From the guest list, the show looked like it was created to have a space where left commentators of various sorts would come on and hash out ideological differences as the US left is in the wilderness post-Bernie. It would be interesting, I thought, to have a show where an ultra like Sean KB from The Antifada could explain Marxist theory on a panel with social democrats and have some kind of discussion.

It turns out that its basically just a radlib version of The Five from Fox News, where they just take turns kicking the tires on the days news.

Does anyone actually want a show like this? It seems like its trying to fill a market that doesn't exist - or maybe existed a few years ago and doesn't today. When I look around, I don't think to myself, "You know who has some understanding of the political struggle we face in this moment? This DSA-backed state legislator from NYC."

Listening to it was deeply unsettling. I don't recommend it.

  • cracksmoke2020 [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    The term leftist, per my understanding, purely means anti capitalist and has nothing to do with other tendencies. It's a term that exists to create a united term for all anti capitalist tendencies.

    Marxism has often been the only successful anti capitalist ideology, but the formerly ML parties in Europe that now mostly operate as demsocs are still leftist.

      • cracksmoke2020 [none/use name]
        ·
        4 years ago

        You're not going to see social democrats put a multi year moratorium on rent increases for all properties in a major city like Die Linke did in Berlin. That's still an anti capitalist action even though it still operated within the constraints of the capitalist constitutional government.

        This is just how left politics since the fall of the USSR has operated. The logic you're applying would label Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez as liberals because they worked within their existing institutions.

        • hagensfohawk [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I don't know if Die Linke is explicitly Marxist, but it's basically made up of a mix of old former GDR communists and young radicals. And Chavez and Morales are nationalists first and foremost. Third-world nationalism is always difficult politics to decipher. It's not liberal in the western sense. But nationalism is a key component of liberalism. Eh, the point of the thread is about Virgil's new podcast so this convo is getting sidetracked anyway.