Give Them An Argument
Give Them An Argument is a YouTube show and podcast dedicated to building a smarter, funnier and more strategic Left. New episodes are live on YouTube on Monday nights with an exclusive postgame for GTAA patrons after the main show. (To become a patron, go to patreon.com/benburgis and sign up for the monthly cost of a milkshake at a 50s nostalgia diner in 1994.) Past guests have included Slavoj Žižek, Richard Wolff, David Pizarro, Gregory Sadler, Glenn Greenwald, Krystal Ball, Bhaskar Sunkara, Sam Seder, Ana Kasparian, Emma Vigeland, Matt Christman, and Amber Frost. The show has also featured debates between host Ben Burgis and opponents ranging from Walter Block to Charlie Kirk.Ben is a philosophy professor, Jacobin columnist, and frequent debater. He did a regular "Debunk" segment on the Michael Brooks Show until 2020. He's appeared on the Debate Night with Charlie Kirk, System Update with Glenn Greenwald, Rising, Krystal, Kyle & Friends, the Majority Report w/Sam Seder & the Joe Rogan Experience.benburgis.compatreon.com/benburgis
Show episodes
Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani"s critics on the Left think he"s a sell-out for not backing a primary challenge against Hakeem Jeffries or firing Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Some of them are about ready to denounce him as a fascist collaborator for sitting down with Donald Trump. Do any of these arguments add up? Fol
Donald Trump, who we keep hearing is a peacemaker, said his speech for the 250th anniversary of the founding of Navy that the U.S. only lost the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan because we got too "woke" about war tactics. Ben Burgis breaks it down. Get tickets to the election night show in NYC: https://www.barfreda.com
Both supporters and opponents of the Labor Theory of Value often assume that the LTV and Marx"s theory of capitalist exploitation are a package deal. Others, like G.A. Cohen, have questioned that link. Ben Burgis takes a look at the debate, arguing that these two ideas are related...but not in the way a lot of people a
Krystal Ball vs. Saagar Enjeti: Is it “Neo-Confederate” to Refuse to Cooperate with ICE?
Last week, Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti had an interesting mini-debate on whether states and cities that don"t cooperate with ICE are doing something wrong on the grounds that it involves a "neo-Confederate" rejection of federal supreamcy. Ben Burgis breaks it down. Watch the 32-hour workweek video previewed at the e
Ambiguously fascist JD Vance guru Curtis Yarvin has written an odd little essay called "You Can"t Handle the Truth." Ben Burgis responds! Read the essay: https://graymirror.substack.com/p/you-cant-handle-the-truth Read Matt McManus"s essay on Yarvin: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/curtis-yarvin-thiel-carlyle-monarc
Libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick made a classical argument against redistributing wealth and economic resources in his book "Anarchy, State & Utopia" based on a thought experiment about the basketball player Wilt Chamberlain. Marxist philosopher G.A. Cohen takes it apart piece by piece. Ben Burgis discusses! Read
