Chapter 10 is one of my favorites.
CleverOleg
It’s a single data point but radlib brother the other day said that the people in the Batista regime that Fidel and Che executed, absolutely got what they deserved. And “thugs like them”.
The world is turning towards militarization as the global economic instability is amplified further under Trump’s erratic policies.
I suppose I will beat a dead horse with the point I feel I repeat too often… when I read Torkil Laussen state that the principal contradiction today is between neoliberalism and sovereignty, I was skeptical. I thought the global north/south divide was more critical. But I stand corrected, I think Laussen is correct. Neoliberalism may be the dominant side of that contradiction right now, but it seems that this contradiction is also resolving itself far quicker than I had expected. Neoliberalism is dead, it’s only a matter of time before it is replaced. At the moment, as you said, it seems like we’re going back to the 1930s and that style of inwardness. But the world is dialectical, and what emerges out of this contradiction will no doubt be something entirely different.
And it’s interesting to me with Trump’s tariffs, while it certainly appears to be the act of a singular person, I feel this actually is yet another example of “men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please”. I don’t think 20 or even 10 years ago, Trump would have been able to get away with it. But he can now, not necessarily because congress is weak, but because material conditions have eroded the neoliberal grip on the world. Throwing up tariffs is a natural result of neoliberalism weakening. If not Trump, some other president would be instituting some form of increased tariffs or other inward-facing measures.
Many such cases.
I got my think pad from a state university surplus shop. Those are great for finding good stuff.
They actually had a falling out a few years ago, Yogi and Sean don’t speak anymore and it seemed kinda hostile. I know Sean is somewhat controversial but I’ve never actually looked at the criticism since I sorta dropped out of listening to that pod quite a while ago. Was one of the very early parts of my pipeline.
Yeah, I mean, it’s nuanced. If Israel were to start collapsing, they offered a genuine 2 state solution, and (critically) it was something the Palestinian people themselves wanted? I feel like it would be chauvinistic to say they should turn that down. But the point is, I’m not out here saying the 2 state solution is what we should pursue now.
Reminds of that great line from Once Upon a Time in the West:
How can you trust a man who wears both a belt and suspenders, a man who can't even trust his pants?
I saw a take on Reddit about her that I really liked, and it applies to so many others:
Leftish or socialist-lite people like Natalie do genuinely like the idea of a socialist or at least much more fair and just society. To them, it’s a very nice and pleasant thought. But that’s where it stops for them. They don’t want to think about what it takes to get there. They want to treat a potential better world like a Barbie Dream House; something that’s basically just escapism from the hell we live in now. This is especially easy for libs in the imperial core to do because while we are in hell, our hell is much more comfortable than that of say, the Palestinians or many other people in the periphery. It’s Utopianism, in other words.
And that’s why they hate tankies, because our focus is on how to actually get there. We support China or support Russia’s and Iran’s anti-imperialist actions because it moves the ball forward. They are concrete actions that are necessary to get to that better world. But focusing on the works involved spoils the happy little dream the libs have. Socialism is supposed to be something that will spontaneously appear without struggle or bloodshed. Being told otherwise spoils the dream for them.
and the great march of return was an attempt at non-violent protest, and the Israeli response was to kill a couple hundred people and seriously injure thousands more.
The Grubstakers pod used to offer a $250,000 Patreon tier for billionaires, promising they would never do an episode on you if you joined that tier.
One of these days I will get around to writing my effort post about how having kids has really opened my eyes as how much gender really is a social construct. I’ve tried to avoid pushing gender norms on my kids but the reality is that society is so overwhelming in this regard.
Also, while I am very much on the side of “let kids pick their own stuff” (largely based on what I said above), my wife got my daughter her first backpack - a sparkly purple unicorn backpack. Which is fine in itself. But… I shouldn’t be, but I do feel kinda hurt I was not involved in the process. Because - and I know this is a bit odd - I am a bit of a backpack aficionado. I worked in an independent outdoor goods store for a couple years and got really involved with the backpacks. Kinda like, my “thing”. There wasn’t anything intentional, but still…