Link to an article by Victor Pickard:
Tag: Politics
Robert Pfaller – The Ideology of Postmodernism is to Present All Existing Injustice as an Effect of Discrimination
Link to an interview with Robert Pfaller:
“The Ideology of Postmodernism is to Present All Existing Injustice as an Effect of Discrimination”
In this brief interview Pfaller does understate the problem of discrimination, in that even in a situation of complete economic equality, there can be inequalities in terms of access, prestige, or other forms of capital — Ursula Le Guin’s novel The Dispossessed even has a plot point to this effect where a stupid physicist tries to distort and suppress the work of another in order to maintain and enhance his own prestige and power (even though the two are economically equal). Still, Pfaller’s analysis is remarkably astute for being so direct and easy to understand!
Bonus links: The Trouble with Diversity and “The Politics of Identity” and “Can We Really Measure Implicit Bias? Maybe Not”
Jonathan Latham – Unsafe at any Dose? Diagnosing Chemical Safety Failures, from DDT to BPA
Link to an article by Jonathan Latham:
“Unsafe at any Dose? Diagnosing Chemical Safety Failures, from DDT to BPA”
Bonus link: “They Aren’t All Safe”
Lance Olsen – Why All the Uproar Over the Green New Deal?
Link to an article by Lance Olsen:
“Why All the Uproar Over the Green New Deal?”
Bonus links: “Will A Green New Deal Save the Climate, or Save Capitalism?” and “A Class Struggle Strategy for A Green New Deal” and “The Green New Deal, Capitalism and the State” and “A Green New Deal for Agriculture” and “This Historical Moment Demands Transformation of Our Institutions. The Green New Deal Won’t Do That.” (the Stan Cox quote is willfully obtuse — R. Buckminster Fuller? — but otherwise the article is good) and “How Green is the ‘Green New Deal’?” and “Modern Money Green Economics for a New Era” and “Communism, Fascism and Green Shaming” and “Politics, Democracy and Environmental Rebellion” (“Calls for a stripped down Green New Deal, one that forgoes a robust Job Guarantee, is a ploy to engineer a capital strike where millions of workers will be tossed out of their jobs to ‘prove’ that the economy requires environmental destruction and militarism.”) and “Planning the Green Tech Revolution” and “The Realism and Unrealism of the Green New Deals” and “Bernie’s Green New Deal Is for the Working Class” and The State and Revolution
John Steppling Quote
“I am struck almost daily, I think, with the fact that the worst and often most psychologically unstable and damaged people are in the positions of the most power. And the second horror is the apathy of those who are able to see this. They see it and justify to themselves their own lack of action. There is another group, the not apathetic, but the rationally fearful. And this sort of leads back full circle to the first horror. For it is not insane or irrational, at all, to fear arrest and punishment by the state. By the organs of the state. And the power of these organs of state are in existence because the people in authority are never so crazy as not to protect their own authority and power.”
John Steppling, “Algorithm Kids”
Bonus links: Critique of Cynical Reason and Alain Badiou Quote and Snakes in Suits
John Steppling – Population Bomb or Bomb the Population?
Link to an article by John Steppling:
“Population Bomb or Bomb the Population?”
Bonus links: “Ashley Dawson: Extreme Cities” (Steppling’s article essentially provides the answer to an audience question that Ashley Dawson stumbled with in this video of an otherwise excellent talk) and “Malthus’ Essay on Population at Age 200” and “Population Explosion” and “Will Limiting Population Growth Solve the Climate Crisis?” and “Ten Reasons Why Population Control Can’t Stop Climate Change”and “Saving Nature: Overpopulation is not the Primary Problem” and “1973: Ernest Mandel on Marxism and Ecology, ‘The Dialectic of Growth'” and The Closing Circle and Too Many People?: Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis
Jerome Roos – Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay
Link to an interview with Jerome Roos conducted by George Souvlis:
Bonus links: articles and interviews with Michael Hudson, Super Imperialism, Review of The Global Minotaur, and discussion of “university discourse”
Ivan Bruneau, Julian Mischi & Nicolas Renahy – Rural France in Revolt
Link to an article by Ivan Bruneau, Julian Mischi & Nicolas Renahy:
Bonus links: ressentiment and university discourse and The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker and Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right and “For What It’s Worth: The Yellow Vests and the Left” and “A Leftist Plea for ‘Eurocentrism'” and “Sending in the Troops”
Noam Chomsky and the Compatible Left
Link to the article:
“Noam Chomsky and the Compatible Left, Part I”
“Noam Chomsky and the Compatible Left, Part II”
“Noam Chomsky and the Compatible Left, Part III”
“Noam Chomsky and the Compatible Left, Part IV”
This is an excellent multi-part piece on the fundamental problems with Chomsky’s politics — though it does contain a few brief unsupported or otherwise perplexing statements. See also The Idiot Pool
Andrew Levine Quote About Republicans
“As a general rule, what Republicans say is not worth taking seriously even for a second, except insofar as they wield power. And then, it is the power they wield, not the power of their ideas, that makes taking them seriously worthwhile.”
Andrew Levine, “Ilhan Omar Owes No Apologies, Apologies Are Owed Her”