Vijay Prishad inspires with his response to the question "What should I do?"
tankie.tube
From the panel discussion for the release of David Harvey's "The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles" at The People's Forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVqPSF4IlfE

Clipped this last night to share here, I've probably watched it 20 times since I found it on Thursday

  • StillNoLeftLeft [none/use name, she/her]
    ·
    4 hours ago

    Absolutely loved the passion of the first audience commentary on the need to re-center imperialism.

    Also found Harveys takes on China to be surprisingly western chauvinist or something. The way he compares things was surprisingly, I don't know how to word this, simplistic? It seems symptomatic of academia as I see similar stuff a lot in my uni reading.

    The middle guy was voicing the interesting anxiety Western left academia currently has about the breaking of nation-states and therefore consensus. I just read a whole book that was essentially about the same and also downplayed imperialism (as Lenin frames it). It seems very contradictory as it almost feels like they are pining for the very systems of liberal democracy they at the same time critical of.

    • MF_COOM [he/him]
      ·
      4 hours ago

      I guess it's all about expectations, I expected him to be much worse on China (he famously put Deng's picture on the cover of A Brief History of Neoliberalism) so I was surprised how much more nuanced he was than I expected lol

      • StillNoLeftLeft [none/use name, she/her]
        ·
        3 hours ago

        Oh he is that anti-China? Well that considered not so bad, but still pretty bad.

        His comment about chips and computers was especially weird. Like there would not be goods made in socialism? Like it would just end there. Smelled like some latent braimworms about "capitalism and the free market as innovation" and the myth of modernization & capitalism as a whole.

        Also disappointed how little he aknowledged the weight of history especially regarding imperialist forces, good on the first commenter to go so hard on that point even though they were clearly nervous in doing so.

        The stark difference on the focuses of the panelists did really highlight the different conditions these people are from as well.