Actually I agree with your sentiment. Yet, I would say Eric and the IDW are not really helping people living in slums or are piled up in prisons. They are more

Actually I agree with your sentiment. Yet, I would say Eric and the IDW are not really helping people living in slums or are piled up in prisons. They are more in the intellectual celebrity camp, so I feel that podcast is really highlighting that. I don’t listen to the creators much, I just find it annoying that Eric, Bret and others get so much exposure on hacker news. As there are some rather stupid elements in their argumentation (the podcast makes a good point there...). Personally I’m a big fan of Democracy Now! Amy is doing stuff compared to just making podcast episodes and complaining about Evergreen ;)