It is so refreshing to listen to Jen and Pumps consistently criticize the systematic oppression of minorities including the LGBT community because their approach to it feels raw and authentic, as opposed to other progressive podcasts that sacrifice those qualities for the sake of being more palatable, safe, or polished. They don’t hold back in criticizing the obvious bad actors in our society, but importantly they also criticize those on “our side” when they fall short (Hakeem Jeffries being a prime example among others).
Something I do wish they would touch on is the more insidious nature of the anti-lgbt rhetoric and policy positions that are so prevalent. While I agree with Jen and Pumps when they repeat the point that it’s “none of your business” when it comes to someone being lgbt, I think it should also be mentioned a lot more that capitalism directly INCENTIVIZES people to push conformity onto others for FINANCIAL reasons. Corporations are worried that the birth rates are dropping because there is a smaller workforce and military to exploit, which hurts their profits, and that is a big part of their anti-lgbt stance, just like their anti-abortion stance - those things threaten the patriarchy by allowing the working class to stray from rigid gender norms and sexual practices that would otherwise yield the highest birth rates, which I think gets glossed over too much by making it sound more innocent, as if it’s just weirdos who care about who people are having sex with. That may be the case at the bottom within the disenfranchised working class who are brainwashed by religion, but it lets those at the top off too easy to simply dismiss them as weird or stupid - it’s much more insidious than that at the top where most of them probably don’t even believe the religion or other ideas they push beyond seeing those as a means to exploit people for profit, which again is incentivized by capitalism. This is a point I think is worth mentioning more, so hopefully Jen and Pumps can incorporate it somehow, because it’s not effective to focus on the brainwashed religious people at the bottom who are ultimately only uneducated and think the backwards way they do because of the same evil capitalist forces at the top working against the rest of us, deliberately gutting the education system and pushing religion. That’s not to say Jen and Pumps don’t criticize those at the top, but the financial incentives behind our oppression should not be neglected as a core driving point.
That point aside, as a gaytriot who has been an atheist since my teens, seeing the success of this podcast has been a validating beacon of hope for me that I’m not crazy or alone in my thinking, and that it is possible for truly progressive media to gain traction.
It’s nice relating to them on their everyday grievances too, but even those can all ultimately be tied back to sources of political issues in society with those same capitalistic forces behind them, so it’s good to always look at the root causes and follow the money when thinking about how our society is shaped, and even our pettiest of grievances stem back to the same overarching systems.
Contributions from Kylie and the other producers as well as Josh when he makes an appearance are always great too.
Every episode is such a fun, therapeutic listen.
