Politics is one of the only practical disciplines where none of the main concepts have clear, coherent definitions.
We define ourselves with terms like "left” and "right" and we believe in things like "democracy," “markets,” "capitalism" and "socialism" even though we don’t really know what any of these words actually mean.
This series aims to make sense out of the political muddle that we've inherited from media, academia, and from decades of cold war propaganda, so that we can figure what it is that we want when it comes to politics, and how we can achieve it.
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Politics is one of the only practical disciplines where none of the main concepts have clear, coherent definitions.
We define ourselves with terms like "left” and "right" and we believe in things like "democracy," “markets,” "capitalism" and "socialism" even though we don’t really know what any of these words actually mean.
This series aims to make sense out of the political muddle that we've inherited from media, academia, and from decades of cold war propaganda, so that we can figure what it is that we want when it comes to politics, and how we can achieve it.
Who were the people of Palestine and what were their lives about in the late 19th century, before the first Zionists began arriving from Europe in the 1880s? This episode focuses on the fellahin – the peasants of Palestine... Continue Reading →
In the book Abundance, left liberal authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson identify unnecessary bureaucracy and red tape as an important factor in why there is a shortage of housing across the USA. Very quickly, billionaires and powerful donors have... Continue Reading →
Why are human beings so greedy and why are our societies so hierarchical, if our ancestors were so fiercely egalitarian? What is “human nature” in this regard? A new theory about inequality of wealth and power in human societies.... Continue Reading →
My message to Jewish supporters of the war in Gaza. (TIMESTAMPS BELOW) TO SUPPORT MY EXISTENCE: PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS: KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: TRANSCRIPT BIBLIOGRAPHY / WORKS CITED VIDEO... Continue Reading →
Market Exit, like many others before him, tells us that the left-right political spectrum is obsolete and does more harm than good. That’s because he doesn’t know what they mean. This video explains: 1. What the political left and right... Continue Reading →
Why are nationalist / populist / far right candidates and parties getting elected all around the world? Why isn’t the populist left enjoying the same success? Why does inequality keep getting worse nomatter who gets elected? PAYPAL ONE TIME OR... Continue Reading →
This series focuses on those aspects of the origins of the Israel/Palestine conflict that partisans on both sides mutually ignore. This episode examines jewish life in Europe and the conditions leading to the rise of Zionism until the first wave... Continue Reading →
This is a Q&A where I respond to questions and critiques about episode 12: The ABC’s of Israel/Palestine (https://youtu.be/OLr_VCqnId0) and also go off on a whole bunch of related tangents. TIMESTAMPS BELOW! BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102834580 (no paywall) I purposefully don’t monetize... Continue Reading →
What was supposed to be an informal QnA about the “Israel/Palestine ABCs” episode, turned into a What is Politics “live” brainstorm session à la Matt Christman “grillstream,” where I discuss my arguments and readings on who and what started the... Continue Reading →
Elites use identity, particularly national identity, as a way of advancing their own interests, often against the interests of the populations that they pretend to represent. But before we can understand this, we need an ABC of the conflict, to... Continue Reading →
When ideas and movements that threaten to overturn established hierarchies of power are absorbed into elite institutions like Ivy League universities and for-profit corporations, they get transformed into ideas that support the status quo, while remaining cloaked in the language... Continue Reading →
The leaders of the Russian Revolutions of February and October 1917 sought to establish socialism: a deeply democratic economic and political system where the employee/employer relationship is abolished, and where workers control their workplaces, the means of production and the... Continue Reading →
Why has every communist country so far been a one party dictatorship? Is it something inherent to Socialism or Marxism? Is human nature incompatible with political equality? Has “true” communism never been tried yet? If so, then... Continue Reading →
In this episode we cover the rest of chapter 3 of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything. In this chapter, the authors claim that the seasonal social structures of the traditional Nambikwara, Lakota and Kwakiutl were... Continue Reading →
We cover the first part of chapter 3 of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything: ”Unfreezing the Ice Age”, and we investigate the authors’ claims that human inequality has no origins based on archeology from upper... Continue Reading →
In this episode we cover chapter 1 of David Graeber & David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything, entitled Farewell to Humanity’s Childhood; or Why This isn’t a Book About the Origins of Inequality. In doing so, we look at... Continue Reading →
In this episode we read and critique the conclusion of Chapter 2 of Dawn of Everything, “Wicked Liberty: The Indigenous Critique and the Myth of the Noble Savage”, which was previously released in French in 2019 as La Sagesse de... Continue Reading →
A critical reading of “The Wisdom of Kandiaronk, The Indigenous Critique, the Myth of Progress and the Birth of the Left” from David Graeber & David Wengrow’s upcoming book The Dawn of Everything. In this chapter Graeber & Wengrow argue... Continue Reading →
Interview with Arnold Schroeder of Fight Like an Animal, a wonderful and endessly fascinating show that looks through 20 years of experience of hardcore climate activism, at why left political movements are so weak and ineffective and how to change... Continue Reading →
The terms “cancel culture” and “political correctness” are used to delegitimize ideas like gender equality and racial equality by conflating them with toxic dominance behaviour practiced by up-and-coming elites who disguise their power plays in egalitarian social justice language. In... Continue Reading →
Politics is one of the only practical disciplines where none of the main concepts have clear, coherent definitions.
We define ourselves with terms like "left” and "right" and we believe in things like "democracy," “markets,” "capitalism" and "socialism" even though we don’t really know what any of these words actually mean.
This series aims to make sense out of the political muddle that we've inherited from media, academia, and from decades of cold war propaganda, so that we can figure what it is that we want when it comes to politics, and how we can achieve it.
