Category: Language (Page 2 of 9)

These are posts on language from the blog Base and Superstructure. Topics include political terminology, language use among politicians and political analysts, and the terminology of social movements.

Quick Note on Mein Kampf and Fascism

October 20, 2022 / baseblogger

I’ve written a few posts on this blog laying out a basic reading of fascism as a political and broader social movement. In short, I see fascism as the ’emergency management’ mode of capitalism. Serious crises and leftist threats to capitalism produce the conditions that allow it to flourish. And fascism tends to arise in specific kinds of countries – peripheral capitalist states facing political and economic crises, credible threats to the capitalist system, et al.

However, competing accounts of fascism tend to emphasize the peculiarities of specific fascist systems, especially Nazi Germany. They point to, for example, some of the mystical elements of the Nazi system. As well as its persecution of religious and ethnic minorities. And they draw from that various general conclusions about fascism as a system.

The Limits of Lived Experience

June 13, 2022 / baseblogger

So, here’s one of the biggest challenges on the left that I’ve been thinking about lately. We start with the core of a good idea. The idea even works well in specific situations. But then we turn that idea into some kind of Iron Law, trying to apply it way beyond its limits. The result? It doesn’t work so well any longer! I think we see this problem a lot with appeals to the notion of ‘lived experience.’

What’s going on here? What’s wrong with the appeal to lived experience?

What’s a Radlib?

May 23, 2022 / baseblogger

‘Radlib’? What’s that?

Let’s start here. Leftists turn to insults and name calling every now and then. And we have no shortage of names to call the people who disagree with us. We can (and do) call them ‘liberal.’ For the edgier among them, we can call them ‘ultra-liberal‘ (or even ‘ultra-left‘ if they’re leftists we don’t like). Or if we’re just feeling like pouring gas on a fire, we can use ‘shitlib.’

But I’m interested in ‘radlib.’ Let’s take a look at it. What might be compelling about it? Can it do any work those other terms can’t?

What Would An Authoritarian US Look Like?

April 25, 2022 / baseblogger

So, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and writing about the far right in the US. I do so not because I read history (though I do read history). Rather, I think lots of other people use historical analogies that don’t quite work. I think far-right politics in the US look and feel much different than those in, e.g., 1930s Italy and Germany.

At times, this puts me at odds with progressive and even leftist circles. Progressive authors – like Jason Stanley – draw analogies between Trumpism and ‘classic’ fascism. They do so, in part, in order to show the warning signs. We even see things like this in ‘Antifa‘ circles. Those circles focus on small militant groups in their early stages.

I don’t object to any of that, as far as it goes. But progressive work like Stanley’s tends to leave us with a misleading picture in mind of what authoritarianism would look like in the US.

Let’s take up that topic.

‘Thought Leader’: A Business ‘Intellectual’

November 18, 2021 / baseblogger

Not long ago, I watched a LinkedIn video that defined a ‘thought leader’ as “a person who helps people make difficult choices by being a decision leader.” As a philosopher, I wasn’t too impressed with this display. And as a definition of ‘thought leader,’ that’s about as unhelpful as it gets.

But I think it shows us a few things about business jargon and the nature of the ‘business intellectual.’ What does it show us?

Category: Language (Page 2 of 9)

Quick Note on Mein Kampf and Fascism

The Limits of Lived Experience

What’s a Radlib?

What Would An Authoritarian US Look Like?

‘Thought Leader’: A Business ‘Intellectual’

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