Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Category: Culture (Page 12 of 23)

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.

Political Magazines New Masses

Which Political Magazines Do You Read?

May 6, 2021 /

For this post, I have a question for readers: which political magazines do you read?

For my part, back in the day I used to read a wide range of left-wing magazines. That included outlets like Dissent, In These Times, Z Magazine, etc. I’ve also read Jacobin here and there, and I subscribed to Bitch magazine, a feminist pop culture outlet, for several years.

These days, I’ve moved away from all those sources a bit. Here’s a list of current magazines and journals I subscribe to: Catalyst, Current Affairs, and n+1. As far as the niche of those respective outlets, here’s how I’d describe them: leftist and social democratic political strategy (Catalyst), smart and more ecumenical leftist takes on a wide range of social and political phenomena (Current Affairs), New York literary journal with a political essay component (n+1).

How about you?

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covid-19 shot

COVID-19 Immunity Tomorrow

April 22, 2021 /

I’ve written posts about both my first and second shots of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. I’ll follow up on that a bit. Tomorrow’s the big day: two weeks since my second shot!

I’m excited to finally be at what feels like the ‘end’ of at least a major phase in the pandemic. I have a long list of things I’d like to do. But, first, I’m going to visit my parents tomorrow!

How about you?

2021 baseball pandemic

2021 Baseball and the Pandemic

April 15, 2021 /

In past seasons – 2019 and the rather odd 2020 season – I’ve always looked forward to watching baseball. But the 2021 season is already underway, and so far I haven’t paid much attention to it. I ignored almost all of spring training.

Oh, I’ve thought about driving to Cedar Rapids to watch Minor League baseball. I even mentioned it in my post on getting my second COVID-19 shot. So, baseball never totally left my mind. But it’s different this season. I went from looking at box scores and stats every day in 2020 (2019, 2018, 2017, and so on) to maybe checking them once or twice a week in 2021.

Why? I don’t know. Despite writing a post on 2020 baseball silliness, I’m not angry with Major League Baseball for choosing to play last year. Given that people play baseball outdoors in a fairly light contact environment, I thought the decision made sense. I’m not angry with MLB for opening stadiums to fans in 2021, thought I thought the Texas Rangers went overboard.

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covid-19 shot

Second COVID-19 Shot

April 12, 2021 /

Three days ago, I had my second shot of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. It’s still a little hard to believe that companies rolled out a vaccine in such a short time period. It’s also just…amazing to take the step and see some hope for the future. It takes me a step closer to the end of the pandemic.

Since I updated on my side effects from the first shot, I’ll also say a bit about the second. Like many people, the second shot was rougher for me than the first. I didn’t get the same waves of dizziness and nausea as I did with the first. But I was much more sore and tired. And I had a pretty bad headache. Luckily, these symptoms only lasted for about a day.

That takes us to the next steps. I’m looking forward to a lot of things: visiting my parents, seeing friends in-person, watching baseball. Many of these things are long overdue.

social media trust
Social media trolling, fake, anger, bullying and scandal signs.

Social Media Erodes Trust

April 1, 2021 /

For a post on April Fools’ Day (but not an April Fools’ Day post), I wanted to touch on the sense many people have that social media is bad for activism. When I try to put this idea in its most plausible form, I come up with the claim that social media erodes trust. Whether it also does other things, its erosion of trust stands out as key.

Let’s roll with that and see where it takes us.

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