The Regrettable Century

Marxism had always contained within it a multiplicity of variations and is possessed, in equal parts, the potential to be used for illumination and obfuscation. Nothing more clearly illustrates this than the early responses of Marxists to fascism. In our second installment of our series on the history of fascism, we dive into some Marxist theories of fascism. Our primary source of info for this episode is this wonderful book:https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1233-marxists-in-the-face-of-fascismSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

It is the first birthday of the Regrettable Century! We spent the better part of an hour reflecting on our proud moments, regrets, things we changed our minds about (or didn't), and where we would like to go in the future. We've got some heavy material coming up, so enjoy this comparatively light fare. Music: Every Day is Halloween- MinistrySend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

The movement for proletarian self emancipation is at a low ebb, but in a testament to how stupid and bad the world is, Democrats, Republicans, and European post-fascists have ramped up their rhetorical attacks on the pale ghost of the specter of communism. Anti-communism has always been the stand-in ideology for racist authoritarianism and it serves the same purpose now in a world without a global movement to scare the bourgeoisie. Liberals, attempting to stem a nascent socialist movement, would condemn fascism and communism equally, hoping to stamp out a nascent workers' movement. We sat down to talk about how dumb that is. Losurdo vs. The Category of Totalitarianismhttp://awm.or.kr/bbs/data/document/1/Losurdo___Critique_of_Totalitarianism_(2004).pdfOn the false equivalence of fascism and communism https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/bulgaria-fascism-nazism-anticommunism-historical-memory?fbclid=IwAR3KlX0_S-giXERD9s2CvrOk-cV0KkKmhXckAjgxSgT0orSlFOrXWH7U7iAAnticommunism in a world without communismhttps://www.patreon.com/posts/anticommunism-in-28790447The New Anti-Communism: Rereading the Twentieth Centuryhttps://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2811-enzo-traverso-the-new-anti-communism-rereading-the-twentieth-century?fbclid=IwAR2_nrgCygrq0vxJj79ufs4iPJ6ZC8bWSGL83faav1BSKVdP26Jb2eZXhJwSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Steven from The Supreme Leap Forward is back to talk about the KKKriminal INjustice CIStem of the United $nakes of AmeriKKKa. We discuss the courts, restorative justice, twitter pileons/call out culture, and a little about Soviet jurisprudence. Steven's essay mentioned in the episode:Understanding Crime Under Capitalism: A Critique of American Criminal Justice and Introduction to Marxist Jurisprudence- Steven Gilmore The Works of Evegny Pshukanis:https://www.marxists.org/archive/pashukanis/index.htmThe other episode we did with Stevenhttp://regrettablecentury.buzzsprout.com/220523/989392-lawyerization-and-its-discontents-a-discussion-on-marxist-jurisprudence-with-steven-from-supreme-leap-forward-part-iKevin and Steven's Marxist Law Podcast featuring Chris Supreme Leap Forward Episode 12 - Game Of Owns and Feudal Law Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

The slow cancellation of the future has been accompanied by a deflation of expectations, both in the realm of cultural  and -- apparently -- technological production. Culture has crawled to a halt, its progress replaced by advances in methods of distribution. Technology is bogged down in a cycle of adding additional cameras to the iphone. Has capitalism outlived its progressive potential? (The TLDR is yes)Mark Fisher: The Slow Cancellation Of The Futurehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCgkLICTskQ&t=304s David Graeber: Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profithttps://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit We are not living in a technological golden age. https://youtu.be/tvG3dT79TeYMusic: Маяк - Выше ЗвездSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Check out some Real Nerd Hours when Chris and Jason have a discussion about a not very well known article from an obscure Trotskyist journal written around a decade ago...It generated a little bit of a buzz, but was mostly ignored. We think that was a mistake and we are going to tell you all about why you should care about the decisions of the 10th party congress.https://www.patreon.com/posts/red-jacobins-and-29448338?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=postshareSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

"Perhaps the feeling most characteristic of our current moment is a mixture of boredom and compulsion. Even though we recognise that they are boring, we nevertheless feel compelled to do yet another Facebook quiz, to read yet another Buzzfeed list, to click on some celebrity gossip about someone we don’t even remotely care about. We endlessly move among the boring, but our nervous systems are so overstimulated that we never have the luxury of feeling bored. No one is bored, everything is boring."For this episode we read a couple of articles by Mark Fisher and the Institute for Precarious Consciousness discussing some of the mechanisms that capitalism exploits to dampen our abilities to organize against it. While the production of this episode really is us just feeding more content into a machine that devours our time and creativity, we are kinda hoping this is an example of the capitalists selling us some rope. Mark Fisher: No one is bored, Everything is boringhttps://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/no-one-is-bored-everything-is-boring/Institute for Precarious Consciousness: We Are All Very Anxioushttp://intercommunalworkshop.org/we-are-all-anxious/  Jodi Dean: Communicative Capitalism and Class Strugglehttp://spheres-journal.org/communicative-capitalism-and-class-struggle/ Music: Savages- Shut UpSend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

This week we dive in to the second part of our two part collaboration with Adam from Red Library, who hosts s a great podcast that analyzes and discusses important works of Marxist theory and history. We are big fans, go check them out. This week we continued our discussion on Dialectic of Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism by Russell Jacoby, so if you haven't listened to the first part, do that now. In Dialectic of Defeat, Jacoby examines the losers of the Marxist tradition and argues that there is something to be learned from them, even in their defeat. He exhorts us to read the heretics, doubt the orthodoxies, and truly understand all of the rich and varied currents of Marxism, even if they ultimately failed to create a successful revolution. After all, all of our gods failed us in the end.Either that, or we failed them. Jacoby, Russell. Dialectic of defeat : contours of western Marxism. Cambridge, U.K. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.Music:Current 93/Nurse With Wound- Ballad of the Pale Girl Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Red Library is a great podcast that analyzes and discusses important works of Marxist (and other leftist) literature, and we are big fans. So, we are happy to announce that this week we teamed up with them to read and talk about Dialectic of Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism by Russell Jacoby. The discussion ran long, so it has been broken into two parts. This is part one.In Dialectic of Defeat, Jacoby examines the losers of the Marxist tradition and argues that there is something to be learned from them, even in their defeat. He exhorts us to read the heretics, doubt the orthodoxies, and truly understand all of the rich and varied currents of Marxism, even if they ultimately failed to create a successful revolution. After all, all of our gods failed us in the end.Either that, or we failed them. Jacoby, Russell. Dialectic of defeat : contours of western Marxism. Cambridge, U.K. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.Music:Modern Life Is War- Farmer's Holiday Association Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

We decided that a good companion to our episode about Melancholia and Organized Pessimism would be a rare recording with all of us (except Kevin) in the same room, talking about a pretty cool movie that we saw over a decade ago.Sign up on our, very reasonably priced, Patreon to access our-- small but ever growing number of-- bonus episodes. https://www.patreon.com/theregrettablecenturySend us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show