chapotraphouse

They've entered a new phase definitely. Without Bernie and unable to create any other movement to unify around they were already in trouble a bit. Losing first Virgil then lately Matt which was a much bigger hit hasn't done them any favors. They can definitely continue like this doing side show stuff, their movie reviewing stuff, interviews with random press personalities and such, video game stuff and a bit of politics but I don't see them ever becoming the face of anything ever again. They'll continue to make money, maybe even enough that they don't have to dip into savings and retirement funds and continue producing content for a while yet though I think.

Fact is two regular hosts (Will and Felix plus Chris the producer) are just not enough, they don't have the right dynamic between them. They need a Matt or at least a Virgil type in there to get a winning formula.

I suppose an issue to adding a new person in their minds might be they agreed that everyone got full shares for all time I believe. Meaning Virgil still gets checks for the patreon and Matt of course they're not cutting off but there's a good chance he won't be able to work in the same way with them again anytime this decade. So they have two former members to support from their current take, plus Amber who's only around sometimes. So that's 6 mouths right there, 6 ways the patreon is already being split and will be forever short of someone dying or refusing payment. Adding another person means either making a special exemption where they don't get the same rights as the others which would be weird or else risking that money pool being split 7 way, perhaps even 8 if that person doesn't work out, if the fans tire of them, if they dip for personal reasons after a year, etc. And with the way things are, the doldrums I guess I'd be hesitant too as well. Even with a great, incredible host I don't see them gaining that many more subs or gaining that many back to make up the difference in lost money for each member from doing so. They're just not likely to break out given the deliberate suppression of anyone left of the pod Jons by the Democratic party and mainstream media and tech companies. I'm not sure they resonate with younger generations the same way either compared to someone like Hasan so they may be a kind of relic of last gasp of the Millennial left compared to your newer streamer centered, video content producing personalities who have more cachet with gen-z and younger.

They're stuck in this place where they're further left than Bernie's pathetic pandering and sheep-dogging and are critical of him but they're not willing to get into Marxism or anything much stronger than some strain of reformism. And this is down to other than Matt none of them probably being there, certainly Amber gives off annoying Trot academic ivory tower elitism vibes at times which isn't really appealing to any significant group of people. So they're not really even useful anymore as part of a pipeline I think. I think they have some interesting and decent cultural commentary. I've said before I'd love to listen to more movie commentary tracks with them as they're not bad at it and no riffing group exists that's explicitly left in even the softest ways.