Give Them An Argument
Give Them An Argument is a YouTube show and podcast dedicated to building a smarter, funnier and more strategic Left. New episodes are live on YouTube on Monday nights with an exclusive postgame for GTAA patrons after the main show. (To become a patron, go to patreon.com/benburgis and sign up for the monthly cost of a milkshake at a 50s nostalgia diner in 1994.) Past guests have included Slavoj Žižek, Richard Wolff, David Pizarro, Gregory Sadler, Glenn Greenwald, Krystal Ball, Bhaskar Sunkara, Sam Seder, Ana Kasparian, Emma Vigeland, Matt Christman, and Amber Frost. The show has also featured debates between host Ben Burgis and opponents ranging from Walter Block to Charlie Kirk.Ben is a philosophy professor, Jacobin columnist, and frequent debater. He did a regular "Debunk" segment on the Michael Brooks Show until 2020. He's appeared on the Debate Night with Charlie Kirk, System Update with Glenn Greenwald, Rising, Krystal, Kyle & Friends, the Majority Report w/Sam Seder & the Joe Rogan Experience.benburgis.compatreon.com/benburgis
Episodes
300 episodes
Western Marxism Through the Looking Glass (ft. Matt McManus)
Matt McManus discusses his review of Gabriel Rockhill's Temu-Stalinist conspiracy theory of "western Marxism."Read Matt's review of Rockhill's "Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?" in Damage magazine:https://www.damagemag.co...
Philosophers Debate the War in Iran
A day late because Ben had to write a Jacobin article about all this instead of doing the episode (sorry about that!) but there's a lot to cover. Last Friday he recorded a debate on the war in Iran (hosted by philosopher Spencer Case). In this ...
Analytical Marxism and Democratic Socialism in the 21st Century: Revisiting G.A. Cohen
Last week at York University in Toronto, there was a panel to pre-launch a book of essays called "Analytical Marxism and Democratic Socialism in the 21st Century: Revisitng G.A. Cohen" co-edited by Ben Burgis and Matt McManus. Contributors Les ...
RIP Habermas (ft. Matt McManus)
Matt McManus joins to discuss the complicated legacy of philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who died last Saturday.Read Matt's article "Jürgen Habermas Showed What Philosophy Could Be" in Jacobin:https://jacobin.com/2026/03/habermas-ob...
Matt McManus Read Nick Land So You Don't Have To
Returning champ Matt McManus joins us once again, this time to explore a reactionary weirdo who somehow hasn't been the subject of a GTAA episode yet!Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattPolProfFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisF...
Of All the Dumb Wars, This One is Somehow the Dumbest
We're back, baby!Ben Burgis breaks down the idiotic arguments made by the MAGA faithful in defense of Trump's decision to wage an unprovoked, illegal, open-ended war against a country with far more capacity to defend itself than Afghani...
Talking MAGA’s Intellectuals with Laura Field and Matt McManus
Ben Burgis and Matt McManus chat with Laura K. Field about her excellent new book "Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right."Order the book::https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691255262/furious-mindsF...
Curtis Yarvin Stops Being Coy About Fascism
Deep State Kuba and New York Cynthia join Ben Burgis to talk about Curtis Yarvin's demented new essay "The Situation and the Solution."Follow Kuba on Twitter: @DrKuba2Follow Cynthia on Twitter; @c_cook1988Follow Ben on T...
Why Everyone Should Read Vivek Chibber
Marxist Twitter has been fighting about Vivek Chibber lately. Ben Burgis takes the opportunity to address the immediate controversy but also the much broader value of Chibber's work.Read the Jacobin Chibber interview on the origins of c...
Is "Elite Capture" the Problem with Identity Politics?
Ben Burgis talks about why he doesn't buy Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò's defense of identity politics in Táíwò's book "Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else)."Check out the book:https://www.haymar...
Are Service Workers and Public Sector Employees Part of the Proletariat?
Are service workers part of the "productive" part of the working class? And what does that mean? How about public sector employees--if they're not productive workers, does that mean that their interests don't align with productive workers and s...
Ana Kasparian Tries to Teach Bill Maher Basic Things About Palestine
Many-time GTAA guest Ana Kasparian went on Bill Maher's podcast Club Random. Ben Burgis watches the part where they argue about Gaza and breaks it down.Read Ben's article "The “Human Shields” Defense of Bombing Gaza’s Civilians Is Moral...
Fuentes is a Symptom
Nick Fuentes is comically vile.So, why is it so hard to exile him to whatever dark corner of the discourse he deserves to go back to?One problem is that, when the whole landscape is soaking in ethnic essentialism, it's hard to d...
The Penguin Edition of Marx's Capital is So Much Better Than the Princeton
The new edition of "Capital" has been getting a lot of buzz.But...guys...it's really bad.Read Ben's essay:benburgis.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-the-fowkes-translationRead Matt Huber's thread:https://x.com/...
Zohran is Right and the Online Left is Wrong
Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani's critics on the Left think he's a sell-out for not backing a primary challenge against Hakeem Jeffries or firing Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Some of them are about ready to denounce him as a fascist collaborat...
Trump: We Lost Vietnam and Iraq Because of Woke
Donald Trump, who we keep hearing is a peacemaker, said his speech for the 250th anniversary of the founding of Navy that the U.S. only lost the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan because we got too "woke" about war tactics. Ben Burgis breaks it d...
The Labor Theory of Value and Marx's Theory of Exploitation
Both supporters and opponents of the Labor Theory of Value often assume that the LTV and Marx's theory of capitalist exploitation are a package deal. Others, like G.A. Cohen, have questioned that link. Ben Burgis takes a look at the debate, arg...
Krystal Ball vs. Saagar Enjeti: Is it “Neo-Confederate” to Refuse to Cooperate with ICE?
Last week, Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti had an interesting mini-debate on whether states and cities that don't cooperate with ICE are doing something wrong on the grounds that it involves a "neo-Confederate" rejection of federal supreamcy. Be...
Curtis Yarvin Says We Can't Handle the Truth
Ambiguously fascist JD Vance guru Curtis Yarvin has written an odd little essay called "You Can't Handle the Truth." Ben Burgis responds!Read the essay:https://graymirror.substack.com/p/you-cant-handle-the-truthRead Matt...
Robert Nozick's Wilt Chamberlain Argument Against Redistribution
Libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick made a classical argument against redistributing wealth and economic resources in his book "Anarchy, State & Utopia" based on a thought experiment about the basketball player Wilt Chamberlain. Marxist p...
Debunking Pro-Israel Talking Points on Gaza
Today is the 2-year anniversary of the beginning of the genocide in Gaza. Ben Burgis breaks the absurdity and evil of the way many people have tried to defend it, and puts the issue in a larger context.Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis<...
Democrats are Screwing Up the Shutdown
Ben Burgis talks about his Jacobin article "Democrats are Screwing Up the Shutdown" and subsequent developments.Read the article:https://jacobin.com/2025/10/democrats-shutdown-health-care-bernie-aocFollow GTAA on Twitter...
Breaking Down Zohran on The View
It's Friday! Let's end the week with something fun and watch Zohran sparring with the ladies on The View about Palestine, electability, and more.Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a...
Is Analytic Philosophy a Dead End for the Left?
That's the claim made by Neil Vallelly in a shockingly poorly-informed article for Jacobin (reviewing Christopher Schuringa's book "A Social History of Analytical Philosophy"). Jacobin editor Nick French defended analytic philosophy in a counte...
Trump Classifies "Anti-Capitalism" as Political Violence Pre-Crime
Trump's new national security directive classifies all of the following as indicators of incipient political violence that need to be investigated and disrupted before they come to fruition:• anti-Americanism,• anti-capitalism,•...
