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#080 - Bracing for Revolution w/ Brace Belden

Jan 23, 2026

Guest

Brace Belden

Brace Belden, left-wing activist, podcaster, and former volunteer fighter in Syria, reflects on how to meet a rising fascist threat. Short, provocative takes on crisis as opportunity, the limits of online spectacle, the question of revolutionary class, lessons from Syria, and how organizers can turn talk into real-world action.

01:51:45

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insights

INSIGHT

How Structure Warps Resistance

Structural shifts concentrate wealth and technological power in reactionary hands, shaping contemporary politics and discourse.
Disciplinary silos and NGO professionalization fragment resistance and absorb potential activists into non-revolutionary channels.

insights

INSIGHT

Popularity Isn't Leadership

Media popularity often gets mistaken for political leadership, distorting where real organizing power lies.
Both left and right elevate broadcasters and personalities even though broadcasting skills don't equal mass-movement leadership.

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ANECDOTE

NGOization Drains Movements

Brace describes how NGOs and grant funding professionalize activism and channel energy into donor-driven projects.
He worries this NGOization replaces class-based organizing and dilutes revolutionary potential.

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Context: 2026 Political Landscape

05:14 • 7min

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Reading Lukács and the Limits of Theory

12:10 • 1min

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Right-Wing Strategy Put Into Practice

13:19 • 1min

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Who Counts as the Revolutionary Class?

14:40 • 4min

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Problems of Left Leadership and Organization

18:21 • 8min

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Techno-feudalism and Structural Shifts

26:18 • 4min

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Electoral Alternatives and the Democratic Party

29:50 • 2min

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Crisis as Opportunity or Magical Thinking?

31:35 • 1min

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Renee Good Case and Political Clarity

32:59 • 2min

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Media Platforms vs. Political Organization

35:09 • 3min

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Converting Audiences Into Action

37:54 • 4min

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NGOs, Grants, and Depoliticized Activism

41:51 • 6min

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Is Anything Worth Dying For Today?

47:26 • 13min

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Reflections on Fighting in Syria

01:00:01 • 9min

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Imperial Entanglements and Regional Outcomes

01:08:56 • 3min

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International Coverage and Listener Engagement

01:11:35 • 5min

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Europe, the Far Right, and Social Democratic Responses

01:16:47 • 5min

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Spectacle, Compatible Leftism, and Media Curiosity

01:22:12 • 7min

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Online Communities, Paranoia, and Organizing Limits

01:29:14 • 12min

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Practical Advice: Learn By Doing Politics

In Dubious Battle follows young Jim Nolan, who joins the Communist Party and teams up with veteran organizer Mac McLeod to incite a strike among exploited migrant workers in Torgas Valley after growers cut wages. As the strike escalates into violence, with confrontations against scabs, landowners, and authorities, the narrative examines the tensions between individual purpose and collective action, the manipulation of the masses, and the tragic costs of ideological commitment. Steinbeck portrays the workers' defiance turning into fanaticism, highlighting the human toll without clear victors.

The fever

Wallace Shawn

#142

• Mentioned in 132 episodes

The Communist Manifesto

Friedrich Engels

Karl Marx

#4157

• Mentioned in 11 episodes

History and Class Consciousness

Georg Lukács

Georg Lukács's "History and Class Consciousness" is a landmark work in Western Marxism, exploring the relationship between history, class consciousness, and revolutionary praxis. Lukács introduces the concept of reification, arguing that capitalist society transforms social relations into seemingly objective things, obscuring their true nature. He emphasizes the importance of achieving class consciousness, a transformative understanding of one's position within the capitalist system. Lukács's work challenges traditional Marxist interpretations of history and emphasizes the role of subjective experience in shaping social reality. His ideas have had a lasting impact on critical theory and Marxist thought.

#9074

• Mentioned in 5 episodes

Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?

America, Wealth, and One-Hundred Years of The Great Gatsby

Gabriel Rockhill

#11256

• Mentioned in 4 episodes

Theses on Feuerbach

Ludwig Feuerbach

#2822

• Mentioned in 15 episodes

Techno-Feudalism

Yanis Varoufakis

#18820

• Mentioned in 3 episodes

Consciousness

Edward F. Edinger

#88972

The Cultural Cold War

Frances Stonor Saunders

Frances Stonor Saunders' "The Cultural Cold War" is a meticulously researched and insightful analysis of the CIA's covert operations in the cultural sphere during the Cold War. The book reveals the extent to which the CIA funded and supported various cultural initiatives, including literary magazines, art exhibitions, and film productions, as part of its broader strategy to counter Soviet influence. Saunders's work challenges conventional narratives about the Cold War, highlighting the agency's significant role in shaping cultural landscapes. The book's detailed examination of specific cases and its exploration of the ethical implications of covert cultural interventions make it a significant contribution to Cold War scholarship. "The Cultural Cold War" remains a relevant and timely study, offering valuable insights into the complex relationship between power, culture, and propaganda.

This week we are joined by a special guest, TrueAnon’s Brace Belden, to take stock of the current and impending crisis and brainstorm ways that we might think creatively to meet the moment and face off against an admittedly much better organized fascist enemy. For those of us on the left seeking to exploit the next crisis to push back against the consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of our craven overlords, we must come to grips with the fact that there currently is no organized revolutionary movement; there’s not even a revolutionary working class. But that does not mean that we should give into fatalism. There are plenty signs of hope, and the demand for a unified front against fascism is higher than it has been in generations.

We discuss all of this and much more with Brace, including the magnetic pull of the spectacle towards compatible leftism, the prospects for armed struggle (including insights from Brace’s time in Syria), and how we can learn from the past without using history as a costume for revolutionary LARPing. We don’t have the answers, but we do have the will, and we hope you’ll tune in and join us.

Links:

https://podcast.trueanon.com/

Brace’s Baffler Article, “The Hatred of Podcasting” https://thebaffler.com/outbursts/the-hatred-of-podcasting-belden

Lukacs “History and Class Consciousness” https://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/history/
Herbert Marcuse’s 1969 Berkeley Speech with Angela Davis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuyWj8BtjKc

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