History TearJerker / TheLastPodcastOnTheLeft

-->"When America's pissed, [[RevengeBeforeReason somebody's gonna get it]]."

** If you choose to believe Marcus' theory, then the ''why'' behind the murder makes it even worse. Casey was not a criminal mastermind or a serial killer - she just didn't want to be a single mom anymore and, through her sociopathy and narcissism, decided that killing her own child was somehow the right way to go. Getting rid of Caylee was just a means to an incredibly selfish end.

*** Henry admits that, watching the trial footage, he started getting angry at everybody else in the Anthony household at points. In his estimation, nobody cared enough about Caylee than they did about keeping the unspoken silence in that household, since Casey would explode every time she was confronted on her lies. Essentially, they let Caylee’s death happen because nobody was brave enough to speak up, which might have prevented the whole tragedy.

** The true irony of the Jonestown massacre was that it was intended as an act of "revolutionary suicide", with Jim believing that he would go down in history as a great man protesting against the establishment. Instead, the entire tragedy was boiled down to a tasteless, mocking joke that serves as the only thing he is now remembered for. Nine hundred and eighteen people died, Jones included, and all he has to show for it are the "Kool-Aid Man" pins that Henry has.

-->"When America's hurt, [[RevengeBeforeReason somebody's gonna get it]]."

** And then there’s the trial and how much of a circus it was. The prosecution got cocky and made critical mistakes with what little evidence they had, then got blindsided by the wild accusations of a defence that didn't ''have'' their own evidence and got free rein to confuse the jury. And this isn't getting into how a vital clue was missed due to miscommunication and the finger-pointing that followed. It’s hard to believe justice was truly done when you take all of this into account.

** Marcus opines one of the real tragedies of Peoples Temple - at the start, they were doing actual good, helping to solve real problems and push for racial integration in the states they were in. Had Jones not [[SanitySlippage gone off the rails]] the way he did, it’s likely they could have continued being a positive force and an example of a socialist community that worked.
** The true irony of the Jonestown massacre was that it was intended as an act of “revolutionary suicide”, with Jim believing that he would go down in history as a great man protesting against the establishment. Instead, the entire tragedy was boiled down to a tasteless, mocking joke that serves as the only thing he is now remembered for. Nine hundred and eighteen people died, Jones included, and all he has to show for it are the “Kool-Aid Man” pins that Henry has.
--->'''Henry:''' What a waste.
--->'''Marcus:''' What a gigantic waste.

** As discussed by the boys, Mengele's experiments on twins were AllForNothing. The whole point was to understand the phenomena of identical twins, with the eventual goal of unlocking hereditary genetics, thus accelerating the development of the Nazi’s MasterRace. But rather than just studying identical twins, Mengele took fraternal twins as well, which polluted his data to the point of utter uselessness. And that isn't even getting into the fact that the Nazi's only used their [[ScienceMarchesOn rudimentary understanding of hereditary genetics]] to validate their beliefs, which were a hodgepodge of occult nonsense cherry-picked from Madame Blavatsky's works. Operating on this level of pseudo-science bordering on mysticism, it's likely that [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption Mengele never would have got what he wanted anyway]], no matter how good or bad his science was. This makes the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, at his hands in Auschwitz-Birkenau pointless on top of cruel and stupid.

* Captain Charles B. [=McVay=] III’s controversial court-martialling following the sinking of the ''USS Indianapolis''. It resulted in the destruction of the man’s career and a constant stream of hate mail blaming him for the deaths of sons and fathers, which eventually [[DrivenToSuicide lead to his suicide]]. And all because, it seemed, the US Navy couldn't accept that the loss of the Indy was down to freak chance and needed '' somebody'' to blame for what happened. As Marcus bitterly puts it:
-->”When America’s hurt, [[RevengeBeforeReason somebody’s gonna get it]].”
* The life of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anneliese_Michel Anneliese Michel]] (the inspiration for ''Film/TheExorcismOfEmilyRose'') is very much a tragic story from beginning to end. [[EgocentricallyReligious Her deeply religious family]] didn't understand (or rather, didn't want to accept) her epilepsy and seizures, instead believing that she was possessed by demons. Anneliese was subsequently subjected to ''67 exorcisms'', many of which Anneliese herself asked for. These traumatizing procedures lead to Anneliese eventually starving herself to death, and she was so weak by the time she died, she could barely manage to whimper out her last words: "Mama, come here. I'm afraid."

* Captain Charles B. [=McVay=] III’s controversial court-martialling following the sinking of the ''USS Indianapolis''. It resulted in the destruction of the man’s career and a constant stream of hate mail blaming him for the deaths of sons and fathers, which eventually [[DrivenToSuicide lead to his suicide]]. And all because, it seemed, the US Navy needed '' somebody'' to blame for what happened. As Marcus bitterly puts it:

** As discussed by the boys, Mengele's experiments on twins were AllForNothing. The whole point was to understand the phenomena of identical twins, with the eventual goal of unlocking hereditary genetics, thus accelerating the development of the Nazi’s MasterRace. But rather than just studying identical twins, Mengele took fraternal twins as well, which polluted his data to the point of utter uselessness. This makes the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, at his hands in Auschwitz-Birkenau pointless on top of cruel and stupid.
** And that isn't even getting into the fact that the Nazi's only used their [[ScienceMarchesOn rudimentary understanding of hereditary genetics]] to validate their beliefs, which were a hodgepodge of occult nonsense cherry-picked from Madame Blavatsky's works. Operating on this level of pseudo-science bordering on mysticism, it's likely that [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption Mengele never would have got what he wanted anyway]], no matter how good or bad his science was. Which just adds ''another'' layer of tragedy to the whole affair.

** As discussed by the boys, Mengele's experiments on twins were AllForNothing. The whole point was to understand the phenomena of identical twins, with the eventual goal of unlocking hereditary genetics, thus accelerating the development of the Nazi’s MasterRace. But rather than just studying identical twins, Mengele [[WhatAnIdiot took fraternal twins as well]], which polluted his data to the point of utter uselessness. This makes the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, at his hands in Auschwitz-Birkenau pointless on top of cruel and stupid.

* The life of Anneliese Michel is very much a tragic story from beginning to end. [[EgocentricallyReligious Her deeply religious family]] didn't understand (or rather, didn't want to accept) her epilepsy and seizures, instead believing that she was possessed by demons. Anneliese was subsequently subjected to ''67 exorcisms'', many of which Anneliese herself asked for. These traumatizing procedures lead to Anneliese eventually starving herself to death, and she was so weak by the time she died, she could barely manage to whimper out her last words: "Mama, come here. I'm afraid."

* The life of Anneliese Michel is very much a tragic story from beginning to end. [[EgocentricallyReligious Her deeply religious family]] didn't understand (or rather, didn't want to accept) her epilepsy and seizures, instead believing that she was possessed by demons. Anneliese was subsequently subjected to ''67 exorcisms'', many of which Anneliese herself asked for. These traumatizing procedures lead to Anneliese eventually starving herself to death, and she was so weak by the time she died, she could barely manage to whimper out her last words: [[AdultFear "Mama, come here. I'm afraid."]]

* The death of Caylee Anthony, aged only three. The trio agree that, regardless of wherever you believe Casey deliberately murdered her or not, it's still a horrible idea to find the remains of a little girl in some woods somewhere.

* The death of Calyee Anthony, aged only three. The trio agree that, regardless of wherever you believe Casey deliberately murdered her or not, it's still a horrible idea to find the remains of a little girl in some woods somewhere.

* The life of Anneliese Michel is very much a tragic story from beginning to end. Her deeply religious family didn't understand (or rather, didn't want to accept) her epilepsy and seizures, instead believing that she was possessed by demons. Anneliese was subsequently subjected to ''67 exorcisms'', many of which Anneliese herself asked for. These traumatizing procedures lead to Anneliese eventually starving herself to death, and she was so weak by the time she did, she could barely manage to whimper out her last words: "Mama, come here. I'm afraid."

-->”When America’s hurt, [[RevengeBeforeReason somebody’s gonna get it]].”

* Captain Charles B. [=McVay=] III’s controversial court-martialling following the sinking of the ''USS Indianapolis''. It resulted in the destruction of the man’s career and a constant stream of hate mail blaming him for the deaths of sons and fathers, which eventually [[DrivenToSuicide lead to his suicide]]. And all because, it seemed, the US Navy needed '' somebody'' to blame. As Marcus bitterly puts it:

While ''Podcast/{{The Last Podcast On The Left}}'' is technically a comedy podcast, they will often discuss serious topics.

** And then there’s the trial and how much of a circus it was. The prosecution got cocky and made critical mistakes with what little evidence they had, then got blindsided by the wild accusations of a defence that didn't ''have'' their own evidence and got free reign to confuse the jury. And this isn't getting into how a vital clue was missed due to miscommunication and the finger-pointing that followed. It’s hard to believe justice was truly done when you take all of this into account.

* Captain Charles McVay III’s controversial court-martialling following the sinking of the ''USS Indianapolis''. It resulted in the destruction of the man’s career and a constant stream of hate mail blaming him for the deaths of sons and fathers, which eventually [[DrivenToSuicide lead to his suicide]]. And all because, it seemed, the US Navy needed '' somebody'' to blame. As Marcus bitterly puts it:

* Episode III of Aum Shinrikyo gives us the tale of a woman who managed to escape the cult on multiple occasions... only to ''keep coming back''. She simply could ''not'' rid herself of the idea that Shoko Asahara would send her to hell for her disobedience, even when she knew that everything the cult did was bad. She ended up going through the extremely traumatic "bardo" ceremony ''three times'' as a result.

*** Henry starts getting angry for George at points, noting that because Casey couldn’t stand her worldview being challenged and exploded every time it was, she basically ran the Anthony household through fear. When Caylee went missing and all the tell-tale signs piled up, nobody wanted to confront Casey over it and had to maintain the lie for her. Which lead to the thirty days the body went undiscovered and decomposed, destroying all the evidence. It’s tragic to think that things might have gone much better if anyone had been brave enough to call Casey out on her bullshit.

** If you choose to believe Marcus' theory, then the ''why'' behind the murder makes it even worse. Casey wasn't a criminal mastermind or a serial killer - she just didn't want to be a single mom anymore and, through her sociopathy and narcissism, decided that killing her own child was somehow the right way to go. Getting rid of Caylee was just a means to an incredibly selfish end.
** Much sympathy is shown towards poor George Anthony by the hosts. Things were already bad with a narcissistic habitual liar for a daughter and an equally narcissistic wife who always took her side. But then their granddaughter is found dead, and George suspected that his daughter was responsible for it, leading to him being DrivenToSuicide, which failed. Then he had to go into court and not react to Jose Baez accusing him of molesting his own daughter. Poor man had it rough.

* The hosts have a moment of pity for James Thurman Jones, the father of infamous cult leader Jim Jones, after finding out that he died a penniless, depressed alcoholic openly despised by his wife and son whose tombstone read ''[[BlatantLies "Everyone in the world is my friend."]]'' In general, the elder Jones seemed to lead a rather shitty life, something that's touched on by Marcus, Ben, and Henry multiple times.

* In Episode 161, Henry admits that his continued research may have contributed to his girlfriend to leaving him.

** Henry descends into righteous {{Angrish}} over the trial and how much of a shambles it was. Not only did the prosecution get cocky and make critical mistakes with what little evidence they had, they then got blindsided by the wild accusations of a defence that didn't ''have'' their own evidence and got free reign to confuse the jury. And this isn't getting into how a vital clue was missed due to miscommunication and the finger-pointing that resulted from it. It's hard to believe justice was truly done when you take all that into account.
** If you choose to believe Marcus' theory, then the ''why'' behind the murder makes it even worse. Casey wasn't a criminal mastermind or a serial killer - she just didn't want to be a single mom anymore and, through her sociopathy and narcissim, decided that killing her own child was somehow better than giving her up for adoption. Henry's "fatal case of FOMO" joke [[HarsherInHindsight suddenly hits a lot harder]].

* The death of Calyee Anthony, aged only three. The trio agree that, [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment regardless of wherever you believe Casey deliberately murdered her or not]], it's still a horrible idea to find the remains of a little girl in some woods somewhere.

** [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment If you choose to believe Marcus' theory]], then the ''why'' behind the murder makes it even worse. Casey wasn't a criminal mastermind or a serial killer - she just didn't want to be a single mom anymore and, through her sociopathy and narcissim, decided that killing her own child was somehow better than giving her up for adoption. Henry's "fatal case of FOMO" joke [[HarsherInHindsight suddenly hits a lot harder]].

** The true irony of the Jonestown massacre was that it was intended as an act of “revolutionary suicide”, with Jim believing that he would go down in history as a great man. Instead, the entire tragedy was boiled down to a tasteless, mocking joke that serves as the only thing he is now remembered for. Nine hundred and eighteen people died, Jones included, and all he has to show for it are the “Kool-Aid Man” pins that Henry has.

** And that isn't even getting into the fact that the Nazi's only used their [[ScienceMarchesOn rudimentary understanding of hereditary genetics]] to validate their beliefs, which were a hodgepodge of occult nonsense cherry-picked from Madame Blavatsky's works. Operating on this level of pseudo-science bordering on mysticism, it's likely that [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption Mengele never would have got what he wanted anyway]], no matter how good or bad his science was. Which just adds ''another'' layer of tragedy to the whole affair.