Retrospectives, Analysis, History, Theory, and Technology

Fascism is the Western Answer to Class Struggle^NC

Unlike China, India will not become an economic superpower: Report^AM

China: consumption or investment?^{MichaelRoberts}

Wheel has come full circle in Myanmar^Bhadrakumar

Former FBI Agent Prepared to Testify that JPMorgan Had Jeffrey Epstein Account for 28 Years – Not 15 Years – and “Impeded” Criminal Investigation of Epstein^WSoP

No such thing as a "former" FBI agent of course.

Imperial disintegration: What’s happening in West Africa?^PW

People’s Republic of Walmart: A Salvageable Trainwreck^RC

The historical period we find ourselves in is not so different from the beginning of the 20th century, in which the Bolsheviks had to struggle against the revisionism of the Second International and for the unity of Marxists. Today, revisionism often manifests as a tendency of reconciliation between socialism and the perceived omnipotence of the market or between socialists and the bourgeois state. This is what makes People’s Republic of Walmart, by Jacobin magazine writers Leigh Phillips and Michael Rozworski, so profoundly frustrating: it succeeds at refuting the former, but falls prey to the latter.

The great merit of the book is its faithful defense of economic planning against the resilient mold of free-market ideology — a defense that is so greatly needed as neoliberalism has, for decades, corroded what little “opposition” “left” intellectuals ever managed to muster. Unfortunately, however, the authors are not Marxists, so the book is simultaneously undermined by their infantile politics — not to mention their occasionally cringeworthy prose. Especially in the first couple of chapters, I was left with the impression that the authors are insecure about their subject matter, remarking with belabored “self-awareness” in various places that it is “old,” “musty,” “not sexy,” and as interesting as “an airport business book.” Their self-deprecating tone, meant to ingratiate the authors with an audience they assume will be hostile to, or uninterested in, what they have to say, only insults the reader’s intelligence. Wherever they constrain themselves to discussing the operation of capitalist firms or advancements in information technology, it is my opinion that the authors achieve grace, wit, and humor. Wherever they attempt to interject their own sophomoric social and political commentary, however, the book becomes an unrewarding chore to read. Ultimately, the book’s central thesis — that economic planning not only could work, but, in many ways, is already at work, and working well — can be salvaged from this smoldering wreckage, but it must be coupled with a correct analysis of democracy and social revolution.

As somebody who read the book, I wholeheartedly agree with this. It feels like the authors somehow managed to be both pro-planned economy and yet also firmly on the side of the Democratic Party rather than just denouncing the whole lot of these ghouls. It's a bizarre position to be in. It's almost as if they believe that free market vs planning is one of those things that they could convince the Democratic Party to take on as a platform position, without realizing that the entire American political project is specifically designed to maximise profit for a select few and a planned economy - in the way that is usually defined, along socialist lines - is the absolute antithesis of that and would never be permitted by Western oligarchs in a liberal democracy. You might as well say "Maybe, just maybe, we could convince Biden to implement full socialism. The only way to know is to keep voting and Putting Pressure™ on Biden to go left!" as he breaks up unions and makes deals with the Republicans. But despite - and maybe even because - of those things, it's an alright book for baby leftists.

LGBTQIA+

Oklahoma Governor Orders State to Use Anti-Trans Definition of Gender^Advocate

Kentucky Allowed to Enforce Trans Care Ban, Appeals Court Rules^Advocate

Erie, Pennsylvania, Declares Itself LGBTQ+ Sanctuary City^Advocate

Judge Tosses Lawsuit Against Ohio School District’s Pro-Trans Policies^Advocate

Climate and the Environment

Talks on deep sea mining continue, with governments agreeing to put it on the agenda for international talks next year despite Mexico, Nauru, and China not wanting to ban the mining.^CCN

Western media organizations are largely not covering the new peer-reviewed Nature study that claims that an Atlantic Ocean cirulation system might collapse in the near-future.^FAIR

The right wing has a plan to undo climate progress if Trump wins in 2024, which I assume would just be all the stuff Biden is currently doing with giving out oil and gas licenses to fossil fuel companies like candy and banning Chinese green technology that could help the US, but with none of the "Yeah bro, we'll uh, totally get on that climate thing. Get some electric vehicles on the road!"^ICN

Climate Denial May Escalate Into a Total Rupture With Reality^CA

Another excellent, insightful piece of climate-related fiction was the film Don’t Look Up, which created a lot of conversation when it came out in 2021. Critics thought it was heavy-handed, and didn’t appreciate how insightfully it captured the way denial works. In the film, the scientists who try to warn humanity about an inbound asteroid are mocked and ignored, just like scientists today. (But the film depicts TV news as a model of civil discourse compared to the actual Laurence Fox show, which is more like ’90s “trash TV” of the Wally George variety.) But where the film really gets it right is in showing what happens when the approaching asteroid finally becomes visible to the naked eye. It’s one thing to disbelieve scientists, after all. That’s a product of the loss of faith in institutions and expertise, which is partly rational and partly paranoid. But surely when you can actually see it coming straight for you, denial becomes impossible, right?

Wrong, according to Don’t Look Up. In the film, the right’s response to seeing the asteroid is to adopt the slogan “Don’t Look Up,” which they delight in because it triggers the libs. Their denial does not disappear. They don’t go “Oh shit, we’d better do something.” They’re locked into their position by that point, so their level of delusion actually escalates. They just completely sever their connection with reality.

I think we can see that Don’t Look Up got this right. In this hottest year ever, with the evidence of disaster now undeniable, do we see the Republican Party finally dropping its climate denial? No, quite the opposite. They are just as hell-bent as ever on destroying the totally inadequate and pitiful measures that have been taken to mitigate it. “It’s Called Summer” is their “Don’t Look Up.” They are actually developing a comprehensive plan to destroy all climate change policy in 2025 should they win back the White House. It doesn’t seem to matter that their kids and grandkids are going to have to inhabit the dried-out hellscape they are making. They know that fossil fuels built this country, scientists are a bunch of power-hungry bureaucrats, environmentalism is socialism, and oil is our future. These are absolutes in their worldview. They will not give them up even if they watch their own children collapse of heatstroke onto a burning pavement.

...

We know the climate will continue to unravel. What I think is less understood is that we might see a kind of spiral into worse and worse mass delusion and “social insanity” at the same time, among those who cannot reconcile what needs to be done with their political ideology (a commitment to fossil fuels and corporate profit among Republicans, a commitment to incrementalism and corporate profit among Democrats).

A great piece. This applies to a very wide range of contemporary topics. You can really feel the sense of mass delusion being perpetuated around us as reality comes knocking and people pile furniture in front of the door and increase the volume on their podcasts and radios reassuring them that reality isn't real, it can't hurt you. "No, climate change isn't real. Russia is about to collapse. China is about to collapse. We'll make it to Mars. You'll buy your own house. The brown skinned or blue haired people outside will go away or grow up. Don't worry." It's the endstage of liberal individualist idealism, and it all has to come crashing down. Though I think the final breaking point still lies many years in the future.