Jul 22, 2026 · 49 min · 9 segments
Joining Andy on issue 4386 of The Bugle is Alice Fraser and Nato Green. As the trio report on the week's news, following of outbreak of Cyclosporiasis in the US and Pete Hegseth announces testosterone…
Andy ZaltzmanHost
Nato GreenHost
Alice FraserHost
Yeah, I'm sure World Cup fever has, uh, swept you along the last, uh, the last, uh, six, six weeks or so.
Um, but there has been other stuff going on in America as well, and, um, y- your president, um, uh, Donald Trump, with the midterms looming later this year, appears to have been, um, well, doing his best to stay on brand and undermine, uh, the very foundations of American democracy.
... um, uh, it seemed like a place to start today would be with a review of dialectical materialism, uh [laughs]-
... uh, as portrayed in the recent movie, I Love Boosters, by my friend Boots Riley, which everyone should go see.
Dialectical materialism is, in its essence, the theory that history is driven forward by contradictions.
Social phenomena that are at odds or in tension with each other in a s- a system that builds until it bursts like a cherry tomato on an anvil-
And America under the Trump regime, I would say, is driven by at least two sets of contradictions.
One is that the MAGA movement fervently want to be fascist and establish a 1,000 year Reich that inflicts ostentatious cruelty, uh, on the politically vulnerable, which is in tension with the fact that they are very, very stupid.
Uh, consolidating a fascist government requires a minimum understanding of the apparatus of government, which they lack.
Uh, instead of building an entire approach to governance based on owning the libs, uh-
Yeah, I'm sure World Cup fever has, uh, swept you along the last, uh, the last, uh, six, six weeks or so.
Um, but there has been other stuff going on in America as well, and, um, y- your president, um, uh, Donald Trump, with the midterms looming later this year, appears to have been, um, well, doing his best to stay on brand and undermine, uh, the very foundations of American democracy.
... um, uh, it seemed like a place to start today would be with a review of dialectical materialism, uh [laughs]-
... uh, as portrayed in the recent movie, I Love Boosters, by my friend Boots Riley, which everyone should go see.
Dialectical materialism is, in its essence, the theory that history is driven forward by contradictions.
Social phenomena that are at odds or in tension with each other in a s- a system that builds until it bursts like a cherry tomato on an anvil-
And America under the Trump regime, I would say, is driven by at least two sets of contradictions.
One is that the MAGA movement fervently want to be fascist and establish a 1,000 year Reich that inflicts ostentatious cruelty, uh, on the politically vulnerable, which is in tension with the fact that they are very, very stupid.
Uh, consolidating a fascist government requires a minimum understanding of the apparatus of government, which they lack.
Uh, instead of building an entire approach to governance based on owning the libs, uh-
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