This episode of the “Democracy Works” podcast featured an engaging interview with V, the creator behind Under the Desk News on TikTok. V discussed the evolution of their social media presence, emphasizing the role of social media as a modern day "third place" for community, replacing traditional physical spaces for socializing. They highlighted the importance of online spaces, particularly for marginalized groups, providing a sense of belonging and connection.
The conversation delved into the impact of social media on loneliness, with V asserting that it serves as a remedy to the lack of physical third places. They argued that social media, despite its criticisms, plays a crucial role in fostering community, especially for individuals who might feel isolated in their local environments.
V debunked the notion that social media is the cause of loneliness, attributing it instead to the lack of stability and comfort in real-life interactions. Drawing on personal experiences and examples, they highlighted how social media platforms like TikTok create spaces for representation and connection, especially for those in less accepting or diverse environments.
The discussion also touched on the changing dynamics of news consumption among Generation Z. V challenged stereotypes, emphasizing that young people are actively engaged in civic matters, particularly issues like gun activism, racial equality, women's rights and climate change. They stressed the importance of respecting and understanding Gen Z's perspectives rather than dismissing them based on misconceptions.
Towards the end, V talked about the future of news media and its integration with social platforms. They highlighted the challenges and opportunities for traditional media to adapt to new formats like TikTok and YouTube shorts. V's insights shed light on the evolving landscape of news dissemination and the need for a collaborative approach between traditional media and social media creators.
The episode concluded with a discussion about democracy, focusing on how Gen Z perceives it. V challenged the idea that young people are disinterested in democracy, asserting that they care deeply but are disillusioned with the current political system. They emphasized the importance of understanding and addressing the concerns of younger generations to foster meaningful civic engagement.
In the latter part, V introduced their new podcast, "American Fever Dream," which aims to spotlight down-ballot candidates making impactful changes at the state and local levels. The podcast seeks to provide a comfortable space for reflection on democracy, politics, and pop culture, incorporating humor and analysis.
A deep look at how "All in the Family" remains a striking mirror of American politics, class tensions, and cultural manipulation—proving its relevance decades later.
All in This American Family
There are a few shows that have aged as eerily well as All in the Family.
It’s not just that it’s still funny and has the feel not of a sit-com, but of unpretentious, working-class theatre. It’s that, decades later, it remains one of the clearest windows into the American psyche. Archie Bunker’s living room has been, as it were, a small stage on which the country has been working through the same contradictions, anxieties, and unresolved traumas that still shape our politics today. The manipulation of the working class, the pitting of neighbor against neighbor, the scapegoating of the vulnerable, the quiet cruelties baked into everyday life—all of it is still here with us. We like to reassure ourselves that we’ve progressed since the early 1970s, but watching the show now forces an unsettling recognition: The structural forces that shaped Archie’s world have barely budged. The same tactics of distraction and division deployed by elites back then are still deployed now, except more efficiently, more sleekly.
Archie himself is the perfect vessel for this continuity. He is bigoted, blustery, reactive, but he is also wounded, anxious, and constantly misled by forces above and beyond him. Norman Lear created Archie not as a monster to be hated (Lear’s genius was to make Archie lovable despite his loathsome stands), but as a man trapped by the political economy of his era: A union worker who feels his country slipping away, yet cannot see the hands that are actually moving it. His anger leaks sideways, onto immigrants, women, “hippies,” and anyone with less power than he has. The real villains—the wealthy, the connected, the manufacturers of grievance—remain safely and comfortably offscreen. That’s part of the show’s key insight: It reveals how elites thrive by making sure working people turn their frustrations against each other rather than upward.
Edith, often dismissed as naive or scatterbrained, functions as the show’s quiet moral center. Her compassion exposes the emotional void in Archie’s worldview and, in doing so, highlights the costs of the divisions that powerful interests cultivate. Meanwhile, Mike the “Meathead” represents a generation trying to break free from those divisions but often trapped in its own loud self-righteousness. Their clashes are not just family arguments but collisions between competing visions of America’s future. And those visions, tellingly, have yet to resolve themselves.
The political context of the show only sharpens its relevance. Premiering in 1971, All in the Family emerged during the Nixon years, when the “Silent Majority” strategy was weaponizing racial resentment, cultural panic, and working-class anxiety to cement power. Archie was a fictional embodiment of the very demographic Nixon sought to mobilize and manipulate. The show exposed, often bluntly, how economic insecurity was being rerouted into cultural hostility. Watching the show today, it’s impossible to miss how closely that logic mirrors the present, from right-wing media ecosystems to politicians who openly rely on stoking grievances rather than addressing root causes.
What makes the show unsettling today is that its satire feels less like a relic and more like a mirror. The demagogic impulses it spotlighted have simply found new platforms. The working-class anger it dramatized has been harvested by political operatives who, like their 1970s predecessors, depend on division to maintain power. The very cultural debates that fueled Archie’s tirades — about immigration, gender roles, race, and national identity—are still being used as tools to distract from wealth concentration and political manipulation.
If anything, the divisions are sharper now because the mechanisms of manipulation are more sophisticated, for much has been learned by The Machine. The same emotional raw material Lear mined for comedy is now algorithmically optimized for outrage. The same social fractures that played out around Archie’s kitchen table now play out on a scale he couldn’t have imagined. But the underlying dynamics haven’t changed at all.
That is why All in the Family feels so contemporary. The country Lear dissected never healed or meaningfully evolved: It simply changed wardrobe. The tensions, prejudices, and insecurities remain, not because individuals failed to grow but because the economic and political forces that thrive on division have only become more entrenched. Until we confront the political economy that kept Archie and Michael locked in an endless loop of circular bickering, the show will remain painfully relevant for another fifty years.
Ahmed Bouzid is the co-founder of The True Representation Movement.