The Monthly Review — July & August 2025
All of New Outlook's topics, stories, and opinions you missed this past month.
For readers who crave short, snappy reads—whether you’re pressed for time, commuting, or just looking for a quick gateway into bigger ideas.
The Monthly Review is a curated preview of the topics, stories, and opinions I explore on New Outlook—from bite-sized insights to deep dives. Let’s jump in!
➊ DEMOCRACY? WHAT DEMOCRACY?
★★★★★
New Outlook Recommends
Why Modern Democracy Is Just A Polite Dictatorship
Published: June 19, 2025
A must-watch, this Philosophy Decoded video uncovers how democracies evolve into authoritarian systems, not through force, but through psychological manipulation, media control, and mass conformity. [Excerpt from Philosophy Coded]
➋ PODCASTERS: THE NEW KINGMAKERS
I think there’s a huge misconception in how people are assessing the new burgeoning relationship between politicians and podcast platforms, especially those spearheaded by standup comics.
The relationship keeps being framed as the politician “using” the podcasters for attention, influence, and status. That said politicians avoid corporate or independent journalism platforms for new podcast platforms by non-journalists because they want to manipulate the hosts and audience.
I feel like this analysis is missing the critical point of what it means to be a politician or state official: your relationship to media is always transactional, and in most cases, a collaborative endeavor; “I’ll appear on your platform if you’ll avoid these lines of questions.” No politician willingly appears on a platform they know is comprised of real, ethical journalists who will take them to task. Instead they routinely go where they know they’ll be safe, whether it be corporate or independent platforms. Their job is to seek out platforms that can be instrumental to their agenda, not ones that will create new problems for them.
Politicians appearing on podcast platforms today is no new concept in media and shouldn’t be framed as “podcasters and comedians are being used.” A smart politician will always find the safest platforms to propagandize the city, state, or nation. CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, Washington Post etc do not exist as stalwarts of journalism. They’re not taking any Democrats to task in their reporting—that’s for a reason. And the same goes for FOX and other right-leaning news platforms as far as Republicans are concerned.
Instead of all this, our collective focus—which I wrote about months ago—should be on how the practice of journalism—real, standard, hard-hitting journalism—continues to be impacted by these types of shifts in media.
What does it mean for journalism when non-journalists are now steering the conversation and in an influential way? What responsibilities do podcasters have as owners of the new king-making platforms? What dangers lie ahead? How do we address them? These are questions I’ve been pondering over the past few weeks.
➌ NEW MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA
A reminder that some of those who occupy the new media space are just cut from the same cloth of legacy media.
That all of these conservatives uncritically fell in line and marched to the orders they were given tells you everything you need to know about political ideology on the left and right.
Megyn Kelly, when asked about the latest developments in the Epstein story recently, mentioned how much she “trusts” Dan Bongino because she’s known him for years and has never known him to be a liar. So ultimately she shares that she trusts his conclusions on the Epstein case.
Megyn has been great on a myriad of issues over the past decade, but I can’t possibly understand how a critical, independent voice in new media could possibly arrive at the “trust me bro” justification because she’s friendly with the person in question.
It doesn’t take a polticial wiz to understand that in politics, an ascent into a position of real power is almost always synonymous with the abandonment of principles that might’ve gotten you to that point.
These “new media” figures will continue to be exposed for their inconsistencies and their journalistic malpractice.
In the meantime, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Glenn Greenwald, and the like continue to model what true devotion to the pursuit of truth is, despite the amount of enemies it generates.
➍ POLITICS: A CASE OF POWER & CHOICE
While reading for a Political Theory class, I came across a perspective that illustrates why we often have such a divided view on politics, journalism, etc.:
You can either view political action as a way of making common decisions for groups of people (public choice), or you can view political action as a process through which some people are dominated by other people (use of power).
Your intrinsic outlook ultimately determines your actions. It’s why many are wholly committed to the utility of the two-party system while others are proudly anti-establishment dissidents.
➎ GLORIFIED HALL MONITORS
Mainstream “journalists” are basically glorified hall monitors.
They spend all of their time supervising conversations happening outside of their establishment and political bubble, and find ways to rein them in, censor them or deligitimize the individuals spearheading the conversations.
➏ ON IMMIGRATION
It took my father and mother—newly and legally immigrated to America from Nigeria—having two jobs each, having little to no help, and working incessantly from 1996 to 2001 before they were able to officially reunite with their son (me) and daughter.
They spent all of those years working tirelessly and dealing with the bureaucracy that it took to legally file for citizenship for both myself and my sister.
They didn’t see their kids for nearly six years.
When I was younger, I never appreciated the amount of work it took for them to make that happen. I was a kid after-all, and was more consumed with the thought that my parents were fine abandoning me for years. No doubt the separation has deeply affected our relationship. To this day, I’m still mending my relationship with my parents. No one tells you the amount of damage that a few years of separation does to the psyche of everyone involved, especially the kids.
So you can’t tell me that people—my parents, in this case, who are die-hard Democrats—who went through this type of ordeal to become citizens should have a soft take on illegal immigration in this country. It just doesn’t make sense.
➐ SOCIALISM, EXPLAINED (IN 12 WORDS)
There are lengthy lectures out there that do not explain socialism as succinctly as this graphic does:
Socialism is resentment disguised as compassion enforced by tyranny disguised as tolerance.
➑ FREE SPEECH VS. POWER
“The opponent of free speech is ALWAYS power.”
— NICO PERRINONo matter which political party is in power, it will ALWAYS stand in opposition to free speech. Biden’s Democratic administration proved that. Trump’s Republican administration is currently proving that.
➒ ILLUSIONS OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY
“I don’t care who does the electing, as long as I get to do the nominating.”
— BOSS TWEED, American politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party's political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th-century New York City and State.
When people ask me why I don’t vote in their sham elections, this was always the reason. Those who end up on the debate stage or on the ballot are allowed to reach those checkpoints for a reason—by nomination, by lump-sum funding, and institutional endorsements. You are being pacified to death by the illusion of freedom and democracy. You’d like to believe that you actually wield some sort of power electorally, but you don’t. (Just ask those who voted for Trump just how that project is going at the moment)
➓ “REPRESENTATION” IS A FARCE
That’s a wrap! Hope you enjoyed this edition of The Monthly Review. If something resonated, drop a like, leave a comment, and let’s discuss further. Share this with a friend. Thank you for reading, subscribing, and supporting this project. Until next month!