*An anti-woke podcast focusing on the invasive collectivist species and the widespread confluence of money, boutique ”news” propaganda, psychology, and hyper-connective tech: The Social Media Disease. Toddzilla X @ YouTube.
Episodes
Friday Jan 15, 2021
Friday Jan 15, 2021
Waiting for 2021's Inauguration Day storm to arrive, I intended this to be a quick repost of a segment from 2019's "Iceberg Ahoy!" episode but it took on a life of its own. It covers everything from QAnon and the Religious Mind's need to believe to the responsibility coming with our contemporary tech capability to our eventual (and deserved) loss of free-range free speech. But the core of the episode is this: it's the people. It's always been the people.
More: https://www.escapingthecave.com
For Future Reference: https://toddzillax.substack.com
Monday Jan 11, 2021
Monday Jan 11, 2021
Trump's insurrection and the religious mind: why are so many Americans committed to faith before facts? Were they rioters? Protesters? Activists? Terrorists? That's decided by propaganda's very peculiar perspective effect. Is this the end of Trumpism or the beginning of something even worse? When it comes to free speech, where's the line between "liberty and license? If people ignore free speech's responsibilities, should social media accounts be licensed? Should Silicon Valley be in the gatekeeping business? Also, what's the relationship between likability and demonization? (RE20)
More: https://www.escapingthecave.com
For Future Reference: https://toddzillax.substack.com
Monday Jan 04, 2021
Monday Jan 04, 2021
Fresh off his first motivational speaking tour, Todd returns to the podcast to discuss uplifting topics such as why it's not necessary to conquer a democracy when a just little doubt'll do ya. Also, it's been relatively quiet on the streets lately. Is The Trump Militia all hat and no cattle or is something else at play? How can a nation avoid inevitable conflict when each half of the country functions according to different rules of factual physics? Is there a relationship between likability, deplorability, & disinformation? What's with the December Dead Zone? And, your host's persistent sense of existential hopelessness an argument for ending all digital political "discourse." Book those children's parties now!
More: https://www.escapingthecave.com
For Future Reference: https://toddzillax.substack.com
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
Todd & Brian begin with some obligatory "analysis" of Trumptown's post-election conspiracy orgy including more conversation about why both Trump and down ticket Democrats had their electoral posteriors handed to them: has the Moderate Majority finally reclaimed its place at the wheel? Or, will it again be shouted down by loudmouth extremists? Also, what's Trump's post-term role with his increasingly unstable base and how will that affect the new Resistance™ party? Is something even more dangerous than Trump coming? Around 34:00, the conversation pivots wider to "institutional terra incognito", the point at which history stops rhyming, comfortably habitual thinking, and Marshall McLuhan's classic phrase: "The medium is the message." Is the important issue our new technology or how we use it? The answer isn't simplistic; the simple act of writing provides an instructional example why!
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More: https://www.escapingthecave.com
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
The afterglow is now the aftermath. Essentially two episodes in one, Brian and Todd begin by reflecting on how the vibe has changed since Biden's victory speech then touch on fundamental social psychology. What happens when cognitive cliches begin breaking down and we're forced to explore unfamiliar ground? Is too many choices as bad in the political and informational marketplaces as it is on Netflix? What's the relationship between age and wisdom? Around 53:00, the conversation pivots. Why do Democrats seem to always lose even when they win? Bill Maher offered a very familiar answer! Is the Moderate Majority in danger of being surrounded and marginalized by the loudmouth extremist minority? What happens if they're forced to choose between competing demagogues in 4-year's time? Will an increasingly fragmented boutique news help social media make that possible? Book your Toddzilla Children's Party before it's too late!
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More: https://www.escapingthecave.com/
Monday Nov 09, 2020
Monday Nov 09, 2020
The Moderate Majority spoke! Todd, Brian, and millions around the globe are relieved and indulging in the afterglow of relieved liberation and overdue hope. Enjoy it while it lasts! We discuss how the podcast's overarching topic, the Social Media Disease, is going mainstream, how both extremes were repudiated in the same election, the art of changing one's own mind, and erecting bridges: everyone's individual responsibility if we're collectively serious about The Great Coming Together. Also, this "stop the steal" silliness and how does someone as personally vile as Donald Trump still get over 70-million votes? Oh yeah! We begin with a late eulogy for Eddie VanHalen.
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More: https://www.escapingthecave.com
Monday Nov 02, 2020
Monday Nov 02, 2020
Todd & Brian reflect both on where we've come from and where we're going as this electoral reality show finally ends. We explore the side effects of direct democracy's mob rule and why the Electoral College is absolutely essential. Also, how do we "rehumanize" ourselves and each other? What's the best case scenario to avoid post-election chaos and violence? Is it inevitable? How will our various factions perceive President Harris if Biden wins only to resign? What are the wider effects of our burgeoning "no compromise!" culture? Pre-election anxiety and fatigue: is it universal outside the fanatic's camp? What's the relationship between one-issue voters and Haidt's Elephant? Our media celebrities and influencers: are they simply clever fiction writers and talented performance artists? Winter: is it finally here? We'll know in a week.
The "Safeguard" documentary: https://www.amazon.com/Safeguard-Electoral-College-Trent-England/dp/B08H6KH9QV
More: https://www.escapingthecave.com/
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Monday Oct 26, 2020
Monday Oct 26, 2020
Todd & Brian return discussing the direct parallels between ideological and theological religion and what Dan Carlin calls The Heat: trivial outrage manufactured to manipulate media consumers for advertising profits, and how it affects us as a society. And, does it matter if our outrage triggers are fake? Is social media contributing to a literal devolution and destroying eons of self-domestication? How do we reclaim our human empathy? Are we returning to naked barbarism as we become slaves to emotional impulses that just "must" be expressed/inflicted? Also, fertile revolutionary soil and how it's the suffering who are susceptible to Snake Oil Demagoguery, Manchurian propagandists, the Electoral College, and Mencken's disturbing concept of irredeemably. What if there is no solution?
Dan Carlin's "A Recipe For Caesar": https://www.dancarlin.com/product/common-sense-319-a-recipe-for-caesar/
MORE ETC: https://www.escapingthecave.com/
Monday Oct 12, 2020
Monday Oct 12, 2020
Brian rejoins Todd just in time to discuss the plot to kidnap our governor, Michigan's militias, the psychology of extremism, and the ongoing destruction of social and governmental norms. What are these groups fighting against and do they have a legitimate point buried beneath their theatrics? Is socialism a cult destined to lead to disillusionment and a totalitarian state whose main purpose is maintaining the utopian illusion? We also discuss data overload, Manchurian Propagandists, as well as free speech and the responsibility that comes with it; when does free speech become destructive? Can we tell the difference between propaganda and information? Has propaganda become so ubiquitous that it's actually replaced objective fact without us realizing it?
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MORE: https://www.escapingthecave.com
MUSIC: The Limbos & Paul Vernon
RE20
Monday Oct 05, 2020
Monday Oct 05, 2020
Todd's a bit cranky this weekend,Trump has the virus, and we all "wish him well." Do we? Do we really? The trustpocalypse: it's telling how many suspect the dramatic diagnosis may be part of his reality show's season finale. Todd also discusses our unprecedented institutional meltdown, his chronically "angry" tone and the distinction between honesty and truth. He also pays a personal tribute to a childhood idol, Bob Gibson, and shows how Leo Ryan's Jonestown example adds texture to the Dennis Doctrine and the firm belief that fanatical sectarians should be exiled not engaged: "the switch is internal."
Also: Trump's social momentum, applying the Useless Shit Epiphany to turning 50, and Toddzilla's Tribe: where exactly is it?
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More: https://www.escapingthecave.com/
(SM7B)
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
"When we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something or need something... but that it is a moral imperative that we have it... we join the fashionable madmen, and then...the thin whine of hysteria is heard in the land, and then is when we are in bad trouble. And I suspect we are already there." -Joan Didion (1965 ) --As a follow-up to the last episode, this trimmed and updated re-post connects Didion's fanatic test to the moral certitude manufactured by propaganda and its architects using social media as a delivery super weapon. Also, public vs. private opinion, the Cradle of Reason, how propagandees can respond to competing propagandists, and keeping the you in you. Like it? Share it!
Watch The Social Dilemma!
Music: Yellow Candy & Paul Vernon
More: https://www.escapingthecave.com/
Monday Sep 28, 2020
Monday Sep 28, 2020
Todd & Brian discuss whether the "divine" human species is in fact both bipolar and invasive, the difficulties that come from gazing into the Abyss, and moral imperatives vs. self-righteousness: how narcissistic morality becomes naked authoritarianism. Also, where solutions to the informational anarchy crisis must begin, when the ends smother the means, how a species can summon both altruism and barbarity, and let's kill Rousseau's Noble Savage once and for all. Yes! More easy social dilemma listening to help you escape the world's troubles! Like it? Share it!
Music: Paul Vernon and Yellow Candy
More: https://www.escapingthecave.com/
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Continuing the Social Dilemma theme, Todd and Brian delve further into the social, psychological, and personal effects of more than a decade of social media, including meeting members of their direct families for the first time directly via Facebook. Also, Todd's argument against monetization, digital reunions and the bizarre new expectation that, somehow, everyone from every epoch of our lives now deserves a seat at our virtual table. We also discuss the failed utopian vision of "informational democracy" and the essential nature of gatekeeper, learning how to both use these platforms as tools and sabotage the Zuckorithm, as well as possible macro and micro solutions. Is this a triage situation? The show closes with a surprise appearance by Edward R. Murrow and why informational anarchy and intellectual autonomy, not climate change, is the crisis of our time.
Murrow's Text: https://www.rtdna.org/content/edward_r_murrow_s_1958_wires_lights_in_a_box_speech
More Zilla: https://www.escapingthecave.com/
Music: Paul Vernon
Monday Sep 14, 2020
Monday Sep 14, 2020
Todd and Brian discuss The Social Dilemma, the new Netflix documentary probing the exploitative, corrosive, and polarizing effects of social media, both psychologically and socially. Also, the addictive nature of the medium, how it manipulates evolutionary psychology, the potentially dangerous side effects of performance withdrawal and how, once you escape, you become an organic organism in a digital ecosystem. We also tinker with solutions and discuss the horrific dystopia awaiting us if we fail to find them. Hint 1: It's the people. Hint 2: The tube: it's social media and Google!
Like it? Tell a friend! Even on Facebook! Book your seat on Toddzilla's 2021 Motivational Speaking Tour now! My world famous children's parties are 50% off for a limited time!
More: https://www.escapingthecave.com/
Friday Sep 11, 2020
Friday Sep 11, 2020
Are we creating the democratic utopia many naively envisioned at the Internet's birth? Or, are we descending into hell on Earth unleashed by informational anarchy and the freed, and anonymous, human beast? A prelude to my deep dive into Ellul's Propaganda, this episode begins with a description of the DIKW pyramid then moves on to how Plato's Illusion of Knowledge fable applies to the digital Matrix dominated by Social Media, Google, and ostentatious sophists posing as "influencers."
Also: a discussion ofDr. Elias Aboujaoude's stellar book Virtually You and a one-sided examination of the God-Devil duality lurking inside each of us. Like it? Share it!
The Social Dilemma: watch It! https://www.netflix.com/title/81254224
Dr. Eli: http://www.eliasaboujaoude.com
His book: https://www.amazon.com/Virtually-You-Dangerous-Powers-Personality/dp/0393340546
For the masochist: www.escapingthecave.com
Thursday Sep 10, 2020
Thursday Sep 10, 2020
Former radio personality, psychologist, and current PR guy, The Professor joins the show as perhaps the perfect co-host discussing propaganda and hyper-connective technology's unknown effect on an oblivious public. Todd then chats about mail-in voting and the looming post-election storm, a minor kancel kultur attack and the ensuing process of deciding whether to continue a "Singing For Helen Keller" podcast, and what it's like being ahead of the curve then watching people slowly catch on. Thanks for your patience, subscribers and new listeners. Like it? Share it! Then prepare yourselves. ;)
More: www.escapingthecave.com
Wednesday Aug 19, 2020
Wednesday Aug 19, 2020
Detailing the gloriously organic results coming from a month of social media, news, and podcasting detox. Also, boutique "news" & democratized opinion's relationship to mob rule: Ibsen's Enemy of the People, the humanovirus and its ubiquitous invasive species traits, the Dennis Doctrine, and podcasting without Sausage Party Hope and with a severed validation stream leaves one pesky unanswered question: "why the f**ck am I doing this?"
More Drew Michael: https://www.youtube.com/user/drewmichaelcomedy/videos
More Me: www.escapingthecave.com
Friday Jun 19, 2020
Friday Jun 19, 2020
On the Social Media Disease: how exhibitionist combat and agitprop disguised as "debate" is having an effect on verbal comprehension and the ability to engage in meaningful organic conversations. Also, demagogues exploit and thrive on chaos, boycotting the for-profit Media Division Complex in favor of each other, and the switch: it's internal. It's still the people. Like it? Share it!
More: www.escapingthecave.com and www.facebook.com/escapingthecave
Thursday Jun 18, 2020
Thursday Jun 18, 2020
You say you want a real Great Racial Awakening™ dialogue? Great! Quit proselytizing long enough to take a stiff drink and have a listen. Remember: when you clicked you asked.
Also: supporting lockdown protests and the 2A while mocking militia stalkers at the capitol, burning heretics and blasphemers at the free speech stake, influencers exploiting and monetizing catastrophe and chaos, electoral Ground Hog Day, and why Biden's VP choice is maybe more important than anything. Like it? Share it!
More: www.escapingthecave.com and www.facebook.com/escapingthecave.com
Tuesday Jun 16, 2020
Tuesday Jun 16, 2020
When the entire media's just abandoned their "objective" pretenses, where do you go? Also, digital detox and cutting the incoming noise, homogenous consistency of thought throughout a congregation qualifies as "religion", retained ideological attorneys, the difference between organic human beings and their virtual online projections, and the Marrow of Humanity: who we are when no one's looking. Don't worry. I'll get to the protests, riots, and thought-purges soon enough. Prepare yourselves accordingly!
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More: www.escapingthecave.com and www.facebook.com/EscapingTheCave
Tuesday May 19, 2020
Tuesday May 19, 2020
So, about that silly "in this together" thing... Topics include Trump's bizarre and supernatural hydroxychloroquine erection, quarantine and consumerist withdrawal, free-rage extremism and Michigan's armed stalkers closing the capitol, ideological bleed-over, identity politics infecting the virus, humble ignorance, a COVID-exploiting Woke Youth Recruitment video seizing the national airwaves, and what happens when I go off my gated social media reservation and why it's becoming nearly essential to completely disconnect.
More: www.escapingthecave.com
Saturday May 09, 2020
Saturday May 09, 2020
Adventures in leaving the house after 5-weeks, a quick review of the crappy Vaporesso Target PM-80, populism and the supposed "wisdom" of the bewildered herd, belief and truth are mutually exclusive, atheists: leave the non-phallus swinging faithful alone, the crucial crusading distinction between religious & ideological zealots, and why the simple human need for hope probably makes us powerless against tasty propaganda.
--More: www.escapingthecave.com and www.toddzillax.com
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Wednesday Apr 29, 2020
Wednesday Apr 29, 2020
Todd's merciful Bat Plague boycott continues with more spiritually uplifting content like: "F**k Subaru. I hate them and you should, too." Also, 2020's Jill Stein; Steinbeck, Salinas, and digital detox; social media "should" be regulated like radio; data overload is killing democracy; the Wisdom of the People™ doesn't exist therefore populism is pandering to a screeching herd; and rejoice! The Devil's all up in ya! Can you feel him?
--More: www.escapingthecave.com and www.toddzillax.com
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Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
Taking an improvised break from Bat Plague punditry by focusing on more "uplifting" material like cancerous cynicism! Also, a few old hitchhiking yarns and the metaphysical notion of trail magic, losing your religion, the God/Devil parable, and ignoring the positive side of universal human duality. Just for optimistic kicks, I also muse about my podcast's course and its ultimate futility. A warm and fuzzy episode? Believe it or not, kinda. And, no Covid! You're welcome.
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--More: www.escapingthecave.com and www.toddzillax.com
[CEP2]
Monday Apr 27, 2020
Monday Apr 27, 2020
"Idiocracy 2: The Pandemic" continues. Todd discusses how the coronavirus hype has matched the reality, his digital detox, covid's ominous sign for star spangled socialist "revolutionaries", hot pockets, and how one quarantine doesn't fit all. He also asks where the Lansing protest's ideological diversity was (not what you think) and rages against Trump supporters and the intellectual treason of joining his limp and lame post hoc orgy. Children's parties: booked thru May! Book June's bat mitzvah or graduation party now! Promo code: "Brawndo" gets you 50% off! Clip: Jim Gaffigan.
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Friday Apr 24, 2020
Friday Apr 24, 2020
Toddzilla delivers his overdue Message of Hope™ featuring topics like strutting stupidity, social media's performance addiction, Hobbes' inevitable civil war, the need for propaganda, and releasing our infected cattle back into the bewildered herd. Book your children's party now! Use promo code "Leviathan Rising" to get 50% off!
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--More: www.escapingthecave.com
Saturday Mar 28, 2020
Saturday Mar 28, 2020
Can Detroit and rural Michigan bear what they say is coming? Social distancing as an apt metaphor and how it can be useful. A crisis instinctively prods a frightened herd into a closed-tribe psychology, which is nationalism. How data overload contributes to it and helps obliterate the utopian Brotherhood of Man mythology. Why many quietly want Trump to fail, whether they admit it or not.
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Tuesday Mar 24, 2020
Tuesday Mar 24, 2020
Sacrifice yourselves at Mammon's Altar, proles! As coronavirus cases spike, your president holds a FOX News rally, decides the public health experts are wrong, and that the social distancing guidelines are "too extreme." Re-election trumps public health. Criminal negligence, the Dennis Doctrine, and our vulnerable healthcare workers. Where's Fauci? We're history's lab rats.
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Friday Mar 20, 2020
Friday Mar 20, 2020
A potentially catastrophic stress test as the healthcare system drowns inside a divided country who chose informational tribalism over preparation. Detachment is essential.
ALSO:
- Media exhaustion & anxiety
- Governmental malpractice
- Trillions in revenues sacrificed to a "hoax?" Really?
- Coronavirus & 9/11
- You can't be in a play and watch it at the same time
"ToddzillaX" on most social media. LIKE, SHARE & SUBSCRIBE!
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
The Sober Majority and why Biden's resurrection and surge should surprise no one. Bernie's "revolution" was always fueled by Clinton disgust and a foolish dependency on a Youthquake fantasy. Mike Pence is a Biden asset, Jill the Vulture is back, and embrace Biden: he's far from certain but all you've got; the only thing that "can" work. Also, a 2024 wokeflake warning.
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--More: www.escapingthecave.com