/492/ The Armed Wing of the Deplatforming Movement ft. Alex Gourevitch
On the right to protest.
[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
Contributing editor Alex Gourevitch talks to Alex H and George about restrictions on speech and protest at US universities and beyond – particularly with regard to Palestine solidarity demonstrations.
How have uni administrators not just undermined by seemingly attacked the right to protest?
Why is Trump going after the universities this way?
How have progressives undermined the right of protest by talking up the role of 'harm'?
How have pro-Israel groups been complicit in treating political speech as an attack on identities?
Why have so many authorities chosen the defence of Israel as their hill to die on?
Links:
The Right to Be Hostile, Alex Gourevitch, Boston Review
/409/ Palestine, Protest, Repression: The Wider Context
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30:01
/491/ Squeezed Between Two Empires ft. Maciej Szlinder
On Poland's election, its history, its self-conception.
Philosopher Maciej Szlinder joins us to talk about Polish politics, society and history. Maciej is a member of the general council of the left-wing political party Razem ("Together"), as well as the president of the Polish Basic Income Network, so we discuss these matters as well as the general context.
How did Poland represent a beacon of neoliberal democracy to Western liberals in the 80s and 90s – and what happened next?
What does Poland represent, to Poles and to the rest of Europe, today?
Is the political duopoly of the centrist Civic Platform and the right-wing Law and Justice falling apart?
Why is political turnout up – and what anti-establishment parties are the young voting for?
Why is Poland the most pro-American country in Europe, and how does Trump affect that?
What is Poland's huge economic success felt like on the ground?
How does precarious employment and emigration impact Polish politics?
Links:
In the Polish Mirror, Gavin Rae, New Left Review
In Poland, Presidential Hopefuls Battle for Young Voters Who Don’t Like Them, NY Times
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1:04:27
/490/ Reading Club: Who Is Anti-Nationalist?
On the former Yugoslavia and the ethnography of anti-nationalists.
[For the full episode, subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast]
[Reading Club LIVE: Sat 14 June, 9am LA, 12am NY, 5pm London, 6pm Berlin]
In the third installment of this block on inter/nationalism in the 21st century, we take a look at the other side of nationalism, through scholar Stefaan Jansen's “Anti-nationalism: Post-Yugoslav Resistance and Narratives of Self and Society”.
Who are the Somewheres and Anywheres in post-Yugoslavia?
How does Jansen understand the marginalisation of anti-nationalism in Serbia and Croatia?
Is understanding nationalism and anti-nationalism as discursive practices a useful lens for understanding post-Yugoslav identities?
Why is the act of forgetting or misremembering significant in the context of post-Yugoslav anti-nationalist narratives?
How did the contrast between pre-war Yugoslavia and post-war realities shape anti-nationalist identities?
Must individuality be anti-nationalist?
Reading Club 2024/25 Syllabus: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TRn6kWzICbqUBo64Jp-c8TS0K4axTy3M/view
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17:21
/489/ Boomer Death Rattle
On the end of the (very) long 1960s.
[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
Contributing Editor Lee Jones joins Alex and George to talk through the themes and stories of the month, including MAGA's war on universities, right-populists in power, and culture war. Plus we deal with your questions and comments on: lawfare, video games, and the 'new class'.
What is TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out)?
How should we respond to rightist attempts to rewrite the past?
Why are Angela Merkel and Donald Trump representative of the age, in similar and different ways?
Are people sick of subversion and just want order?
What happens as the Boomers leave public life? Can we bracket 1960-2020?
When should we throw the book at politicians?
Links:
Trump’s Tariff Gamble and the Decay of the Neoliberal Order, Lee Jones, American Affairs
The Techno-Populist Convergence, Alex Hochuli, Compact
How Labor won the preference war (and screwed the Greens), Financial Review
Saving Britain’s Universities: Academic Freedom, Democracy and Renewal, Lee Jones and Philip Cunliffe, Cieo
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42:55
/488/ Homo-Techno, Homo-Solo ...Post-Homo? ft. Alex Gendler
On tech and the last hu-men.
[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
Writer Alex Gender is back, talking to Alex and George about his recent essay, "Homo Algorithmicus", as well as reflecting on how incel culture has widened and deepened in the past five years.
How does healthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione exemplify a “rationalist” worldview?
What is "TESCREAL" and how are those distinct ideologies underpinned an anti-human rationalism?
Is "tech" or Silicon Valley split between liberal effective altruists and neo-reactionary libertarians?
Is tech moving from trying to escape the state to trying to capture it?
What is it about “Gen Z boss and a mini” that generated such ire among "masculinists"?
What is to be done about the Man Question?
Links:
Homo Algorithmicus, Alex Gendler, The Point Magazine
/215/ Organize the Incels?! ft. Alex Gendler
The perennial surplus, Alex Gendler, Substack
The New Legislators of Silicon Valley, Evgeny Morozov, The Ideas Letter
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