a Nuclear Submarine as the US Responds to Threats Around the Globe

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  • Online Culture Is the Whole Culture

    Online Culture Is the Whole Culture

    · Angry Planet

    There was a time, just before the pandemic, when folks would say “Twitter isn’t real life” as a means of dismissing the horrors of social media. This was a cope, a way to ignore the worst political and cultural actors who now dominate our psychic landscape. Now those people are in charge and they’ve manifested Twitter into real life in a way previously thought impossible.


    The White House is posting Stardew Valley memes about whole milk. A Customs and Border Patrol official is asking people if they’re triggered when they respond with empathy to the murder of a woman. Laura Loomer, one of the most online gargoyles to ever live, is a serious policy player in administration. The Secretary of War has a video game tattoo.


    How did we get here? Michael Senters, a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech, is here to explain how online culture became the culture.

    It’s all for the postsA YouTuber comes to townWhat, exactly, does it mean to be terminally online?The right goes all in on identity politicsThe pandemic drove us all crazyTurns out the post-modernists were correctPosting yourself into a different form or realitySurvival tips for the extremely onlineDepraved art and Hearts of Iron IVDeus Vult?Video games as propagandaWe should have been harder on the online NazisJohn Romero will make you his bitchA brief history of Something AwfulFighting the performance regime

    How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch


    Six Prosecutors Quit Over Push to Investigate ICE Shooting Victim’s Widow


    Do you have stairs in your house?


    Fuck You And Die: An Oral History of Something Awful

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  • How We Thought the First Year Would Go

    How We Thought the First Year Would Go

    · Angry Planet

    Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com


    On January 28, 2025, I sat down with Aram Shabanian to talk about how we thought the first year of the Trump administration would go. I put the audio in a vault and didn’t listen to it until now.


    We focused on geopolitics and the American military and our hit rate for predictions was about fifty percent. Domestically, it’s been much worse than I expected. Abroad it’s been much weirder than I expected. The bit about America seeking violence though? Right now that feels spot on.

    Hegseth’s reforms got worse for women (vindicated)Conscription is not back (wrong)The yearning for violence when the gloves come off (vindicated)All the episodes that weren’t producedSicarioifciation continues apaceThe bigger problem was that people felt badThe dangers of boredom“Drugs won the war on drugs and then looted the armories.”Against burning it all downGreenland is still on the tableThe ceasefire didn’t last and war did not spread to Europe (wrong)Elon Musk is out (vindicated)X is still around, but it IS producing on-demand CSAM (wrong?)WWIII and mass riots didn’t happen (wrong)Martin O’Malley 2028?

    The Cult of Sicario

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  • On Spectacles of Cruelty

    On Spectacles of Cruelty

    · Angry Planet

    On the last Angry Planet of 2025, novelist and Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay returns to reflect on a year of spectacle and cruelty.


    Between the Pentagon’s boat strikes and the administration’s constant barrage of grotesque memes, it feels like America is a crueler and cruder place. For better and worse, the Presidency sets a moral standard for the country and Trump has lowered that standard. Klay wrote about all this in a piece at The New York Times and he’s here with us today to talk through it.

    “It’s too easy to condemn.”The project is spectacles of cruelty“You’re not supposed to be joining a gang of thugs.”What is this doing to us as a nation?The lust for cruelty and dominationKlay’s review of Hegseth’s first yearWar vs. Defense“Read long things.”Living in the Hell of opinionsEnding on a high note

    What Trump Is Really Doing With His Boat Strikes


    Trump Admin’s Racist Halo Memes Are ‘A New Level of Dehumanization of Immigrants’


    Trump has accused boat crews of being narco-terrorists. The truth, AP found, is more nuanced

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  • Google’s Former CEO Is Dancing in Ukraine

    Google’s Former CEO Is Dancing in Ukraine

    · Angry Planet

    Earlier this year journalist Ben Makuch caught a glimpse of Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, dancing at a club in Kyiv. It was a surreal moment, a snapshot of a tragic war that the West thinks is defining the future of conflict. Tech executives have flocked to Ukraine, courting the country in an attempt to get at a resource more precious than gold: data. Makuch was just there and has written about what he saw for The New Republic and he’s on the show today to talk about it.

    Some light smoking banterBen’s timelineGoogle’s CEO dancing in a bar in KyivUkraine as laboratory for war techThe JSOC era is overIn defense of the majestic American turkeyThe great America vs China speculationWar, cheaperOn the actual frontlineWheat fields of fiber optic lineThe buzz of the droneLife in the bloodlandsThe human suffering of living in UkraineFPV-made propaganda“Never underestimate human innovation when it comes to killing other humans.”What’s Erik Prince doing in Ukraine?

    New York Times on Military Reform


    The Medieval—and Highly Effective—Tactics of the Ukrainian Protests


    Who Is St. Javelin and Why Is She a Symbol of the War in Ukraine?


    ‘Cope Cages’ on Busted Tanks Are a Symbol of Russia’s Military Failures


    ‘Unauthorized’ Edit to Ukraine’s Frontline Maps Point to Polymarket’s War Betting

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  • ‘Capitalism Is a Series of Regime Changes’

    ‘Capitalism Is a Series of Regime Changes’

    · Angry Planet

    Another week and another Angry Planet about the horrifying systems that rule our lives.


    Is there a depressive theme running through the work right now? Possibly. I promise we’ll soon replace it with rage.


    This week on the show we have Sven Beckert to talk about his new book Capitalism: A Global History. Beckert is a professor of history at Harvard and his tome is an attempt to capture the entire history of an economic system in one book. It’s a doorstop, but it’s also readable and clear-eyed. Some come with me on a journey that runs through the plantations of South Carolina to the tech markets of Shenzhen.

    Cotton as an entry point to the history of capitalismThe economic big bangIndustrial Revolution as mutation“It’s still being born.”Human data is oil to be frackedThe Quaker Oats metaphor“The market is God.”Ascribing morality to economicsWhen Gary Hart ushered in Neoliberalism“Capitalism is a series of regime changes.”Moments of great change offer opportunities

    Capitalism: A Global History


    The Old Order Is Dead. Do Not Resuscitate.

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  • The US Government’s AI Grand Bargain

    The US Government’s AI Grand Bargain

    · Angry Planet

    The White House is portraying the race to adopt AI as an existential crisis. It’s the next Manhattan Project, they say, a technology so important it will require an unprecedented build out of energy infrastructure and massive data centers. But the Manhattan Project was a government-led technological drive whereas AI is led by salesmen and corporations.

    What could possibly go wrong?


    On this episode of Angry Planet, Ben Buchanan is here to tell us about the government’s role in fostering AI. Buchanan was an AI advisor during the Biden administration where he helped write the policy that paved the way for private-public partnerships between DC and AI companies. Now he’s a professor at John Hopkins and, though he’s still an AI advocate, he’s got concerns. Slop, public land use, and autonomous weapons. We get into it all on this episode of Angry Planet.

    AI as an arm’s raceNukes are cheaper than AIGovernment’s role in the construction of AI infrastructureWhat are the stakes of the AI competition between the United States and China?“More powerful AI systems will enable more powerful cyber operations.”“It’s the hardest thing we do as a species.”Turning over federal lands to data centersHow Trump is shooting himself in the foot regarding AI“We’re just chasing power all across the country.”“We’re going to be building data centers for a very long time.”How the AI expert uses AI“There’s a long list of concerns.”Accident reports and autonomous weapons

    The AI Grand Bargain


    Ben Buchanan


    DOE on federal lands for data centers


    Anthropic Has a Plan to Keep Its AI From Building a Nuclear Weapon. Will It Work?


    DoD Direction 3000.09 Autonomy in Weapons Systems

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  • Deadwood: The Town that Made the Wild West

    Deadwood: The Town that Made the Wild West

    · Angry Planet

    Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com


    This week on Angry Planet we’re taking a break from the horrors of the present to explore horrors of a past distant enough now that they’re entertaining. But then, America found those horrors pretty entertaining at the time, too. Even when it was still a thriving community and a going concern, the town of Deadwood, South Dakota, was the subject of dimestore novels and tall tales.


    Peter Cozzens is here with us to talk about his new book Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West. Cozzens is a historian who has written 17 books that focus on the U.S. Civil War, the Wild West, and the American Indian Wars. His latest work is all about Deadwood and the wild cast of characters who inhabited it. Come sit with us a spell and learn about the real Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and Al Swearengen.

    “Power comes to any man who has the color.”Black Elk and how the West Was LostConflicting perceptions of Wild Bill HickockProfessional gamblersCreating Calamity JaneSoftening George Hearst“In the West, women didn’t wear underwear.”Deadwood burnsHow history becomes a dime store novel“The most diabolical town on the face of the earth.”

    Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West

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  • Learning to Love the Stagnant Order

    Learning to Love the Stagnant Order

    · Angry Planet

    Is your Empire feeling less than fresh? Does it feel like the modern world’s best days are behind it? Do conquest and global power politics not hit as good as they used to? Welcome to the Age of Stagnation, a time when the fruits of the Industrial Revolution can be enjoyed but not replicated.


    It’s making us all a little crazy, especially world leaders. With us today on the show is Michael Beckley, a political science professor at Tufts University and his career includes stretches at the Pentagon, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the RAND Corporation. To hear Beckley tell it, stagnation might not be such a bad thing. If we can avoid repeating the worst mistakes of the 20th century and let go of a “number go up” mind set, then maybe we can all learn to enjoy a long age of stabilization.

    The diminishing returns of the Industrial RevolutionWinners and losers in the Age of AscentMoore’s Law sputters outStabilization isn’t so bad. “We’re some of the luckiest people who’ve ever lived.”Shenanigans and shithouseryAI isn’t “ready” yetWhy conquest doesn’t work anymoreChina as a paper tiger in the age of stabilizationAmerica’s unique advantages“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” - Mike Tyson

    The Stagnant Order


    I Tried the Robot That’s Coming to Live With You. It’s Still Part Human.


    Michael Beckley

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  • ‘Goliath’s Curse’ and the Surprising Benefits of Societal Collapse

    ‘Goliath’s Curse’ and the Surprising Benefits of Societal Collapse

    · Angry Planet

    We’re obsessed with apocalypses, big and small. We fantasize about what the future might look like after the fall of society and fear the coming tribulation. Rome fretted about decline until its end. Stories of the Sea Peoples terrified the monarchs of the Late Bronze Age. During the 30 Years’ War, Europeans imagined Armageddon had finally begun.


    But a funny thing happens after the collapse: things tend to get a little better for everyone.


    Luke Kemp is here to hold our hands through the end of the world as we know it. Kemp is a researcher at Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and the author of the book Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse.

    Beauty in collapseMatthew’s AI testThe Doctor Doom mask“Collapse was good for most people.”Sea People’s mentionedWhy a Goliath and not a Leviathan?Down with Thomas HobbesFear of a mass panic driving collapse“Emergency powers have a very funny tendency to stick around”The problem with guns, germs, and steelThe Tree of EvilOn the purpose of human sacrificeDoctor Doom is the belle of the ballAre we ending on a high note?

    Buy Goliath’s Curse


    Centre for the Study of Existential Risk


    The rewards of ruin

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  • Yes, US Strikes On Alleged Drug Traffickers Are Illegal. That Won’t Stop Them

    Yes, US Strikes On Alleged Drug Traffickers Are Illegal. That Won’t Stop Them

    · Angry Planet

    Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com


    This week on Angry Planet we have returning guest and former judge advocate Dan Maurer. The last time he was on the show, Maurer walked us through the consequences of a Supreme Court ruling that asked the question: is it illegal for the President to order SEAL Team Six to kill people? It was a surreal question that now feels more pressing.


    A US Carrier Strike Group is moving into South American waters to support America’s highly kinetic War on Drugs. Military lawyers might have advised the Trump administration that extra-judiciously executing alleged criminals in international waters is, in fact, illegal. But Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is no fan of military lawyers and fired the Judge Advocate General (JAG) of both the Army and the Air Force. The Pentagon plans to turn as many as 600 of the remaining military lawyers into immigration judges.


    The second Trump administration is perverting the law and sidelining anyone that might tell them it’s a bad idea. Since he was last on the show, Maurer has retired from the Army and is now a professor at Ohio Northern University’s college of law. He’s here to tell us how bad things are and how much worse they might get.

    The terminal parent metaphorA story that only ends one wayWhat’s a JAG?Hegseth’s JAG hateLaw as perversionAre these strikes legal? “No.”“It can be lawful, but not moral.”Legally speaking, you can’t be a combatant and a criminal.When Truman tried to take over the steel industry.Can state authorities arrest the feds?Life after Trump time

    Are Military Lawyers Being Sidelined?


    Defining ‘Rebellion’ in 10 U.S.C. § 12406 and the Insurrection Act


    On Treason and Traitors


    “Anna, Lindsey Halligan Here.”

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  • Vanessa GuillĂ©n and the Importance of Speaking Up

    Vanessa Guillén and the Importance of Speaking Up

    · Angry Planet

    Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com


    The episode is about Vanessa GuillĂ©n, a US soldier who was murdered at Fort Hood in 2020. She also experienced sexual harassment while in the military. I spoke with ABC Special Correspondent John Quiñones about his new podcast, Vanished. It’s a good podcast that covers GuillĂ©n’s case in-depth and highlights the reforms the Pentagon instituted after.


    We recorded the show on September 30, GuillĂ©n’s birthday. That morning, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivered a long speech about his own military reforms. Many of the changes Hegseth has pushed through conflict with the changes that GuillĂ©n’s death ushered in.


    As such, I thought it was important to get John’s reaction to Hegseth’s speech. Before we began recording,I told him I planned to ask him about this and he agreed to talk about it.


    When I asked the question during recording, a public relations person from ABC jumped on the line and asked me to stop talking about Hegseth. I pushed back, but not hard enough.


    The next day, ABC PR reached out via email to ask if I would cut this moment from the show.


    I will not. It’s included here in full.


    Further, I want to take a moment at the top to highlight the reasons why I brought up Hegseth’s speech. There’s a lot to it and, honestly, it demands its own episode. Here are Hegseth’s thoughts on toxic leaders.

    “Today, at my direction, we’re undertaking a full review of the Department’s Definitions of so-called toxic leadership, bullying and hazing, to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing. Of course, you can’t do, like nasty bullying and hazing. We’re talking about words like bullying and hazing and toxic. They’ve been weaponized and bastardized inside our formations, undercutting commanders and NCOs. No more. Setting, achieving, and maintaining high standards is what you all do. And if that makes me toxic, then so be it.”

    GuillĂ©n’s case also changed the way the Army investigates sexual harassment. Here are the secretary’s thoughts on the current state of official internal military investigations:

    “We are overhauling an inspector-general process, the IG that has been weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat. We’re doing the same with the Equal Opportunity and Military Equal Opportunity policies, the EO and MEO, at our department. No more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complaints, no more repeat complaints, no more smearing reputations, no more endless waiting, no more legal limbo, no more side-tracking careers, no more walking on eggshells. “Of course, being a racist has been illegal in our formation since 1948. The same goes for sexual harassment. Both are wrong and illegal. Those kinds of infractions will be ruthlessly enforced.”

    After the speech, Hegseth signed 11 memos that detailed these changes. I’ll link them in the show notes. The memos say that the military’s definition of “harassment” is overly broad, calls for the end of “anonymous complaints”—something Hegesth also said in his speech, and asks that investigations be completed quickly with the assistance of artificial intelligence.


    I believe that is all important context for this episode. I also believe that Hegseth’s speech and the policy directives represent a regression in the American armed services. I will not pretend otherwise.


    Listen to the All-New ‘Vanished: What Happened to Vanessa’ Podcast


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  • Assassinations Are Shitposts Now

    Assassinations Are Shitposts Now

    · Angry Planet

    Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com


    Political assassins often have incoherent politics and Tyler Robinson is no different. The young man who killed Charlie Kirk inscribed the shell casings of his bullets with obscure memes that say less about what he believed and more about where he spent time online. Robinson isn’t alone. Earlier this year the Annunciation Church shooter showed off a rifle inscribed with similar memes pulled from the internet. The Christchurch shooter in 2019 livestreamed their killing and left behind a meme laden manifesto.


    So what the hell is going on? On this episode of Angry Planet, Michael Senters—a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech—has some unsatisfying answers. Senters painstakingly walks us through each message on Robinson’s bullets and explains the online spaces from whence they came.

    If you don’t know a gropyer from a Helldiver or have never heard “OwO” said aloud, this episode is for you.


    It will not make you feel better.

    4,000 hours in seven gamesA painfully specific explanation of every shell casing meme“It can’t be Helldivers”“This kid has probably fried his brain online.”Hearts of Iron IV’s place in online fascist discourseSon, what’s a groyper?There’s no compelling evidence Robinson was a GroyperThe terrible embarrassment of explaining memes out loudThe 10 year old meme on the shell that killed KirkConstructing an ideology here is a Sisyphian taskBeing online is about irony and performanceHow a moment in time becomes a memetic hieroglyphAssassination as performanceGamergate as a “critical junction” in the Republican partyHow GG spread the irony-poisoned posting style like a virusFilming a TikTok video at an assassinationRe-evaluating our relationship to the internetA little bit about working in a bookstoreThe charging documents drop at the end of our conversation

    What the shell casings in the assassination of Charlie Kirk do – and don't – tell us


    Yes, It’s the Guns. It’s Also the Phones.


    Read the Charges Against Tyler Robinson


    Exclusive: Leaked Messages from Charlie Kirk Assassin


    The “Notices Bulge OwO” video


    The “Loss” comic

    Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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