Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

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Lincoln Project

The Lincoln Project and the Democratic Party

February 18, 2021 /

Let’s follow up on one of those lessons from the Trump Administration. The Lincoln Project – a group of Republican ‘Never Trumpers‘ – ran a ton of anti-Trump ads during the 2020 campaign. Specifically, let’s look at how the Lincoln Project might influence the future of the Democratic Party.

Many mainstream Democrats believe they won in 2018 and/or 2020 because they won those mythical suburban, college-educated white voters who just love squishy, bipartisan moderates. We see this in, among other sources, the public words of Nancy Pelosi. We also see it in local candidates like Abby Finkenauer and national ones like Joe Biden.

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Afropessimism: From Identitarianism to Nihilism

February 15, 2021 /

afropessimism

The ideology of identitarianism – the reduction of political issues to issues of identity – formed one of the earliest focuses of this blog. Mostly we find this view on the far right, specifically with Trumpism in a U.S. context. But we find a milder, less offensive version on the ‘left’ – in the work of, say, Ta-Nehisi Coates. As I’ve pointed out, identitarianism tends to lead to nihilism. Nowhere do we see that more clearly than in the view called ‘Afropessimism.’

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Capitalism’s Heart Surgeon (New eBook!)

February 8, 2021 /

capitalism's heart surgeon

Some exciting news: Today I’ve released a new eBook! It’s called Capitalism’s Heart Surgeon: Elizabeth Warren and the Progressive Movement. And so, click the link to purchase on Kindle for a very accessible and affordable 99 cents.

Capitalism’s Heart Surgeon covers the Elizabeth Warren 2020 campaign and what it means for leftists. In short, I think the Warren campaign revealed differences on the left many of us hadn’t previously noticed. As leftists, it’s our job to put together a broad coalition of workers and tenants. The Warren campaign, by contrast, focused on highly educated progressives. And leftists have a complex relationship with that group that we should think about.

Having both the Warren and Sanders campaigns revealed some big differences on the left. We can and should learn from all this. In this eBook, I build on some of my past posts on Warren.

To read: Capitalism’s Heart Surgeon.

faq

FAQ #6: Are You Working on A New Book?

February 4, 2021 /

Oh, thanks for asking!

As many readers already know, I published my first book about six years ago. It’s called Classify and Label: The Unintended Marginalization of Social Groups. This book covers much of my early research focused on the social impact of classifications in the sciences and everyday life.

I’ve kicked around a number of book ideas since then, and I published an ebook on Trumpism (A Primer on Trumpism) before the 2020 election.

But lately my thoughts have turned toward foreign policy, particularly the idea that the U.S. left still doesn’t have much of a consensus on what a foreign policy should look like. I’ve written a series of posts on foreign policy on this blog, and I’m collecting that material and turning it into a book project! The basic idea here is that we need to build a left consensus on foreign policy. And we should organize that consensus around principles of international solidarity and working-class unity across borders. With that kind of consensus in place, we can do better organizing across borders.

The manuscript is pretty much done. I’m thinking now about publishing options.

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