Ten Thousand Posts

Welcome back to the Ten Thousand Posts *Movie Club*! Get your favourite movie theatre snack (may I suggest some refried beans and a tin of Tilapia?), relax and enjoy. 

This week, we're joined by Andrew Law (@IllyBocean) from the BoontaVista podcast, to talk about the first Matrix movie. Released in 1999, the film is considered a cinematic masterpiece, not least because many of the predictions and thoughts explored by the Wachowski sisters are not only prescient today (we live in a simulacara, am i right, fellas?), but also show aspects of the kind of internet we could have if it wasn't just a playground for Facebook advertising. I want my posts dojo, Zuckerberg! 

Alongside this, we talk about our favourite parts of the movie, why the film is really all about a gamer who constantly gets tricked by a troll while simping e-girls, and, crucially, why its *completely fine* to bully a child if they are Australian.

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You can listen to Part 2 of this series, where we talk about the Matrix Reloaded with @theymersophie, on Patreon! Subscribe for $5 at www.patreon.com/10kpostspodcast.
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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_OnEarth).

 

 

We're joined this week by friend of the show Olga Koch (@Rocknrolga) to talk about all the weird reply guys she keeps having to deal with in her DMs, and crucially, why Reply Guys have become more and more unhinged. Have the parasocial boundaries simply become more vague and translucent, or have platforms - which encourage us to *constantly reply* to things, mean that the noble art of being a reply guy has been tarnished by wannabes and imitators, unappreciative of the delicate social boundaries reply guys must navigate in order to retain their posting privileges? Hussein posits a theory about Reply Guys: That, as we are now all reply (and quote tweet) guys, the originals have been forced to innovate the form in bizarre, unexpected and overtly crude ways. 

We also talk about Flora Gill's "Porn for Children" post, and how it was more powerful and revealing than she knows - and what it illustrates both about hornyposting, and how we talk about sex on the internet more generally, and crucially, all the things we actively choose to be in denial about. 

On this week's bonus episode, we once again enter Da Phrenology Zone to discuss a new poster who is so obsessed by gender that they demand to measure your skull, and crucially, your Eye Gap.  Why is this poster declaring what gender people *really* are based on the shape of bowling balls? We're still not entirely sure - but what is clear is that his logic isn't too far removed from the mainstream British press....
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This is a preview. To get the full episode, subscribe for as little as $5 a month on patreon at : www.patreon.com/10kpostspodcast.
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To listen to Part 1 of the Phrenology series for free, follow the link here: https://tenthousandposts.podbean.com/e/last-qangle-in-paris-ft-devononearth/

 

This week, we're joined by writer, broadcaster and activist Richard Seymour (@leninology) to talk about his book, "The Twittering Machine", which explores why so many people continue to use platforms like Twitter, despite it making them more miserable, angry and afraid. Richard talks to us about the limits of conceiving of social media use as an example of Addiction or psychosis, but similarly, how our use of Twitter might illustrate desires for our own self destruction, an inherent thirst for conflict and violence, and crucially, how neither of these things is necessarily good for the Left in terms of organising and collective action. We also, once again, talk about one Twitter addict who, having taken a break from live-tweeting his beef with Dan Hodges, has come to the support of Britney Spears. 
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You can purchase Richard's Book here: https://theindigopress.com/product/the-twittering-machine/
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You can subscribe to Richard's Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/richardseymourwtf
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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_OnEarth). Subscribe to us at Patreon for fortnightly bonus content : www.patreon.com/10kpostspodcast. 

This week, we're joined by journalist and magician Alan White (@Aljwhite), who is the Editor-in-Chief of Politics Home, and the former Lord Justice of Twitter (according to his bio). We discuss the most important issue of our times: Are Clowns a subset of Magician? It's an important question which tackles the conception of 'audience' that underpins the current culture war in the Magic Circle, between old school, guarded Magicians and their younger TikTok friendly counterparts. Hussein also comes out as a CERF, with his own gatekeeping over what constitutes a Clown in the context of the Now You See Me franchise.

Later, we talk about Andrew Lilico, a once moderately respected British economist who is now mainly known for his weird tweets, that range from whether or not you can marry an Alien in a Catholic church, to his fantastical scenario in which two low-level English cricketers are put on trial for calling the Home Secretary a pedophile on Twitter. Lilico is one of the best examples of Poster's Brain we've seen, and Alan tries to explain why this might be reflective of a broader trend of former think-tank people who, having realised nobody reads their reports or cares what they have to say, have simply decided to be posters instead. 

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In the second part of our Main Character series, we talk to writer and critic Rachel Connolly (@RachelConnoll14) about the evolution of "The Main Character", and how social media platforms incentivise us to create Hero and Villain arcs for people we don't actually know, but are convinced cannot and should not ever be redeemed.

We talk about two recent articles she wrote to explore this phenomenon, including one exploring how and why Film Studios can't stop making villain origin stories that rationalise all their actions, and how this tendency has basically come out of Online Discourse. 

You can listen to the full episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/you-are-main-2-54023345

 

 

This week, Hussein and Phoebe talk about "The Main Character",  and how the current social media economy encourages its users to actively seek out being the central character of an ongoing, tedious dramedy with no discernible plot, character arcs or clear narrative. We read Kyle Chayka's "We All Have Main Character Energy Now" to look at how being the "Main Character" has gone from an involuntary social experience which always ends with you logging off forever, to a desirable state of being, complete with its own aesthetic, brand deals and short-term celebrity.

We also talk about Andrew Lilico, reading through a post that is so bizarre and incoherent that Hussein's brain breaks live on air. It still needs to be glued back!

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@Hkesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Drew (@Drewtopia_). Find us on Twitter at @10kpostspod. 

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We are also on Patreon! For fortnightly bonus content, including bonus series content, subscribe for as little as $5 a month: www.patreon.com/10kpostspodcast. 

This week, we're joined by Roisin Kiberd, journalist and author of 'The Disconnect: A Personal Journey Through the Internet', a collection of essays that examines the dominance of big tech, how platforms have taken over the internet, and how that influences our collective feelings of powerlessness and alienation. Also, a long, deserved consideration of which flavour of Monster energy is the best. 
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We talk about some of the themes of the book - from the managerialism of "content creation", how the fetishisation of youth in tech has led us to an internet that primarily serves middle-aged, cringey fathers, and how financialisation means that even 'owning' parts of yourself is near impossible online.  We also talk about the viral 'parallel parking' post, in which thousands of people got mad at someone because they parked their car in a busy, congested city. Why is it that the most mundane tweets invite the most anger? The answer might be that we've gone past 'main characters' and onto 'main villains'.
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You can purchase Roisin's book from Serpent's Tail publishers here: https://serpentstail.com/work/the-disconnect/

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@Hkesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Drew (@Drewtopia_). You can follow us at twitter.com/10kpostspod.

You can subscribe for bonus content every fortnight at: www.patreon.com/10kpostspodcast. 

This week, we're joined by Julian Feeld (@julianfeeld), co-host of the popular QanonAnonymous podcast, to talk about the legacy of John McAfee, the guy who made his fortune on glitchy anti-virus software and, rather than becoming one kind of bizarre tech guy, decided to become another. In doing so, he was on the run after being accused of murdering a guy over a minor dispute, and evading US authorities after being involved in a cryptocurrency pump-and-dump scheme. During his time on the run, McAfee posted *a lot*. From thinly veiled messages about QAnon, to long diatribes about sucking his own dick and whether you could have consensual sex with a whale, he left this world as a Poster - truly, the death we all deserve. 
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We also explain to Julian who "Lord Sugar" is, after, unexpectedly, he posted the perfect Tweet, and in so doing, shone a much needed light on the inner violence of old British guys, and the curious habit of keeping a list of guys you'd like to punch stored neatly in your front pocket.
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Ten Thousand Posts is the show about about everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Drew (@Drewtopia_). For bonus content, subscribe to us on Patreon for as little as $5 a month: www.patreon.com/10kpostspodcast. 

 

On this week's episode, we're joined by Alana Hope Levinson (@alanalevinson), a writer and media consultant, who was previously the Deputy Editor of MEL magazine.  We talk about the infamous "British Lad Hit With Chair" video, discussing, frame by frame, how it is a contemporary work of unappreciated art, and something that, at a time of oral histories, obsessions with backstories and milkshake ducking, couldn't exist today.

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