Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Month: September 2025

A photo of Sigmund Freud wearing a hat, intended as a representation of the local politics of small differences and his views on the narcissism of small differences.

The Local Politics of Small Differences

September 29, 2025 /

We’re in the middle of a city council election cycle in Iowa City. Plenty of people are getting worked up about it.

In some ways that’s a good thing.

It means we live in a politically engaged city. And there are lots of issues for us to tackle. On top of this, the previous election – a special election between Ross Nusser and Oliver Weilein – offered deep, meaningful differences on how to run a city in a revanchist era. Its results emerged from a realignment of our local politics.

But this election strikes me in a different way.

At least four (and possibly five or six) of the six candidates aren’t very different from one another. They practice broadly similar politics. However, people think they’re different. This calls for a closer examination of the forces that push people to over-invest in local electoral politics.

Let’s do that.

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A photo of 7 Gen Z teenagers wearing loud fashion.

Gen Z and Risk Aversion

September 22, 2025 /

Every generation criticizes the generation after it. We all know it. We have evidence of it dating back to antiquity. To boot, the criticism follows the same rough outline: the kids these days don’t respect their elders, tradition, or society, etc.

But the world has changed in historically unique ways over the past few generations. The rise of the Internet – and later social media – ushered in changes that surely stretch beyond those of the radio or television. The neoliberal era brought finance capital to power in a way never before seen.

In other words, our everyday experience of the world is changing. And it feels like it’s changing faster than it used to.

Anyway, that’s the thought behind much of the generational critique. But we should get to the bottom of it.

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A photo of red banners at Harvard University, intended as a representation of professors in the Trump era.

Professors Won’t Save Us

September 15, 2025 /

In a short Current Affairs article titled “Don’t Expect Art to Save Us,” RS Benedict argues that artistic or cultural expression cannot meaningfully substitute for concrete political action.

It’s not a new claim. Nor, in my view, is it a very controversial claim, though, as with even most accurate claims, it draws its detractors.

However, I think we can learn a few lessons from the very first reason Benedict gives in favor of the claim.

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A photo of a white plate against a yellow background with a single green pea in the middle, intended to represent left minimalism.

Two Cheers for Left Minimalism

September 8, 2025 /

As of late, I’ve been trying to steer clear of the ‘Great Fascism Debate.’ I’m referring, of course, to the question of whether Donald Trump is a fascist and Trumpism a fascist movement. I’ve written about the topics extensively. For a quick review, readers should check out my original 2018 post arguing for a nuanced ‘no’ answer, as well as two additional posts proposing a fuller account of Trumpism.

In short, Trumpism sucks. But it sucks in a non-fascist way.

However, I’m not here to rehash all that.

This time, we’ll take a look at a brief analysis by Matthew Karp over at New Left Review. Karp brings to the table some insights about what people miss about the second round of Trump.

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