Readings: Week of June 8th
From around the web
- «Marxism and Intersectionality»
A super interesting interview with Dr. that goes along well with a lot of contemporary events: from the global George Floyd protests to the (yet again) bailout of the wealthy and banks.
- «China’s Social Credit System Explained» (PDF)
Merics China Monitor presents a nifty PDF slide-guide to the oft-misunderstood “social credit system” that China is building. Whereas the West tends to overemphasize the personal, the system is designed to generate self-regulating behavior in market actors (corporate and otherwise). The era of a Mondragon-like economic system may not be that far away.
- «Trump Campaign Hires a Federal-Election Felon»
No real surprises here. The regime has hired another commit-the-crime-and-get-away-with-it moron to head up the dissolvement of US civic life. Exciting tidbit from the story: The Alexander’s were only caught breaking Oklahoma election law when Chad Alexander was arrested doing cocaine in his Mercedes. Also suspicious: the prosecuter suddenly dropping the charges in mid-2017. Friends and family, ammirite?
- «Foreign Relations of the US: 1969-1976 XVII, China»
Definitely worth perusing official records for a bit of background on the Sino-US rapproachment. If anyone can find this in a physical copy, I’ll buy it from you.
In Progress (IRL)
- «Marxism and the Philosophy of Science: A Critical History» by Helena Sheehan
Don’t expect a review anytime soon, I’m only on page 198 of 523. It’s also decidedly outside my comfort zone academically. But an informative read!
- «2312» by Kim Stanley Robinson
I want so badly to occupy a world like this. Where difference (in political, economic, social relations) is a permeable boundary rather than a militarized perimeter. It would be nice to have the option to move across lines, Cold War frameworks be damned.
- «American Exceptionalism, American Ignorance» by Roberto Sirvent
What beliefs suppor the US assertion that it is a peace-loving democracy that “came to dominate the post-war era because of [it’s] values” while operating the largest military empire ever seen? Or that allow “human rights” to be deployed in support of drone bombings of civilian birthday parties, weddings, and schools? The author’s answer is a two-fold intertwining of a belief in American exceptionalism, a willing blindness to certain unflattering facts.