This week is exam week for me so no reading theory. Relatedly, however, I’ve found this interesting phenomenon among mainstream economists arriving back at Marxist understandings of the economy when faced with the reality that mainstream economics is no better than astrology.
Black shirts and reds single handedly made me a communist
Cannot wait for libs to have been against this in 20 years.
Inching my way through George Politzers Elementary Principles of Philosophy. It’s finals season so I get bits in when I can.
I’m sure he is actually an anti-Zionist, but the American political climate will not allow him to say such things, which frankly is demonstrative of the futility of making systemic changes through electoralism.
What pisses me off is that he could’ve done what he did when pressed about Israel, which is divert the conversation back towards issues at home without explicitly taking stance on the issue. Instead he uplifts imperialist propaganda.
I recently finished Angels in America. The plot was compelling, but the politics seemed to be all over the place. Belize was based as hell tho.
I’m pretty familiar with how shitty socdems are. I gues my areas of confusion are a) how Platner is a neo-nazi and not just a shitty blackwater guy and b) why Hasan should be dismissed because he’s more effective than any principled ML I’ve seen at converting liberals, because he concedes to them. I will never use him as a basis for my worldview, but I still respect him.
The policy he campaigns on is basic social democracy, which is radical in the US. I’m not sure how what I said can be misinterpreted like that, genuinely.
Putting Hassan there is crazy 😭. He’s by no means an open Marxist but he doesn’t attack those to the left of him (like the other two do) and he has a generally more anti-imperialist worldview (ie portraying china semi-positively or defending Ansar Allahs anti imperialist struggle or condemning the US’s militarism in Latin America) while the other two fall in lockstep with the state department line. You can’t expect the masses to just accept principled Marxist analysis from the get go. There needs to be someone in-between who holds their hand and meets them where they are.
The main “issue” with Hasan is that his goal isn’t to be principled and correct, it’s to push liberals towards more principled and correct politics. This means he will always find himself in scenarios like his support for that politician, who is basically a socdem with a very iffy past. In the context of American politics, however, that particular politician is actually pretty radical.
Liberals lately have made me actually want to throw myself off of a building. Trump isn’t some fucking Unicorn that came out of nowhere and personally made America bad, he’s the logical conclusion of a system built on white supremacy and heteropatriarchy aimed towards expanding and protecting capital. Why are we surprised by the ICE deportations when the US has been terrorizing migrants since Obama. Why are we shocked that women’s rights and queer people’s rights have gone in the shitter when Biden just let it happen. What democracy is there to save.
The fact that she attacked Trump for shaking hands with Xi Jinping actually made me lose it. Even from a liberal perspective, shaking hands with a so-called authoritarian leader is at the bottom of Trump’s problems.
Maybe have him meet some antizionist Jews? If he’s not that rabid that is.
What? Really??? I’m shocked!
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When a society is subject to imperialism, it is unable to resolve precolonial contradictions (ie patriarchal formations). Beliefs and practices discarded by European societies unfettered by imperialism are still present for this reason. Furthermore, colonized societies will desperately hold onto every aspect of the old society in order to resist the repression and erasure of colonialism. This unfortunately results in “backwards” practices resurging. While this incredibly harmful policy must be criticized, it cannot be grounds to dismiss the burkinabe project because traore’s junta fights the very system that impedes the progression of burkinabe society.
I’m not against art with explicit sexual content, but pornography causes more harm than good imo.
The way that liberals think that incredibly violent, aggressive imperialism is some kind of “distraction” that should be ignored in favor of the Epstein files is astounding to me.