Season 3, Ep 4: Reviewing Douglas Lain’s Hot Takes on Quasi-Feudalism

In part 1 of a two-part recap of Season 3 so far, we discuss our interview with Doug Lain of Sublation Media and the Diet Soap podcast. The original interview covered Lain’s trajectory, his views on the theory of neo-feudalism, and the problem of increasing online censorship. As we unpack our conversation with Lain, we spend time on Lain’s discomfort with the term “neofeudal” and his preference for “society of control” as a description of the current state of capitalism. We evaluate the tension between the approval of economic concentration/centralization for the advancement of future socialism and the disapproval of the use of corporate power via government pressures to inhibit some speech. We also talk about the tension between Lain’s Marxism and our own views on industrial vs. regional/local agricultural production.