It was the 24th anniversary of Sept. 11, and “TrueAnon” had deviated from the usual patriotic script. Rather than dispensing solemn pieties, the podcast’s hosts announced that the liberal state was decaying.
“And it’s making the state more brutal, more agile,” said Liz Franczak, a co-host, to a crowd of about 800 inside the New York Society for Ethical Culture off Central Park. “Permanent war has given way to permanent governance.”
And then “TrueAnon,” as it likes to do, deviated from its own script.
The global war on terror? “It feels powerful to call it the GWOT,” Ms. Franczak said, pronouncing it like “gee what.” “Why would you say the first letter and then pronounce the rest of it?” her co-host, Brace Belden, asked incredulously to a room full of cackles.
They channeled faux hysteria over Zohran Mamdani’s Muslim faith. “Once he gets elected, you know he’s going to wake up those ISIS cells,” Mr. Belden deadpanned. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was described as a “drunk freak.” The comedian Sarah Sherman, of “Saturday Night Live,” sang a rendition of Creed’s hit “With Arms Wide Open” in a hot pink Juicy Couture tracksuit.
So went a recent event for “TrueAnon,” the irreverent political podcast hosted by Mr. Belden, 35, and Ms. Franczak, 40, and produced by Steven Goldberg, 40, who uses the alias Yung Chomsky. The chatty, conspiracy-curious show, whose name is a play on the pro-Trump QAnon movement, has earned a cultlike following for its headlong dives into subjects like the Jeffrey Epstein case, the opioid crisis and Hunter Biden’s laptop, blending absurd humor, deep research and sober left-wing analysis.
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