Star Trek into Socialism: or Who Deserves the Future
Literate Machine
Does Star Trek show us what socialism looks like? What would it look like if we organized society democratically instead of allowing a few people to control most of the resources? Bibliography and Further Reading * Obviously, the work of Marx and Engels is key to this piece. Particular texts I drew on here include The Civil War in France (1871) (modern editions contain the first draft and the address on the Civil War) and The Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875). Marx's "La Liberte" speech (1872) is where he proposes that some countries might transition to communism peacefully:...
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Loki and How Conservatives Become Fascists
Literate Machine
Marvel's Loki shows us what fascism looks like, and how it comes to take root within innocuous conservatism. Corrections: • Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Bros are not Jewish. Actual examples of Jewish funders of the right include Sheldon Adelson and Ike Perlmutter. I may upload a revised version of this audio with the names changed. • Malthus never directly said that the poor and unskilled should be liquidated, but he did oppose aid to the poor on the theory that they should be allowed to naturally die out if they were of no use to society in order to preserve resources. Interstitial...
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The Confused Ideology of Schitt's Creek
Literate Machine
How a show about poverty that can't ever bare to really show poverty illustrates everything we've been blind to. Support the show on Patreon and get early access to episodes and exclusive Authors Notes: Text of the show and more information about other formats it's available can be found at: Bibliography and Further Reading - Hallmark Christmas movie montage sourced from: - On the urban-rural divide of Christmas movies: - The TV Tropes entry for From New York to Nowhere: - Ted Koppel's piece on The Andy Griffith Show and modern politics: - A fascinating video that explains how the ethos...
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Defund the Paw Patrol
Literate Machine
Is the Paw Patrol an unintentional conservative utopia? What can the show tell us about how the political spectrum views the police, its purpose, and its funding.
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How the Hippies Became Yuppies: The Trial of the Chicago 7
Literate Machine
How Aaron Sorkin whitewashes the story of hippy activism, and how the hippy activists whitewashed themselves.
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Pixar's Soul: Finding Yourself Under Capitalism
Literate Machine
Pete Doctor takes us into the meaning of life, but is there something hollow at its center of it?
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Why Stories? Henry Fool and What the Artist is For
Literate Machine
What does it mean to be an artist?
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Doom, Myst, and the War for the Soul of Video Games
Literate Machine
In the 1990s, Myst and Doom fought a war for the soul of video games. Myst sold almost twice as many copies. Within ten years, the entire industry had remodeled itself around Doom. Special call out to Jimmy Maher at the Digital Antiquarian (https://filfre.net) whose work covering early video games I drew on extensively.
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Cerebus: Misogyny and Madness
Literate Machine
For 30 years, Dave Sim engaged in one of the most remarkable ongoing artistic endeavors ever while he gradually lost his mind.
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Pink Floyd's The Wall and the Rise of the Alt-Right
Literate Machine
How the worms ate into my brain, what I did and did not understand about The Wall, and what it tells us about the rise of the Alt-Right.
info_outlineWhat do you do when the authorities have been compromised?
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Bibliography and Further Reading
- More general information about abolishing the police: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/abolish-police-instead-lets-have-full-social-economic-and-political-equality/
- Still don’t think the police need replacing? Consider this report from the inside: https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759
- Think prison is necessary? Here’s some information about that: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html
- PBS Newshour article on how white supremacists have infiltrated law enforcement: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-white-supremacists-in-law-enforcement?fbclid=IwAR36X2ZT3-B499frCjRcHXraTK1kaLmOhUx31T0uYH5oObim_Vo3f2i96iE
- New Republic article about police taking the side of white supremacists: https://newrepublic.com/article/157981/police-take-side-white-vigilantes?fbclid=IwAR2omP9SMnAqJTv1Fzi8vI7o1OhIzRUgA5X4Mo2JqtP_dPVJgo1QsS8OizA
- Report on how trying to file a complaint about the police will get you followed and harassed (at least in Florida): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnJ5f1JMKns&feature=youtu.be
- How riots can lead to social change: https://www.vox.com/2015/4/30/8518681/protests-riots-work
- Actual Context episode 1 about the police’s unhealthy obsession with the Punisher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcrxePK1sno
- Some More News’ piece about how the police are trained to murder you: https://youtu.be/tuzQrbio2Qw
- Compilation of police brutality during the protests: https://twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/1266917228752056320
- Officers talking about calling in sick in solidarity with officer who beat a student with a baton: https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-police-beating-temple-student-joseph-bologna-protest-20200605.html?__vfz=medium%25253Dsharebar
- Officers cheering for the Buffalo officers who pushed down an old man at their court hearing: https://mobile.twitter.com/Acyn/status/1269322620316442625
- How Adrien Schoolcraft reported his fellow police and was harassed and forcibly committed for his trouble. It was only because he taped his superiors discussing their crimes that he was believed. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/nyregion/officer-who-disclosed-police-misconduct-settles-suit.html
- New York Times article about defunding the police: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/opinion/george-floyd-police-funding.html
- The Guardian article on how the implicit bias and de-escalation training in Minneapolis did not work: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/31/the-answer-to-police-violence-is-not-reform-its-defunding-heres-why
- The End of Policing, now a free ebook from Verso: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing
- How Dallas has been dispatching social workers to some 911 calls: https://www.lightworkers.com/dallas-dispatching-social-workers-to-some-911-calls/