Category: Language (Page 7 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.

Polyamory and Neoliberalism

April 15, 2019 / baseblogger

I’ll begin from this insight: certain kinds of personal relationships seem to ‘fit’ better with certain economic forms. That’s one (possible) implication of the ‘base and superstructure’ thesis, after all. But that’s just a starting point.

I think of this in roughly the same way Marx did, so long as we interpret Marx in a way that avoids any kind of hardcore historical determinism or teleology. The relationship between economic relations and personal relations isn’t one way and deterministic. The notion of a causal feedback loop is better, though that, too, has its shortcomings.

Rather, it’s a dialectical relation. As David Harvey points out in his Companion to Marx’s Capital, we’re talking here about a highly fluid and transformative relation. One that’s always in motion. The base and superstructure co-evolve, as it were. The base perhaps sets a basic tone, or a set of limitations, and/or an ‘easier’ path. But it’s much more open-ended than any deterministic relation or feedback loop allows.

And so, let’s start with some basic questions. What kinds of relationships best fit our current situation in the United States, which we might describe as ‘neoliberal capitalism’ or ‘financialized capitalism’? How do those relationships differ from those that fit the Keynesian consensus? Or the even earlier stages of industrial capitalism?

I’m writing here about polyamory in light of this background.

Race Isn’t Biological: Debunking Racial Myths

February 11, 2019 / baseblogger

These days, many of us take some form of social constructionism about race for granted. And why shouldn’t we? But the victory over racial myths wasn’t easy. It was one of the most important wins of activist waves of the 1960s-70s. It overturned the reign of ‘racial science.’ And it dislodged, for many people, the idea that people are born as members of some natural category called ‘race.’

I find that those old racial myths are making a comeback. And on multiple political fronts. Including ‘left-wing’ fronts. Let’s talk about that.

Race is real. But it’s real in an entirely social and historical sense. It’s not encoded in genes. Rather, race, as a category, played a historical role. In late feudal and early capitalist societies, it justified the forced labor regime of white plantation owners and enslavement of black people. Those decisions still impact the world. The racial science and racial myths supporting those decisions are bullshit.

So far, so good. Now let’s get on to the return of racial myths. As I wrote above, I think they’re returning in a big way. On the right, surely, but also on the ‘left’, through identitarian tendencies.

I’ll examine a few of these racial myths in this post. This won’t be a complete list.

Is Trumpism a Fascist Movement?

December 3, 2018 / baseblogger

Source: Alisdare Hickson (https://www.flickr.com/photos/alisdare/42730197674)

As I said in my previous post, I’ve been sitting for awhile on the question of whether Trumpism is a fascist movement. But to answer this question, I needed to first sketch out what fascism is. A lot of people use ‘fascist’ to mean something like ‘very bad.’ Even historians and social scientists use the word without thinking about the economic and political contexts in which fascism grows.

So I offered five historical conditions where fascism grows. And a starting point for defining it. That starting point was: Fascism is the emergency management mode of capitalism. It arises during times of serious crises and left-wing threats in order to save capitalism from itself.

Here we are, then. Is Trumpism a fascist movement?

What is Fascism?

November 26, 2018 / baseblogger

Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/fasces/media/202174/223607

I’ve been sitting for awhile on the question of whether Trumpism is a fascist movement. Are we moving toward fascism in the United States?

It’s a big question, and it’s gotten lots of passionate responses. But I find a lot of the responses ill-informed or otherwise misguided. I also find that it’s a complicated question. Generally, I try to keep these posts to around 1500-2000 words. And to a focused topic. On the issue of fascism, however, I found this to be a burden.

So this is the first post I’ll write on the topic. I’ll add a second, and possibly a third, later. I’ll start by clearing some ground.

What, exactly, is fascism?

Mapping Trump’s Rhetoric

November 19, 2018 / baseblogger

Photo by Pete Linforth. https://pixabay.com/en/users/TheDigitalArtist-202249/

There’s a certain pattern to how Trump and his interlocutors engage one another. A certain pattern of rhetoric, if you like.

It works something like this. Trump makes a wild claim. Usually it’s false. An opponent, or the news media, points out how and why it’s false. Trump doesn’t blink, and Trump’s supporters don’t blink. Trump wins, or, at the very least, doesn’t lose. Trump’s opponents look very confused as they fail to gain traction.

Why does this happen?

Category: Language (Page 7 of 9)

Polyamory and Neoliberalism

Race Isn’t Biological: Debunking Racial Myths

Is Trumpism a Fascist Movement?

What is Fascism?

Mapping Trump’s Rhetoric

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