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 French Unz Review columnist GUILLAUME DUROCHER about the Black Lives Matter Protests in Europe and related political and social trends. Follow Guillaume on Twitter.
Robert Stark talks to San Francisco Bay Area based podcasters Sam and Gian about political trends on the left. Check out their podcast on politics and gay culture, their articles on the Twink Rev blog, and follow Twink Rev on Twitter.
Topics:
LGBTQ identity politics neglecting material needs The Insidious Class Project Behind Queer Eye
Woke culture as corporate branding
Why the Left needs a material based mindset
The appalling attitude of much of the Left on White poverty and deaths of despair The Bellows: Nearly a third of [DSA] members (29%) earn over $100,000 a year
Why AOC is part of the same neoliberal project as Biden (AOC’s apology for Cancel Culture)
The Left’s divide over cancel culture, the Harper’s Letter, and hypocrisy of some of the centrist signatories
Cancel culture as a workers rights violation and product of privatization
The feasibility of a left/right alliance against neoliberalism
Why Joker would have been a leftist film if released during the Bush era
How neoliberal resisters’ opposition to Trump is primarily about decorum rather than policy (ex. rehabilitation of Bush)
The woke moral hysteria about age gaps between consenting adults Sharia Vegas and the politics of aesthetics
Robert Stark and Matt Pegan discuss the role of economic class and identity politics in regards to the recent protests and civil unrest and whether we can find a nuanced middle ground between polarized extremes. Ryan is based in Calgary, Canada and runs the blog Alternative Left. Follow the Alternative Left on Facebook.
Topics:
Ryan’s Alternative Left project as an alternative to the regressive left
The dogmatic religious like fervor of the woke left vs. the traditional materialist left Meet the anti-woke left
Ryan’s observations from the mostly peaceful protest in Calgary, Canada Behind the epidemic of police killings in America: Class, poverty and race with the highest rates among low income men
Practical rather than polarized solutions to police brutality and militarization
Skepticism about whether the power structure will actually downsize the police state
The increased use of private security and potential of a privatized police state
Motives behind exploitative economic elites’ support for race based identity politics Cornel West: Ta-Nehisi Coates is the neoliberal face of the black freedom struggle
How the racial wealth gap is more extreme among the older generation as opposed to the youth The civil war inside The New York Times
The ramifications of the protests on the presidential election
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
Matt Pegan returns to talk with Robert Stark about the social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and some of their upcoming projects. Follow Matt’s new account on Twitter.
Topics:
Why Matt decided to go under his real name
The new Weird Right cultural scene, with more freedom to be creative without guilt by association, and cross pollination with the Dirtbag Left
The TFW NO GF documentary
The impact of the pandemic on mental health
How the quarantine proves the value of leisure and whether it will spark a cultural renaissance
Transitioning into a new era after a long era of stagnation since the last election
How Covid-19 narratives are creating new political paradigms
How the quarantine vindicates nationalist policies with a safety net
The political impact of States re-opening
The pandemic’s long term impact on social bonds
The economic impact of the pandemic and how inequality will likely get much worse
Robert’s upcoming sequel to his novel Journey to Vapor Island and Matt’s novel Dragon Day(excerpt from Terror House)
Robert and Matt’s LA nostalgia series with David Cole(Part One: Westside Pavilion)
Will public spaces survive the pandemic?
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
