Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Month: April 2025

Epicureanism 101: Types of Desires

April 28, 2025 / / 0 Comments

A metal statue of a round globe of planet earth being held up by hands, intended to represent types of desires.

Readers might have noted the ‘philosophy‘ tag among the list of categories on this site. And those who have read those posts noted awhile ago my interest in Epicurean philosophy. In fact, I’m not interested only in Epicurean theory. I’m also interested in applying it in the context of philosophical counseling.

Toward those ends, I’m starting a series of posts on Epicurean philosophy: Epicureanism 101! What you’re reading now is the first post in that series. If you follow along, you’ll see new posts in coming weeks and months with a title that begins with ‘Epicureanism 101.’

This post will cover a basic Epicurean distinction on the nature of our desires.

Enjoy!

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Revisiting the Worst Political Issues

April 21, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Three years ago, I wrote a post about the worst political issue for the GOP and the Democrats. After investigating the topic, I focused on balanced budges for the GOP and gun control for the Democrats.

What made those issues stand out is that there’s a wide gap between generic voters preferences and how strongly voters feel about the issues. Voters like balanced budgets in the abstract. But as soon as you turn to tax increases or spending cuts – how you balance budgets in the first place – voters are far less interested. And while many people like gun control, most have no direct experience with actual gun violence.

But it’s 3 years later. Let’s check in to see whether they’ve learned anything.

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A boxed cake product called Grand American Prestige. It's intended as a funny representation of the blog American Prestige.

Propaganda Analysis and Leftist Strategy

April 14, 2025 / / 0 Comments

I had the pleasure of listening to an interview on American Prestige with Nathan J. Robinson, editor of Current Affairs and co-author (with Noam Chomsky) of The Myth of American Idealism. The book – as well as the interview – discusses Noam Chomsky’s views on U.S. foreign policy and leftist politics.

I discussed the book briefly in my January Reading List post, but the interview goes into greater detail. Readers should note that the interview sits behind the American Prestige paywall. That said, I’m a subscriber. And I’d highly encourage readers to subscribe, or at the very least to listen to the free weekly news update. It comes out every Friday morning.

That bit aside, let’s talk about the interview. I think a particular line of questioning from Daniel Bessner gets at key issues of leftist strategy in the 21st century.

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A photo of a man and a woman sitting on comfortable leather couches and engaged in conversation. The room has excellent natural light, there is a bookcase in the background, and there is a classical bust or statue behind them.

The Philosophical Counselor Is In

April 7, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Some readers have noticed new content on the blog page over the last few weeks. It remains, thus far, unannounced in any official way by me. But it’s something I’ve hinted at a couple of times – once on the blog and once in the Patreon newsletter. I’ve been working on it for awhile, and I’ve approached it gradually and methodically. I’ve even taken a professional certification course.

But that’s enough delay. Here’s the announcement: I’ve become a certified philosophical counselor. And I’m now open for business and seeing clients for philosophical counseling services.

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