Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Month: February 2019 (Page 1 of 2)

Green Book and Teen Vogue

February 28, 2019 /
Green Book

Source: Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book.jpg)

Green Book was an OK movie, not a great movie or even a good one. It’s in good company on the list of Oscar Best Picture nominees. You could make an awards case for Roma, but any of the others would’ve been a weak choice. Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice were the worst of the bunch. Neither of the two best movies I saw in 2018 (Sorry to Bother You and A Quiet Place, respectively) made the list.

Grumble, grumble.

I’ve got an upcoming post on the concept of the ‘liberal bubble,’ and what I’ll say here will preview that a bit. A lot of the criticism of Green Book from a particular set, namely highly educated, wealthier, white, ‘woke’ liberals, runs into a sort of bubble issue.

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standardized testing
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thedavisblog/2230010178

Standardized Testing: Progressive or Not?

February 25, 2019 /

About a year ago, Freddie deBoer wrote what he called the ‘progressive case‘ for the SAT. Mostly he used the SAT as a convenient stand-in for standardized testing in its American form.

DeBoer’s take on this was provocative and surprising. He took some flak. The general “left” line has been against standardized testing. And it has become one of several points at which liberals and leftists depart: the liberal as the technocratic tester, set against the leftist as the advocate for a free and democratic classroom sans test.

I find this all rather oversimplified. Here I’ll evaluate both deBoer’s argument in favor of a ‘progressive’ view of standardized testing and leftist arguments in favor of a ‘regressive’ view of standardized testing.

I find both arguments lacking.
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candidate

One Tip for Each Presidential Candidate

February 21, 2019 /

Each presidential candidate is traveling to Iowa, and each presidential candidate has a problem or two. Today I’ll be their consultant.

I’ve got a few quibbles with 538’s taxonomy, but it’s a good starting point. Arguably there are five corners to the Democratic primary electorate. 538 draws a distinction between ‘party loyalists’ and ‘the left,’ whereas the better distinction is probably between ‘moderate’ Democrats and ‘progressive’ Democrats, but whatever. It’s a start.

I’ll lay out one key thing each candidate needs to do to get in a position to win the nomination.

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intellectuals invisible
Source: william (https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2387488)

The Invisibility of Intellectuals

February 18, 2019 /

Fifty-two years ago, Noam Chomsky published an article in the New York Review of Books on the responsibility of intellectuals. He rebuked intellectuals for the way they supported and justified the Vietnam War. And that they did so despite having the social privilege and influence to push American power in different directions.

With respect to the responsibility of intellectuals, today we live in a different world. I’ll argue that it’s invisibility that defines the intellectual now. Whether intellectuals defend and justify American atrocities is, in a way, beside the point. Because American power no longer relies on intellectuals in the ways it once did.

From there, I’ll sketch some thoughts about how to address this new world.

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racial myths
Source: Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asiatiska_folk,_Nordisk_familjebok.jpg)

Race Isn’t Biological: Debunking Racial Myths

February 11, 2019 /

These days, many of us take some form of social constructionism about race for granted. And why shouldn’t we? But the victory over racial myths wasn’t easy. It was one of the most important wins of activist waves of the 1960s-70s. It overturned the reign of ‘racial science.’ And it dislodged, for many people, the idea that people are born as members of some natural category called ‘race.’

I find that those old racial myths are making a comeback. And on multiple political fronts. Including ‘left-wing’ fronts. Let’s talk about that.

Race is real. But it’s real in an entirely social and historical sense. It’s not encoded in genes. Rather, race, as a category, played a historical role. In late feudal and early capitalist societies, it justified the forced labor regime of white plantation owners and enslavement of black people. Those decisions still impact the world. The racial science and racial myths supporting those decisions are bullshit.

So far, so good. Now let’s get on to the return of racial myths. As I wrote above, I think they’re returning in a big way. On the right, surely, but also on the ‘left’, through identitarian tendencies.

I’ll examine a few of these racial myths in this post. This won’t be a complete list.

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