Episodios
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How Jewish Socialists Made an Outhouse for the European Soul
Apologies I had a cold through part of the recording of this and you can hear that my voice is hoarse Extra content, ad-free content, early access, exclusive authors notes and more at: / ericrosenfield Thanks to my patrons! Tip me: https://ko-fi.com/literatemachine Text of the episode and information about the podcast version: https://literatemachine.com/?p=933 Full Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2024/11/1... Including links to cited articles and videos
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https://literatemachine.com/2024/11/07/what-do-we-do-now/What do we do now that the orange fascist is back?
Support me at: https://literatemachine.com Support me at: / ericrosenfield , https://ko-fi.com/literatemachine Sources: People like Biden's policies but not Biden: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio... Bernie Sanders on the election: / dcc3tfubbko Berlesconi's ownership of the media: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.or... Get your news from: https://www.404media.co, https://hellgatenyc.com (New York City area only), and other journalist cooperatives Progressive legislators have: Helped secure housing for the homeless: https://citylimits.org/2023/07/13/nyc... And healthcare for undocumented immigrants: https://www.amny.com/news/care-for-al... A Mind Forever Voyaging into Neoliberalism: • A Mind Forever Voyaging into Neoliber... Thanks to my Patrons: Curtis Shea, Craig DeHaan, Emre Bagdatoglu, Christopher Paul Bettridge, Sven Terje Bang, Tyler Smith, Milo, Michael Kelly, Daniel Warren, Adam Roesner, Christopher Keidong, Hey You, Robin Podolsky, DKO, Macy Morrow, Max Lawson, B R, Austin Armstrong, Mariano Muñoz, Christian Frost, Mike Gillis, Kathryn Carruthers, Gabi Ghita, Hristo Kolev, Kevin Cafferty, Ulysse Pence, Wilma Ezekowitz, Nancy S. Rosen, IndustrialRobot, Adam Hill, Arthur Rosenfield, and Jason Quackenbush Thank you all so much!
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¿Faltan episodios?
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This a Q&A episode in honor of the YouTube channel hitting 10,000 subscribers.
Topics include degrowth and socialism, private cities, anime, Loki Season 2, and my cat
In this video I say I couldn't think of a source talking about alienation, work, and mental health, but after I made it I came across this video that does a pretty good job at the basics: https://youtu.be/aNKiBJJFXZIsi=AoqtG4tl8niq3N4O
Thanks for listening! You can support me on Patreon at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield and get early access to videos like this one, extra content, exclusive author's notes and more! You can also tip me at https://ko-fi.com/literatemachine
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As commerce transforms around the new rent-extracting digital fiefdoms, algorithms and AI become a way to transform skilled labor into machine-learning piecework. In Severance, technology is used to "sever" people's working selves from their actual selves, creating the perfect, dehumanized work force.
Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2024/06/25/how-capitalism-becomes-feudalism-severance-and-technofuedalism/#bibliography
Blog version and links to the podcast and mailing list at https://literatemachine.com
You can support this project at Patreon.com/ericrosenfield where for as little as $1 an episode you can get exclusive authors notes, early access to episodes, and other goodies
Special thanks to all my Patrons: Kathryn Carruthers, Gabi Ghita, Hristo Kolev, Kevin Cafferty, Ulysse Pence, Wilma Ezekowitz, Mike Gillis, Christian Frost, IndustrialRobot, Not Invader Zim, Jason Quackenbush, Arthur Rosenfield, and Nancy S. Rosen
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How Tony Stark, the myth of meritocracy, and our unspoken beliefs about genius explain Elon Musk and the (re)turn of eugenics to the right wing
Blog version and information about podcast and mailing list: https://literatemachine.com/2024/04/01/elon-musk-wokeness-and-the-myth-of-meritocracy
If you enjoyed this, please tell someone, as word-of-mouth is how projects like this grow.
For as little as $1 an episode, you can get exclusive authors notes, excerpts, and early access to episodes by supporting me on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ericrosenfield
Thanks to my current Patrons: Kathryn Carruthers, Gabi Ghita, Hristo Kolev, Kevin Cafferty, Ulysse Pence, Wilma Ezekowitz, IndustrialRobot, Not Invader Zim, Jason Quackenbush, Arthur Rosenfield, and Nancy S. Rosen
Bibliography and Further Reading
Interview with Stan Lee where he talks about the creation of Iron Man: https://screenrant.com/stan-lee-iron-man-unlikable-hero-creation-marvel/
How Albert Einstein was no "lone genius": https://www.nature.com/articles/527298a
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn, 1962
How many filaments Edison tried in creating the lightbulb: http://uncommoncontent.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-many-times-did-edison-fail-in.html
Talented and Gifted programs and their legacy of Eugenics: https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/the-forgotten-history-of-eugenics/
On the creation of the IQ Test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2bKaw2AJxs
Alfred Binet thought intellegence couldn't be reduced to a number: https://www.verywellmind.com/history-of-intelligence-testing-2795581 while Lewis Terman disagreed: https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-vexing-legacy-of-lewis-terman
Terman study subjects results more about socioeconomic status than intelligence: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beautiful-minds/200909/the-truth-about-the-termites and the high performers and low performers had about the same IQ: https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/07/science/75-years-later-study-still-tracking-geniuses.html
The Bell Curve is based on junk, fraudulent "science": https://youtu.be/UBc7qBS1Ujo?si=UMJKOTiArp9qSnca
What Intelligence Tests Miss, Keith E. Stanovich, 2009
On "Gifted Kig Syndrome": https://thehowleronline.org/6490/viewpoint/former-gifted-child-syndrome/
Local education systems are funded by property taxes: https://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem
DeSantis campaign says "woke" is awareness of systemic injustice: https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2022/12/desantis-ron-woke-florida-officials/
Someone working 40 hours a week at minimum wage is still below the poverty line: https://www.cnn.com/factsfirst/politics/factcheck_7e5bc7fa-1a5a-4c29-958f-53a07ac1b9ab#
Why DEI was created: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/5-reasons-support-affirmative-action-college-admissions/
Study where resumes were sent out with stereotypically black and white names and their results: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/mar/15/jalen-ross/black-name-resume-50-percent-less-likely-get-respo/
On the long, toxic history of "Cultural Marxism": https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/opinion/cultural-marxism-anti-semitism.html
Cultural Marxism and the "vast, Jewish conspiracy": https://www.dailydot.com/debug/what-is-cultural-marxism/
The "Hyperloop" is an idea that can never work: https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/elon-musk-hyperloop/ and was just a ploy to disrupt the development of trains in California: https://time.com/6203815/elon-musk-flaws-billionaire-visions/
Wired story from 2018 about Musk mistreating his employees: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-tesla-life-inside-gigafactory/
Some More News on Musk: https://youtu.be/5pNL7MlUpmI?si=GNFvsKQQRpyfw-MH
Tesla cars fall apart in motion: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-musk-steering-suspension/
Tesla cars suspected of turning off self-driving moments before a crash: https://futurism.com/tesla-nhtsa-autopilot-report
Musk not interested in labor laws or regulations: https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-spacex-twitter-inc-technology-business-8912c2a2f282b395d3630b3589fa25bc
More on Musk mistreating employees: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-11-14/elon-musk-toxic-boss-timeline
Musk spreading lies on Twitter: https://futurism.com/elon-musk-black-students-low-iqs
Musk antisemitic tweets: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/16/elon-musk-antisemitic-tweet-adl
Musk racist tweets about asylum-seekers: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/elon-musk-great-replacement-conspiracy-theory-1234941337/
Musk the eugenicist: https://disconnect.blog/why-silicon-valley-is-bringing-eugenics/
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What does comedic science fiction television show The Orville tell us about how capitalism will end? How did Germany go from having the largest and most powerful socialist movement in the world to finding its movement gutted and its country given over to fascists? How did Eduard Bernstein, despite his best intentioned, upend the Marxist movement and provide cover for those who wanted to destroy it? And was he actually right all along? All this and more will be answered!
The previous video, Star Trek into Socialism, is not necessary for appreciating this one, but the two inform each other: https://youtu.be/LJKDF0BwepI
Also mentioned in this video:
* Loki and How Conservatives Become Fascists: https://youtu.be/kBfTYUadGts
* How the Hippies Became Yuppies: The Trial of the Chicago 7: https://youtu.be/LONtgVNaa7A?si=DvWznzsFnMZyYHR2Not by me: Using Corporate Governance to Understand Socialism: https://youtu.be/MmeIGcI60oc
Text of the episode and other ways in which you can access it at https://literatemachine.com/2023/11/16/how-will-capitalism-end-the-orville-eduard-bernstein-and-what-is-to-be-done/
Excerpts of deleted material on the Patreon at https://patron.com/ericrosenfield, which you can get access to for as little as $1 an episode, and also get exclusive author’s notes, draft excerpts, and early access to episodes. There’s also a whole thing I wanted to get into here about the role of identity politics in all this, but it was too complicated and too much of a digression from the main point, so I’ll probably talk about it there.
Bibliography
My primary literary sources were:- *The Preconditions of Socialism* by Eduard Bernstein, 1899, edited and translated by Henry Tudor, 1993 (originally published in English as *Evolutionary Socialism*)
- *Eduard Bernstein on Socialism Past and Present: Essays and Lectures on Ideology*, edited and translated by Marius S. Ostrowski, 2021
- *The Quest for Evolutionary Socialism* by Manfred B. Steger, 1997
- *The Dilemma of Democratic Socialism* by Peter Gay, 1952
- *The German Revolution 1917-1923* by Pierre Broué, 1971 (translation 2005)
- The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles, 1848
- Capital Vol. 1 by Karl Marx, 1867
- Critique of the Gotha Programme by Karl Marx, 1875
- “The Bourgeoisie and the Counter-Revolution” by Karl Marx, 1848
- “Speech to the International Workingman’s Association” by Karl Marx, 1863
- Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engles
- Anti-Dühring by Friedrich Engels, 1877
- Reform or Revolution? by Rosa Luxemburg
- “The Russian Revolution” by Rosa Luxemburg, 1918
- *Capital in the 21st Century* by Thomas Piketty, 2014More sources can be found at https://literatemachine.com/2023/11/16/how-will-capitalism-end-the-orville-eduard-bernstein-and-what-is-to-be-done/
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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: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/09/08.htm
* One of my chief inspirations for this piece and in general is the book Socialism: Past and Future (1989) by Michael Harrington, founder of the Democratic Socialists of America. Socialism does a good job of summing up the history of socialism, the rise of democratic socialism, the problems we faced in the 20th century, and where we might go from here.
* The Preconditions of Socialism (1899) (also published in English as Evolutionary Socialism) by Eduard Bernstein is a fascinating book by the father of the democratic socialist movement and the idea of achieving socialists goals through gradual reform. A controversial figure both in his time and today, both with orthodox Marxists and modern democratic socialists, his story is one I find endlessly fascinating. Much as during the Social Democratic period of the mid-20th century, when Preconditions was first published, it seemed as if gradual socialism was working in Bernstein's native Germany. Then of course the First World War brought Germany to its knees. Bernstein himself, who'd become a member of the Reichstag, would die three weeks before Hitler came to power, undid all the achievements of his party, executed its leaders, and most of the members of Bernstein's ethnic group. While researching this piece, I also drew on The Dilemma of Democratic Socialism: Eduard Bernstein's Challenge to Marx (1952) by Peter Gay, and the excellent introduction to the English translation of Preconditions from 1993 by translator Henry Tudor.
* For the history of the Russian Revolution, I highly recommend China Mieville's October (2017), a highly readable retelling of the story of the revolution and the events around it.
* I am highly indebted to the work of Richard Wolff, whose Democracy at Work (2012) and associated website and YouTube channel opened my eyes to the possibilities of worker cooperatives as a tool for workers to control the means of production within a capitalist society and so create a mechanism not only to improve the lives of workers in the near term, but to build up worker power and control in the long term.
* I'm also indebted to the continued work of Cory Doctorow in and out of his Pluralistic project, with too many useful and informative pieces to list here. For example, Pluristic turned me onto how municipal broadband providers are the only ones with consistent customer satisfaction, or his piece in Boing Boing about how the notion of the "tragedy of the commons" is based on lies and fraud. Other important pieces include "What Comes After Neoliberalism" and "Excuseflation".
* Carlos Maza's excellent video essay "The Pay for It Scam" is essential for understanding the ways in which only programs for the social good are ever asked "how will you pay for it", while corporate subsidies, tax cuts, and the military budget piles on the debt.
* For more on the "primitive communism" of the Iroquois and other native tribes, I recommend The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (2021) by David Graeber.
* Most of my research on Gene Roddenberry comes from the book The Impossible Happened: The Life and Work of Gene Roddenberry, Creator of Star Trek (2016) by Lance Parkin
* More on how modern corporations actually show the power of a centralized economy, a piece inspired by the book The People's Republic of Walmart (2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRepEvmCCIg
A larger bibliography can be found at: https://literatemachine.com/2023/04/11/star-trek-into-socialism/#paragraph
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Marvel's Loki shows us what fascism looks like, and how it comes to take root within innocuous conservatism.
https://literatemachine.com
https://Patreon.com/ericrosenfield
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 music:
"I Can’t Stop" by Punch Deck | https://soundcloud.com/punch-deck
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
Bibliography and Further Reading
David Brooks article on the foundations of conservatism: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/brooks-true-conservatism-dead-fox-news-voter-suppression/620853/?utm_source=feed George W. Bush says he looked in Putin's eyes and "saw his soul": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenia_Summit_2001 Mussolini on Totalitarianism and Fascism: http://www.historyguide.org/europe/duce.html "Ur Fascism", Umberto Eco Rich Scott wants to raise taxes on the poorest: https://news.yahoo.com/rick-scott-lies-tax-proposal-171630154.html 10% of Americans own 89% of the stock market: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/18/the-wealthiest-10percent-of-americans-own-a-record-89percent-of-all-us-stocks.htmlRight-wing proposals to nationalize Facebook: https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/bannon_proposes_nationalizing_facebook_google_data Laura Ingraham on punishing Disney: https://www.thewrap.com/laura-ingraham-disney-apple-republican-retaliation/ Texas arresting parents of trans kids: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/10/texas-trans-kids-abortion-lgbtq-gender-ideology/ Republicans allowed the Child Tax Credit to expire, throwing 3.7 million children into poverty: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/study-child-poverty-rising-tax-credit-expires-83071832 FDR achievements: https://fdrsuite.org/americas-greatest-presidents-franklin-delano-roosevelts-top-achievements-as-president/ Half of Americans are "not American in any meaningful sense": https://americanmind.org/salvo/why-the-claremont-institute-is-not-conservative-and-you-shouldnt-be-either/ More than half of Republicans believe in Great Replacement Theory: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/09/nearly-half-republicans-agree-with-great-replacement-theory/ 77% of drug traffickers are US citizens, and come through ports of call: https://www.cato.org/blog/77-drug-traffickers-are-us-citizens-not-illegal-immigrants The border is not a "war zone": https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/not-war-zone-veterans-visit-texas-borderlands-military-outdoors-sierra-club Growing number of Republicans think Democracy is wrong for America: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/21/republicans-biden-trump-election-democracy GOP seizing the election system: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-01-01/insurrection-gop-seizes-election-power 401ks are a scam: https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/25/derechos-humanos/#are-there-no-poorhouses America's disappearing middle class: https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-the-future-well-all-be-renters-americas-disappearing-middle-class Peter Thiel's essay on how democracy is not compatible with freedom: https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/ Republicans becoming anti-democratic in charts: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22274429/republicans-anti-democracy-13-charts More information on the Backfire Effect, where people dig into their beliefs when presented with contrary evidence: https://youarenotsosmart.com/2017/01/13/yanss-093-the-neuroscience-of-changing-your-mind/ -
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: https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield
Text of the show and more information about other formats it's available can be found at: https://literatemachine.com
Bibliography and Further Reading
- Hallmark Christmas movie montage sourced from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vu6GlstKl8
- On the urban-rural divide of Christmas movies: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-24/the-urban-rural-divide-of-tv-christmas-movies
- The TV Tropes entry for From New York to Nowhere: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FromNewYorkToNowhere
- Ted Koppel's piece on The Andy Griffith Show and modern politics: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/12/29/ted-koppel-mayberry-cbs-sunday-morning/
- A fascinating video that explains how the ethos of "personal responsibility" leads naturally to white nationalism: https://youtu.be/jmT7nLDinhY
- How and why small towns are in decline: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/14/opinion/rural-america-trump-decline.html
- How teen birth rates are higher in rural areas: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/teen-birth-rate-higher-rural-areas
- On the myth of welfare dependency: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/welfare-childhood/555119/
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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.
For as little as $1 an episode (going forward) you can get early access to episodes, as well as exclusive author’s notes at Patreon.com/ericrosenfield.
More information about the show and other formats in which it's available, including YouTube, can be found at https://literatemachine.com
Bibliography and Further Reading
How the regulations around tv shows as toy commercials were repealed in the Reagan administration How square dancing was popularized as a tool of white supremacy How EMTs are underpaid, overworked, and underrecognized About police officer Joe Crystal, shunned by police for trying to hold them accountable Wikipedia entry on the Blue Wall of Silence NYPD internal investigator called a "rat" Prosecutors don't like to prosecute cops Attorney General Letitia James plan for civilian oversight of the NYPD Police departments aren't largely being defunded Crime is rising in cities that did not defund their police the same as those that did How torture doesn't work About Abner Louima who was sodomized with a broken broomstick by the NYPD The great Forced Adversity video about the Punisher/Police Problem Some More News video about the Warrior Mentality training given to the police How congress buys equipment for the military that it doesn't want or need as pork barrel Study finding conservatives lack a sense of humor Last Week Tonight's video about Tucker Carlson and his lightly veiled fascism and even less well veiled white supremacy Edmund Burke and the origins of conservatism Conservatism defending the status quo The myth of meritocracy Book about how billionaires are funding the radical right: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer On prison labor in America The Thought Slime video that covers the video where John Doyle says that conservatives aren't about equality, they're about hierarchy and natural law Police will tell you to obey them if you value your life Republicans legalizing the automative murder of protesters Poor people can't just get a better job Why conservatives are more punitive than liberals The penal system as slave labor -
How Aaron Sorkin whitewashes the story of hippy activism, and how the hippy activists whitewashed themselves.
Text and video version of this episode, as well as how to get it in your inbox, can be found at: https://literatemachine.com
**Bibliography and Further Reading**
* Abbie Hoffman testimony at the Chicago 7 trial: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/Hoffman.html
* Differences between the film and what really happened: https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/trial-of-the-chicago-7/* Wikipedia page about COINTELPRO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
* _Do It!_ (1970), Jerry Rubin
* _Growing Up at 37_ (1976), Jerry Rubin
* A profile of Jerry Rubin from the 1980s: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1981/10/18/jerry-rubin/beb88e6b-ba7e-4839-80ac-4442f6d47809/
* Abbie Hoffman’s debate with Jerry Rubin in 1985, “Yippie vs. Yuppie” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOFBAJ8BlJs&t=913s, and another time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P1x9u-466A
* NY Times obituary of Jerry Rubin: https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/30/obituaries/jerry-rubin-56-flashy-60-s-radical-dies-yippies-founder-and-chicago-7-defendant.html
* “The ‘Me’ Decade”, Tom Wolfe: https://nymag.com/news/features/45938/ -
Pete Doctor takes us into the meaning of life, but is there something hollow at its center of it?
Bibliography and Further Reading
* Soul using uncomfortable blackface: https://noripatterson.medium.com/whats-wrong-with-pixar-s-soul-animation-racism-and-blackface-c9a7709cd50f
* Tom Wolfe’s famous article declaring the 70s the “me decade”: https://nymag.com/news/features/45938/
* Google ngram of the term “personal fulfillment” showing its rise in the 1960s and 70s: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Personal+fulfillment&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CPersonal%20fulfillment%3B%2Cc0
* How distrust of the government among the hippy movement led them to embrace Libertarianism: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/19/comment
* Twitter thread about conservative’s using the “money can’t buy happiness” slogan to say we don’t need to raise the minimum wage: https://twitter.com/cons_owned/status/1372670714201968641/photo/1 -
What does it mean to be an artist?
Corrections:
* The high school students put one of Simon's poems into their high school yearbook, they don't post it up everywhere. Henry puts the poem up in the mute woman's store at her request.
* Fay puts Simon's poem on the internet after Henry asks her to. Henry doesn't know how to use a computer.
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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.
Some Corrections:
* I mention the Nintento 64 as the rival to the Genesis when I meant the Super Nintendo
* Doom was not Id’s last Shareware game; their next game, Quake, was also distributed as Shareware
* First person mode was the primary mode of Ultima Underworld
* There are 5 worlds in Myst, not 7
* Jimmy Maher points out the Lucasfilm’s games declined in quality after 1993, and so poor design may still have been a factor in the decline of Adventure games.Bibliography and Further Reading
Computer Programming Used to Be Women's Work: https://www.history.com/news/coding-used-to-be-a-womans-job-so-it-was-paid-less-and-undervalued, https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding, https://qz.com/911737/silicon-valleys-gender-gap-is-the-result-of-computer-game-marketing-20-years-ago/
Sierra c-founder Ken Williams on the future of the medium: https://community.telltale.com/discussion/23327/roberta-williams-josh-mandel-discussion/p6]
On the development and reception of Wolfenstein 3D: https://www.filfre.net/2020/05/the-shareware-scene-part-3-the-id-boys/wolf3d/ On Doom: https://www.filfre.net/2020/06/the-shareware-scene-part-4-doom/
On Myst: https://www.filfre.net/2020/02/myst-or-the-drawbacks-to-success/
On Doom: https://www.filfre.net/2020/06/the-shareware-scene-part-4-doom/ Computer ownership in the 1990s: https://www.bls.gov/cex/research_papers/pdf/computer-ownership-up-sharply-in-the-1990s.pdf
Example list of the most popular games: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/g30910862/best-video-games/
Feminist Frequency, feminist critique of gaming and target of GamerGate: https://feministfrequency.com/
More about GamerGate: https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/gamergate-video-games-five-years-later.html, https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/video-games-shootings-el-paso-gamergate-8chan-connection.html
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For 30 years, Dave Sim engaged in one of the most remarkable ongoing artistic endeavors ever while he gradually lost his mind.
Bibliography and Further Reading
* A collection quotations of Dave Sim's most misogynistic writing: https://www.theabsolute.net/misogyny/sim.html
* An account of Sim's LSD epiphany at the unofficial Cerebus fanzine site: http://momentofcerebus.blogspot.com/2016/03/sims-lsd-breakthrough.html
* Sim on his schizophrenia diagnosis: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiAo4706PjqAhVqS98KHZxVBiAQFjAKegQIARAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fetd.ohiolink.edu%2F!etd.send_file%3Faccession%3Ddayton1304648596%26disposition%3Dattachment&usg=AOvVaw3KLMmd_z3nhKHTIG_i7Av_
* Tegan O'Neil's excellent posts on Cerebus have been a great resource for this piece, which are indexed here: https://whenwillthehurtingstop.blogspot.com/2013/10/fun-and-games-with-dave.html The comment about Sim and his interpretation of Genesis is found in part 1 of her series: http://whenwillthehurtingstop.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-we-will-read-cerebus-part-i-as-i.html
* Sim on his injury and medical science: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/dave-sim-admitted-into-hospital-for-surgery/
* The Cerebus in Hell Coronavirus special: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/dave-sim-publishes-free-coronavirus-cerebus-in-hell-digital-comic/ -
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.
Follow me on Twitter at @ericrosenfield
Support this show on Patreon for as little as $1 an episode at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield and get access to show notes where I talk about how I produce episodes and the current state of the show.
Bibliography and Further Reading
* The Libertarian-to-Fascist Pipeline: http://[https://medium.com/@thomas.perrett97/from-hayek-to-hitler-an-analysis-of-the-libertarian-to-fascist-pipeline-dcd219fba473]
* How Trump supporting figures like Peter Thiel and Steve Bannon literally don’t believe in Democracy: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/11/donald-trump-steve-bannon-peter-thiel-214490
* Study about how whites backed Trump because of the perceived threat to their dominance: https://www.prri.org/research/white-working-class-attitudes-economy-trade-immigration-election-donald-trump/
* Interview with Michael Kimmel about how people get swept up in Neo-Nazi movements: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/27/michael-kimmel-masculinity-far-right-angry-white-men
* Film Critics Hulk’s essay on the problems with Joker: https://www.patreon.com/posts/33213577
* And finally, Sean Skull’s essential deep dive into how The Bell Curve is based on sand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBc7qBS1Ujo
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What do you do when the authorities have been compromised?
If you enjoyed this please tell someone about it, word of mouth is how projects like this grow.
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/ -
Let’s go back in time, to before the Pandemic, and see if we can change anything. You can support my Patreon for as little as $1 an episode: https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericrosenfield Join the newsletter and get this in your inbox: https://mailchi.mp/aaab46d4f3f2/literatemachine If you enjoyed this, please share it with people; word-of-mouth is how shows like this grow. Thanks! Bibliography and Further Reading Unfortunately, the film 12 Monkeys is not on any streaming service as far as I know, but you can rent and buy digital and physical copies from the usual locations. The latest numbers on the Coronavirus in NYC The New York Times reporting on the effect of Covid-19 in Queens My last episode on the Doctor Who episode "Kerblam!" and its problems with a terrorist being told "the system is not the problem" The insane story of the cult leader who spread Covid-19 to thousands of people in South Korea Trump's Covid-19 response, or lack of it How the White House is confiscating PPE from States And handing it over to for-profit companies To sell to the highest bidder Maryland hiding their Covid-19 tests from the Federal Government Ted Chiang's piece about how we wouldn't believe this story in a book because it's an "idiot plot" People having a positive opinion of Tiger King characters for some reason Conditions on the Stimulus Checks Farmers dumping produce while food banks run out of food Printing money now unlikely to cause hyperinflation About Universal Basic Income and how we can afford it Or the superior Universal Basic Assets Medium Essay about how the corporate interests are going to gaslight us
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In the 2018 Doctor Who episode “Kerblam!”, something is killing workers off at a far future Amazon analogue. Is it Capitalism? Or is the system not the problem? In this episode, Doctor Who is used as a lens to understand the history of technological unemployment and what it means for our automated future.
Bibliography and Further Reading Who Were the Luddites from History.com: https://www.history.com/news/who-were-the-luddites Article in the Guardian about Doctor Who’s Issues with ‘Wokeness’: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/08/doctor-who-more-offensive-than-ever-jodie-whittaker-pc Article on CNBC about McKinsey & Company’s report about automation: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/29/one-third-of-us-workers-could-be-jobless-by-2030-due-to-automation.html Article on Quartz abou technological unemployment including description of the White House report: https://qz.com/895681/silicon-valley-is-right-our-jobs-are-already-disappearing-due-to-automation/ The White House report on Automation written in the Obama era: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/documents/Artificial-Intelligence-Automation-Economy.PDF Article about the Origins of the 40-hour Workweek: https://www.clockspot.com/blog/working-40-hour-week/ Article in the Guardian about Keynes and the workweek of the future: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/sep/01/economics Article in Vox about how the wealthy have taken all the productivity growth for themselves: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/8/16112368/piketty-saez-zucman-income-growth-inequality-stagnation-chart Forbes article about Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/01/11/live-paycheck-to-paycheck-government-shutdown/#6d9e46404f10 Huffpost article about American being unable to afford an emergency: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/most-americans-cant-afford-to-pay-for-even-a-minor-emergency_n_5a68e67ae4b0022830090e5b Forbes article about people using GoFundMe to cover healthcare costs: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolynmcclanahan/2018/08/13/using-gofundme-to-attack-health-care-costs/#30b08b6f2859 Information about Universal Basic Assets, an alternative to Universal Basic Income that gives people greater power over the means of production in addition to money: http://www.iftf.org/uba/ Wikipedia's article on Neoliberalism (not to be confused with American Liberalism or Classical Liberalism which are three different things): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism Thatcher and the phrase "there's simply no alternative” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_is_no_alternative -
In 1984, Ronald Reagan won reelection in a landslide and one man responded the only way he knew how: by channeling his horror into a video game. My favorite video game. So let's leap through time as the artificial intelligence Perry Sim and see what A Mind Forever Voyaging tells us about our present moment.
Bibliography and Further Reading
I could not have written this piece without the website The Digital Antiquarian and its many excellent articles about Infocom and Interactive Fiction by Jimmy Maher
See in particular his series of posts on A Mind Forever Voyaging, beginning with this article.
This post also draws on Jason Scott's documentary about text adventure games, Get Lamp, more information about which can be found at the official website.
See also "A Mind Forever Voyaging - Interview with Steve Meretzky", EUROGAMER.de, 2013
If you'd like to play A Mind Forever Voyaging for yourself, you can play it online, or you can legally download the game file on Github (click on "COMPILED") which can be played with numerous interpreters that can be found cataloged on the Inform Fiction website.
For this piece I played the game again on my Mac using the interperter Gargoyle.
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