#14161
UNUSUALY COOL
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Trump’s Neo-Fascism will be Built on Neo-Fascism of Obama and Democrat Party
Submitted by Ajamu Baraka on Tue, 01/03/2017 - 00:31
#14162
[account deactivated]
#14163
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gonna need to ask people to put writing any new books on hold until I catch up on reading all the ones already written,
#14164
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i got a big ole book dump from a friend and haven't read a single page of any of them yet because everything is terrible and i am terrible
#14165
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can anyone recommend books about health and capitalism? i have a friend who's clearly skeptical about outcomes in the US but im trying to steer them away from 'vaccinations cause autism' type stuff. anything about the FDA, capitalist agriculture, healthcare, etc etc.

http://monthlyreview.org/product/big_farms_make_big_flu/

does anyone know if this is any good?
#14166
Kurdt
Post rating: +
https://communistresearchcluster.wordpress.com/
#14167
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: +

Chthonic_Goat_666 posted:

can anyone recommend books about health and capitalism? i have a friend who's clearly skeptical about outcomes in the US but im trying to steer them away from 'vaccinations cause autism' type stuff. anything about the FDA, capitalist agriculture, healthcare, etc etc.

http://monthlyreview.org/product/big_farms_make_big_flu/

does anyone know if this is any good?



take a look at "Caring for Them from Birth to Death: The Practice of Community-Based Cuban Medicine" by Christina Perez. in my experience providing a positive alternative model has a bigger and better impact than negative criticism on this particular topic because people can always argue vaguely that their favorite model will fix the problem through this or that untested method.

#14168
Dont Mess With Sucess
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http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/01/op-ed-how-i-turned-a-traffic-ticket-into-the-constitutional-trial-of-the-century/
#14169
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cars posted:

take a look at "Caring for Them from Birth to Death: The Practice of Community-Based Cuban Medicine" by Christina Perez. in my experience providing a positive alternative model has a bigger and better impact than negative criticism on this particular topic because people can always argue vaguely that their favorite model will fix the problem through this or that untested method.



if have pdf pls pm

#14170
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https://qz.com/896463/is-it-ok-to-punch-a-nazi-philosopher-slavoj-zizek-talks-richard-spencer-nazis-and-donald-trump/

nazi says its not ok to punch nazis
#14171
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i am rereading brecht's 'the mother' which is about an older woman who becomes a bolshevik organizer after her son joins the party. a terrific play about the way struggle advances consciousness. in a nice bit of symmetry, talking to my (working class) mother today, she called trump a nazi and agreed that "fascists only stop when you make them stop"
#14172
[account deactivated]
#14173
UNUSUALY COOL
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people like to talk about Wallerstein here i think, what did you have problems with
#14174
[account deactivated]
#14175
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brecht's notes to 'the mother' are god damn savage

#14176
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I haven't read through the entire thread so sorry if it has already been brought up, but is anyone familiar with "The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution" by Shulamith Firestone? Is it good? Is it a good Marxist analysis of feminism? If not, is there a book that contains a good Marxist analysis of feminism?
#14177
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TG posted:

https://qz.com/896463/is-it-ok-to-punch-a-nazi-philosopher-slavoj-zizek-talks-richard-spencer-nazis-and-donald-trump/nazi says its not ok to punch nazis



This isn't the first time I've heard someone refer to Zizek as a Nazi. Is there a reason people think that?

#14178
[account deactivated]
#14179
Post rating: +

wahoopride posted:

TG posted:
https://qz.com/896463/is-it-ok-to-punch-a-nazi-philosopher-slavoj-zizek-talks-richard-spencer-nazis-and-donald-trump/nazi says its not ok to punch nazis


This isn't the first time I've heard someone refer to Zizek as a Nazi. Is there a reason people think that?

His socialist theory has at times, and at ever increasing frequency, delved into nationalism that Communists reject but Nazis (read: National Socialists) adore.

Plus, his schtick of direct opposition in an attempt to draw out a synthesis means he's angled himself into a position of, well, National Socialism.

The final straws were his words on refugees, which again make sense in an oppositional sense but are unquestionably racist and shitty, and his accelerationist support of Trump.

I love the man, I really do. Or did. My tolerance for his antics have reached its limit though and I wish he'd just go back to writing big dumb books again.

edit: Also Caliban and the Witch is really good.

#14180
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your_not_aleksandr posted:

His socialist theory has at times, and at ever increasing frequency, delved into nationalism that Communists reject but Nazis (read: National Socialists) adore.

Plus, his schtick of direct opposition in an attempt to draw out a synthesis means he's angled himself into a position of, well, National Socialism.

The final straws were his words on refugees, which again make sense in an oppositional sense but are unquestionably racist and shitty, and his accelerationist support of Trump.

I love the man, I really do. Or did. My tolerance for his antics have reached its limit though and I wish he'd just go back to writing big dumb books again.

edit: Also Caliban and the Witch is really good.



Thanks for the explanation. This makes sense.

#14181
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he's an opportunist chauvinist who found a profitable niche in the left-wing academic circlejerk by cribbing althusser and lacan and applying it to pop-culture. even his "serious" books if you read more than one are obviously largely copy-pasted together from earlier books (which is how he publishes like 3 to 5 books every year). he's probably a millionaire at this point. it's really no surprise his contrarianism devolves into reaction rather than principled marxist theory.

Edited by aerdil ()

#14182
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aerdil posted:

he's an opportunist chauvinist who found a profitable niche in the left-wing academic circlejerk by cribbing althusser and lacan and applying it to pop-culture. even his "serious" books if you read more than one are obviously largely copy-pasted together from earlier books (which is how he publishes like 3 to 5 books every year). he's probably a millionaire at this point. it's really no surprise his contrarianism devolves into reaction rather than principled marxist theory.



When you say it this way he doesn't seem like a very good person

#14183
UNUSUALY COOL
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toyotathon posted:

i'm not really educated so names like jakob fuggar and charles V, stuff like the dutch bourgeoisie revolution, it was drinking from the historical firehose. that stuff's comprehensible, i just gotta read more. but i realized about halfway thru the price revolution chapter that i was simply not going to understand the causes and ramifications of wildly oscillating wages and prices in the 15th and 16th century, so if anybody's got a framework for grasping what was happening... i'd reason that new world/sudanese specie imports would be purely inflationary, but it didn't shake out that way (because of debasement?)



i'm going to look at this but if anyone here is at all a responsible person they'll give an informed answer before i make fools of us all with my uninformed one

#14184
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Maybe I just haven't read enough serious Theory but I really don't like reading Zizek. I picked up "The Sublime Object of Ideology" and it's unreadable imo. His essays and stuff are usually fine but every time I crack open a longer work its like reading the Sokal hoax.
#14185
[account deactivated]
#14186
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His best work is his longer stuff and maybe a primer or something might be worth exploring but aerdil isn't wrong so donćt hold your breath!

My advice for reading Žižek is don't. Watch both Pervert films, they are really good. Listen to a couple of talks, they can be entertaining at least. Read and watch what he talks about. If he still seems worth the time, and keep in mind aerdil is right, then try and read him again.

Instead, read Alain Badiou. A lot of Žižek's stuff is basically Badiou's but with pop culture, so if you can't keep focused with Žižek, Badiou might be better. Read Alenka Zupančič. Read Mladen Dolar. Lacan himself isn’t difficult to read either.

All of these people are psychoanalysts. The goal of psychoanalysis isn't to provide solutions. The goal of psychoanalysis is to give you the tools to understand and in some cases reshape your perspective of your symbolic reality.

"You feel lonely and sad because you're alienated from your labor and taught to desire things. Realizing that these desires are placed upon you by advertising and ultimately capitalism will help you reconcile these issues and allow you to live in an imperfect society with a newfound peace" or "You may be racist but you are also part of a racist society so don't feel personally offended at your racism." or whatever.

It's not serious theory by any means but it isn't exactly bullshit, either. It's applicable but toothless. It's usefulness comes from being able to work towards a certain mutual intelligibility and is actually very good at easily being able to recontextualize works.
#14187
UNUSUALY COOL
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zizek on movies is, i maintain, fun and good. but hes also bad, the world is a complex place but do not be afraid.
#14188
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the difference between badiou and zizek can be summed up by how badiou was working with L'Organisation Politique for the interests of sans-papiers in france during the year zizek lost his campaign to join the presidency of slovenia as a liberal democrat
#14189
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My favorite piece by Badiou, as pretentious as it is / I am, is this: http://www.lacan.com/frameXXIII7.htm

It's really dense but worth wading through.
#14190
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my continental hood pass is that when i was a little baby marxoteen i co-wrote with someone who had to translate 15 theses into english for us a few months before peter hallward did a much better job of it
#14191
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your_not_aleksandr posted:

His best work is his longer stuff and maybe a primer or something might be worth exploring but aerdil isn't wrong so donćt hold your breath!

My advice for reading Žižek is don't. Watch both Pervert films, they are really good. Listen to a couple of talks, they can be entertaining at least. Read and watch what he talks about. If he still seems worth the time, and keep in mind aerdil is right, then try and read him again.

Instead, read Alain Badiou. A lot of Žižek's stuff is basically Badiou's but with pop culture, so if you can't keep focused with Žižek, Badiou might be better. Read Alenka Zupančič. Read Mladen Dolar. Lacan himself isn’t difficult to read either.

All of these people are psychoanalysts. The goal of psychoanalysis isn't to provide solutions. The goal of psychoanalysis is to give you the tools to understand and in some cases reshape your perspective of your symbolic reality.

"You feel lonely and sad because you're alienated from your labor and taught to desire things. Realizing that these desires are placed upon you by advertising and ultimately capitalism will help you reconcile these issues and allow you to live in an imperfect society with a newfound peace" or "You may be racist but you are also part of a racist society so don't feel personally offended at your racism." or whatever.

It's not serious theory by any means but it isn't exactly bullshit, either. It's applicable but toothless. It's usefulness comes from being able to work towards a certain mutual intelligibility and is actually very good at easily being able to recontextualize works.



Thanks, yeah. I did not have any plans on reading any Zizek anytime soon. There are just so many books to read and I am slow at reading because I'm not very bright or whatever. So I kind of have to do triage and try to be smart about what books I read. Good to be able to eliminate Zizek from contention for the time being.

#14192
[account deactivated]
#14193
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same

those were dark times
#14194
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another shortcut to understanding why zizek is not so great is to take a look at where his politics take him outside bookworld. in addition to unhelpful contrarianism about refugees he's also gone on record to say that europeans are correct to discriminate against Roma people, etc. he enthusiastically endorsed the "no leadership, no demands" policy of occupy, and that policy was fundamental in undermining its ability to produce anything but individual self-satisfaction and catharsis.

while I don't think one should necessarily throw out an entire body of work just because of some errors by its author, these things form a pattern that helps to contextualize his work.
#14195
Post rating: +++++
Zizek was a high ranking member of liberal democracy of slovenia when they unlawfully revoked the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of non-ethnically slovenian national minorities. yet people take his anti-migrant rhetoric as some kind of quirky contrarianism
#14196
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yeah i was thinking about pointing out some more shit he'd said in the past local to slovenia that was totally sincere but it was a little foggy to me and I wanted to look it up first.

guess I was spared the trouble
#14197
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i mentioned this to Petrol who is writing an anti-Zizek piece, there's this recent video of him on RT spouting banal anti-Cuban rhetoric:



what do zizeks theories lead to? what are his politics in practice? doesn't seem like anything worthwhile.

Edited by Chthonic_Goat_666 ()

#14198
UNUSUALY COOL
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today i read david graeber's thing about superheroes. in context of the superman article i wrote here it reveals him for the 100th time to be a guy who doesn't do basic historical research before he makes sweeping generalizations that support his contemporary political positions. at least deadken didn't pretend like he had anything relevant to say about the phenomenon and just made jokes the whole time (i liked deadken's article).
#14199
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david graeber deez nuts
#14200
UNUSUALY COOL
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here's a link for the forum n00bs because it's off the front page now http://www.rhizzone.net/article/2016/04/20/superman-v-capitalism/ it's sad because superman started out doing exactly what graeber says he doesn't do, proactively fixing social problems in violent defiance of the liberal order, and he does it in a way that anarchists could probably get behind with a real historical reason behind why he stopped that's unquestionably relevant today. but graeber gonna graeb