“The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned.
I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.”
-- Antonio Gramsci
The old forms of the Left are moribund and the new forms are stupid. We're making a podcast that discusses the need to organize a Dialectical Pessimism and develop a salvage project capable of sparking a new workers' movement for socialism.
A clean, honest, and unsentimental melancholy is required; we are cultivating one and would like to share it with you.
Check us out on Patreon for regular Patron Book Clubs, Regrettable Geopolitics updates, Real Nerd Hours, and more...
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Episodes
Tuesday Jul 16, 2024
Tuesday Jul 16, 2024
This week we are joined by our official France correspondent, Matthew. We discuss the unique threat of the post-fascist menace and what the results and prospects are for the shaky leftist coalition.
Thursday Jul 11, 2024
Thursday Jul 11, 2024
Wake up babe, new Dugin Time just dropped. The boys are back and discussing Dugin's understanding of processes and, now that they're about halfway done with the book, begin to ask the question "What is the Fourth Political Theory?"
Check out Varn Vlog here:
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts
Check out Antifada here:
https://www.patreon.com/theantifada
Wednesday Jun 26, 2024
Wednesday Jun 26, 2024
This week we sat down with C. Derick Varn to talk about "decadence theory," "crisis theory," and "breakdown theory." This is a special episode, mostly because it wasn't supposed to come out until August, but Varn accidentally released it early so y'all get a bonus episode.
We discussed the following materials:
Morley, Neville. "Decadence as a Theory of History." New Literary History, Vol. 35, No. 4, Forms and/of Decadence (Autumn, 2004), pp.573-585
Decadence: The Theory of Decline or the Decline of Theory?
https://libcom.org/library/decadence-aufheben-2
Revolution or Decadence?
https://monthlyreview.org/2018/05/01/revolution-or-decadence/
Check out Varn Vlog Here
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog
Monday Jun 24, 2024
Monday Jun 24, 2024
This week we sat down with members of the New Zealand Federation of Socialist Societies to discuss their efforts to revitalize the socialist project and to build a basis for future socialist struggles.
NZFSS Website
https://www.socialistsocieties.org.nz/
Thursday Jun 20, 2024
Thursday Jun 20, 2024
Back at it again with the national question and soldiering on through chapter 1...
A link to the PDF:
https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer
Monday Jun 10, 2024
Monday Jun 10, 2024
We invited podcast alumnus, Jess, back to talk about how terrible everything is. We touch on Tiktok houses, literature, and the death of the future.
The End of The Future
https://jacobin.com/2024/03/left-politics-future-history-capitalism-progress
Why Is Our Culture So Obsessed With Individual Experience
https://jacobin.com/2024/03/anna-kornbluh-immediacy-individualism-capitalism/
Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle: Are We Defined by How We Appear
https://www.thecollector.com/guy-debord-society-of-the-spectacle/
The Anxiety of Influencers
https://harpers.org/archive/2021/06/tiktok-house-collab-house-the-anxiety-of-influencers/
Thursday Jun 06, 2024
Thursday Jun 06, 2024
Jason, Varn, and Sean KB continue the forced march through the Aleksander Dugin's Fourth Political Theory.
Check out Varn Vlog here:
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts
Check out Antifada here:
https://www.patreon.com/theantifada
Sunday Jun 02, 2024
Sunday Jun 02, 2024
This week we are tying up some loose ends we left unexplored in our last regular episode on Fascism and Anarcho-Individualism. Enjoy this bonus content!
Wednesday May 22, 2024
Wednesday May 22, 2024
This week we discussed one of the many currents of thought that led to the creation of Italian Fascism, Anarcho-Individualism. It seems counterintuitive that anarchism would have made any contribution to the creation of fascism, until you think about it.
Whitaker, Stephen B. The Anarchist-individualist Origins of Italian Fascism. Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers, 2002.
From Stirner to Mussolini: The Anarchist-Individualist Origins of Italian Fascism
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/william-gillis-from-stirner-to-mussolini.pdf
Monday May 13, 2024
Monday May 13, 2024
This week Jason and Kevin discuss the Liberal Socialism; what it is, where it comes from, its impact on the development of the left, its prospects, and its limitations.
What Is Liberal Socialism?
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/what-is-liberal-socialism/
The Idea of a Liberal Socialism
https://www.socialeurope.eu/the-idea-of-a-liberal-socialism
Liberal Socialism Now
https://aeon.co/essays/the-case-for-liberal-socialism-in-the-21st-century
Toward A Liberal Socialism?
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/toward-a-liberal-socialism/
Socialists Don’t Want to Destroy Liberalism. We Want to Go Beyond It.
https://jacobin.com/2020/10/socialism-liberalism-marx