Cultural Detritus, Reviews, and Commentary
Link to an article by Christian Parenti:
“Saving the Planet Without Self-Loathing”
Bonus links: “Greta Thunberg Is No Genius – She’s an Apostle” and “‘Clever Statistics and Creative PR’ Cover Inaction on Climate Crisis” and “How the Rich Plan to Rule a Burning Planet”
Link to an article by Joan Roelofs:
“Military Keynesianism Marches On”
Bonus links: “The Left Hand and the Right Hand of the State” and Modern Money Green Economics for a New Era and “Documents Expose How Hollywood Promotes War on Behalf of the Pentagon, CIA and NSA” and “American Sniper?” and “culture industry” and “How the U.S. Military Undermines the American Economy” and Super Imperialism and Review of The Global Minotaur and “The Trillion Dollar Silencer”
Link to an interview with Nancy Fraser, conducted by Olimpia Malatesta:
“A Feminism Aimed at Liberating All Women Must Be Anti-Capitalist”
This makes a rather incongruous endorsement of “left populism” in the context of “anti-capitalism”, which is a bit of an oxymoron. Fraser is too tepid here — she’s mostly offering a slightly watered-down version of ideas that have been circulated by others for some time, with little justification for watering things down. Overarchingly, though, she is astutely arguing Walter Benjamin’s maxim that behind every rise of fascism lies a failed revolution.
Bonus links: Review of Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto (includes a useful questioning of Fraser’s “social reproduction” theory) and “On Sex Without Identity: Feminist Politics and Sexual Difference” (this interview expresses a more coherent position than Fraser’s) and “Alt-right Trump Supporters and Left-wing Bernie Sanders Fans Should Join Together to Defeat Capitalism” and “Today’s Anti-fascist Movement Will Do Nothing to Get Rid of Right-wing Populism – It’s Just Panicky Posturing” and “The U.S. Political Scene: Whiteness and the Legitimacy Crisis of Global Capitalism” and “About the Fate of Contemporary Girls” Excerpt (“women should be much more wary today of what capitalism is offering them in the way of liberation than they should be of men.”) and “Supporting a Feminism for the 99%” and “Against the Populist Temptation”
Link to an article by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor:
“Five Years Later, Do Black Lives Matter?”
This article raises some excellent points and identifies many key issues (for instance, aptly referencing Jo Freeman’s classic essay “The Tyranny of Structurelessness”), though its analysis is often vague and occasionally superficial (that vagueness and superficiality being explainable in political terms)
Bonus links: “Social Service or Social Change?” and Crowds and Party and The State and Revolution and Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail (the gist of Taylor’s theoretical framework is more thoroughly stated in this book) and …And the Poor Get Prison and “Stop Kidding Yourself: The Police Were Created to Control Working Class and Poor People” and “The Left Hand and the Right Hand of the State”
Link to an article by Muhammed Shabeer:
“European Parliament’s Anti-Communist Resolution Draws Widespread Criticism”
Bonus links: “The End of Anti-Fascism” (“More than simply changing, historical memory is actively reshaped by pop-culture representations as well as by active political forces.”) and “The Two Totalitarianisms” (“It is necessary to take sides and proclaim Fascism fundamentally ‘worse’ than Communism. The alternative, the notion that it is even possible to compare rationally the two totalitarianisms, tends to produce the conclusion – explicit or implicit – that Fascism was the lesser evil, an understandable reaction to the Communist threat.”) and “Ernst Nolte’s Revenge” and “Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands and the Fight Against Historical Falsification: A Chronology”