Base and Superstructure

Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Category: Culture (Page 1 of 20)

These are posts on culture from the blog Base and Superstructure. Mostly the focus is on American culture. But there might be a few posts on broader, international issues.

A photo of a man by himself, designed to represent the problem of AI and loneliness.
Sad Sadness Man Depression Depressive Loneliness

AI and Loneliness: A Better Alternative?

March 25, 2024 / / 0 Comments

As I was reading Anton Jäger’s recent Jacobin article on AI and loneliness, I found myself thinking about what a better scenario would even look like.

Jäger claims, with good reason, that AI chatbots mix with capitalism in a concerning way. Some bill them as a way to rescue people from loneliness and lack of intimacy. But, in practice, they take advantage of people for profit.

In a better world, how would chatbots handle these problems? After all, implementing socialism wouldn’t automatically cure the loneliness epidemic. It wouldn’t, by itself, put us into a place where we easily navigate social circles and form friendships. Capitalism harms our friendships, but friendship ain’t easy. Even in the ideal case.

How could chatbots help with that. Could they? Or are we just barking up the wrong tree?

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A sketch of two hands clasping together with the caption: 'together we lift the sky.' Intended to represent the modern abolitionist movement.

Am I An Abolitionist, Too?

January 15, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I’ve written specifically about prison abolition on this blog. But I haven’t written about modern abolitionism as a movement. Nor have I specified whether I’m an abolitionist. In that previous post, I discussed how disagreements over the concept of ‘prison’ produces misunderstandings. It clouds political debates in ways we can, and should, get past.

Of course, I wrote that first post 4 years ago. These debates took quite a turn in the summer of 2020. A more comprehensive abolitionist movement emerged into the stage of mainstream politics.

How does abolitionism, in its modern form, relate to prison abolition?

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A statue of St. Anthony holding Jesus. The statue represents for this article the Catholic Church and its stance on abortion.

The Catholic Church Crossed a Line

November 6, 2023 /

I grew up in a Catholic family in the rural Midwest. This was a mostly Protestant (or “non-denominational Christian,” which, in my book, just means “Protestant”) part of the country. Part of growing up Catholic in rural Protestant country meant listening to all sorts of anti-Catholic sentiment. Maybe that’s gone now, but it survived well past the integration of Catholics into the U.S. following the JFK presidency.

I’m no longer a Catholic.

Formally, I haven’t been a Catholic since my late teens or early 20s. That is to say that I haven’t gone to church regularly or engaged with the Catholic Church since then. But, really, I haven’t been a Catholic believer since my mid-teens. Like many young people, I kept going to church until I moved away for college.

But my attitude toward the Catholic Church has changed quite a bit in the last year or so.

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Photo of two women arguing in a white-collar workplace.

Working With People You Don’t Like

October 23, 2023 /

I’ve worked lots of jobs in the past 25 years. I’ve also joined, led, followed, and otherwise engaged with many, many activist groups over that same time period. And I can say I’ve met a lot of characters while doing these things.

What I’m saying is that I’ve seen conflicts. I’ve even participated in a few conflicts myself. And I’ve even learned a few tricks for how to handle conflicts.

Part of the background to conflict involves working with people you don’t like. And when you’ve worked in that many jobs and with that many activist groups, you’ll end up working with people you don’t like. I’ve certainly done that plenty of times, both on the job and in activist groups.

I could say lots of things about how to do it. But the first thing I’d say? Standard workplace advice misses the point.

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Images of two questions from the Implicit Association Test. The images show a person at a computer looking at photos of a black person and a white person.

Two Deeper Problems for the Implicit Association Test

October 16, 2023 /

Anyone following the replication crisis (and other debates) in the social sciences knows about one key problem with the implicit association test. In short, it’s not clear whether the test predicts anything. That is to say, ‘implicit bias,’ as measured by the IAT, might not predict prejudice or discriminatory behavior.

That’s a problem for the IAT for the obvious reason that its creators intend it as a major tool in the fight against racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression.

But I want to suggest that the IAT has even deeper problems. At least two of them. Even if the IAT does predict behavior, it still doesn’t explain a lot about why racism and sexism and happen. Nor does it tells us how to fight them.

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