The Simpathizer ('Escape From Plan A' Ep. 230)

Plan A Editors -

as·sim·i·la·tion
/əˌsimiˈlāSH(ə)n/

noun

  1. To become a Simpathizer.
  2. To lose everything that marked one as other than a worm, to become a brainless, senseless thing.

After an extended hiatus because he ran out of things to say, Teen joins Diana to talk about Asian RadLibs vs. Tankies. Seems like everyone has something to say about the 'Tankies' these days. And it's mostly RadLibs doing the talking, on their vastly bigger platforms. But Tankies have social media, especially Twitter, as an outlet, where the playing field is more even.

It's called 'The Simpathizer' after Viet Thanh Nguyen, who epitomizes RadLib. Teen and Diana do a deep dive into the psychology of RadLibs, the point that Tankies are trying to make, and trying to answer the question: how can one find actual pride in being an Asian American?

Usually we'll go long and put the last half out as a Patreon-only episode. But since there's a lot to say about this topic, and it's not discussed enough online imho (or at all), we just put it all out  for free.

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