Red Scare – "Ethel Cain't" (August 19, 2025)

Hosts: Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova

Episode Overview

In this episode, Anna (recording from Mexico City) and Dasha reconnect after travels and illness to discuss a handful of current cultural dramas. The episode’s driving focus is the recent online feud between Lana Del Rey and Ethel Cain, touching on issues of trans identity, music industry cattiness, and generational/postmodern culture wars. They also riff on podcast beauty standards, Twitter beefs, Chris Rufo vs. Doreen St. Felix, and end with bleakly comic reflections on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and identity politics in America. True to Red Scare’s voice, the conversation veers between acerbic humor, cultural analysis, personal anecdotes, and sharp, off-the-cuff commentary.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Remote Recording Chaos and Life Updates ([00:26]–[10:00])

• Anna reports from Mexico City, dealing with technical troubles and unreliable electronics:
  “The retarded Mexicans like, stole the USB-C cable and the user manual out of the box.” [01:30]
• The hosts joke about language barriers, the idiosyncrasies of supply chain issues, and Anna fantasizing about moving to Mexico, while referencing their respective heritages and linguistic skills.
• Dasha describes recovering cognitive function after an illness and again references the “cesspool” that is New York and her paranoia over disease at protests ([08:13]).

2. Language, Identity, and Generational Skills ([04:26]–[07:45])

• The hosts discuss their imperfect grasp of second languages, the temptation to improve Russian or Spanish, and why brain elasticity/nootropics are overhyped.
  • “I cope by saying it's because they have greater brain elasticity.” – Anna [07:44]
• Zoomers’ intelligence and internet youth are highlighted, with references to Nick Fuentes’s birthday, “brain elasticity,” and coping with feeling outmoded as millennials.

3. Lana Del Rey vs. Ethel Cain: The ‘Beef’ Fully Dissected ([12:14]–[39:00])

The Social Media Feud Backstory

• The “drama” began with rumors about Lana Del Rey’s new diss track, "Ethel," and fans speculating that it targets Ethel Cain—fueled by explicit, on-the-nose references in lyrics.
  • “Like, my new song, I hate Ethel Kane—like, who is this about?” – Anna [20:36]
• The hosts lambast the idea that Ethel Cain could be a real rival to Lana Del Rey:
  • "There's no way people could actually think that. Like, they are just on a totally different level.” – Dasha [12:52]

Gender Identity & the "Skinwalking" Argument

• Repeatedly, the hosts riff on the “trans” aspect of Ethel Cain, the ambiguous "gender goblin" identity, and distinctions between "AGP" and "HSTS" taxonomies:
  • "It's a classic like trune move to skinwalk someone and then turn on them." – Anna [13:21]
  • “She’s just like a liminal category... much younger and better passing than your traditional AGP.” – Anna [17:12]
• Discusses the privilege and victim-currency of trans identity, male privilege, and body-shaming in online trans-feminine communities ([14:00]).

The Music Comparison

• Dasha finally listens to an Ethel Cain song, finding it more “Taylor Swift” than “Lana”:
  • “She sounds a lot like Taylor Swift... but with a creaky door or like, spooky kind of production. But it is very pop.” – Dasha [18:30]
• Both agree: everything is “downstream from Lana” and Ethel’s “Americana Gothic” aesthetic is derivative.

Jack Donahue, Meme Warfare, and Catty Dynamics

• They detail the centrality of Jack Donahue (Salem member, rumored romantic interest of both Ethel and Lana) in the feud, and how these personal subplots fuel the beef.
• Discussion of men’s fashion and affect, finicky “hot guy” culture, and its lack of true sex appeal.

Larger Reflections

• Despite dismissing the beef as “boring meme warfare,” the hosts appreciate Lana’s ability to generate art from real grievances:
  • “Her art can simply stand on its own. But I guess it’s grist for the mill or whatever.” – Anna [24:48]
• Final verdict: the “beef” is a cynical but ultimately unreadable PR stunt, likely benefiting Ethel Cain more, but doing little real-world harm to either.

4. Doreen St. Felix, Anti-White Tweets & Cultural Grifting ([60:17]–[79:12])

• Doreen St. Felix, a New Yorker writer, is in hot water over resurfaced, inflammatory tweets:
  • “Whiteness must be abolished. Whiteness fills me with a lot of hate. I would be heartbroken if I had kids with a white man.” [65:08]
• Anna and Dasha dissect the “elite BIPOC grift,” noting the irony of writers like St. Felix living in million-dollar Brooklyn homes while condemning “white capitalism.”
• They reflect on the cyclical nature of “cancel culture,” noting that anti-white rhetoric once taken as normatively progressive is now retroactively denounced in mainstream culture wars.
  • “You scratch a black person and find an anti-Semite every single time. It’s so great.” – Anna [81:03]
• They elaborate on the motif of “not black enough” for elite POC writers, the pathologies of racial struggle as personal branding, and the shame/resentment it breeds:
  • “Of all the black writers and pundits… they know, deep down, that they’re not accepted by their own kind because… they’re too educated, they’re nerds.” – Anna [73:47]

5. War in Ukraine, Putin, Trump, and Zelensky ([41:10]–[52:15])

• Dasha summarizes the recent “summit” between Putin and Trump, who both appear to “want to make a deal,” vs. Zelensky’s reluctance to capitulate:
  • “Putin admitted that the war wouldn’t have started if Trump had won the last election. Which is probably true. But it’s just such a female… so pointless to say.” – Dasha [42:06]
• The hosts are skeptical about the possibility of “ending forever wars,” discuss Zelensky’s motivations (“his livelihood, his ego, probably his life depends on this forever war” – Anna [43:15]), and deride Westerners’ sentimental attachment to Ukrainian leadership.

6. American Cultural Critique: Boomer Liberals, False Consciousness ([53:14]–[60:12])

• Anna recounts observations from a bakery line in Berkeley, marveling at the “fabulously rich, fit, liberal class" whose political consciousness exists within a bubble.
  • “They are ubemenschian, actually… They’re fabulously rich. They don’t actually care.” – Anna [56:27]
• Dasha describes her years in Berkeley, the boomer-academic selfishness and late-in-life parenting, and the commodification of counterculture into an anemic, liberal status quo.
• Both hosts reflect on generational change: the criticisms boomers face now will be faced by millennials for “cheating on him, getting an abortion, living their best life, you go girl” [60:08].

7. Miscellaneous

• There are sections on personal life updates, fashion (mostly negative takes on men’s fashion), references to their own health and behaviors, and acerbic commentary on various public figures.
• The conversation closes with bleak riffs on Sharia law, female genital mutilation (“Female genital mutilation... someone should do something” – Dasha [88:03]), and whether communism or theocracy is more appealing—concluding that “Sharia leads to communism and communism leads to Sharia” ([89:25]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s a classic trune move to skinwalk someone and then turn on them and then accuse them of being jealous.” – Anna [13:21]
• “Her work comes from like divine inspiration, like, artistic intuition… Ethel Kane seems like a person who’s constantly, like, weighing her moves.” – Anna [29:30]
• “They live like that. They’re fabulously rich... They don’t actually care. They get to pretend that they do and they get to feel like they have a moral high ground.” – Anna [56:27]
• “You scratch a black person and find an anti-Semite every single time. It’s so great.” – Anna [81:03]
• “What the Holocaust is, Anna, is a money-making machine that uses tricknology to print money for Jewish people.” – Dasha [83:05]
• “He’s like a Muslim-to-Muslim transsexual.” – Anna [85:11] (re: the political opportunism of some liberal figures)
• “Female genital mutilation… someone should do something.” – Dasha [88:03]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:26] — Show starts; Anna in Mexico; technical/recording drama
• [04:26] — “Should I learn a new language?”; laments on discipline
• [12:14] — Introduction of the Lana Del Rey/Ethel Cain beef
• [13:20–18:03] — “Skinwalking,” trans identity, AGP/HSTS, and male privilege
• [18:30–21:26] — Music comparisons, critique of Ethel Cain’s style and persona
• [20:08–23:46] — “Chicago pose” drama, Jack Donahue, meme warfare
• [24:44–25:43] — The pettiness of the feud, questions about authenticity
• [41:10] — War in Ukraine, Putin/Trump/Zelensky analysis
• [53:14] — Observing Berkeley boomers, “false consciousness,” boomer liberal hypocrisy
• [60:17] — Doreen St. Felix tweets controversy, “white capitalism,” and BIPOC grift culture
• [81:03] — “Tricknology” segment, black anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust as leftist rhetorical device
• [85:11] — Political theatrality, opportunism (“Muslim-to-Muslim transsexual”)
• [88:03]–[89:25] — Sharia law, communism, and female genital mutilation as modern horror

Final Thoughts

This episode embodies Red Scare’s signature blend of wit, provocation, and (sometimes wicked) cultural honesty. Anna and Dasha dissect the current Lana/Ethel Cain drama with irreverence and personal insight, using it as a springboard for deeper riffs on gender, culture, online discourse, and generational malaise. In the latter half, they turn their sights on contemporary race and class grifts, anti-white rhetoric, elite BIPOC insecurity, and the absurdities of culture war punditry. The conversation meanders, but with sharp moments of self-awareness and humor, resulting in a lively—if at times caustic—discussion for listeners keen to keep up with both gossip and sociopolitical critique.