Leftern
- Freddie DeBoer taken down by alien invaders. Honestly that just kind of sucks.
- #AltWoke Manifesto drops, repeats the same points the Academic Left has for years, uses those points to criticize the Academic Left. More hashtags and Land quotes. Fails to understand that culture is the wrong fight.
- Jacobin gives a great history of (violence against) strikes in the United States; chance of a Paris, TX Commune still quite low.
Rightly
- The year’s most important article on politics has already been written. I’ve linked it before, and will do so forever. Go read it.
- A strong contender for second place (so far) came from a tweet storm (now essay) on the history of Leftist violence in the US. I disagree with the author’s analysis of power relations at the end (he notably does not take the police into account as a structurally Rightist force), but still crucial.
- Bannon’s reading list is apparently… a half-baked sociological theory, Nassim Taleb, and a blog post or two? Seems weird for an article that calls him “the most well-read person in Washington”, but then again most politicos seem to be functionally illiterate. Far more interesting is the claim that Moldbug and Taleb are in contact with the Oval Office (somehow). We should be so lucky! Agonism’s first axiom: find worthy enemies.
Beyond Good and Evil
- A car review blog goes full Alone – “Money and breeding always beat poor white trash”, buy Audi!
- Nietzschean glee penetrates even the culture war: Laughing at the Spirits in North Siberia: Is Animism Being Taken too Seriously?
Snakes and Laffers
- Hanson on Big Fucking Problems.
- IGM on Trump.
- A strangely sober account of climate change.
- Q: What Do Europeans Think About Muslim Immigration? A: Not that many good things.
- Economic analysis of “bullet-proofing” magic in the Congo. Fantastic! Still doesn’t answer the authors’ question; it gives a mechanism, not a reason. Still, it’s an interesting variation on the Anthropic Principle with exactly the same conceptual errors. Don’t see how? Think about it.
Anthropology
- Overdoses in Ohio are, uh, kind of an issue.
- Brazilian police strike, like really strike, so The Purge Begins. A teen pedals through the neighborhood warning that anyone who leaves their house will immediately be shot. I actually don’t know who gets political points for this one.
- Applying High-Modernist principles to parenting: grandmom dresses as witch to beat and frighten child into behaving; goes how you’d expect (top image). Real question: why did she name the witch “Nelda”?
Song of the Year but the Year is 1994
sam[ ]zdat 