podcast friday

[sabotabby]

I'll probably lose some followers with this one, so I'll put it under a cut if you don't like extremely black humour about a real person dying.



This week's recommendation is another one from It Could Happen Here. A few weeks ago they did Assassination Week, which is exactly what it says on the package. It's all pretty good content but probably the funniest is the last one, on the death of Darya Dugina.

Darya Dugina was the daughter of Alexander Dugin, who is a dark wizard and a bad person. While his role in shaping Putin's ideology is probably overstated (Putin is quite capable of being a terrible person on his own), Dugin is a massive asshole whose weird, esoteric fascism has been a critical "intellectual" and organizing influence on the far right both in Russia and elsewhere. His daughter, Darya, was just as bad, drumming up support for the invasion of Ukraine and overall ultranationalist, fashy shit, but putting a girlboss face on it.

Anyway, someone killed her with a car bomb, and no one knows who did it. They were quite possibly aiming for Alexander, or for both of them, since they were supposed to ride together after leaving an event. At the last minute, Alexander decided to ride in a different car (fuelling the conspiracy that he orchestrated or turned a blind eye to his daughter's assassination for political points), and Darya was alone in the car on a deserted stretch of highway when the car went boom.

There are some really interesting things about the assassination from a technical perspective, and of course some bullshit theories about who did it (probably not the Ukrainians). The coolest thing about it was unlike most political assassinations, there was no collateral damage. No innocent people got killed. Which doesn't, by the way, mean that assassinating vile people is an ethical or responsible thing to do by any means, but in this case it means that we can have a good laugh about it, which the podcasters do.

Anyway, if your morbid interests run along the theme of "a fascist gets blown up in an incredibly skilled way, no one else dies, and the assassins absolutely get away with it, and then we crack jokes about it" this one's for you.

Comments

[eller]

Exactly my kind of humor! (I don't approve of assassinations, but... You know. I also can't regret a world without Darya Dugina in it too much.) Also, I kind of like the theory that the father did (or, anyway, planned) it: that's just the thing I'd expect from a vile family like that.

[sabotabby]

I could see it in terms of his moral character, but not in terms of competence. Also I think he'd do it in a way that maximized the amount of people killed, whereas whoever did this knew what they were doing and succeeded in only getting a target.

[eller]

I don't know the guy personally, so, I can't judge his general competence - and anyway, he may have hired professionals to do the actual job - but, you're right that he'd probably try to maximize the body count.

[frandroid]

Well I was going to add it to my playlist when I would eventually see it, but now that you mention it, that's jumping right to the top of my playlist...

[sabotabby]

It made me smile all day when I listened to it.

[frandroid]

They should have titled it "Eulogy for a Toyota Land Rover" :D

[sabotabby]

They were hilariously upset about the car.

[minoanmiss]

Intriguing!

[sabotabby]

It's a fun episode.

[rdi]

Shame they didn't get them both, but I'll take it.

[sabotabby]

I thought that at first, but then they talk about a picture of Dugin discovering the scene. See, he was in the car behind hers, which meant that he arrived before they'd even put out the fire. And if you're going for maximum psychological damage to fascists, let's just say that this may have been a good strategy.

[mistersmearcase]

I am increasingly having to admit I don't like podcasts much but this does sound like a good time.

[sabotabby]

Nothing wrong with not liking podcasts. I like podcasts. I don't like audiobooks or videogames. I prefer TV shows to movies, though when I like a movie I get obsessive about it. I'm very into podcasts but it's been at the cost of discovering literally any new music.

[mistersmearcase]

Music is so hard because there's a diminishing returns thing with age, I swear, where nothing really knocks you over like it did in your 20s except maybe once in a long while. I am a little interested right now in two bands (DeVotchka and Alvvays) but it's been ages since something hit me like "This Is My Soundtrack." Just a really long time.

[sabotabby]

I've had it happen occasionally. Zeal & Ardor, Jeremy Dutcher, Tanya Tagaq, Orville Peck, Grace Petrie. But yeah it happens way less often and even all of those were a few years ago.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

I am not at all upset that a stochastic terrorist is not around to commit stochastic terrorism anymore.

[sabotabby]

Nor am I. One death may have saved many lives.