The Regrettable Century
The old forms of the left are moribund and the new forms are stupid. We're making a podcast that discusses the need to organize a dialectical pessimism and develop a Marxist salvage project capable of putting up a good fight as the world burns around us. A clean, honest, and unsentimental melancholy is required; we are cultivating one and would like to share it with you.
The Question of Nationalities and Social Democracy by Otto Bauer: Regrettable Book Club (Episode 0)
They said it wasn't possible for a Marxist to break down the national question in a sophisticated and nuanced way, but Otto Bauer has done it. This book from 1907, which no one on the Anglophone Left has ever read, is quite possibly the best book on the subject. We are here to read it and let you know.
This week we covered the introductory materials.
A link to the PDF:
https://libcom.org/article/question-nationalities-and-social-democracy-otto-bauer
A Primer on Utopian Philosophy: An Intro to Ernst Bloch (with Jon Greenaway aka thelitcritguy)
This week we are joined by Jon (thelitcritguy of HorrorVanguard fame) to discuss his new book A Primer on Utopian Philosophy: An Introduction to the Work of Ernst Bloch which was just released on Zero Books. We discuss nihilism, optimism, hope, and dialectical pessimism and the ever pertinent work of Ernst Bloch.
Check out Horror Vanguard Here
Check out Jon's Blog Here
Buy Jon's Book HereÂ
Internet Psychobabble and its Consequences (Have Been a Disaster for the Human Race)
This week we sat down with our old comrade and actual Psychiatrist, Dr Byron, to talk about mental health, the left, and how TikTok is ruining everyones brains.
Psychiatric Hegemony: A Marxist Theory of Mental Illness (review for relevant book)
https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/03/psychiatric-hegemony-marxist-theory-mental-illness/
What the Anti-Psychiatry Movement Got Wrong About Mental Illness
https://jacobin.com/2022/03/anti-psychiatry-movement-mental-illness-psychological-suffering
Psychiatry Won’t Solve Our Mental Health Crisis — Only Politics Can Do That
https://jacobin.com/2023/12/psychiatry-history-trauma-politics-medicine-mental-health
...
Patreon Preview -- Boundless & Bottomless Seas: Dugin's 4th Political Theory (Part III)
Jason and Varn are joined again by Sean KB of Antifida and continue with their close reading of The Fourth Political Theory by Alexander Dugin.
Check out Varn Vlog:
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog/posts
Check out the ANTIFADA:
https://rss.com/podcasts/the-antifada/Â
Patreon Preview -- Disaster Nationalism
This month we return to Richard Seymour's essay about the new forms of nationalism. At this point the essay is a few years old, so we were able to discuss how things have developed since it was written. We also did not know that a book by the same name by Seymour was coming out soon...
Prepared for the Worst: Disaster Nationalism
https://salvage.zone/prepared-for-the-worst-disaster-nationalism/
Disaster Nationalism: THE DOWNFALL OF LIBERAL CIVILIZATION
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/761156/disaster-nationalism-by-richard-seymour/
Head over to our Patreon and join...
The Broken Bones of Belief: Why They Left the Left
This week the boys got together to talk about political apostasy. From the old left, to the new left, to whatever the hell it is that we have now. We discuss the motivations and consequences of jumping ship.
The Ex-Communist’s Conscience
https://www.marxists.org/archive/deutscher/1950/ex-communist.htm
Turned Around: Why Leftists Go Right
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/22/why-leftists-go-rightÂ
From Memoirs of a Trotskyist by Irving Kristol
https://www.pbs.org/arguing/nyintellectuals_krystol_2.html
The Neoconservative Counterrevolution
https://jacobin.com/2015/04/neoconservatives-kristol-podhoretz-hartman-culture-war
How...
Preview -- Boundless & Bottomless Seas: The Nature of American Conservatism (BONUS)
This week Jason and Varn sat down to have a primer discussion about the different types of American Conservatism. Don't worry, we will be back later this month with more Dugin.
Check out Varn Vlog here:
https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog
Patreon Preview -- Revolution by Enzo Traverso: Regrettable Book Club (Part VII: FinaIe)
Welcome to our seventh and FINAL reading group episode on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. We had a lot of fun with this series and will be starting a new one soon. Head on over to the Discord if you would like to be involved.Â
Special thanks to our comrade Connor at Autumn Brigade for our new intro music. Check his music out here: https://autumnbrigade.bandcamp.com/album/geist-ist-tot
Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History. London ; New York: Verso.
https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution
Support the showOne Plus One Is Three: The Poverty of "Third Campism"
As recovering Third Campists ourselves, we sit down to discuss the lingering problems that the third camp of Trotskyism has always had and how they are much dumber in their contemporary incarnation.
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Resignation from the Fourth International - Natalia Sedova Trotsky
https://www.marxists.org/archive/sedova-natalia/1951/05/09.htm
Against Campism, for International Working-Class Solidarity https://socialistforum.dsausa.org/issues/winter-2020/against-campism-for-international-working-class-solidarity/Â
The Third Camp, Socialism From Below, and the First Principle of Revolutionary Socialism https://newpol.org/issue_post/third-camp-socialism-below-and-first-principle-revolutionary-socialism/
Libya’s revolution, U.S. intervention, and the left https://isre...
UNLOCKED -- Victorious February: Lessons from the Czechoslovak Revolution (Czechoslovak Socialism Part I of III)
This is a Patreon episode that we recorded in April of 2022. We decided to post this on our main feed at the request of several of our patrons who said more people should hear it.Â
Continuing in the spirit of our discussion about the synthesis of socialism from above and below, we decided to dive a bit deeper into a topic that we have referenced many times in passing. The liberal narrative about the revolution is that it was a coup carried out by the Soviet Union against the will of the Czechoslovak people, but a cursory g...
