I know that people were absolutely horrible to large parts of the population based purely on identity in the United States in the 1950s. But can we also acknowledge that discussions like the half-hour interview of Erich Fromm by Mike Wallace actually happened on television?

This is a major socialist philosopher and psychologist talking to a non-adversarial journalist who actually read his book. These days, this kind of interview is relegated to a channel with subscribers in the triple digits... [More]

The video was posted 17 years ago, so it’s most likely from around that time. Rollins is in Israel. He spends the first ¾ of the segment discusses his visits with wounded, American veterans. He segues, at the end, to giving the Israeli audience a noble mission.

Ember of Rage by Henry Rollins (YouTube)

A good friend sent me this link recently, with the comment, “I don’t think they listened.” The video already had my thumbs-up on it, but I can’t remember when I’d already watched it.

Yeah, I don’t think they listened. They weren’t... [More]

This is a wide-ranging one-hour interview with Cornel West. West seems a bit more frazzled than he usually is, but he still provided some reasonably pithy commentary. It would have perhaps been better if Chris had spoken more.

Dismantling the American Empire (w/ Cornel West) | The Chris Hedges Report by Chris Hedges (YouTube)

At 20:45,

“That’s a sign of what it means to be obsessed with success out of careerism, opportunism. And it reflects the distinctive and dominant features of the political and professional class in the American Empire, which is conformity, complacency, and... [More]”

The following Slavoj Žižek video is only one minute long. In it, he explains that we need another system simply because the one we have is so utterly inadequate to the tasks before it.

…on why he is a communist, but not a socialist by Slavoj Žižek (YouTube)

“I remain a communist. In what sense? My good friend told me he was there, as part of some delegation, two days after Fukushima. He told me that, for a couple of hours, the Japanese government was in total panic. It looked that they will have to evacuate the entire Tokyo area: 30 million people. Then, maybe,... [More]”

After several years of being virus-free, I’ve been sick several times in the last eight months. I was telling a friend that I was sick of being sick and he told me that’s how your body gets stronger; it builds up immunity by being sick. Perhaps he’s right. Perhaps we are incapable of mastering these unseen enemies. But I can’t help feeling that this is a capitulatory attitude, the attitude of someone stuck in the Dark Ages, a time when people had no hope of beating disease. We used to be... [More]

Deepfakes are fake. It’s right in the name. So why are we getting our panties in a bunch about them?

The article There’s Probably Nothing We Can Do About This Awful Deepfake Porn Problem by Freddie deBoer (Substack) was surprisingly superficial. It deals only with the question of whether we should do a “war on drugs” style campaign against deep fakes—a hopeless and utterly ineffective crusade that causes misery for the innocent and pours money into the coffers of the usual suspects—or whether it’s completely hopeless... [More]

I really hope that, if we continue to apply pressure to get what we want, that it will bear fruit. Although it’s easier to retreat into the reassuring hopelessness of cynicism, I do wonder whether something might be categorically different this time. The rulers have lost control of the narrative, at least to some degree. They’re making a lot of unforced errors that they haven’t made before. Consider the stink of desperation in the coverage of the Olympics—we are a powerful sports... [More]

There is a form of protest where people glue themselves to roads and block traffic. If you’re serious at all about building a movement or awareness—i.e., you’re trying to enact positive change—you must consider the effects of your tactics. What will they make people think about your cause? What is the likelihood that you’ll get them on board?

Are your tactics likely to work? Will they perhaps backfire in the near-term, but have positive long-term effect? When you protest, what is the... [More]

The Tumbler repost The modern digital divide (Reddit) is about how well younger students really understand their digital devices and apps. This is an interesting story told by a high-school tutor about digital-tool abilities in the current generation of kids. It’s a bit long, but I thought the following conclusions were interesting.

The Internet vs. Apps

It contrasts using the Internet with using apps, which are not at all the same thing.

The Internet is an open place with links and content, accessed... [More]

I really liked a recent interview with Samuel Moyn by Doug Henwood in 04.01.2024 (Behind the News), so when I saw his name again, I figured It’d check out the video below. It was reasonably interesting, but not really worth noting, except that I noticed that it exhibited some core fallacies evident in the so-called liberal project.

'What Happened to Liberalism?' Samuel Moyn in conversation with Becca Rothfeld by The Philosopher (YouTube)

At 34:00, Becca Rothfeld says “Biden is pretty leftist in some ways.” In which ways? I’m honestly interested to know because I can’t think of anything that wasn’t just something he said once or twice, or things... [More]

In the podcast Episode 345: Naughty List (Patreon), Brace and Liz called Kevin Spacey a “child rapist”, then an “alleged child rapist” and finally settled on “ex-alleged child rapist”. Just using the epithet “child rapist” suggests that Spacey preyed on very young children, when the only accusations that actually went to trial were from someone who claimed that they’d been assaulted when they were 14 years old.

That would have been awful (had it happened), but it’s somehow less awful than if they’d been 5... [More]

The article I Think You Should Be Kind by Freddie deBoer (Substack) is the first of two about genders and biology and stuff. I read with interest and took some notes. The follow-up is linked in the second half.

“Almost all vertebrate animals exhibit some sort of sexual dimorphism, and saying so does not in any way undermine the case for trans rights. The whole argument is that physiology does not dictate gender, and acknowledging that most people with penises go through life uncomplicatedly accepting a masculine gender... [More]”

To think I almost shrunk away from the 150-minute runtime of this video! It was well-worth my time, felt like it went more quickly than the runtime, and was an all-around excellent conversation. I’ve included a partial transcription of the parts I found interesting and my own notes below.

Billionaire's Anti-Palestine ATTACK on Academic Freedom (w/ Norm Finkelstein) by Bad Faith (YouTube)

You can buy literally anything

At 27:00 they are talking about the recent ousting of president of Harvard Claudine Gay, largely through billionaire Bill Ackman’s efforts.

“Norman: I don’t recall a single... [More]”

I’d never heard of Peter Sloterdijk and, if I’m honest, I won’t jump on the next video starring him. He has a great voice, but I wasn’t too overwhelmed by his philosophical elan. Žižek, on the other hand, was his typical self, full of fire and tangents and interest connections.

He also told a few jokes: one was about about being in a gulag, where the food is terrible, but on Sundays, you get a special treat: a second plate! It’s kind of a riff on the old saw of “I have two complaints: the... [More]

I have a lot of questions about the rush to replacing human expertise with machine-based expertise.

The Expertise Pipeline

Do we still need expertise? If so, how do obtain it? What do we do when we saw off the branch we’re sitting on by getting rid of the first half of the pipeline that leads to the second half containing expertise?

The pipeline looks roughly like this right now:

1. Prime the pump with self-starters/geniuses
2. Add people who learn from those pioneers/initial experts
3. Those... [More]

The article Brickbat: Ideological Impurity by Charles Oliver (Reason) writes,

“According to a social worker’s report, the two were asked how they would feel if a child in their care was LGBT. The two responded that they would still love the child, wouldn’t kick the child out, and wouldn’t subject the child to conversion therapy. But both opposed sex change treatments for those under 18 and expressed a reluctance to use pronouns that don’t reflect someone’s biological sex, and Catherine said it would be important for the... [More]”

It’s pretty tedious to watch so many people trying as hard as they can to censor expression of which they don’t approve, all the while screaming at the top of their lungs that they are being censored by others. They see censorship of their own speech as beyond the pale because their opinions are correct whereas those they are trying to censor should of course not be able to speak out because they are promulgating hate speech.

It’s all so very tiresome. Good people end up fooling... [More]

The article The forbidden topics by Drew DeVault writes,

“Critics of radical free speech, victims of hate speech, and marginalized people of all kinds began to appear in hacker communities. The things they had to say were not comfortable.

“The free speech absolutists among the old guard, faced with this discomfort, developed a tendency to defend hate speech and demean speech that challenged them. They were not the target of the hate, so it did not make them personally uncomfortable, and defending it would... [More]”

The other night, some older guys walked by me in a train station. They were talking about drinking beer. They looked like they’d been doing just that. One of them joked to the other that he was also “looking at pretty girls“.[1] His friend replied “there are none along that way“.

Lots of laughs. Super funny.

There were young ladies in that mass of people walking away from the train. What did they think? Were they amused? I doubt it.

It’s not really funny. It’s actually kind of stupid.... [More]

I find myself increasingly at odds with this ever-more-popular notion that there are certain things you cannot say. Restricting freedom of expression is just a way of restricting freedom of thought. If you can’t express an idea, you can’t share it. If you can’t share it, you can’t inspire other people to think it.

When I moved to Switzerland decades ago, I remember being quite surprised to hear that it was technically illegal to deny the Jewish Holocaust in WWII. The discussions were not... [More]

I read this in a consumer magazine a while ago.

Kann ich verlangen, dass mein Nachbar seine Tanne fällt_

“ich habe in einer Zürcher Gemeinde ein Eigenheim gekauft. Im Garten meines Nachbarn steht eine mächtige Tanne, die viel Schatten auf mein Grundstück wirft. Der im Kanton Zürich für einzelne Tannen geltende minimale Grenzabstand von acht Metern ist bei weitem nicht eingehalten. Kann ich somit verlangen, dass mein Nachbar die Tanne fällt?”

Translation into English:

“I bought my own home in a municipality in Zürich. A giant pine tree stands... [More]”

I was chatting with a friend[1] the other day and he told me of two interesting quotes by Emperor Izaro from the game Path of Exile[2].

I.

The first was,

“Wisdom is the offspring of suffering and time.”

This sounds pretty deep and is doubtless true in some cases, but I don’t think it’s true that only suffering can bring wisdom. Sometimes it’s perspicacity and time that leads to wisdom. I guess suffering helps to drive the message home, to make sure you don’t forget it—in remembering the pain and... [More]

I though I’d already heard everything that Cornel West had to say, but this interview was chock-full of many interesting clarifications. Norman Finkelstein doesn’t say much in this one.

DR. CORNEL WEST — The Marathon Interview, Part One: Race by Norman Finkelstein (YouTube)

At 26:00, they discuss the difference between racism, generalization, and recognition of cultural difference.

“Norman: I’m wondering, is what you’re saying, in your opinion, is it a stereotype, a generalization, is it even valid? I’m curious where you stand on that. I felt it was a form of—it was just... [More]”

Most of this discussion was stuff I’d heard before—even in more recent videos—but I almost always enjoy listening to him.[1]

Slavoj Zizek − Israel, Palestine & the Future by How To Academy Mindset (YouTube)

He said something at the end that I found to be, if not new, at last well-formulated. I’ve transcribed it below. At 01:24:20, he says,

“What’s the problem today? I will point to this paradox. You know that, on the one hand, we perceive our situation as powerless, totally manipulated—you don’t control anything. But, at the same time, the hegemonic ideology today is... [More]”

Kath and I rode home from Fehraltorf to Kempten at 12:30 at night. We boarded in the car that is ¾ first-class. Instead of walking to the second-class cabin, I just sat down in the first-class cabin, which was otherwise completely empty of passengers. I sat down alone. We hadn’t purchased first-class tickets, so Kath was not going to sit there.[1]

But why not sit there? The car was otherwise empty. We weren’t taking seats from anyone with a first-class ticket. There was no physical reason... [More]

This interview is from September 28th, a little over a week before Norman Finkelstein burst onto the scene for his commentary on October 7th and the aftermath. The interview is on a completely different topic. It is excellent.

Is Ibram X Kendi's 'Anti-Racism' a SCAM? (w/ Norm Finkelstein) by Bad Faith (YouTube)

I’ve included a partial transcript with the parts I found particularly interesting below.

At 00:02:00, he discusses the drift in capability of students over the last few decades.

“Norm: If you go back as far as I do, the fact of the matter is, that what they teach now... [More]”

In the following interview, Žižek seems to have recovered somewhat from the baleful hole wherein he found himself in 2022. I still think he’s incapable of reasoning clearly about Ukraine, but at least he seems to have realized that he needs to formulate his arguments better—because they’re not as obvious and logical as he seems to think they are. A year ago, he was just yelling incoherently.

Our World Is Coming To An End | Aaron Bastani Meets Slavoj Žižek | Downstream by Novara Media (YouTube)

At 00:02:35. he explains why he’s never gotten drunk,

“You know why? Because I’m really a... [More]”

Suppose you have a problem with a person at work. Your office is right next to theirs. Your own office is nice, but theirs is also nice.

You both have grievances and you’ve kind of tried to get along, but it’s not working, and you’ve managed to win people to your side. The other person has grievances against you, but no-one really believes or acknowledges them. You insist that they’re made-up. People agree not to think too much about it because they like you so much.

Just recently there... [More]

What is it with performative condemnation? The push for it? Is it a control thing? I think very much that it’s a psychological trick to get the upper hand in an interaction.

If I don’t officially and performatively condemn acts of murder or war crimes, is the assumption that I condone them? Are you kidding me? I have to defend myself against people thinking I’m a monster, by default? And a performative declaration of “I am not a monster” would fix that?

Or would it just put me in a cycle of... [More]

The always-entertaining Patrick [H] Willem made two excellent videos about the state of filmmaking and art, in general. The first one discusses what people are calling AI films, focusing on the recent spate of so-called Wes Anderson AI remakes.

There’s not a lot of my own, original writing in this article. Instead, I’ve done the service of transcribing what I found to be the pithiest, hardest-hitting parts of Willem’s two rather long videos, which total more than 90 minutes.

A.I. Filmmaking Is Not The Future. It's a Grift. by Patrick (H) Willems (YouTube)

At 27:00,... [More]