Episode 724 - America's Plutocratic classism
Jan 26, 2025
Is there a culture of plutocratic classism in the USA? I'm inspired by Trump's America and how people think that people like Elon Musk and him are above the law because they're rich, while conversely the lowest rank in society are the homeless and the poor. But what do I mean by “Plutocratic classism”? A plutocracy is a society where people's position is determined by their wealth, classism is our tendency to discriminate based on social class, put that together and you have people determining social value by how much money a person seems to have.
Topics and Show Notes
Gunwallace joins us for this Quackcast, replacing Banes while he has a sabbatical, he along with Tantz Aerine and myself examine this idea from an outsider's perspective. Gunwallace like me comes from an extremely egalitarian society where the idea of obvious classism is frowned upon. Australia and New Zealand were countries created by people leaving the classist aristocratic society of Great Brittain so that they could make something of themselves outside of that rigid system where class was determined by family name, accent, where you grew up, where you went to school etc. In our countries any sort of obvious classism is seen as extremely vulgar and worthy of social attack. Of course aspects of it still exist but it's bellow the surface. Tantz Aerine's Greece has been through a number of changes, coming from aristocratic origins as well as modern communist influences. It means we all have an external view on this subject.
Plutocratic classism is a vision of the world that shows up all over American media, classically with something like Trading Places with Dan Akroyd and Eddy Murphy, even another Eddy Murphy film, Coming to America, Illustrates that beautifully. In the former a homeless black person and a wealthy white stock trader and made to switch places in society (mainly their level of wealth swaps), and they're subsequently treated extremely differently. In Coming to America an African prince comes to the USA and disguises himself as a poor person, the way he's treated changes dramatically. As the story progresses he meets various people at different social economic levels: the well-off middle-class small business owner father of his girlfriend in particular, as well as her rich ex, and all these people are treated as being on different rungs of the social class ladder depending on heir wealth.
It's seen in very common tropes like the “dead hooker” jokes, the way homeless people are constantly shown as expendable trash, and the way people who live in trailer parks are looked down upon in American media, it's pure plutocratic classism. This shows up in American pop-culture media constantly. While the wealthy are seen as ersatz aristocracy and their children are viewed as scions, princes and princesses.
Have you noticed this trend in American pop-culture media? Do you agree that it exists both in fiction and reality or is this all just communist bulsh1t that I'm blathering on about?
Gunwallace was kind enough to give us a theme inspired by Ghats - A hypnotically relaxing track that builds up the pizzazz level with a synth trumpet band. From a quiet spa retreat to a full on Vegas show! Get a lot of those sexy showgirls!
Topics and shownotes
Links
Featured comic:
Ghats - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/jan/21/featured-comic-ghats/
Featured music:
Ghats - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ghats/ - by Flumpy Tripod, rated E.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei
VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!
Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Episode 722 - Main characters with main character syndrome
Jan 12, 2025
Main characters with main character syndrome? What is main character syndrome? Well the way we're dealing with it here it's normally a snide criticism you level and someone who seems to think the world revolves around them, like social media “influencers”, selfish self centred people, that sort of thing. Popular figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump are great examples: they imagine the world should bend to their whim, and normal rules don't apply, like a main character in a fictional story.
Episode 719 - Merry Christmas!
Dec 22, 2024
Happy Christmas eve! In this penultimate Quackcast of the year we decided to have a free day and just chat about any subject that interested us at the time. Next week will be our final cast of the year when we'll do a year in review. We even went back to our roots and did some silly accents, mine were of course A-mazing! (they were pretty crap TBH)
Episode 718 - Dumbarses
Dec 15, 2024
This Quackcast was inspired by world renowned idiot Robert F Kennedy Jnr. We decided to talk about writing dumb characters. I keep calling him John F Kennedy Jnr because I am also an idiot. Some context: he wants to remove approval for the life saving Polio vaccine and allow dangerous unpasteurised milk to be widely sold, among other things. He's a classic idiot. This put us in mind of fictional idiots.
Episode 716 - Identify with characters?
Dec 2, 2024
Is it important to Identify with characters? This question occurred to me as I was watching a rather banal sitcom, Rules of Engagement. I love two of the stars, David Spade and Patrick Warburton, but it's not really that engaging a show, the humour is anodyne and a lot of it is based around traditional gender roles and expectations, but I forced myself to watch it anyway just to see more of the aforementioned stars. The only way I was able to get into it was because I somewhat identified with David Spade's character- being a small blonde guy with long hair and a bit of a perv, haha!
Episode 715 - Apocalypse
Nov 25, 2024
This is the third in our weapons trilogy and it's about what happens AFTER the ultimate weapons have done their work: Apocalypse! The end of all things… This term comes from the bible, with the Book of Revelations which talks about what happens during the end of the world, but aside from the myth it's a pretty real concept- there are a LOT of ways the world can end and has indeed ended for various civilisations throughout history.
Episode 714 - Future Weapons
Nov 18, 2024
Last week we had an overview of weapons throughout history and how it's a constant game of balance and oneupmanship. Now we're looking at future weapons and Scifi stuff! There's a lot of potential and a lot of interesting ideas you can use in comics and stories. We talk about a few of these and some of our faves, as well as our own inventions.
Episode 713 - Gunwallace, Master Composer
Nov 11, 2024
Today we have onboard with us our resident theme maker, our classic composer and musical genius! He does all the DD comic inspired themes that regularly appear on the Quackcast and has done so for the last 10 years! In that time he's done almost 600 musical themes. At the moment Gunwallace is the games-master of a Star Trek roleplay thing that Tantz, Banes, and I all do after the cast. He's based an illustrated story on it called “On the Edge” with art by Banes and Genejoke, and some by Tantz and me, Ozoneocean.
