Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Category: Blogging (Page 1 of 6)

These are posts on blogging from the blog Base and Superstructure. Mostly these are meta-blogging posts, where I’ll be writing a bit about what it’s like to run a blog.

2023 Review

OK, so 2023 was a big year for the blog! Not only did I put in another year of blogging, but I also opened a new Medium page. You can check that out here.

But here’s a quick look at some of the things that happened on the blog this year.

Most Viewed Posts

I know it’s a regular theme, but once again, the most popular posts in 2023 were mostly written in 2019 or 2020. However, with that said, here are a few posts from 2023 that did especially well with readers:

1. Why Is The DSA Shrinking?
2. Socialism Isn’t Ultra-Progressivism
3. DSA Criticism of Anarchism

In short, the most popular posts this year have been about socialist organizing and theory! Readers turned to theory in these troubling times. This is a contrast to the usual split, where the most popular posts of past years were a mix of socialism, local activism, and international politics.

I should note that there’s a huge divide between number 1 and number 2 on that above list. ‘Why Is the DSA Shrinking?’ hit at something like the right time. Not only was it widely read and shared among DSA members before the 2023 Convention, but it is also cited in the Wikipedia article on DSA! That brought it to a much wider readership than my usually much smaller group of readers for most ordinary posts.

Preview for 2024

So, I no longer select an annual theme for the blog. But that doesn’t mean the posts aren’t thematic!

What’s coming up next year?

I have some ideas, but it’s mostly open ended at this point. I’ve hit most of the major themes I intended to cover in this blog. So most new posts will likely apply those fundamentals to new developments in our world and politics.

At the very least, it’s an election year in the U.S. I’ll surely have a few things to say about the lead up to that.

That means readers could be in for some surprises in 2024!

A Seasonal Break

Happy (late) Saturnalia, readers!

As I often do this time of year, I’m taking a short break from blogging for the holiday season.

I’ll still have an end of year review post popping up in about 10 days. But aside from that, this will be my final post of 2023. I’ll be taking some time for family and travel over the next few weeks.

Expect a return to the regular posting schedule by the second week of January.

Five Years of Blogging!

A half decade flies by when you’re having fun! Or when a…*checks notes* pandemic happens in the middle of it!?

Anyway, yeah. Here we are. It’s once again time for an anniversary post! Indeed, lots of things happened in the last year. And as I review the past year, I’ll answer the big questions first.

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New Medium Profile

For readers not already aware, I want to announce that I now have a profile page on Medium! Click here to check it out.

You’ll notice that most of the content on the Medium page started as a blog post here at Base and Superstructure. That, of course, isn’t a coincidence!

With the Medium profile, I want to reach a broader audience than the one I reach at the blog. But I’m still looking to write on roughly the same themes. So, I got my start by taking a fresh look at some of the original content from this blog and then reworking it. At times I’ve even rethought some of my views after discussion with readers.

So, what this means, in the short term, is that readers have two options for reading new content from me.

You can read this blog or Medium! This blog will continue to feature most of my completely new content, while Medium will feature a combination of new content and reworked and/or rewritten posts from Base and Superstructure.

How does that sound?

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A Base and Superstructure Blog Lexicon

In over 4 years of blogging, I’ve discussed lots of terminology, especially leftist terminology. I try to use terms in a consistent way that people within leftist debates understand.

However, like all analytic philosophers, I occasionally see the need to clarify terms. Some terms stand in need of tidying. Some of them a lot of it. Every now and then, I provide new (and hopefully better!) definitions for familiar terms. And at other times, I use more obscure terms, repurpose terms for new uses, or just create new ones.

And so, I find a need for a blog lexicon! I’ll use this post as an opportunity to collect lots of these terms in the same place. As a bonus, if I introduce additional terms in the future, I can add them to the lexicon.

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