Attack of the CPC bots (or not)

Hello, fans of The Line, and welcome to the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on August 9th, 2024, in which your hosts are totally not struggling to find things to talk about during the doldrums of political silly season.They start by chatting about U.S. politics. A new wave of polls has shown that the Biden-Harris switcheroo has ... worked. It hasn't doomed Donald Trump, but it has put Kamala Harris and her new running mate in a position where they can absolutely win this. The race is competitive again, a toss up. Jen explains why she thinks Trump might still have the inside track. Matt taps sports psychology to suggest why he's not so sure. Jen also gets deeply existential on why she thinks progressive parties are struggling across the West.Next, they talk about a story that had a certain segment of the Canadian commentariat fired up this week: CPC bots! Neither of your hosts would be shocked if the Conservatives, or any political party, was using bots-for-hire to amplify their strategic communications. But both of them also suggest some caution here. We should all be skeptical of what we see on social media, even if — maybe especially if — it's something we really want to believe. From there, they chat about the riots in Britain, and Matt tells Jen that he noticed something coming out of that coverage that Canadians should be paying attention to, because even as the Brits are burning their own towns down, they're still better at a pretty important thing than Canada.And finally, Matt makes a bold proposal that he hopes all Canadians can unite behind, because it will radically improve our quality of life and, frankly, change human civilization as we know it — for the better. And Jen instantly rejects that proposal. Listeners and viewers — have your say.All that, and more, in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Take care, and as always, like, subscribe, share, and visit our website at ReadTheLine.ca.