738 - They Smile In Your Face feat. Corey Robin (6/5/23)
Today we’re joined by Professor Corey Robin, author of "The Reactionary Mind" and "The Enigma of Clarence Thomas," for a conversation all about one of the most powerful reactionaries in the world: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. We discuss the origins and contours of his conservative ideology, and how they reflect the development of race, class, law, power, conservatism and liberalism over his lifetime.
You can pick up "The Enigma of Clarence Thomas" here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781627793834/theenigmaofclarencethomas
Comments (99)
Drunk me, IE smarter me used this episode as a framework to re-evaluate Kanye after listening to his lines in “New Day” from the 2011 Jay-Z collab album Watch the Throne.
Is a transcript available of this ep?
Need the name of the mid episode transition song asap friends
Backstabbers- The O'jays. fyi I just googled the episode title
Great ep boys, bring more professors on please
Excellent ep. I love the apolitical bullshitting eps as much as the next guy, but I have really been feeling the lack of substantive ideology/theory stuff for a while and it is giving the impression of the pod being mostly filler lately. I know it's not filler, but the people want more of this thinky type shit. Many are saying this.
Cushvlog if you haven't.
Like the Star Wars origin story. Lucas was 100% fixated on the death of the ‘60s counterculture.
One of the best ep of all time, very fascinating and left a lot to chew on.
Banger ep, no-one minds the vegetable episodes when they're this good.
Great episode, I learned a lot
Enigma is such an ugly thing to call Justice Thomas, please.
Was I the only one who heard the 'sister on welfare' story and automatically thought...'why tf is sister on welfare?' Guess he got his 😒
least favorite episode ever. guest had a profound lack of both curiosity and pattern recognition. matt and will's half hearted attempts at getting this drip to draw a conclusion were too little too late to make this interesting. frustrated and even more appreciative of movie mindset.
Robin is there to share the things that he learned in researching footnotes from Clarence Thomas’s judicial citations and footnotes. Not sure what you wanted him to say that you didn’t say, but I will say that Movie Mindset stinks.
Strongly recommend his book "The Reactionary Mind"
Very good interview
Remember when you guys had that guest on who laughed at the bud light boycott? Haven’t heard you guys mention that in a few weeks. I wonder why lmfao
Uh. Why? Who are you, what point do you think you're making
A+ ep
God what a misanthropic little nerd
Surprised you didn’t bring up that he met his wife through Larry king, the guy at the center of the Franklin scandal. It’s in the Nick Bryant book
Where is Larry King these days?
Best episode in years. Kudos to Matt for stepping up and speaking this ep. Let’s see more of that.
Starting to think Matt just needs more stimulation. More guests like Corey Robin will do the trick
What a liberal bitch fest about CT aka Dark Knight of the Soul Im not sure I get the point of this ep. Sounds like Clarence T. is smarter than all the bitch ass libs combined. I like the guy now. And I dont give a shit that he sexually harassed Anita Hill. Like it was a tragedy or some shit. Apparently second wave feminism trumps THE ONLY FUCKING BLACK MAN ON THE SUPREME COURT. Whit people finding reasons to bring down people of color for not agreeing with what they say think or do. That motherfucker gamed all of us. Hats off. Dude can have brunch with me anytime
okay man
I think the biggest, and most important question is - if you see the Roberts court as Tony Sopranos crew, who is Clarence Thomas?
I say Patsy Parisi. Above all, a Company Guy with a cuckoo bird wife.
where movie ep
You can never be a fly nigga if you ask questions during opening arguments.
So nice of Matt to lend Corey his old mic, but jokes aside a really good ep
One insane thing I remember about Virginia "Ginny" Thomas is the fact that a few years ago, she sent an email to Anita Hill offering her a chance to "apologize" for the "lies" she told about her husband. It's one of the worst things I've ever heard a woman did. The ideal situation would be if she finally snaps and kills Clarence and Biden gets to sneak another one in.
She literally believes in Q anon. She's a dumb cunt
May we all find our Ginny Thomas, boys.
Good slop. I thought this guy would be a typical college lib bozo but he's actually pretty smart. I do think he gives Thomas a little too much credit as to being ideological as opposed to a sycophant, inspite of his own power.
https://youtu.be/1y6-qf55rbc
holy hell we need zizek on the show
One of my favorite interviews in quite some time. Great stuff.
Clarence Thomas is evidence the 15th amendment was a mistake
This comment makes me a sad panda
“I don’t stop until I know she’s sassified / And I can always tell when she gets sassified / Because when she gets sassified / She start calling my name / She say: Clarence Thomas Clarence Thomas Clarence Thomas Clarence Thomas oooooh shit Clarence Thomas”
I've always been a Backdoor Santa kinda guy.
I just came back from a week road tripping in the US and if you tell me you genuinely enjoy highway offramp walmart parking lots you're a freak. I'm sorry I'm not going to pretend that your acre of asphalt filled with people who just want to get through their shopping to go die on a sofa and worry about getting stuck in traffic to go there is in any way charming. It's convenient, I'll tell you that, I got my best grocery out of a walmart, and famously they'll let you overnight for free, and I've done it, but it's not beautiful. Shut the fuck up
a little old lady saw the Bethlehem Steel merch t-shirt i got and told me in an aisle that one of her cousin worked there back in the days and is now dead. that's the kind of Real America™ moments you get at the walmart. it's cute but like are you *that* into it. common.
Imagine writing a book on this lol
It's interesting that essentially Thomas thinks racism solved if we just include black people in the upper echalons of the machine. Very baby brained stuff Clarence
He kinda doesn't think that, bud.
Fascinating
Is this AI generated?
The US legal sysem is an embarrassment. No one should respect anyone involved.
When it comes to the issue of political rights it’s interesting that Clarence Thomas and Ta-Nehisi Coates are basically on the same page. I remember a Chapo episode from way back in the day when they read Coates, who basically said being at a cookout at Howard amongst his people was more powerful than any voting rights bill.
Ah, the O'Jays, who balanced out all those suspicions with "Love Train," which Clarence chose not get on board with.
minstrel libertarianism
Most excellent and righteous ep. Not sure what to make of it all, though. Sure does seem like we’re fucked (and I know, that’s not a good selling point for the left). I think my new slogan is just banking on a miracle/aliens/communist AI/Christ to return to set things straight because we sure as hell don’t got it.
Felix sat his white ass down and LISTENED
Probably was gaming
Oh man this rocks
white Black separatist Ginny Thomas
Fatalism is always the deathdrive to the left, Cornel west and marianne would be doing much more help if instead of presidential runs that went nowhere they and the rest actually put that effort into local races and building up the movement from the bottom-up
That’s a good point. Why aren’t they running for senate or a house of rep seat?
Felix not asking a single question is 4 dimensional comedy
Very interesting and balanced synopsis. Although one very touchy subject seemed to be glossed over.... [Preface: Planned Parenthood today, just as with many organizations has evolved. It offers life saving care in many facets and is invaluable to many] The debate surrounding Margaret Sanger and fellow Eugenics at the time, such as the Huxleys as well, shouldn't be road off as simply a conservative narrative. There are documentation that points to some deep seeded bigotry still apparent at the time, while under the ruse of social justice. The Tuskegee Experiments using free clinics is a prime example of this. Just seemed a bit odd that the professor didn't address this, where Will seemed to be hinting that there might be some merit to this debate.
Totally agreed! The whole concept of the smiling liberal "ally" discussed in the first half really applies here as well. If we extrapolate it to the Democrats and their version of power(less) politics, it becomes very interesting to think about.
Clarence Thomas wouldn’t even be a thing if America paid reparations for slavery
You dumbasses will do anything to not admit anti racism will be the cause that will block socialism. Including rewriting history to wish away the conservativism of black nationalism. From the black caucus to Clarence Thomas, working class unity will be split by black leaders. That includes the ridiculous idea of reparations. Itll never happen and will always be a tool to destroy solidarity. Read Adolf Reed retard.
I hope you guys cover his overlap with the Franklin scandal and coverup
It’s in the book, the Franklin Scandal. If I remember, Clarence Thomas was one of the few people who didn’t act like he never met Larry King
What I’m hearing is that Clarence Thomas is actually “woke” in the traditional sense
He defeated duboisian double consciousness, you gotta hand it to him
one through-line of this whole conversation is how people with opposite premises arrive at identical conclusions, and pursue opposite actions despite identical conclusions. Clarence agrees with Stalin that voting doesn't matter to poor people, then gives Jim Crow humpers a leg up because of his conclusions about abortion, etc. It probably sounds obvious when I say it, but so much screaming in the media and online is about political hypocrisy(which then segues into ideological purity and consistency debates), when we already have the phrase "politics makes for strange bedfellows" to describe the split between idealism and reality, where people who oppose each other end up pursuing a similar agenda or goal despite their hatred of each other.
“Failure is not an attractive political slogan”
I suggest a name for the futility argument: Bernie Pessimism
Do the boys chop it up at all in this episode or is it just another guest monologue
There's no way to know for sure
The idea that racial and or religous nationalism respresent some sort of left wing radicalism, is as absurd as saying that liberalism is a left wing politics. No marxian socialist would accept such ideas
Excellent episode
Him being a black seperationist makes even more sense dumbasses like marcus garvey only went on to bring chattel slavery back to the african continent. Im sure Clarence is enamored with the concept of Liberia it very much tracks with the world view
Ah fuck they mean an actual professor not street professor. Very straight of you guys. So cool.
This is fascinating
"He would memorise the Cushvlogs, listening to them on vinyl which is how people took those in back then."
I sense Matt has a twisted admiration for Justice Thomas. He's the most jokerfied SC justice in history.
Matt definitely has a begrudging respect for those who pull back the curtain on political theater, even if they suck as a person.
Great episode!
Get your boy a better mic this was shit to listen to pumping that shit into my ear drums.
Nah this was fine, you’re just a cunt
Great! Corey Robin!
This is some to shelf Chapo
Good stuff
The "hi tech lynching" line is classic conservative hyperbole. It's not unlike Stephen Schwarzman's claim a few years ago that a hypothetical Obama tax increase proposal of a few percentage points was similar to Hitler's invasion of Poland. These people want power and to also position themselves as victims who are beyond any kind of scrutiny or reproach. Utterly shameless.
This is why I tell people to stop trying to wokeshop leftwing branding. Defund the police, be gay do crime, whatever just say it as you mean it. Be sincere and your message will reach those that are interested in understanding it. You will never get an honest hearing from the sickos paying 1000s of dollars to grifters for trumpbucks or from Fucker Carlson. They will always twist anything, no matter how mundane into an epic biblical fantasy. Same with left/liberal tumblr psyop kids. Be sincere and you will resonate and harmonise. If you try and modulate to noise you will just have noise.
It's a great book, so prescient
Harlon Crow of the Harlon County Crows
Do they talk about Cornel West completely shitting the bed? Or Williams' campaign nosediving into a crash?
Ma'am?
Oh hell yeah
Thomas is a Bush Sr. Appointee, not Reagan you ding dong, Will? *sigh* He replaces Thurgood Marshall after Marshall unexpectedly fell ill in ‘90-‘91, no?
Uh actually
Good get