“The Chapo
Guide to Revolution – A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts and Reason,” by Chapo
Trap House, 2018
In the U.S., ever since Jon Stewart
combined serious politics with penis jokes, a new hybrid of wiggling
poli-comedy was born. It is no longer
limited to isolated hippie geniuses like George Carlin, who was stomping on
billionaires long before Jon Stewart watched his first mythical episode of Star Wars. Today we have the dialectical raising of the
stakes in that spiral evolution, steaming past the spawn of Jon Stewart – lame-ass
rich liberals like Bill Maher, John Oliver, Samantha Bee and Steven
Colbert. Yes, joining the ranks of Lee
Camp, Jimmy Dore and others are the Groucho-Marxists of the Chapo Trap House,
in all their revolutionary socialist glory, ready to drop political bombs
down the stinking hatches of the booshwahzee and their lackeys.
 |
| Real 'Loose' With Those Words, Kid |
The Traps do podcasts
mostly, which figures for people who were brought up with silver plastic
iPhones in their diapers. It’s a book,
not a podcast, which means it’s worth a bunch of podcasts. Like binge-reading podcasts! From my information, this is the kind of
stuff that keeps young members of various left groups in stitches. Even a dedicated Marxist like myself couldn’t
stop laughing out loud – but only occasionally, as I’m still wondering how deep
the Chapo Trap House roots in the proletariat go. Oh well.
They blend pop culture with class politics with techno-speak to the
point where you realize – this is V. 4.0 comedy! After all, it’s written by
committee.
The Chapo Sticks
In their first chapter, the
Chapos give us a quick history of the storied U.S.
capitalist empire, ending with the bad mix tape that is Trump and Clinton. Then a send up of those hapless hypocrites,
the American Liberal. It is
incomprehensible how… “in spite of their strong record of liking ethnic food,
bombing ethnic countries, privatizing education and gutting welfare they are
somehow loathed.” (I might add ‘jerking
off Wall Street at the Met Gala’ but that would be rude.) But conservatives do not escape their wrath
either. From early semi-erudite
proto-fascists like William Buckley to later muscular versions like “Liberty
Babe,” who believes that ‘Gentlemen Prefer Guns,” the Chapos leave no thug-type
unturned. In another chapter, the media
are discovered to be a nest of lazy bourgeois elites who follow the ‘propaganda
model.’ Amazing! Like Chomsky on weed but funny. They take a swipe at various internet
commentators like Megan McArdle, someone you’ve probably never heard of. She’s a blogger who would have been an
average Republican social studies teacher in Wyoming, but was catapulted into fronting
for Wall Street billionaires at Bloomberg.com. You don’t even have to read Antonio Gramsci’s
‘Prison Notebooks’ to get their
chapter on culture – in fact, it might interfere, as he didn’t know much about
Aaron Sorkin and The West Wing. There is even a heavy chapter on working –
you know, making profits for other people and liking it.
Some more bits and quotes
from the book before we leave:
* The chapter “The World”
includes subheads like: “7 Habits of
Highly Effective Empires” and “The Schlock Doctrine.”
* “Mitt was right after all
and that a good way to #resist President Cheeto would be to send antiaircraft
missiles to the Babi Yar Reenactment Society in Ukraine.”
* On early liberals: “Social reformers emerged from these dark,
narrow New England glens to champion
‘reality-based’ witch trials.”
* Hillary Clinton: “When we moved in (to the Arkansas state house) I was told that using
prison labor in the governor’s mansion was a long-standing tradition, which kept
down costs, and I was assured the inmates were carefully screened…”
* After Obama’s smashing
victory in 2008, when all of Congress was now controlled by Democrats, “The
young and ready president threw off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves and
declared, ‘Lets find some fucking consensus.’”
* Conservative G.K.
Chesterson “inspired C.S. Lewis to believe in God and write a stilted and
punishing fantasy series that ruined the tender minds of a generation of
children.”
* “But the arc of history bends towards
justice.”
* “The growth of the
internet will slow drastically …” (Paul Krugman, 1998)
* “Pellets of nourishing,
ideologically agreeable information…” (Huffington
Post)
* “… besides the radical
Left, virtually all factions’ boats were lifted by a tide of shit:” (The advent
of blogging.)
* “Capital has no problem
assimilating pop-cultural rebellion and anti-authoritarian imagery.” (With
subtextual thanks to The Baffler.)
* “Simple hero journey’s no
longer would do.” (Generic good guy/bad guy ‘myths’ fall short. Take note, Marvel.)
* “…four hundred pages
describing the different kinds of knots and ropes that are used on a whaling
vessel.” (Moby Dick)
* “Small business owners
are, generally speaking, insane egomaniacs who believe enough in their ‘pizza
restaurant with a night-club atmosphere’ to borrow $250,000 and lord it over a
workforce of desperate people.”
* After the mutilation of British rebel Wat
Tyler by King Richard II’s men, this convinced “the peasants to return home and
agitate for incremental change by working within the system.”
Capitalism has gotten so
deadly ridiculous that the naked kings wandering by the dikes, and the NPR
people who pretend they wear clothes, escape no one’s observation. It goes way, way beyond easy targets like
Trump. Only problem is, they are holding guns to our heads and asking 'Do you see the clothes now?" Buy this book because other
people are already coming to the store to buy this book. Or have bought it already. Or ‘borrow this
book’ from them, as that old quote from Abbie Hoffman kind of went.
Other reviews on this comic
topic, use search terms in blog search box, upper left: “Jon Stewart” and “Bill Maher.”
And I bought it at May Day
Books!
Red Frog
September 15, 2018
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