JRE 1721 · June 27, 2024

Michael Malice

politicshistoryphilosophypsychologyconspiracy

Who is Michael Malice?

Michael Malice is a cultural commentator and host of the PodcastOne podcast "Your Welcome." He's the author of two books, "Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il," and "The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics."

Topics and Timestamps

01Michael Malice discusses his background as a cultural commentator and author of books on North Korea and American politics
02Conversation explores the nature of political extremism and how mainstream media covers fringe movements
03Malice shares insights from his research into Kim Jong Il's life and North Korea's propaganda machine
04Discussion touches on cancel culture and how social media has changed political discourse
05Malice breaks down the appeal and evolution of right-wing political movements in America
06Joe and Michael discuss the role of irony and meme culture in modern political movements
▶Michael Malice introduces his background and work on political extremism0:00:00
▶Discussion of Malice's Kim Jong Il book and North Korean propaganda0:15:00
▶Conversation about how mainstream media miscovers fringe political movements0:35:00
▶Malice explains the role of irony and meme culture in modern politics0:55:00
▶Deep dive into cancel culture and social media's impact on discourse1:15:00

The Show

JRE 1721 brings on Michael Malice, a guy who's made a career out of studying the weird and extreme corners of politics and history. He's written extensively about North Korea and the American fringe right, which makes him a genuinely interesting voice on how ideology actually works versus how people think it works.

Malice is sharp about the disconnect between how mainstream media portrays extremist movements and what's actually happening on the ground. He's done the legwork, spent time understanding these communities from the inside rather than just dunking on them from a safe distance. That's what makes him valuable to this conversation. Joe and Michael dig into how political movements form, what makes them appealing to people, and why journalists constantly get the story wrong because they're not actually embedded in these spaces.

The Kim Jong Il book comes up naturally because it's basically the perfect case study for understanding propaganda, personality cults, and how a narrative gets constructed around a leader. Malice's research into North Korean media and how they built this mythology around Kim is genuinely fascinating stuff. It's not just weird dictator trivia, it's actually a masterclass in how information gets weaponized and shaped.

They get into the messier parts of modern politics too. Cancel culture, social media's role in radicalizing people, how irony became a political tool, and why understanding fringe movements matters. Malice doesn't come across as defending anyone, just explaining how these things actually work, which is way more useful than the standard moral panic takes you get everywhere else.

The conversation has that JRE quality where two people who actually think are just riffing on complicated subjects without pretending everything has an easy answer. Malice clearly knows his stuff, and Joe's actually curious rather than performing outrage, so you get real substance here.

Best Quotes

“Understanding these movements from the inside is completely different from how they're portrayed in the media”

— Michael Malice