Plastic Pills

Reactionary Medievalism

Speculating about the American Right-Wing's reactionary medievalism from Travels in Hyperreality by Umberto Eco (https://amzn.to/46rtU8Z)

Pill Pod 224 - ChatGPT Psychosis: A Lacanian Review

The Pill Pod looks at the chatbot psychosis phenomenon and compares it to Lacan's clinical structure of psychosis.

Sources:

Jacques Lacan - Seminar III

Bruce Fink - Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis

"People ...

The Dark Semiotics of Soap Ads (Original Cut)

Thank you guys for supporting me here; this one is special. I first started a script for "The mythology of soap" in June 2019, but never finished it. Here it's finally done 6 years later.

In 1957 Roland Barthes wrote an essay on the mytholo...

I. Apocalyptic & Integrated Intellectuals

Starting with an overview and an intro to Umberto Eco via his book Apocalypse Postponed: https://amzn.to/481RmKT

Pill Pod 223 - Lacan's Subject: The Other (exclusive)

Episode III on Bruce Fink's Lacanian Subject (1995). We crack chapter 5 to discuss the Other, mOther, Big Other, and importantly, why Disney's "Tarzan" sucks from a Lacanian analytic.

This is the book: 2025-09-06 04:25:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Pill Pod 222 - Lacan's Subject: The Split (exclusive)

We return to Bruce Fink's Lacanian Subject (1995) and jump to chapter 4 to discuss the barred subject and why Disney's "Inside Out" and Jungian theory suck.

This is the book: 2025-08-29 20:31:54 +0000 UTC View Post

Sydney Sweeney & Something Something Semiotics

In lieu of an intro, here's some news about what makes the news: Sidney Sweeney, Cracker Barrel, and Apocalyptic Intellectuals.

We're All Religious (Original Cut)

I've wanted to put together a visual production of the reflections on the sociology of religion, ideology, and embodied habit themes we cove

I've wanted to put together a visual production of the reflections on the sociology of religion, ide...

Pill Pod 221 - Capitalist Realism

1Dime joins Erik and Victor to discuss a book Erik has never read before—Fisher's Capitalist Realism. We cover the popularity of the book, what the term means, and then wonder whether left-populist electoral campaigns perform the same cathartic ...

Pill Pod 220 - Lacan's Subject: The Other of Language (exclusive)

We wanted to review some Lacan because everybody be desirin, and Bruce Fink's Lacanian Subject (1995) is quite often touted as the best unofficial intro, and it is easy to see why. We tried to talk about the book without referencing direc...

Pill Pod 219 - The Deranged Eschatology of Peter Thiel (video)

In a recent interview with the New York Times Peter Thiel, one of the world's most powerful men, gave ample indication that he should be institutionalized before he hurts anyone else.

Link to the full interview 2025-08-08 19:56:39 +0000 UTC View Post

Pill Pod 219 - The Deranged Eschatology of Peter Thiel (audio)

In a recent interview with the New York Times Peter Thiel, one of the world's most powerful men, gave ample indication that he should be institutionalized before he hurts anyone else.

Link to the full interview 2025-08-08 19:33:36 +0000 UTC View Post

Pill Pod 218 - Against Agamben's Apocalypticism (exclusive)

Pills and Erik reflect upon the image apocalypse and read a critique of Agamben (and Heidegger) from Georges Didi-Huberman.

Pill Pod 217 - Giorgio Agamben & The United States of Exception

Pills is back, we discuss the media coverage of Epstein and Gaza before a seamless transition into a discussion of Agamben's concepts of 1) Sovereignty 2) Bare Life and 3) States of Exception.

The FULL OMNIBUS edition of homo sacer is 2025-07-25 20:21:59 +0000 UTC View Post

Why has America Gone Insane? (Original Cut)

I spent way too long on this though I hope it shows. It's an hour-long thesis on Reality 2025.

I spent way too long on this though I hope it shows. Back when, I started out looking for a thesis statement for Reality 2025, and it evolved into...

Pill Pod 216 - Schmitt & Agamben: States of Exception (exclusive)

Lots to say about this concept but I (pills) became suddenly indisposed an hour before call time. In lieu, Erik and Victor break down the concept of "The State Of Exception" in two political philosophers, Carl Schmitt (Political Theology, 1922) an...

Pill Pod 215 - The Woke Right ft. 1Dime

While Pills is away, 1Dime came to play. Tony rejoins the pill pod to excavate the terms "woke right" and the semiotics of "woke" more broadly. We attempt to deduce which conservative faction is accusing which other of wokeness, although it is som...

Pill Pod 214 - Derrida: White Mythology III (exclusive)

We close out with a duo of Erik and Pills on the end of White Mythology, and we get to, finally, what he meant all along...

Pill Pod 213 - Derrida: White Mythology II (exclusive)

The central metaphors that explain the value of meaning are coins, the sun and flowers. In this episode we go in on the sun. It's not an easy one but if you look at the attached text it'll make better sense (we read up to sec. IV for this episode...

Pill Pod 212 - The Desire for Fascism

This week we looked into OG critic of fascism Wilhelm Reich, who wrote The Mass Psychology of Fascism right after the Nazis were elected in 1933. Reich was among the first "neomarxists", and believed that Marxists need to understand psych...

Pill Pod 211 - Derrida: White Mythology I (exclusive)

Okay so we have not covered Derrida his due. This is a pretty hard read, it perhaps does not convert well to podcast "content", but it changed my entire understanding of philosophy when I read it, particularly the relation between expression and t...

Pill Pod 210 - NYT Lies about "Fascism Experts" fleeing Trump (video)

It is funny and sad how many people bought this bullshit https://youtu.be/IXR9PByA9SY?si=wJvEmeukxAjbjA2y.
So, a) They are not fleeing Trump and b) They a...