May 2012
6 posts
Grand Strategy Annex: The Arrogance of Agnosticism →
geopolicraticus:
In contemporary popular culture it is quite common to hear theistic and atheistic positions described (or rather disparaged) as “dogmatic,” while epistemic modesty — and therefore epistemic virtue — is placed reverently upon the agnostic like a laurel wreath bestowed upon a general…
The wanton misapplication of ‘the golden mean’ as a standard is perhaps the...
Trailing Clouds of Etymologies: aristocunt: Tumblr... →
aristocunt:
whenyrlivinginafascistdream:
aristocunt:
Tumblr aka the Worlds Largest Psuedo*-Feminist Circle Jerk
Please, everybody. Marxism, feminism, green politics, and so on — these are all critical, self-reflexive philosophies, borne (ultimately) out of the philosophical project of the Enlightenment (though they also seek to…
oops I spelled pseudo wrong and now I look like an idiot...
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aristocunt:
Tumblr aka the Worlds Largest Psuedo*-Feminist Circle Jerk
Please, everybody. Marxism, feminism, green politics, and so on — these are all critical, self-reflexive philosophies, borne (ultimately) out of the philosophical project of the Enlightenment (though they also seek to transcend the latter’s bourgeois liberalism.) That means that, if someone is calling...
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this blog has slowed to a crawl, in part due to health issues…hopefully will be able to link to a critique/essay thing of The Men’s Open Your Heart soon, up at The Rumpus. Reading Beyond Good and Evil, which I’m doing (possibly embarrassingly) late, and reading back through Chris Harman’s Zombie Capitalism (more or less a review of Marxian economics throughout the ages),...
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“I reject the term “piracy.” It’s people listening to music and...”
– Steve Albini, from his recent Reddit, um, ‘tour’? I don’t know Reddit/its lingo
Anyways, this is kind of old news but a) the Reddit thing is recent and b) it’s great for a few reasons. Albini can be kind of a dick (e.g. calling a band Rapeman is less transgressive than dumb...
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“Overall, one of the most fascinating things to me about the response to this...”
– Meghan O’Rourke on Girls at Slate. (via likeapairofbottlerockets)
Also a good explanation of why “crap ____ from a dude” is a phenomenon lots of ladies can relate to.
(via judyxberman)
All very interesting, but I’m not sure about the idea that “love and sex make no sense.” Seems like you can get...
April 2012
9 posts
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Newsweek: The 13 Most Useless College Majors (As... →
shortformblog:
alittlespace:
newsweek:
1. Fine Arts
2. Drama and Theatre Arts
3. Film, Video, and Photographic Arts
4. Commercial Art and Graphic Design
5. Architecture
6. Philosophy and Religious Studies
7. English Literature and Language
8. …
Stupid, demagogic, faux-meritocratic scientism from a middlebrow rag? You don’t say…
Useless? We social scientists and...
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“One of capitalism’s most durable myths is that it has reduced human toil....”
– Juliet Schor
this is so on point. C.f. yet another great Peter Frase post that goes over the same basic idea. ECON 101 models the choice labors face as between as one between leisure and income; this is one of the more unrealistic assumptions that it makes. Working people generally do not select...
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a mix I made for a friend — quick pitch...
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“Let us consider a simple economy with three individuals. Alice is a...”
– Cosma Shalizi
A really concise summation of why I don’t think the pushback against neoclassical economics is the most productive way of going about changing the world. Not that we should ditch heterodox economics but sometimes the critiques of NC assumptions (especially the critique of homo...
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“I don’t agree that sex work should be treated “like any other job” because “any...”
– Emi Koyama (via wewantrevolutiongirlstylenow)
u in danja emi nuanced understandings of the sex industry are not allowed on tumblr
(via saltmarshhag)
not that this isn’t hella repetitive given things I recently wrote along exactly these lines, but just reblogging to reiterate that I am not...
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“Milton produced Paradise Lost for the same reason a silkworm produces silk”
– Marx, in Theories of Surplus Value, getting his Hume[1] on.
[1] ‘Reason is, and ought to be, the slave of passion’
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March 2012
13 posts
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“mind in another universe, while my physical is stuck on the earth, lost in inner...”
– CanOx, decidedly Cartesian rappers
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The Problem with (Sex) Work →
Excellent piece by Peter Frase in Jacobin (FWIW the link goes to his blog). Read it — it hits on a lot of points that I’ve made in the past
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“There may be truths beyond speech, and they may be of great relevance to man in...”
– UNC leaves the tourney, and now I return to homework (and posting the good bits from it on Tumblr)
(this is Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition)
ignore out-of-date gendered language
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theweightofemptiness asked: where might I find such an interview?
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“If people grow accustomed to getting sizable checks from the central bank, that...”
– Steve Randy Waldman on why to support a basic income grant
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“People like to make up genre names every once in a while. The people who make...”
– Stephin Merritt on Songwriting, Sondheim, & Katy Perry - Music - BlackBook
Funny that it’s Stephin Merritt of all people saying something very accurate about “dubstep,” i.e., that it’s essentially the same genre(s) of electronic music that was big in the 90s with a fancy new name, whether it’s...
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“[…] to read a do-gooder’s crusade to confiscate my ranch dressing as...”
– Who Is IOZ?
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branching out doubly:
a) good day for college basketball between adopted (UNC) and semi-adopted (KU) home (the KS/MO distinction is a bigger deal around here [I am home for break.])
b) caffeine withdrawal is a remarkable and somewhat worrisome experience. headache diminishes remarkably within seconds of drinking diet soda. i don’t think I’ve ever felt any quicker physiological...
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I USED TO BE A BAD GUY BUT NOW I'M GOOD
sonofapritch:
I don’t walk dogs and I don’t like papayas but I think I’m very friendly
you should pay lots of attention to me and maybe buy me things
because I am a prodigal son who turned into Kierkegaard or something
hahahahahahaha
February 2012
30 posts
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François Hollande and the conservative critique of... →
I pretty much always reblog content from The Current Moment, do read
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“When I speak, I express the universal, and when I do not [speak], no one can...”
– a deluge of Kierkegaard quotes but this one is great since it totally prefigures Wittgenstein
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“[Intellectuals’] lifework is to judge the great. Such conduct in respect...”
– more from Fear and Trembling.
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“Any serious thinker will seek rejuvenation in the eternal youth of the Greeks....”
– Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
a good life motto
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“But art is in any case not a relation to a thing, it is a relation between men,...”
– Christopher Caudwell, The Concept of Freedom
Allegedly the passage, acc. Kyle Gann, that convinced Cornelius Cardew to become a Marxist-Leninist. I greatly admire Cardew and will hopefully eventually do a radio special on him, but, despite being (as a couple of my friends and I like to say)...
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In a Silent Way is such a meffin phenomenal record. I’m all for the Feldmanian ‘abstract expressionism’ mode of music, and I like a lot of free improv/free jazz that is very much not in line with any particular mood or theme — just this whole ‘pure blocks of sound that the listener can interpret’ thing — but it’s pretty amazing at how specific of a...
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“Looked at one way – in the manner of Joan Didion, for example, in her harsh,...”
– Novelist Jenny Turner
This. This so hard. Read the whole essay. GA Cohen called his brand of Marxism ‘no-bullshit Marxism’ and as much as I sometimes disagree with his take, I like the idea and ethos. No-bullshit [insert any/every worthwhile political philosophy here.]
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Hopelessly Romantic Cynic: femmesandfamily:... →
femmesandfamily:
theweightofemptiness:
Femmes and Family: On the Fuck Modesty Campaign
whenyrlivinginafascistdream:
femmesandfamily:
It is the Fuck Modesty campaign. Not the Fuck people who are modest campaign.
You can totally choose to be modest, humble,…
See, the problem with your response — and with the original post — is that neither of us were arguing ‘for modesty’ —...
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BOE's Andrew Haldane in the London Review of Books →
quick history of banking and explanation of the crisis. with special/specific focus on banks. standard boozhy ‘bad regulators’/’it’s an aberration’ stuff but good stuff for that.
Femmes and Family: On the Fuck Modesty Campaign →
femmesandfamily:
It is the Fuck Modesty campaign. Not the Fuck people who are modest campaign.
You can totally choose to be modest, humble, whatever you want. If that’s your choice, then that’s awesome. I will never shame someone for expressing themselves the way they want to.
But it is also super great if…
I have to say, I really don’t understand this. I am all for not feeling guilty...
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“The Market has been so mystified by its apologists that we no longer recognize a...”
– Peter Frase
Up there with Doug Henwood for quality, Marxist thinking that does not repeat any sort of party line. Read his blog (he also writes for Jacobin, which is just that whole sort of ‘contrarian but not in that terrible Freakanomics/Penn and Teller sort of way’ write large.) read...
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or, why i don't do year-end lists
intelligence is a concept for the dustbin of history. in fact, junk the entire concept of cardinal ordering (no, not really, but let’s accept that its entire method and ethos has massively overstepped its epistemic bounds).
further explanation, in an attempt to not be excessively gnostic: if you reduce intelligence to computational ability, then it’s an uninteresting concept (and...
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43 percent of voters say random choices from phone... →
bostonreview:
washingtonpoststyle:
This does not link to an Onion article. Via Karen Tumulty
It would also be more democratic than what we have.
#alreadybeendone