I got turned on to CZM with Behind the Bastards and It Could Happen Here Season 1 (aka “Robert Evans doomposts about the impending 2nd American Civil War”). I would have placed them as quite anarchist which, while not my preferred leftist tendency, I still respect as an important faction in the fight for global liberation and international communism.

I had assumed they were leftist and they do seem to be most of the time, but there are some weird and jarring… exceptions.

1. The ICHH host Mia Wong seems to have this unbridled hatred for China. I’m no expert on China and I would not want to live with Chinese working conditions, but they seem to go beyond reasonable critiques into full on animosity.

2. They’ve been pro-Ukraine without acknowledging that the Ukraine War is a NATO-provoked proxy war, and that continuing to fight over territory that doesn’t even want to be Ukrainian has just gotten so many Ukrainians killed for nothing, in a doomed fight. That’s fucked up.

3. The sub for Behind the Bastards (yes I know I should leave but there’s still niche stuff I like there) appears to be full of Blue MAGA Vote Blue No Matter Who Is Being Genocided shitlib fascists. I only joined it recently and it was jarring to get dogpiled and downvoted for saying such basic things as “fuck Genocide Joe”, etc. These fans seem to have Trump Derangement Syndrome. Now, I know CZM has no official relationship with the subreddit, but I can’t help feeling it’s a mark against them that they attract this crowd! OTOH, CZM platforms a host who’s explicitly pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist so maybe judging them by their fanbase isn’t fair, and the problem is just that shitlibs have exactly 0 critical thinking skills