Socialdem. 21st Century

Walter Benn Michaels discusses his book The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality (New York, 2006).[embedded content]

Described in four easy steps in Rothbard’s own words:(1) “…the parent should have the legal right not to feed the child, i.e., to allow it to die. The law, therefore, may not properly compel the parent to feed a child or to keep it alive.” (Rothbard 1998: 100).(2) “Now if a parent may own his child (within the framework of nonaggression and runaway-freedom), then he may also transfer that ownership to someone else. He may give the child out for adoption, or he may sell the rights to the...

Thomas Frank talks in the video below on the origins of the youth counterculture of the 1960s, and its links to, and even outgrowth from, American business and the advertising industry and the creation of a new consumer culture for teenagers and the young by business. This was, in many ways, a kind of forerunner of the modern pro-SJW corporation, obsessed with diversity and multiculturalism.[embedded content]In essence, Thomas Frank is summarising the contents of his book:Frank, Thomas C....

Serious question:[embedded content]These Democrats are calling themselves Trumpocrats (see also here).Of course, you can see the answer: Trump is calling for, broadly speaking, left-wing policies on trade and protectionism, while Clinton is in favour of toxic neoliberalism and free trade. Clinton’s politically correct SJW program is starting to put even Democrats off the party; Trump rejects this cultural leftism nonsense.Trump has also taken the GOP to the left of Clinton on some important...

I watched with fascination:[embedded content]Just listen to Nigel Farage’s speech: he attacks the big banks, multinational corporations and “modern global corporatism”; he attacks the elites. In some respects, you can easily see a left-wing politician saying the same things.What to make of this? This is clearly right-wing populism at work. But, in reality, there is a strange schizophrenia within this movement: namely, they are weak on economics, and divided into the (1) free market populists...

See this magnificent interview of Walter Benn Michaels in the socialist magazine Jacobin:Michaels, Walter Benn. 2011. “Let Them Eat Diversity. On the Politics of Identity,” Jacobin Issue 1 https://www.jacobinmag.com/2011/01/let-them-eat-diversity/Granted there is a bit of exaggeration here and there, and some vulgar Marxism, but this article is brilliant stuff.The fundamental arguments of Walter Benn Michaels in this interview, written in 2011, are as follows:(1) there is, in reality, a...

Here is a brief reading list, which provides food for thought:Schlesinger, Arthur M. 1998. The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (rev. edn.). W.W. Norton, New York.Buchanan, Patrick J. 1998. The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice are Sacrificed to the Gods of the Global Economy. Little, Brown, Boston and London. Bawer, Bruce. 2012. The Victims’ Revolution: The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind. Broadside Books,...

For keeping track of the news and analysis, whether on politics and economics, and now with more links to YouTube channels and blogs of interest too:(1) General NewsBBC NewsReuters.comGoogle NewsBloomberg NewsCNNAmerican ABCMSNBCFoxnews.comRt.comVice NewsDer Spiegel Online InternationalLe Monde diplomatiqueThe EconomistHaaretzTimes of IsraelJerusalem PostXinhuaChina DailyAntiwar News Sources (a great, long list of news websites)(2) British Newspapers and JournalsThe TimesIndependentThe...

And to the neoliberal vandals, neoclassical chalatans, Marxist fanatics, delusional SJW zealots, libertarian and Austrian nutjobs, open borders cultists, and regressive leftists – I’m laughing at you all.

From Robert P. Murphy’s Chaos Theory: Two Essays on Market Anarchy:“The insurance company makes its money by charging appropriate premiums, tailored to the individual client. If Joe smith has been deemed guilty in the past of violent behavior, his insurance premiums will be accordingly higher. But there are other factors that an insurance company would take into account when setting premiums, besides past behavior. And one of these factors would undoubtedly be: what sort of weapons does this...