Blocked and Reported – Episode 299: The Politics of Misery

Hosts: Katie Herzog & Jesse Singal
Release Date: March 16, 2026

Episode Overview

In "The Politics of Misery," hosts Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal dive into the interplay between personal and political depression—especially among young progressives, the influence of social media, and the cultural norm of performative despair. They also dissect the ongoing drama on BlueSky, the rise and fall of its CEO, and the weird intermingling of far-right protest politics and media coverage. The hosts explore how identity and ideology are used selectively in reporting, with several memorable detours into oddities of public discourse, pop culture, and personal anecdotes.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Listener Email Follow-Up: The Huda Kattan/Sephora Controversy

[00:09–03:34]

• Cultural Back-and-Forth: Recapping a previous episode about Iranian diaspora protests against Huda Beauty, listeners provided inside info from Sephora: the company “asked stores to remove the Huda window banner, remove her products… and cancel any Huda events, citing safety as the reason” ([01:14]).
• Leadership Insight: Sephora CEO Artemis Patrick is herself Iranian, and her father worked for the Shah, adding intrigue to the company’s decision ([02:15]).
• Funbanter: Discussion of correct pronunciation—“You should pronounce it, like, 10 different ways, and then you can cut out all the wrong ones.” – Katie ([01:32]).
• Iranian History Pedantry: They debate Mosaddegh’s democratic legitimacy and their own previous mistakes: “I let you make it because I didn’t want to woman-splain you” – Katie ([02:54]).

2. Virtue Signaling and Performative Depression Among Progressives

[06:58–26:29]

• Setting the Stage: Jesse brings up a trend analyzed by Matt Yglesias—why are young liberals, especially women, so depressed, seemingly above and beyond social media explanations?
• Hierarchy of Misery: “In terms of the most depressed: liberal young women, then liberal young men, then conservative young women, and conservative young men.” – Katie ([09:30])
• Performative Sadness: Hosts explore the suggestion that “many [progressives] now valorize depressive affect as a sign of political commitment.” – Quoting Yglesias ([10:05]).
• Social Media Pressures: "People seem to feel like they have to apologize for living their lives while there's a war going on..." – Katie ([10:35])
• Emotional Contagion: “If you perform certain emotions long enough, that just becomes your emotions." – Jesse ([11:46])
• The Pinker Effect: Katie recalls her prior optimism (“pinkerite") about humanity’s material progress but feels more pessimistic now, possibly due to hyper-exposure to bad news ([12:01]).
• Environmental Grief: Personal anecdotes about witnessing environmental degradation, such as Cape Cod beach erosion and Asheville’s disasters, as a source of existential sadness ([13:36]).
• Importance of Perspective: “I feel like the luckiest person in the world... Not acknowledging that and wallowing in how shitty the world is... that’s sort of ungrateful, narcissistic.” – Katie ([20:56])

3. Depression, Treatment, and Public Discourse

[16:07–26:29]

• Public Figures and Personal Misery: Use of public posts by progressive figures (Aaron Regunberg, Kate Wagner) to illustrate public and political despair ([16:21]).
• Therapeutic Interventions: Jesse discusses transcranial magnetic stimulation, ECT, and their stigmas, referencing his mother's experience ([17:43], [18:38]).
• Debate over Political Pessimism: Jesse argues against the “normatively... shitty things going on in the world, so you yourself should feel shitty” stance, recalling resilience in history and pop culture ([22:01]).
• Climate Doomerism: Critique of apocalyptic climate messaging: “I think absolutely, young people... believe we have reached some tipping point when it comes to climate change...” – Katie ([23:33]).
• Long View of Humanity: Stoic humor as Katie muses, “At some point, humans will probably go extinct... something else will come along, right?” ([25:06]).
• Existential Perspective: Jesse: “Man’s Search for Meaning is like one obvious example” ([21:27]).

4. Schrodinger’s Identity: Media Hypocrisy in Reporting

[27:21–39:07]

• The Jake Lang/Gracie Mansion Bomb Story: Coverage of a protest led by far-right influencer Jake Lang, recently pardoned by Trump, which escalated when counter-protesters (with alleged ISIS sympathies) threw a failed bomb ([29:26], [35:33]).
• Schrodinger’s Identity: Jesse’s frustration with selective reporting: “Sometimes people's identity or ideology is super important and is the headline finding... other times it's omitted entirely” ([36:04]).
• Memorable Quote: “They were crossing into New York City. It was warm out. What should we do? Museum of Natural History or terror attack at Gracie Mansion?” – Jesse, mocking CNN’s anodyne framing ([38:13]).
• Public Officials’ Evasions: Analysis of how New York leaders vaguely condemned violence without specifying perpetrator identity, fueling suspicion about “selective outrage” ([36:04], [37:07]).
• On Having Children in a ‘Hellish’ World: “I think if people want children, that biological urge… overpowers… which is why you see people having children in war zones.” – Katie ([39:54]).

5. BlueSky Meltdown & Platform Culture

[41:58–52:29]

• BlueSky's C-Suite Shakeup: CEO Jay Graber steps down for a new “Chief Innovation Officer” (Toni Schneider steps in as interim). Jesse ponders the platform’s future and niche appeal ([42:19]).
• Platform Size vs. Influence: Data discussion—BlueSky has millions of accounts but a tiny active user base (~1 million daily likers, ~600K posters); Jesse claims it “punches above its weight” due to media/academic concentration ([45:24]).
• Insular Discourse Dynamics: “It just is a uniquely closed ecosystem… I think BlueSky has a higher proportion of crazy than any other left-of-center platform I’ve seen” – Jesse ([49:50]).
• Echo Chambers: Katie dismisses BlueSky’s broader relevance: “It doesn’t fucking matter” ([52:24]), pointing out that its reach is limited by insularity, compared to the overpowering conservative shift on X/Twitter.
• Norms of Blocking: “If you follow Matt Yglesias, you will find thousands of people you've never interacted with have blocked you, let alone if you follow me...” – Jesse ([51:08]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On performative misery:
  “Being depressed is sort of a way of... virtue signaling being depressed about the state of the world, which I think is undeniably true.” — Katie ([10:35])

• On coping with macro suffering:
  “People are often able to transcend that. And I also just think it makes it harder for folks in some progressive communities... to understand the world and its challenges with clear eyes.” — Jesse ([21:58])

• On existentialism and ecological grief:
  “The world is objectively better than it was... and yet when I turn on the news or open my phone... I don’t feel optimistic about the future in a way that I did even a few years ago...” — Katie ([12:01])

• On platforms and echo chambers:
  “BlueSky has an actual radicalizing effect on people. I can’t prove that... Maybe the people who go there come pre-radicalized...” — Jesse ([49:50])

• On selective reporting:
  “I think this is a fair point: like, why would you mention one or not the other? And this is... does rile people up further and give them reason to question your leadership.” — Jesse ([37:31])

Important Timestamps

• [01:14] Sephora’s response to Huda protests revealed by employee email.
• [06:58] Launch into episode’s main themes: BlueSky blowup, depression, and race.
• [09:30] Statistical hierarchy of depression by ideology and gender.
• [10:35] Discussion about performative sadness and social media virtue signaling.
• [16:21] Matt Yglesias’s tweet about depression and political affect.
• [18:38] Jesse details his mother’s experience with ECT.
• [20:56] Katie on feeling lucky and critiquing ungrateful despair.
• [36:04] Schrodinger’s identity in news coverage—a selective approach.
• [45:24] BlueSky daily user numbers and influence dissected.
• [49:50] Critique of BlueSky as a “uniquely closed ecosystem.”

Episode Tone & Style

• Conversational & Irreverent: Plenty of banter, in-jokes, and self-effacing humor.
• Deeply Skeptical: Pokes holes in progressive orthodoxy and social media hysteria, while acknowledging their own position as left-leaning journalists.
• Personal Touches: Both hosts use personal anecdotes, sometimes darkly comic, to ground abstract topics.

Further Listening

• Patreon/primo episode teased: full BlueSky/Jemele Bouie saga to come ([52:53]).
• Past episodes on the Iranian diaspora, climate doomerism, and social media culture referenced.

For feedback, hate mail, death threats, and more:
blockedandreportedpodcast@gmail.com

Support and extra content:
www.blockedandreported.org

End of summary.