PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy

Avsnitt

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  Nature's Leftist Conspiracy against Western Civilization: Contemporary Mythology // 260 21.07.2026 1h 31min

  Socialist are to blame for the Forest Fires. Antifa caused Algae to take over the reflecting pool. Conservatives believe that nature has allied with their enemies to undermine their authority and Western vicilization. We discuss many instances of the opposition of culture/nature in recent news, political theory, and most importantly Twitter discourse.Video essay referenced: https://youtu.be/ZFOSdqhpuaI?si=86JJOjAuxQl7lrhvJoin up for more content https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
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  LLMs prove Structuralism was Correct all Along // 258 07.07.2026 1h 16min

  Join for ad-free and more episodes https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsThere's only been about a century of structuralism. It had a day, then in the 80s haters celebrated its falloff. But today, the LLMs designed according to the precepts of structuralist linguistics have proven Saussure's intuitions were more accurate than even he could have suspected. We read the argument from Language Machines by Leif Weatherby (https://amzn.to/4bipjYu)
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  Chinese Room LLM // 257 (preview) 02.07.2026 20min

  This week we evaluate a paper written by a Google DeepMind engineer which, in effect updates the Chinese Room Thought Experiment (Searle, 1980) to modern LLMs.Get this episode and hundreds more https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
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  AI Will Fail Because Heidegger // 256 29.06.2026 1h 12min

  Join for ad-free and more episodes https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsHubert Dreyfus loved recounting how he was maligned for his AI skepticism, which was informed by applications of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology and turned out to be correct as of 2007. Is he still correct in the age of LLMs and self-driving cars?Link to article:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0004370207001452
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  POPE vs. AI // 255 09.06.2026 1h 21min

  All episodes are ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsWhile many had hoped for a Butlerian Crusade against the thinking machines, the Pope has instead released a lukewarm encyclical asking the mean machine men making automated murder drones to please be nice to us. This episode we evaluate whether Christian Humanism has any juice left.https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
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  Michel Foucault: Technologies of the Self // 254 04.06.2026 1h 13min

  More where this came from at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsPeople have not always had a self, our selves were invented. According to Foucault, our concept of self emerged from religious technologies, genres of writing, and the institutions that perpetuated them. https://amzn.to/4uWyVAg  
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  Christopher Lasch: The Culture of Narcissism // 253 (preview) 03.06.2026 22min

  Hear our Lasch series at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsAfter three episodes reading Culture of Narcissism we conclude that despite a unique perspective, it's way overrated.
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  Internet Connection UTTERLY DESTROYS Lost Exotic Rainforest Tribe!!! // 251 12.05.2026 1h 12min

  jk it's just fake news that duped conservatives yet again. This viral lie claimed that a remote Amazon tribe fell apart the instant they discovered internet pornography, but in the end it says a lot more about us than it does about the Marubos.go to patreon to never miss an episode https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
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  The Philosophy of Looksmaxxing // 249 29.04.2026 1h 18min

  This week we inspect the latest form of anthropotechnics, its surrounding moral panic, and American Psycho comparisons (Baudrillard was right about everything).Get hundreds of hours more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
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  Anthropotechnics // 248 (preview) 28.04.2026 18min

  For hundreds of hours of content like this, it's https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
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  Sloterdijk on Trial for Eugenics // 247 16.04.2026 1h 19min

  Find all episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsThis week we read Sloterdijk's 1999 "Rules for the Human Zoo" (https://web.stanford.edu/~mvr2j/docs/Elmauer.pdf) which was the source of immediate controversy and accusations of fascism and eugenics. We see what the hype was about. 
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  Marcel Mauss - The Gift // 180 (unlock) 10.04.2026 58min

  Find All Episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/c/plasticpills.We read the eminent The Gift (https://amzn.to/3NAenx3) by Marcel Mauss which is important to later theorists including Georges Bataille, Jean Baudrillard, and Jacques Derrida.(originally recorded 08/24)
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  Durkheim on MANA - The Original "Floating Signifier" // 179 06.04.2026 53min

  Find All Episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/c/plasticpills.We read Durkheim's Elementary forms of Religious Life (https://amzn.to/4c1ubkB) and try to get a hold on a primordial concept, what for Claude Levi-Strauss exemplifies the floating signifier: it's MANA (originally recorded 08/24).
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  Why Critical Theory is Never Enjoying Anything // 246 (preview) 02.04.2026 15min

  This is a preview but you can find all our episodes and other work ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills. In this episode we read Sloterdijk's proposal for how to fix Philosophy from The Critique of Cynical Reason.
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  Why Philosophers Fear their own Farts // 245 (preview) 01.04.2026 11min

  This is a preview, find all our episodes and other work ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills.In this episode we cover Peter Sloterdijk's Critique of Cynical Reason and why Philosophy needs to incorporate disrespect, sacrilege, and fart jokes if it is ever going to be relevant again.
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  The Critique of Cynical Reason - Sloterdijk // 244 31.03.2026 1h 3min

  Find all our episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/c/plasticpillsPeter Sloterdijk wrote a philosophy bestseller in 1983 called The Critique of Cynical Reason. In this episode, we try to communicate what he means by cynical reason. https://monoskop.org/images/7/7b/Sloterdijk_Peter_Critique_of_Cynical_Reason.pdf
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  Cynicism (the philosophy) // 243 (preview) 30.03.2026 22min

  This is a preview but you can find all our episodes and other work ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills. In this episode we cover the Cynical school of Diogenes and contemporary philosophers in his lineage.
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  It's Hyperreal Fascism then? // 242 03.03.2026 1h 15min

  We discuss the proposition of hyperreal fascism as presented in this video essay (https://youtu.be/R9fpm-lorIU) and its relationship to current events and the Trump Administration
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  The Philosophy of Jeffrey Epstein // 240 17.02.2026 1h 11min

  Jeffrey Epstein is not primarily known as a philosopher, but his emails illustrate that he had higher ambitions than pedophilia. We explore both the latent and manifest content of Jeffrey Epstein's theorizing, as well as who enabled him, and come to realize that he was the victim of a rare psychotic illness. Join our patreon to get the epsidoes not posted here https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
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  Simulation World Order // 239 02.02.2026 54min

  Everyone is talking about Canada leading the charge into the New World Order. Are we excited yet? Watch the glorious father of our nation deliver the goods at Davos, or not.Join us on Patreon to get all our eps ad-free: https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills