The inferno rages on as the re:verb team takes on more “hot texts” - arguments and opinions with questionable premises - that have emerged in the wake of the 2020 election. In this episode, we continue to examine the backlash against movements to “defund the police” via some anti-abolitionist rhetoric from the comedy podcast Chapo Trap House, which ironically echoes the Obama critique we discussed on our last show. In responding to CTH’s critiques of abolitionism, we touch on why it’s better to stay connected with organizers in your own community than Brooklyn podcasters making 6-figure salaries.

Then, Sophie leads us through a Washington Post article that tries to “have its cake and eat it, too” on the issue of whether or not Joe Biden’s White House communications team will be “more female” than Donald Trump’s. The team discusses the nuances of representation in politics, offering a critique of “bean-counting” feminism that reproduces the logics of Trumpist rhetoric (“we have the most women - folks, you’ve never seen so many women!”). Finally, Ben brings us a hack-job of pseudo-conspiracy from the pages of The Federalist. In this article, the “voice of (Tristan) Justice” brings forth the very novel and not-tired argument that regardless of whether there was actual voter fraud in the 2020 Election, it was still an unfair contest because of (*drumroll please*) ~liberal media bias~.

We hope that our re:sponses to these hot texts provide you with a bit of catharsis coming out of a very anxiety-inducing election cycle. We (like you) can’t wait for the 2024 election cycle to begin on January 21, 2021, and look forward to the hot texts that will inevitably emerge from it!

Works and Concepts Cited in this Episode:

Berger, D., Kaba, M., & Stein, D. (2017, 29 August). What abolitionists do. Jacobin Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/prison-abolition-reform-mass-incarceration

Kelley, R. D. G. (2017). What did Cedric Robinson mean by racial capitalism?. Boston Review, 12.

Robinson, C. J. (2000). Black Marxism: The making of the Black radical tradition. Univ of North Carolina Press. [Original articulation of “racial capitalism”]

Kaba, M. (2020, 12 June). Yes, we mean literally abolish the police: Because reform won’t happen. The New York Times. Retrieved from: nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html

Gilmore, R. W. & Kilgore, J. (2019, 19 June). The case for abolition. The Marshall Project. Retrieved from: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/06/19/the-case-for-abolition