Are we living in an authoritarian economy?

Jessica Burbank is a self-made, progressive influencer, pushing the boundaries of new media at a time when most Democrats are either too afraid or don’t know how to reach people in a digital world. We are big fans here at DisRev. Jessica’s videos on YouTube, Instagram, and Substack (where she’s amassed upwards of 400 thousand followers across platforms) take politics and economic concepts, like democratic socialism, out of academia and into people's everyday lives.

We discuss:

• How to reach people in the new digital world

• How to push back against the right’s dominance online

• Why we live in an authoritarian economy

“The idea that a small group of rich people make all of those decisions, to me, sounds like an authoritarian economy.”

Jessica’s Projects: @KaBurbank across platforms

• Jessica and John Podcast (Substack Podcast)

• Ka's Counterprogramming (Substack)

• Investigative journalist at Drop Site News (Substack)

• YouTube

• Instagram

Happy Hour Quotes:

• “I love Dispatch Revolution as a name. It's the most aptly-named, the coolest-named show.”

• “If everyone understood the way this economy worked, the pitchforks would be out.”

• “My bar manager, when I got into grad school, said to me, ‘Don’t become so smart that you're stupid.’”

• “A part of it's personal. How can you sympathize with a problem you don't even think about, let alone have the capacity to understand? But then if you're getting paid not to understand it, that's another step in that direction.”

• “It's our turn to talk.”

• “AOC and Bernie have been willing to say, yes, our country is controlled by oligarchs. Yes, the billionaires are problem, and that's it. And in a political movement, a political party, I really think that if someone doesn't agree with you on that key point, we're at the stage of American history where that means you're not on the same team.”

• On academia: “What good to society is spending so many resources on educating these people, fueling schools of thought that are only understood, utilized, and known by essentially the ruling class?”

Show outline:

1. Intro & biography

2. The role of social media in activism

3. Taking communication out of the ivory tower

4. An authoritarian economy

5. Running independents

6. Do the Democrats have a youth problem? Yes.

7. The call for a Joe Rogan of the left

8. The risk of civil war and how to course correct

9. Who will lead the Democratic Party? And who should we be listening to?

10. Guest questions from Stacey.