I've had Carter Beats the Devil on my shelf for twenty years. Every time I've picked it up, I've thought, "Yeah - but damn, it's long!" Maybe you've finally pushed me over the edge and I'll actually read it.
The Vasoline's are great. I came by them by way of Kurt Cobain's interest. He talked about them in some interview. At some point Nirvana's album of b-sides and covers came out with their Vasoline stuff on it. It was great. Being the early 90s and pre-Napster it was a quest to find a copy of Vaseline's album. It was also a risk to buy. I probably paid $30-40 for it and I never heard any of their tracks, knowing them only my way of the Nirvana covers.
Looking back I see now that a risky investment in an unknown album encouraged me to listen to and enjoy it. Where as today music is such a commodity that it's hard to become invested in anyone. Coming across the Vasolines today wouldn't catch my interest.
Or maybe I've just gotten old and finding new music is a young persons game.
That interview was great Freddie! I've never heard that stuff about generations X and millennials and really situating their politics in the moment MINUS the cultural stuff, i.e. the internet, which I feel like has always been one of my go to explanations/rationalizations. As a late Gen Xer it helped me to situate my vaguely anti-capitalist politics in a larger moment. I guess I should read more? I don't know. Also, enjoyed the brief coda on the underrated power of the humanities, maybe not in a good way at times, but the utter infiltration that 'useless theory' has had in culture. Anyway, good stuff!
Another fine week - tho you don't mention fat Ignatius and the book club (my copy has a guy with a red cap - plus special note about the illustrator.)
Glad you gave up on Ukraine, for now - tho we all know you HAVE to get back to it. ("No I don't")
Sullivan deserves a mention on the gay marriage issue - but so does abortion. Most of the intensity of the opposition to gay marriage was as a surrogate to opposing abortion, opposing the process of changing legislation by judges rather than politicians, and the increasing intolerance of Christian morality.
By the title on misinformation, I expected a bit more about deep state lies against Trump in the Russia Hoax, and the lies (of 51 well known, well paid gov't IC folk) about Hunter Biden's laptop, plus the censorship of the truth for 10 days before the election. Yet the "is" vs. "ought" is more relatively under talked about for its importance.
Yimby's will not get any big permanent victory - normal families want a nice suburban life. Comfy house, low crime, good schools, cheap parking. Nimby folk are rational to not want high-crime neighbors, and will use zoning if possible. Where the zoning laws change, many of the nicest folk will find some other low crime place with better zoning.
“Ukrainian forces have defeated the initial Russian campaign of this war. That campaign aimed to conduct airborne and mechanized operations to seize Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and other major Ukrainian cities to force a change of government in Ukraine. That campaign has culminated. Russian forces continue to make limited advances in some parts of the theater but are very unlikely to be able to seize their objectives in this way. The doctrinally sound Russian response to this situation would be to end this campaign, accept a possibly lengthy operational pause, develop the plan for a new campaign, build up resources for that new campaign, and launch it when the resources and other conditions are ready. The Russian military has not yet adopted this approach. It is instead continuing to feed small collections of reinforcements into an ongoing effort to keep the current campaign alive. We assess that that effort will fail.”
So, holy shit.
“If the war in Ukraine settles into a stalemate condition Russian forces will continue to bomb and bombard Ukrainian cities, devastating them and killing civilians, even as Ukrainian forces impose losses on Russian attackers and conduct counter-attacks of their own. The Russians could hope to break Ukrainians’ will to continue fighting under such circumstances by demonstrating Kyiv’s inability to expel Russian forces or stop their attacks even if the Russians are demonstrably unable to take Ukraine’s cities. Ukraine’s defeat of the initial Russian campaign may therefore set conditions for a devastating protraction of the conflict and a dangerous new period testing the resolve of Ukraine and the West. Continued and expanded Western support to Ukraine will be vital to seeing Ukraine through that new period.”
So, holy shit there too.
Richard Hanania had a piece recently dissecting the failures of prediction regarding the war. Basically, everybody who knew it would be a grueling, destructive, bloody, fucked up horrible quagmire subsequently assumed that Russia would therefore not be dumb enough to invade; everybody who knew that Russia was about to invade assumed it would be a quick and decisive repeat of the 2008 Georgia war.
Now that the maneuver section is over and done with, the grueling, destructive, bloody, fucked up horrible quagmire part shall begin.
Great comment of the week! Andrew’s frequent links to “the incomparable Freddie deBoer” were, taken together, my direct route to my subscription here. +100!
MUJI MUJI MUJIMUJISOHO!!
(But isn’t it “Destination unknown”?)
Did you get anything cool at muji? I yearn for just about everything there
The Muji flagship store on Fifth Avenue is something to see. And they have incredibly cheap specials.
I've had Carter Beats the Devil on my shelf for twenty years. Every time I've picked it up, I've thought, "Yeah - but damn, it's long!" Maybe you've finally pushed me over the edge and I'll actually read it.
The Vasoline's are great. I came by them by way of Kurt Cobain's interest. He talked about them in some interview. At some point Nirvana's album of b-sides and covers came out with their Vasoline stuff on it. It was great. Being the early 90s and pre-Napster it was a quest to find a copy of Vaseline's album. It was also a risk to buy. I probably paid $30-40 for it and I never heard any of their tracks, knowing them only my way of the Nirvana covers.
Looking back I see now that a risky investment in an unknown album encouraged me to listen to and enjoy it. Where as today music is such a commodity that it's hard to become invested in anyone. Coming across the Vasolines today wouldn't catch my interest.
Or maybe I've just gotten old and finding new music is a young persons game.
How can you make that joke and then *not* have it as Song of the Week? I'm going to have it in my head all day now.
Can’t wait for book club next week!
That interview was great Freddie! I've never heard that stuff about generations X and millennials and really situating their politics in the moment MINUS the cultural stuff, i.e. the internet, which I feel like has always been one of my go to explanations/rationalizations. As a late Gen Xer it helped me to situate my vaguely anti-capitalist politics in a larger moment. I guess I should read more? I don't know. Also, enjoyed the brief coda on the underrated power of the humanities, maybe not in a good way at times, but the utter infiltration that 'useless theory' has had in culture. Anyway, good stuff!
Another fine week - tho you don't mention fat Ignatius and the book club (my copy has a guy with a red cap - plus special note about the illustrator.)
Glad you gave up on Ukraine, for now - tho we all know you HAVE to get back to it. ("No I don't")
Sullivan deserves a mention on the gay marriage issue - but so does abortion. Most of the intensity of the opposition to gay marriage was as a surrogate to opposing abortion, opposing the process of changing legislation by judges rather than politicians, and the increasing intolerance of Christian morality.
By the title on misinformation, I expected a bit more about deep state lies against Trump in the Russia Hoax, and the lies (of 51 well known, well paid gov't IC folk) about Hunter Biden's laptop, plus the censorship of the truth for 10 days before the election. Yet the "is" vs. "ought" is more relatively under talked about for its importance.
Yimby's will not get any big permanent victory - normal families want a nice suburban life. Comfy house, low crime, good schools, cheap parking. Nimby folk are rational to not want high-crime neighbors, and will use zoning if possible. Where the zoning laws change, many of the nicest folk will find some other low crime place with better zoning.
Brief report from the Russo-Ukraine War. As per the Institute for the Study of War (https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-19):
“Ukrainian forces have defeated the initial Russian campaign of this war. That campaign aimed to conduct airborne and mechanized operations to seize Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and other major Ukrainian cities to force a change of government in Ukraine. That campaign has culminated. Russian forces continue to make limited advances in some parts of the theater but are very unlikely to be able to seize their objectives in this way. The doctrinally sound Russian response to this situation would be to end this campaign, accept a possibly lengthy operational pause, develop the plan for a new campaign, build up resources for that new campaign, and launch it when the resources and other conditions are ready. The Russian military has not yet adopted this approach. It is instead continuing to feed small collections of reinforcements into an ongoing effort to keep the current campaign alive. We assess that that effort will fail.”
So, holy shit.
“If the war in Ukraine settles into a stalemate condition Russian forces will continue to bomb and bombard Ukrainian cities, devastating them and killing civilians, even as Ukrainian forces impose losses on Russian attackers and conduct counter-attacks of their own. The Russians could hope to break Ukrainians’ will to continue fighting under such circumstances by demonstrating Kyiv’s inability to expel Russian forces or stop their attacks even if the Russians are demonstrably unable to take Ukraine’s cities. Ukraine’s defeat of the initial Russian campaign may therefore set conditions for a devastating protraction of the conflict and a dangerous new period testing the resolve of Ukraine and the West. Continued and expanded Western support to Ukraine will be vital to seeing Ukraine through that new period.”
So, holy shit there too.
Richard Hanania had a piece recently dissecting the failures of prediction regarding the war. Basically, everybody who knew it would be a grueling, destructive, bloody, fucked up horrible quagmire subsequently assumed that Russia would therefore not be dumb enough to invade; everybody who knew that Russia was about to invade assumed it would be a quick and decisive repeat of the 2008 Georgia war.
Now that the maneuver section is over and done with, the grueling, destructive, bloody, fucked up horrible quagmire part shall begin.
Great comment of the week! Andrew’s frequent links to “the incomparable Freddie deBoer” were, taken together, my direct route to my subscription here. +100!