Robert Stark talks to River Page about the role of identity politics and class on the left, and the need for political alternatives to the existing left. River Page blogs at Twink Rev and you can follow him on Twitter.
Robert Stark talks to Kansas GOP Senate candidate Brian Matlock who is running as a Republican Socialist. Check out Brian’s campaign website and follow him on Twitter.
Topics:
Why Brian is running as a Republican Socialist
Politics inspired by the communitarian ethic of small-town America
The GOP socialist tradition going back to the Abolitionist Radical Republicans
A locally administered job guarantee
UBI as a supplement but not a replacement for a decent standard of living
The CARES ACT Corporate takeover Modern Monetary Theory (one person’s spending is another person’s income)
The need for regulation of big tech
Agriculture policy of moving away from corporate industrial farming
The Nation’s crisis of despair
How neoliberalism creates conditions that breed reactionary politics and petty culture wars
The primary election on August 4th
Robert Stark talks to Scott Tungay about the current situation in South Africa, the ongoing riots in America, and his views on social capital, land use, and wealth. Scott is originally from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and immigrated to Kentucky to be with his American wife. He blogs at Department of Winning, has a Youtube channel with his wife Kelli, and is also on Twitter.
Topics:
Scott’s background, like many English South Africans, growing up believing in the Rainbow nation narrative and classical liberal values
How immigrating to America lit a nationalist spark
Scott’s passion for homesteading and Permaculture
Scott’s admiration for conservationist Wendell Berry and the Southern Agrarians
How Scott is currently stuck in South Africa which has one of the most draconian Lockdowns in the world
How the lockdown could be used as a power grab by the ANC, with businesses foreclosing, and a planned expropriation of White property Why South Africa will fall, like Yugoslavia | With Scott Tungay by Willem Petzer
Different scenarios for South Africa, including a partition into smaller nations, Chinese intervention, and why a Rwandan scenario is unlikely
How most White South Africans are looking to emigrate
The ongoing riots in America, and why Scott thinks America is 20-30 years away from where South Africa is now
The media narrative about race relations, divide and conquer strategy, and long term un-sustainability due to economic breakdown
The failure of conservatism, and opportunity for a Third Position that is localist, anti-usury, and anti-globalist
The missed mashup that could have happened between Bernie and Trump
The Back–to-the-land movement and New Urbanism as alternatives to the commercial squalor that destroyed small town Americana
How the lockdown proves the value of family and community over the corporate rat race Economic Class Dynamics: The significance, slave, and survival economy
The importance of aesthetics: how beauty elicits care
The limits of meritocracy: how future economic survival will depend upon one’s In-group
Robert Stark talks to Rich Houck about urbanism, aesthetics, and the need for social capital. Rich is a recent law school grad and you can check out his blog on Patreon and his Twitter account.
Paul’s critique of the Left’s handling of environmental issues
The focus on carbon emissions and the degree to which climate change is responsible for habitat loss
The Left’s focus on the West while ignoring ecological devastation in the developing world
The Left’s lack of concern for overpopulation in the developing world while telling Westerners to reduce their birthrates
Mass immigration’s impact on ecological footprints Education, IQ, and Fertility
The need for rural revitalization for the new green economy
How sustainable agriculture would need a much larger and higher skilled workforce
The mainstream right’s neglect of environmentalism
How economic nationalism and tariffs would help end the exploitation of resources by global capitalism
The environmental origins of the coronavirus pandemic
The problems of a consumption based economic model
Why profits should be based upon reciprocity One-Third of American Workers Pay Is Being Stolen. Here’s How
The decline in workers’ purchasing power
Why the Financialization of the economy is a bigger issue than labor supply
Paul’s book Psionism about rejecting an imposed mono culture in favor of neo-tribalism
Anatoly’s initial predictions Corona & the Cost of Doing Nothing
The success of China’s quarantine and whether it’s sustainable
Trump’s catch 22 on quarantining the pandemic
How the pandemic could restructure global geopolitics Bernie Sanders Wouldn’t Close The Border To Prevent The Spread Of Wuhan Virus
The need for mandatory sick leave and an emergency UBI
The advantages (car centric suburbia) and disadvantages (no sick leave) of the US over Western Europe Corona Clusters
Corona cases at AIPAC, CPAC, and NATO
The disproved ethnic specific theory Will Russia Succumb to Corona-Chan?
Anatoly’s observations from Moscow
The degree to which new infections are originating from Chinese sources
Robin Hanson’s idea of delayed controlled infection Cucked By Corona: will the the pandemic have a non trivial impact on global fertility? The Cognitive Chain of Being: A New Approach to Animal Rights
Quantifying suffering and figuring out cost efficient ways to reduce suffering
The populist limitations to ending factory farming In vitro meat, other meat substitutes, and whether they’ll becomes cost competitive
The US Presidential election, Bernie’s Woke direction, Biden as the quintessential normie, and why Bloomberg would have given America a cyberpunk vibe
Robert Stark talks to Ashley Messinger about the controversy over Richard Dawkins’ Tweets on eugenics(First and Second). Ashley is based in the UK and writes for AltLeft.com. You can also find Ashley on Twitter.
Topics:
Dawkins’ thought experiment that eugenics could work in practice but the ethical costs are not worth it
PC taboos against thought experiments from the moralistic Woke left
Dawkins as part of THE GREY TRIBE
Eugenics as state policy versus private choices(ex. sperm donors) CRISPR gene editing
How all societies select winners and losers, those favored to pass on their genes
Genes selected for ethnocentrism and religiosity
Fertility transitions(ex. population projections for the Mormons and Amish)
The impact of fertility trends on neuro-diversity
Dawkins’ book The Selfish Gene
Jayman’s sane and humane Solutions, including birth control, student loan forgiveness, and natalist tax incentives
The insanity of Trump cutting food stamps for single adults but not single parents
Ashley’s article Optimised Humanity, Towards Corvus Axolotlus on how traits for beauty have been selected
Former Borris Johnson aide Andrew Sabisky and the controversy over his comments on eugenics
Richard Dawkins’ past controversial comments on down syndrome, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment
Ashley’s article Utilitarianism and Rights to Life Genetic traits and personality types selected for compassion towards animals In vitro meat “Germany, France push to end male chick ‘shredding’ in European Union”.
A new type of Republican that is technologically innovative and culturally open minded
How science and technology can fix most of the nation’s problems
The use of science and technology to upgrade the human experience
Genetic editing
The use of AI for public safety and recognizing trauma
Basic income proposal funded by monetizing federal land
Immigration policy taking into account automaton
How past issues of discrimination will be outdated in the Transhumanist future
Parental licensing
Automating bureaucracy
Using technology to protect humankind from existential risks
Long term goal of ending all human suffering
How technology can be used to protect the environment
The Bush Fires in Australia, climate change narrative, and other factors Deep ecology and right wing environmentalism
The Science Fiction of J. G. Ballard including the timely The Drowned World , and how Richard would like to adapt his work into a film
The 70s Retro-Futuristic aesthetic Brutalist architecture in High-Rise, and the genre in Clockwork Orange and Richard’s upcoming film The Debt Collector
Ironies of the film’s dystopian nature and how it compares to other dystopian films such as Joker
A self-contained city, an Arcology with all amenities within the same structure
Class conflict in a society where all classes live within the same structure
Metaphor for the breakdown of civilization
The unsustainable of the neoliberal system
How technology exacerbates inequality
Archetypes of the characters, including filmmaker Richard Wilder, an apocalyptic anarchic figure
The theme of attempting dialogue with gate keepers and elites who refuse to listen
The architect, a Nietzschean figure, an aesthetic and technological visionary in contrast with our managerial elites
Conspiracy theories vs. the view of elites as a managerial class who extract resources with no vision for the future
Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about their recent trip to San Diego and their observations on cultural and urbanist trends.
Topics:
San Diego’s reputation as a smaller, cleaner, nicer version of LA and its unique attributes
The layout of the city with a centralized downtown near the waterfront surrounded by suburban sprawl
San Diego and Orange County among the largest areas of upper middle class sprawl in the nation Politics of San Diego as a historically Republican stronghold that has trended Democratic in recent years Demographics of San Diego and how they relate to overall CA trends
The most stereotypical American City located in CA while the State is culturally drifting apart from the rest of the Country After decades of suburban sprawl, San Diego eyes big shift to dense development
The historic Gaslamp Quarter which is the one section that feels truly urban
Horton Plaza: Will this PoMo wonderland in San Diego be saved?
Architect Jon Jerde’s inspiration for Horton Plaza from Ray Bradbury’s “The Aesthetic of Lostness” extolling the virtues of getting “safely lost”
Wealthy beach community La Jolla and it’s village layout
The importance of investing in communal places that the public can enjoy, particularly in wealthy areas TorreyPinesState Natural Reserve
The Victorian Hotel del Coronado FriendshipPark at the US/Mexico Border and political symbolism of the border wall
The InlandEmpire Heavenly Action by Erasure, the soundtrack of the trip with a message that friendship, love, and positivity can conquer anything
