936 - Permanent Midnight feat. Ryan Grim & Jeremy Scahill (5/22/25)

They can ban Hasan but they can never ban his ideas

It just occurred to me that when people say “it’s complicated,” they are really saying, “my feelings are conflicted. On one hand I know this violence is fundamentally wrong, but my identity is so closely rooted to the bad guys and I’m not emotionally mature enough to face those complicated feelings.”

Felix’s point about the antifascism industry is spot-on. As soon as the 2020 protests began they warned of “fascist infiltrators” and even “outside agitators” hijacking the George Floyd demonstrations, much as they rushed to denounce supposed antisemitism and crypto-Nazism among anti-genocide protesters in late 2023. Their performative “antifascism” is obvious cover for their support for state counterterrorism (however defined by the state).

WHERE IS MY FUCKING SCHNIPPER’S

Hasan is too big, Felix is a jew, Matt no speak so good anymore, sorry Will your ass is getting detained next.

If Trump gets this genocide to stop, he can be god emperor for life for all I care. I would give up anything and everything for this to end. I wish I didn’t have to think about it in these terms… but this is the world we’re living in.

Felix, love you bud, drink a coffee maybe?

Test run for the genocide response to climate change's mass migration.

tell your god you died stupid

Gaza as a blueprint for the future?? Bruh, it's the blueprint of the past. When has this not been happening? This one is just on US TV. If anything I'd say this is more of a last gasp of modern western colonialism. Watching too many movies if you think this leads to the dystopia. Every generation wants to be the ones to usher in the apocalypse...not to fear...things continually go up and down and get better and worse in a million different ways. It's a matter of perspective. From my POV Israel is desperate and will self destruct. I don't understand the fear when what we're supposed to do is so apparent.

Record low smiles per minute

Its clear the solution right? v1olence against the system and state no?

Is pretty rare that Chapo makes my cry tears of rage and frustration.

Always great with grimm and scahill on

It’s free on acid Marxist now yall

Thank you. I hope you make this a free episode. I understand why it is paywalled, but there are people who need to hear this

A friend of mine is an immigration attorney who loves nothing better than winning cases against ICE. I envy him because it often feels like he's the only one in my social scene who's actually doing something besides posting. Anyway, I asked him about airport security best practices, i.e. what to do if you get that 2nd layer of scrutiny. Here's what he said: 1) Suppose they ask you a question that you don't understand. Instead of trying to answer it (because now you're at a disadvantage), ask for them to clarify what they're asking, or restate the question. You want to be sure about what you're putting across. 2) NEVER give additional information. Even as something like what car you drive. Ex. "What color is you car?" If it's blue, say blue. Don't say it's a Blue Honda Accord. 3) If you don't know the answer to a question, or can't remember, DON'T guess: saying you don't recall or that you don't know isn't going to get you into trouble; on the other hand, if you fumble the answer and it doesn't check out, they might flag that as suspicious. It costs you nothing to reach out to an immigration attorney before you travel and just be like "Hey can I reach out to you if things get weird at the airport/border/etc?" Unless they're a real piece of shit they should be happy to be - potentially - a lifeline.

Comments on this episode are a delight. Five stars

Israel needs to issue an apology for the death of that couple.

Will's moment of moral lucidity, wondering at what new arch-demon the Gaza fiasco has birthed. 1:02:45

Please, dear Chapo para-socialists, stop virtue signalling for an ep to be made public. You have no vote.

When jews in the camps were traumatized to the point of total existential collapse their nazi guards would see them staring at the ground, completely broken and despondent. The nazi called these people "muselmen" because it reminded them of Muslims in prayer (and its pretty funny). Cruelty towards your enemies breeds generations of vengeance and you never know how that will end up looking. These two young people were "evil" -but so is everyone else. I hate humanity right now and find it difficult to not pray to be in the last generation.

"The palestinian resistance hasn't engaged in armed resistance outside of palestine". Well, the guy who did it wasn't hamas. What does that have to do with anything? The truth is, for any country, energy spent internally is energy not being spent projecting force outward.

Would love if you guys added this one to the free feed for people. I first got introduced to you guys through Jeremy back in 2017. Always appreciate you having him on

when you live in a country with less rule of law every day, obvious bullshitting of the law by everyone in charge, no accountability for the despotic overlords and the genocidaires they arm… shit will get crazy. it truly is like an unavoidable social reaction. but apparently that’s somehow unreasonable to observe

I first found Chapo Trap House way back in 2017 when Felix went on The Intercepted Podcast with Jeremy Scahill and talked about wanting to make a podcast that made people not feel so crazy or alone. It's always great when my GOATs get together ❤️ still feel a little crazy but definitely less alone.

I think what Will & Felix talked about an hour in about permanent minorities groups oppression/genocide & war is super applicable. Like what we see in Artsakh/Nagarno-Karabah & presently in Palestine while also increased open military posturing around the world I think we could be beginning of a very serious age of conflict ushered in since 2021/2022

The amount of comments reduced dramatically once I blocked that fed Dave. I recommend everyone else do the same.

leaving for Canada is such a high-IQ move, like oh this Hitler guy is bad news, I don't think this is going to end well, I need to take myself and my op-ed writing operation to the next normal country: Austria

Not gonna lie, I thought Felix was doing his Biden impression at first

With respect, Scahill and Grim are fools, and it seems like Hamas' leadership is under the same misapprehension as these guys. You are being conned. Trump isn't a "casino", his whims aren't going to randomly mean he does anything to stop the slaughter. You guys JUST got conned, giving up a valuable prisonder of war and receiving nothing, and you're still clinging to this belief that there are possibilities under Trump. All the possibilities are bad. Trump's ethnic cleansing plan is idiotic and not something he sincerely wants to pursue, but it gave Israel sort of the rhetorical scaffolding from America they needed to go with the most extreme version of the plan. This is why Bibi keeps bringing it up with every speech, it lends America's credibility to their insane plan. Trump won't redact it even if it hurts his business interests in the ME, because he's incapable of backing down on anything. Lastly, Trump will always sign off on the most extreme version of whatever Israel wants because he's surrounded by hawks, and ultimately he's transactional and will side with whoever will offer him more. For Israel, this is existential, and they will give him whatever they need to. That is not the case for the Gulf Arabs who make a show of being pro-Palestine, but honestly do not give a shit. It's all completely fucked. Trump's victory meant that this genocide would only get worse, not better. Why do you think Bibi's clique hated Biden so much and wanted a Trump win? It wasn't because Biden was holding them back, it was because the infinite possibilities being opened up by Trump works for Israel far more than it does for Hamas. Would Biden openly advocate for the total ethnic cleansing of Gaza? Would Biden have promised a ceasefire in exchange for a hostage release only to renege on it? These are the things that Israelis were so excited for.

Out of Sight actually has pretty good vibes for accidentally having to see on acid, J lo “muy caliente”, cool lighting, ving and George and Steve zahn good. Deniis farina might wig me out.

real talk this whole "trump is probably gonna be better on Gaza, look, he just got a peace deal through" was one of the stupidest Chapo takes of recent memory but hey, live and learn

I think if you support this kind of killing you should also support armed gunmen dragging random Americans out of bed and shooting them, because you have benefited from racial and religious apartheid in this country, no matter your skin color or background.

Ghost of Kiev strikes again

Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics. It’s a good sketch of the future that Will is saying he fears and that it does seem is coming into the world. Mbembe used Gaza as a major lens to frame his argument. Nasty times now and ahead

one of y’all’s best episodes of all time

Lol Jason Stanley is such a hack

Would you guys consider unlocking this one?

Please, please, please invite Kneecap on your show.

Felix very obviously under the weather - feel better king!

Felix calling in from the bottom of Lake Baikal

Stand with Israel people! I am blown away by all these hateful comments, apparently you people are fine with spewing antisemitism openly, things like “Palestinians have a right to live” or “we shouldn’t starve millions of children” do you even hear yourselves? Have y’all for even one second considered the real victims? Jewish students on Ivy League campuses? You can be as antisemitic as you want, but we Zionists know what it takes to create a real great society, wink wink… Every. Single. One of them. Even the children. Even the babies. Especially the babies. Terrorist babies! Stand with Israel, Zionists of the world unite!!

Israel’s killing of a Palestinian finance minister and the other examples of mass political civilian killings by Israel is a very effective way to contextualize how the reactionary violence we saw in DC that night is plainly, inevitable. How can you feel remorse when you know this could have been prevented, but the people slain were actively working not to do that?

PLEASE UNLOCK BOYOS, THE FREE PIGGIES NEED TO HEAR THIS.

Will put something I’ve been feeling into words - there is something evil being born into this world out of our complacency. So heartbreaking

Before the final solution, the nazis tried to encourage and then force jews to leave the country. My grandmother was deported from Germany well before the Wannsee Conference and the advent of the "final" solution. We're seeing both phases happen in parallel in Gaza. Horrifying.

Felix sounding like old Joe this episode

Jeremy knows Gaza is losing right? Like if there were attacks on US weapons facilities that would probably be greatly beneficial to them right? A riot isn't caused by 1000 people coming out to riot, it's caused by 10 people breaking windows that meet the threshold to influence 100 people, that meet the threshold to influence 200 people, until it's weird if you don't break a window. Leftists are so quick to condemn or look down on violence, as though the opposite strategy is working. Then they see where it works and laude the revolutionaries. This is how it goes. This is how it works. Palestinians can be killed because it is normal to kill them.

khabib more likely to turn this thing around than the entire cohort of feckless petro monarchs

Please unlock this so it’s shareable, great ep

“But have you personally been to Gaza?” Douglas Murray’s response to this episode.

Absolutely blown away by this episode. Thank you for this.

Fucking Hell world man, Free Palestine.

I still think they got the Houthi deal bc someone showed Trump the biggest guy in Yemen and he was impressed

I didn't realise Jeremy made dirty wars, such a good documentary

Going to reiterate what many others have said: would greatly appreciate if y'all unlocked this episode for public reach. Important conversation for others to hear

If I had to bet on what is most likely to stop Israel I would go with the military basically falling apart as more people refuse to show up to serve. I think that’s more likely then Trump’s senile ass pulling the plug.

this is really great, reiterating the request to unlock to get it out there in as wide a way as possible

I always think of Will's point about anti-abortion activists and flip it around: if you genuinley think Israel is carrying an ethnic cleansing operation on a level comparable with the Nazis, then it's amoral to *not* be out there shooting members of the Israeli state. You'd have to reverse engineer a moral case to leave them alone

Why doesn’t Quentin tarintino get more shit for being a Zionist? Plus, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was mid at best.

Lending my voice to the chorus and saying this one should be unlocked if it isn't already available.

Will's talk about this "never ending" was very instructive, helped me understand some thoughts I haven't really been able to put words to.

Ryan Grimm is an absolute legend.

This is one of the best and most thorough (both factually and morally) Chapo eps in quite awhile. I used to disdain Ryan Grim as a ShitLib, but circumstances have clearly radicalized him to the point that he now truly belongs on a Dirtbag Left podcast. If they are baselessly going after someone as moderate and careful as Hasan Piker we should all be cautious, but we shouldn't capitulate and accept the genocide. Bravo, Will & Felix.

Speaking to what the guest said about what people in Palestine do and don’t want people outside of Palestine to do regarding violence and stuff: The other week I was wearing a Free Palestine shirt at work and a Palestinian thanked me and told me he liked it and we talked a bit. At a certain point I started ranting about what a crime Israel is and was wondering aloud where all the Israelis go when it doesn’t exist anymore and he kinda stopped me and was like “I don’t care if Israel does or doesn’t exist, I just want the killing to stop and people to live” which sort of stopped me in my tracks and wrinkled my brain a bit. Like, the guy was talking about how he can’t even look at his phone anymore because it’s just dead bodies, and meanwhile my comfortable American ass could only envision more blood and displacement and recrimination. I dunno, it’s just kinda stuck with me (though I’m not gonna poo-poo the event in DC —if it wasn’t an op, who knows)

🐐

One of the best episodes ever. Thank y’all.

Hey fellas please unlock this one 😘

If the next phase in west is literally criminalizing protest and support for Palestine, then so be it. It'll be fucked up and terrifying, but it will ultimately weaken any remaining support for Israel

Please put this up on the main feed. This conversation is soooo important.

Yesterday I saw a video of a man walking through rubble with a severed leg of a child looking for the remaining pieces of what I can guess was his son. I close my eyes at night and it’s in my dreams I’ll never ever begrudge a person for resisting against that, domestically or abroad.

Maybe now we’ll get some gun control since israelis are getting shot instead of just americans and children

Will mentioned the permanence and global application of the situation in Gaza and I immediately thought of the following Lukacs quote: "Only the consciousness of the proletariat can point to the way that leads out of the impasse of capitalism. As long as this consciousness is lacking, the crisis remains permanent, it goes back to its starting-point, repeats the cycle until after infinite sufferings and terrible detours the school of history completes the education of the proletariat and confers upon it the leadership of mankind. But the proletariat is not given any choice. As Marx says, it must become a class not only “as against capital” but also “for itself”; that is to say, the class struggle must be raised from the level of economic necessity to the level of conscious aim and effective class consciousness. The pacifists and humanitarians of the class struggle whose efforts tend whether they will or no to retard this lengthy, painful and crisis-ridden process would be horrified if they could but see what sufferings they inflict on the proletariat by extending this course of education. But the proletariat cannot abdicate its mission. The only question at issue is how much it has to suffer before it achieves ideological maturity, before it acquires a true understanding of its class situation and a true class consciousness."

That take about Syria as the rubric of chaos kind of points to something larger I think - stirring up chaos to keep people subservient to the US doubles as propaganda. The skinheads will point to anywhere on the map and go 'see? Gotta stick to your own people' which is pretty much just how the European nation-state has functioned for the last 3 or 4 centuries anyways - but it is also why war with Russia and China is inevitable, because they are anathema to this worldview. A single government running a society of 120 ethnicites in Russia? 60+ in china under one government? It's conceptually intolerable, never mind the threat they pose to American hegemony.

The Izzies have spent the last century killing 20 arabs for every Izzy killed. Between that and all the silly ass math they do to make October 7 equivalent to 98.24 9/11s per square mile or whatever, they really seem like the worst mathematicians ever produced on that side of the Mediterranean.

Great ep. I implore you guys to unlock this one so we can share it.

Here to tell us about the situation in Palestine, a man whose name is literally Grim

these 2 are so important thank you for having them on

Frankly I think most of the country supports killing lanyarded yuppie professionals who work in DC before you even add anything else to that.

Those 90+ aid trucks have NOT been admitted into Gaza. They were told they would be let in, and then they got stopped at the border and have been sitting there ever since. The entire point was to get people saying "Ah, progress, 90 aid trucks, don't you know," and not a fucking speck of that "aid" has gotten into Gaza. As of this morning, it's $800 for a bag of flour in Gaza, and flour is all they've got.

I admire these guys

Please unlock this episode for the masses. This was an incredible episode, and everyone needs to hear Mr. Scahill and Mr. Grim. Edit: Nevermind, seems to be unlocked. What an incredible interview, Mr. Chapo.

Is this locked? Unlock

I'm of the belief on many issue now that peaceful means have been completely exhausted. that shouldn't make anyone happy, but it's where we are.

There's a better tempo to a machine gun than a bitch made glock

Hot take. Luigi is a stupid rich kid jerk off who accomplished nothing and this guy just gave the monsters their rallying cry

Hey can you please make this publicly available???

Free Luigi and free the guy who murked 2 Israeli embassy officials

I do agree. Valid targets

Fuck. That's really all I can say.

1:19:00 yes these American fascist "experts" have been driving me up the wall. The Yale professor who moved to Toronto has been making the rounds on Canadian media fear mongering about Trumps fascism yet has admitted that he's a liberal Zionist lmfao. He also on the Atlantic Council and has said that Canada and Ukraine are strong democracies resisting against Russian authoritarianism. Hahah! He's such a fucking joke. I guess Canada can take advantage of American brain drain by absorbing their mediocrity

Grim and Scahill on the same ep!!! Hell yeah! Love those dudes. 🙏

The fucking dude yelling “from hamas” after the shooter said “free free Palestine” is truly insane

You guys are really trying to say this is fine? Want to talk about a 80 to 20 issue, you guys are on the wrong side

Whatever the motivation; pretty useless and pointless waste of life that actually did the opposite of what you say you wanted.

Obviously it means Hassan is an op. (Not a joke.)

I just feel like vomiting

Why is felix brandonized in this ep

I pray for the complete and furious destruction of the state of Israel. May its dismantling be so complete that people even forget it ever existed.

Amazing that Jeremy thinks the resistance is against solidarity

Felix begins speaking at 4 minutes and 7 seconds

I just feel like the chapo haters should start posting rn about how distant our boys have been about these issues

Awful thing that happened to those Israeli Embassy staffers

Yaron Lshinskiy more like Hardon Shlongsky

I love all the work Jeremy has done ❤️❤️❤️

Ryan and Jeremy let’s go

Murder is GAY

Omgggg. I suggested this happen to Ryan angelic 2 weeks ago. I bet Ryan took my advice and reached out to the boys!