Bungacast

On the left case for freedom.   We talk to Corey Robin about how the left has sacrificed the realm of freedom to the right. And why the Left's weakness is also the Right's. Plus, why is it clear that Trump is not a fascist? And insight into the BLM protests in NYC and responses to the pandemic.  Reading: What People Power Looks Like in a Pandemic Democracy, Corey Robin, NYRB Symposium on the Challenges Facing Democrats: Freedom Now, Corey Robin & Alex Gourevitch, Polity If authoritarianism is looming in the US, how come Donald Trump looks so weak?, Corey Robin, Guardian

On culturally conservative critics of capitalism.  Neoliberalism’s fragmentary and atomising tendencies have gone too far. In response, some right-wingers have turned against the market. At the same time, there’s a (marginal) tendency on the left turning against cultural liberalism. Are we witnessing a major political realignment underway? What is the substance of these "culturally conservative" critiques, and do they offer anything new, beyond what people like Christopher Lasch advanced decades ago?   Readings: The new intellectuals of the American right, Nick Burns, New Statesman The Problem of Hyper Liberalism, John Gray, The TLS The Real Class War, Julius Krein, American Affairs Socialism in One Country, David Runciman, LRB (on Maurice Glasman & Blue Labour) The idea that the British working class is socially conservative is a nonsense, Kenan Malik, The Guardian Zero to One, Peter Thiel (pdf) The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, Daniel Bell (pdf)

This is a sample. For the full episode go to patreon.com/bungacast  Bonus content (always the best stuff) from our interview with Angela and Michael (episode 126). 

Why did Bernie Sanders fail? In the third in an occasional series on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Angela Nagle and Michael Tracey about their analysis of Bernie Sanders' campaign. We put to bed some bad arguments as to why Bernie didn't win the nomination, and examine some better ones: was the campaign was too establishment-friendly? too "left"? too middle-class? too anti-nationalist?... or are structural factors to blame instead? And we ponder the end of the union of Old and New Lefts, of cultural liberalism and socialism. And the most worrying of all: was Bernie just a blip? Reading: First as Tragedy, Then as Farce: The Collapse of the Sanders Campaign and the "Fusionist" Left, Angela Nagle & Michael Tracey, American Affairs

This is a subscriber-only episode. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast In this latests Three Articles we discuss power, money and the power of money - in a post-Covid world.   Readings: The Death of the Central Bank Myth, Adam Tooze, Foreign Policy Why the Neoliberals Won’t Let This Crisis Go to Waste, Philip Mirowski, Jacobin Plan A for the coronavirus, Curtis Yarvin, Medium

In the second in an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nicholas Kiersey, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in Texas and host of the Fully Automated podcast. What were things like on the campaign trail, and what went wrong for Bernie? Will Biden go the distance, and are there more shenanigans in store? Readings: Like It or Not, If We Run Third Party, We Will Lose, Dustin Guastella, Jacobin The Tyranny of Decorum Hurt Bernie Sanders’s 2020 Prospects, David Sirota, Jacobin ‘Life After Bernie’: The Young Left Braces for Disappointment in 2020, Tim Alberta, Politico The Left Can’t Just Dismiss the Anti-Lockdown Protests, Ben Burgis, Jacobin

On the so-called "incel documentary", TFW NO GF.   This episode is for patreon subscribers only. Sign up: patreon.com/BungaCast We discuss the new documentary TFW NO GF, which focuses on the lives of extremely online alienated loners in the US. It has consequently been labelled the "incel documentary". Because the subjects are allowed to speak for themselves, it's also been called "irresponsible".   We take apart what, if anything, makes this cohort distinct from the past - is it the internet? are they lonelier? are their prospects worse? - and try to place the phenomenon in a wider context. If you haven't watched the documentary, there are clips from it interspersed throughout.   TFW NO GF on Amazon Prime List of Pirate Bay proxies

On the end of Left Populism.   Friend of the podcast Anton Jäger joins us to discuss the fate of Left Populism, investigate the response of the Left to the ongoing Coronacrisis, and question whether we're really witnessing the end of neoliberalism. We refer to his recent piece in Damage magazine, in the readings below.   Did Left populism ask the right questions but get the wrong answers? Are the next three years going to see the blossoming of the 'Well, Actually' Left? Or is the stage set for the triumph of covid corporatism?   Readings: It might take a while before history starts again, Anton Jäger, Damage Are we all covid communists now?, Philip Cunliffe, Medium

On The Jakarta Method. We're joined by Vincent Bevins to discuss his new book on the 1965-66 mass killings in Indonesia, Cold War anti-communism, and the destruction it wrought around the world. The mid-60s proved pivotal, with US-backed coups in Indonesia and Brazil setting the template. What was their effect on the Left worldwide? How did it alter developmental trajectories across the Third World? What lessons can we take from these historical experiences? Running Order: Indonesia - (10:43) Brazil & application of Jakarta Method - (36:14) Themes of anticommunism - (43:55) Global consequences - (53:03) Anticommunism today - (01:14:39) Bonus stuff - (1:21:18) Reading: The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World

On the end of Left Populism.   This is a sample. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/BungaCast   Friend of the podcast Anton Jäger joins us to discuss the fate of Left Populism, investigate the response of the Left to the ongoing Coronacrisis, and question whether we're really witnessing the end of neoliberalism. We refer to his recent piece in Damage magazine, in the readings below.   Did Left populism ask the right questions but get the wrong answers? Are the next three years going to see the blossoming of the 'Well, Actually' Left? Or is the stage set for the triumph of covid corporatism?   Readings: It might take a while before history starts again, Anton Jäger, Damage Are we all covid communists now?, Philip Cunliffe, Medium