WHAT IS POLITICS?

Dive into the fascinating historical narrative of Jewish life in Europe and its pivotal role in the rise of Zionism. The discussion navigates the complexities of anti-Semitism, class structure, and cultural struggles, revealing hidden stories often overlooked by both sides. Explore how nationalism intertwined with economic hardships shaped Jewish identity and migration patterns. The critique of simplistic views on Zionism and colonialism invites a deeper understanding of power dynamics, encouraging a re-evaluation of contentious perspectives.

This is a Q&A where I respond to questions and critiques about episode 12: The ABC’s of Israel/Palestine (https://youtu.be/OLr_VCqnId0) and also go off on a whole bunch of related tangents. TIMESTAMPS BELOW! BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102834580 (no paywall) I purposefully don’t monetize my channel in order to spare you the annoying ads, and it takes me months to make the scripted episodes, so please help if you can! PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS: https://www.patreon.com/whatispolitics PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=XJ6HBHFJ6C3RU KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: ko-fi.com/whatispolitics VIDEO VERSION: https://www.youtube.com/@WHATISPOLITICS69 RSS FEED: http://feeds.feedburner.com/WHATISPOLITICS tweeter: @worbsintowords ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE: starsixnine.bandcamp.com https://spotify.link/uYoXHLwmkDb 0:00 intro 1:55 Rashid Khalidi on the Comedy Cellar Podcast 5:33 Why I Became a Lawyer 11:36 Israel’s assaulton Gaza is pointless 13:28 Hamas’ 2020 conference on what to do after victory 14:31 Oct 7 happened because the IDF was AWOL 15:56 israeli vs palestinian propaganda 18:12 Israelis unconsciously aware that the war is just for revenge 20:26 Mowing the lawn and keeping Gazans on a diet 22:12 Why I don’t cover current events 24:54 How hard it is to figure out what’s true with Israeli/Palestine history: 27:32 Did Zionists do terror against Jews in Baghdad to convince Jews to emigrate? 28:34 Did Israel steal Yemeni Jewish babies to give to holocaust survivors? 33:50 What I’m bringing to the table  36:15 Israeli views on Arab civilian casualties, 2002 vs 2024 43:09 Hamas isn’t nationalist 43:29 Hamas vs Fatah members’ teeth 44:01 Hamas did not “win by a landslide” 46:40 the Hannibal directive 51:52 victories for activism: forcing Israel to let more aid into gaza 55:22 BEGIN Q&A 55:56 left and right / the social psychology of voting 57:20 critique: i “both sidesed” the conflict 57:53 cancer eviction story 59:35 could we make a little interpersonal violence legal? 1:01:08 why present both sides? 1:09:58 cancel culture in pro-Israel politics 1:18:12 academia’s role in neutralizing activism 1:20:33 “you don’t understand the nuances” David Graeber critiques 1:22:47 pomo as poetry, not scholarship 1:27:20 back to cancel culture 1:28:48 Gina Carano 1:32:46 Cancel culture in palestinian activism: 972+ Project Lavender article 1:35:18 cancelling Norman Finkelstein 1:37:44 back to Q and A 1:38:23 why is the US so involved in the Israel/Palestine conflict? 1:46:26 why don’t i call it genocide? 2:13:58 The culpability of the original zionist settlers vs holocaust refugees and jews from the arab world 2:19:48 Atlantic article disputing that Israeli leaders made genocidal statements 2:33:29 Do Arabs in Israel really have equal rights? 2:43:51 75 years of occupation since 1967?  Whose land is it? 2:48:39 college “leftist” activists supporting hamas uncritically 3:01:57 “we must support a liberation movement, no matter how reactionary it gets”? 3:04:26 Are American settler colonialists guilty 250 years later? 3:12:07 From authoritarian child rearing to children raising their parents: why do we always do everything idiotically? 3:17:45 One state, two states, no states 3:21:05 Should Israelis have to leave? 3:27:08 Reading Hamas’ 2024 “Our Narrative” pamphlet 3:41:59 outtro https://archive.org/download/12.2-israel-qna/12.2%20-%20ISRAEL%20QnA.mp3

What was supposed to be an informal QnA about the “Israel/Palestine ABCs” episode, turned into a What is Politics “live” brainstorm session à la Matt Christman “grillstream,” where I discuss my arguments and readings on who and what started the Israel/Palestine conflict which will appear in more detail (and coherence) in the next scripted episode.   At 5hrs long, I didn’t even get to the QnAs yet … oops! 0:00 intro: ‘why is everything so stupid and shitty?’ / the “alignment problem” of our society 12:46 the social function of academia and universities from pre-WWII to today 31:17 freedom of speech is to protect the weak 41:06 recent activism victories regarding the assault on gaza (Canada and USA) 49:10 why i’m doing “brainstorm” episodes in between scripted episodes 1:10:00 Israel Palestine disinformation in news and history 1:20:40 why the assault on gaza is pure sadistic revenge and does the opposite of its purported goal of protecting israelis 1:31:38 war and violence 1:36:00 what israel could have done in response to oct. 7 1:45:50 who started the israel/palestine conflict? BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102824946 (no paywall) PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=XJ6HBHFJ6C3RU PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS: https://www.patreon.com/whatispolitics KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: ko-fi.com/whatispolitics VIDEO VERSION: https://www.youtube.com/@WHATISPOLITICS69 FEED: http://feeds.feedburner.com/WHATISPOLITICS tweeter: @worbsintowords ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE: starsixnine.bandcamp.com https://spotify.link/uYoXHLwmkDb https://ia600305.us.archive.org/30/items/12.1-israel-palestine-brainstorm/12.1%20-%20ISRAEL-PALESTINE%20BRAINSTORM.mp3

Elites use identity, particularly national identity, as a way of advancing their own interests, often against the interests of the populations that they pretend to represent. But before we can understand this, we need an ABC of the conflict, to get a grasp of the basic events, and the conflicting historical narratives that Israelis and Palestinians learn, which interpret all of these events in completely different ways, with opposite moral implications, so that we can then proceed to look at what actually happened, and what the moral implications of that are for the present and future.   Doctors Without Borders in Gaza and West Bank: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/gaza-msf-provides-medical-care-and-donates-supplies-amidst-conflict/ Palestine Children’s Relief Fund: https://www.pcrf.net If you’re in the U.S. demand that your representative vote to stop funding this massacre. This episode took me almost five full time months to make – there’s no way that I can do these without your help: PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=XJ6HBHFJ6C3RU PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS: https://www.patreon.com/whatispolitics KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: ko-fi.com/whatispolitics TRANSCRIPT: (coming soon) BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.patreon.com/posts/99426446 (no paywall) VIDEO VERSION (you’re missing a lot in this episode without all the image and articles!): https://www.youtube.com/@WHATISPOLITICS69 FEED: http://feeds.feedburner.com/WHATISPOLITICS tweeter: @worbsintowords ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE: starsixnine.bandcamp.com https://spotify.link/uYoXHLwmkDb https://archive.org/download/12-israel-palestine/12%20-%20ISRAEL%20PALESTINE.mp3

Delve into the provocative shift from 'equality' to 'equity' and how it influences political discourse. Discover the troubling dynamics between liberty and wealth disparity, and the ways established powers hijack progressive movements. Analyze the impact of discrimination on economic exploitation, and how superficial reforms miss the mark. Explore the complexities of college admissions, revealing biases against underprivileged students. Finally, the call for economic unity challenges divisive politics, inviting a deeper conversation on class and solidarity.

The leaders of the Russian Revolutions of February and October 1917 sought to establish socialism: a deeply democratic economic and political system where the employee/employer relationship is abolished, and where workers control their workplaces, the means of production and the government via the “free association of the producers”. Instead the revolutions resulted in the establishment of the Soviet Union: an authoritarian state where the government became the sole employer and the state controlled the workers instead of the other way around.  This then became the model for “communist” countries around the world.   Why did the Soviet Union fail at socialism?  What can we learn about this failure to apply to our political struggles in the present and future? ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE PLEASE SHARE AND LET PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS SERIES!! I purposefully don’t monetize my channel in order to spare you the annoying ads, and it takes me weeks to make these (this one took 4 months!), so please help if you can! PATREON (PER EPISODE DONATIONS) KO-FI (ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS) PAYPAL (ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS) BIBLIOGRAPHY TRANSCRIPT VIDEO VERSION tweeter https://archive.org/download/11.1-RUSSIANREV/11.1%20-%20RUSSIAN%20REVOLUTION%20I.mp3

Why has every communist country so far been a one party dictatorship?   Is it something inherent to Socialism or Marxism?   Is human nature incompatible with political equality?   Has “true” communism never been tried yet?  If so, then why not? Is it “capitalist encirclement”? Richard Wolff can’t answer this question for some reason. Neither can Freddie de Boer.  Yet the answer is very simple, and we can learn a lot from it.   Listen, and find out… ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE PLEASE SHARE AND LET PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS SERIES!! I purposefully don’t monetize my channel in order to spare you the annoying ads, and it takes me weeks to make these, so please help if you can! PATREON PAYPAL ONE TIME OR RECURRING DONATIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY:    TRANSCRIPT VIDEO VERSION tweeter https://archive.org/download/11-communism/11-%20COMMUNISM.mp3

In this episode we cover the rest of chapter 3 of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything. In this chapter, the authors claim that the seasonal social structures of the traditional Nambikwara, Lakota and Kwakiutl were the result of conscious choice, grand theatre, play and expedience. In doing so, they repeatedly invent various things that they attribute to famous anthropologists like Clause-Levi Strauss and Marcel Mauss which those authors never said. They also claim that those authors attribute social phenomena to conscious choice when in reality they attribute them to material conditions. We also discover that Claude Levi-Strauss goofed up Nambikwara social organization. And we look at materialist explanations for phenomena such as: Why did the traditional Inuit have private patriarchy and private property in summer but gender equality and communal property in winter? Why did the Lakota have an Akicita police force that would punish crimes and enforce rules in the buffalo season but not the rest of the year? The similarities between Nuer prophets and ancient Israelite prophets in the Old Testament. Finally, we apply the authors’ logic about conscious choice and seasonal social structures to McDonalds employees and have a good a laugh. all music by *69 PLEASE SHARE AND LET PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS SERIES!! YouTube channel TRANSCRIPT RSS FEED PATREON (I refuse to monetize my YouTube because I don’t want to subject you to ads, and it takes me 2-6 weeks to make one episode of these, so please help out if you can!) BIBLIOGRAPHY tweeter https://archive.org/download/10.4-McDonalds/10.4%20-%20RONALD%20McDONALD.mp3

We cover the first part of chapter 3 of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything: ”Unfreezing the Ice Age”, and we investigate the authors’ claims that human inequality has no origins based on archeology from upper paleolithic europe.    In doing so we also look at the difference between dominance hierarchy and democratic hierarchy, and what the necessary criteria are in order to establish a a dominance hierarchy.   We also discover that Graeber & Wengrow actually have no arguments for why human inequality supposedly has no origins! all music by *69 *PLEASE* SHARE AND LET PEOPLE (ESPECIALLY MATT CHRISTMAN) KNOW ABOUT THIS SERIES!! TRANSCRIPT BIBLIOGRAPHY YOUTUBE CHANNEL (live action! graphics!) RSS FEED PATREON tweeter: @worbsintowords https://archive.org/download/10.3-smurfs/10.3%20-%20SMURFS.mp3

In this episode we cover chapter 1 of David Graeber & David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything, entitled Farewell to Humanity’s Childhood; or Why This isn’t a Book About the Origins of Inequality. In doing so, we look at the following: How the book’s underlying thesis: that human social structure is ultimately a matter of choice and experimentation, is fundamentally incoherent, and how this idea sets us up for future dramatic political failures, similar to those of Occupy Wall Street or the Great Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. What the standard narrative of human origins actually is, vs. the caricature elevator pitch version that Graeber & Wengrow claim to be debunking. Why most anthropologists believe that human beings began as egalitarian hunter-gatherers despite knowing about all of the evidence that Graeber & Wengrow present in order to argue the otherwise. How and why Graeber & Wengrow flush down the toilet the analytical tools that they need in order to answer their own questions about how we got stuck in dominance hierarchies. How social structure actually works. How Graeber & Wengrow’s arguments are great material for right wing talking points. Why there is room for deliberate social change in a world where social structure is largely a matter of conditions and relative bargaining power, rather than a matter of “choice”. all music by *69 BIBLIOGRAPHY FULL TRANSCRIPT PLEASE SHARE THIS SERIES! YouTube Channel: live with graphics! Patreon: Help me make this podcast/channel all it can be, and help it be less torture and destructive for my income for me to produce these! They takes 2-6 weeks full time to put together during which time I’m not earning any money, so I need your help to continue! Audio Podcast : click the link on your device to open the audio podcast in your mobile app, or else search for “worbs” on your podcast app.  Full transcripts available on the episode pages.  Audio Podcast RSS Feed https://archive.org/download/10.2-ernie-and-bert/10.2%20-%20ERNIE%20AND%20BERT.mp3