I can’t possibly post all podcast appearances right now, as I’m doing so many, but I did want to share my recent appearance on Fucking Cancelled.
So, I’ll be revealing the winner (and paying the winner) of the Derek Chauvin challenge on Wednesday. The holdup is pretty simply stated: I’m writing a big long post that looks at all of the entry, tries to categorize them into different kinds of arguments, and quantifies those arguments. The trouble is that there are hundreds and hundreds of entries, and this is a lot of work. I was planning on running the winner on the same day or the next day for continuity. But I’m in the middle of promoting my new book, and we’re still doing a lot of things related to moving here, and I’m just swamped. So I’m just going to run the damn thing this coming week. I’m so sorry for the delay.
This Week’s Posts
Monday, August 14th - “Race vs. Class” is a Tactical Question Masquerading as a Question of Values
What we “center” in our political campaigns is a matter of outcomes, not a matter of morals.
Tuesday, August 15th - Does Political Message Matter or Not?
YIMBYism must abide by the same rules of coalition building and comity as any other political movement.
Wednesday, August 16th - Does AI Just Suck?
It’s an honest question.
Friday, August 18th - Excerpt, How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement: Whatever Happened to 2020? (subscriber only)
An excerpt from my upcoming book that I thought would break a little bad streak I’ve had as far as getting subscriptions…. It did not. But the book is good and so is the excerpt.
From the Archives
Song of the Week
Non-Garbage Online Reading
It will no doubt shock you to learn that “Autism TikTok” is absolutely full of factual inaccuracies and misinformation.
Book Recommendation
Existence in Black, ed. Lewis Gordon, 1996
Kind of a left-field recommendation here but, well, I’ve written nearly a hundred of these digest posts. This book is a consistently thought-provoking anthology of racial philosophy and contemporary existentialism. The book is very worth reading if you're interested in these topics, and I think you might be even if you don’t really know that yet. The most interesting and on-point work, of course, is Lewis Gordon’s, the editor of the volume. His brand of Black existentialism is so thoroughly his own that the other essays don't quite perfectly align with his project. Which is fine! It's still a good collection. I’m tempted to say that I would encourage anyone who's apt to read this to first read Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism, which is Gordon's maxum opus and one of the finest works of practical existentialist philosophy ever written. But I know most people aren’t going to rush out to grab a at-times fairly technical book of academic philosophy. So I think this could be a good appetizer - pick it up, find a couple essays that seem the most interesting to you, and see if this is your type of thing.
Comment of the Week
I hope your last paragraph is right. I'm really sick of living in a world seemingly dominated by the anti-human obsessions of tech evangelists and I would love for one of their attempts to remake civilization to fail in a very public, very noticable way. - episodenull
I’m frazzled!
Oh cool. I thought I had somehow missed the Chauvin winner-post. Looking forward to it.
I reciprocate your Mitski video with this newest song from her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WW7cuAm-7Y I am embarrassed at how obsessed I am with this song--as if I am a star-struck, angsty Gen Zer instead of a staid mid-50s professor.