Doomscroll with Joshua Citarella

My guest is Julian Feeld, an author, journalist and co-founder of the QAA podcast. He is the host of Superstructure with comedian Jon Gabrus. Our conversation explores the impact of media, political speech and “influence” in our extremely-online society. What do we hope to accomplish through content? When does education and information impact real material forces in the world? From differing viewpoints, Julian and I explore the theory and practice of political-education.You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella

We discuss online media strategies and the political movements taking place in Latin America. The region is shaped by neoliberal trade agreements, a resurgent Pink Tide and an uncanny mix of pro-US right-wing nationalism.You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella

We explore World of Warcraft’s influence on crypto libertarianism, the Habermasian digital public sphere, and US private ownership of social media. Where does democratic legitimacy come from?

David Adler, co-general director of the Progressive International, joins me to unpack the complex history of corporate colonialism in Latin America.The United States has a long history of intervention into the affairs of Latin American countries. After the recent abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, Trump openly invoked the Monroe Doctrine, or as he calls it “the Donroe Doctrine”, to signal further hostility to other nations in the region.In this episode we focus on the strange case of Prospera — a libertarian city-state that promises to create a free market utopia. Beginning in 2017, Prospera Inc purchased land within the sovereign territory of Honduras. At the time, Honduras was under the narco-dictatorship of Juan Orlando Hernandez. (In a stroke of poetic injustice, JOH was convicted of drug trafficking in 2024 and pardoned by Donald Trump in 2025.) After the dictatorship, the Honduran congress overturned this unconstitutional decision with a unanimous vote across all parties. In retaliation, Prospera Inc is now suing the state of Honduras for a staggering 10.8 billion dollars, nearly 100x their investment and roughly 2/3rds of the annual state budget. Unsurprisingly, Prospera Inc is funded by Pronomos Capital whose investors include familiar characters such as Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and Balaji Srinivasan.