“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
Thursday May 09, 2024
Thursday May 09, 2024
We are back at it again covering Otto Bauer's unique Marxist take on the national question.
This week we began to cover Chapter I.
A link to the PDF:
https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer
Wednesday May 01, 2024
Wednesday May 01, 2024
Jason, Varn, and Sean are back and talking Fourth Political Theory once again.
Check out Varn Vlog:
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts
Check out the ANTIFADA:
https://www.patreon.com/theantifada
Monday Apr 29, 2024
Monday Apr 29, 2024
The Marxist/Christian dialogue continues!
This week Jason and Ben sat down with Daniel Saunders to discuss an article he wrote called Ideology, Fetishism, Apophaticism: Marxist Criticism and Christianity:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nbfr.12642
Daniel's paper "explores Christianity’s ambiguous relationship to capitalism by engaging Marx’s notion of the fetishism of commodities as a way of rethinking Marxism’s critique of religion from the standpoint of political economy. "
Other Daniel stuff can be found here:
https://daniel-saunders.com/
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
This week we tried something new, we put out a call on our Patreon and Discord for questions and y'all responded with 10 pretty good questions. Questions about democracy, ethics, children, etc...
We answered them.
Enjoy!
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
They said it wasn't possible for a Marxist to break down the national question in a sophisticated and nuanced way, but Otto Bauer has done it. This book from 1907, which no one on the Anglophone Left has ever read, is quite possibly the best book on the subject. We are here to read it and let you know.
This week we covered the introductory materials.
A link to the PDF:
https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer
Monday Apr 08, 2024
Monday Apr 08, 2024
This week we are joined by Jon (thelitcritguy of HorrorVanguard fame) to discuss his new book A Primer on Utopian Philosophy: An Introduction to the Work of Ernst Bloch which was just released on Zero Books. We discuss nihilism, optimism, hope, and dialectical pessimism and the ever pertinent work of Ernst Bloch.
Check out Horror Vanguard Here
Check out Jon's Blog Here
Buy Jon's Book Here
Tuesday Mar 26, 2024
Tuesday Mar 26, 2024
This week we sat down with our old comrade and actual Psychiatrist, Dr Byron, to talk about mental health, the left, and how TikTok is ruining everyones brains.
Psychiatric Hegemony: A Marxist Theory of Mental Illness (review for relevant book)
https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/03/psychiatric-hegemony-marxist-theory-mental-illness/
What the Anti-Psychiatry Movement Got Wrong About Mental Illness
https://jacobin.com/2022/03/anti-psychiatry-movement-mental-illness-psychological-suffering
Psychiatry Won’t Solve Our Mental Health Crisis — Only Politics Can Do That
https://jacobin.com/2023/12/psychiatry-history-trauma-politics-medicine-mental-health
This Is Not the Way to Help Depressed Teenagers (NYT discussing the WISE Teens Study)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/18/opinion/teenagers-mental-health-treatment.html
The functions of the mental health system under capitalism https://joannamoncrieff.com/2022/03/28/the-functions-of-the-mental-health-system-under-capitalism/
Thursday Mar 21, 2024
Thursday Mar 21, 2024
Jason and Varn are joined again by Sean KB of Antifida and continue with their close reading of The Fourth Political Theory by Alexander Dugin.
Check out Varn Vlog:
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts
Check out the ANTIFADA:
https://www.patreon.com/theantifada
Wednesday Mar 13, 2024
Wednesday Mar 13, 2024
This month we return to Richard Seymour's essay about the new forms of nationalism. At this point the essay is a few years old, so we were able to discuss how things have developed since it was written. We also did not know that a book by the same name by Seymour was coming out soon...
Prepared for the Worst: Disaster Nationalism
https://salvage.zone/prepared-for-the-worst-disaster-nationalism/
Disaster Nationalism: THE DOWNFALL OF LIBERAL CIVILIZATION
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/761156/disaster-nationalism-by-richard-seymour/
Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions.
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Monday Mar 11, 2024
This week the boys got together to talk about political apostasy. From the old left, to the new left, to whatever the hell it is that we have now. We discuss the motivations and consequences of jumping ship.
The Ex-Communist’s Conscience
https://www.marxists.org/archive/deutscher/1950/ex-communist.htm
Turned Around: Why Leftists Go Right
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/22/why-leftists-go-right
From Memoirs of a Trotskyist by Irving Kristol
https://www.pbs.org/arguing/nyintellectuals_krystol_2.html
The Neoconservative Counterrevolution
https://jacobin.com/2015/04/neoconservatives-kristol-podhoretz-hartman-culture-war
How Ex-Communists Shaped American Conservatism
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/03/how-ex-communists-shaped-american-conservatism/426849/
Trotskycons
https://www.nationalreview.com/2003/06/trotskycons-stephen-schwartz/
The Neoconservative Journey
https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/0817945725_105.pdf
The Legacy of the Trotskyist Right
https://www.toqonline.com/archives/v6n2/SneigoskiTOQV6N2.pdf
Like our theme song? Check out Autumn Brigade here:
https://autumnbrigade.bandcamp.com/album/geist-ist-tot