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This is also why neither the left nor the right, nor Democrats or Republicans, nor capitalists or socialists, seem to be speaking clearly to the moment in which

This is also why neither the left nor the right, nor Democrats or Republicans, nor capitalists or socialists, seem to be speaking clearly to the moment in which we live. [...] I truly wish these companies were genuinely private, but they are not. They are de facto state actors. More precisely, they all work hand-in-glove and which is the hand and which is the glove is no longer clear. Epoch Times guy is really onto something here. It's crazy that there's no existing body of literature that explores how the ways in which a society's productive forces and relations (its "base", if you will) interacts with its other institutions like government, media, etc. (its "superstructure", if you will). But here we are. He's the lone Cassandra, his desperate cries falling upon deaf ears.

moshun 3y ago
I’m not sure if you’re joking so forgive me if the sarcasm missed me, but there is a gargantuan body of work on this subject. It’s central to theories Marx developed and was expanded on by both his contemporaries and more modern scholars in fields like political economics, sociology and cultural studies. Some reading around this: Louis Althusser: "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" (1970) Antonio Gramsci: "Prison Notebooks" (1929-1935) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: "The German Ideology" (1845) and "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy" (1859) Honestly it’s astonishing that so few (especially in the US) have an understanding of these points of view and are left reading sources like the Epoch Times to form a view of capitalism that isn’t “I love it, even though I don’t what it is”.
- seo-speedwagon 3y ago
  I was indeed being sarcastic. I found it pretty galling that this guy claimed no one is speaking to these things when, as you pointed out, there is a massive body of theory dating back over 150 years that addresses these things with diligence and scholarly rigor. You did much better than me by actually providing some references!
  - yodon 3y ago
    >I was indeed being sarcastic You might want to take this as an opportunity to re-read Poe's law[0]. It does in fact always apply on the internet. [0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
  - kloop 3y ago
    They said no one was speaking to this moment. The people you're talking about were speaking to their time. It's not automatically clear that proposals for an industrializing economy are applicable to a post-industrial highly financialized economy

moshun 3y ago

I’m not sure if you’re joking so forgive me if the sarcasm missed me, but there is a gargantuan body of work on this subject. It’s central to theories Marx developed and was expanded on by both his contemporaries and more modern scholars in fields like political economics, sociology and cultural studies. Some reading around this: Louis Althusser: "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" (1970) Antonio Gramsci: "Prison Notebooks" (1929-1935) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: "The German Ideology" (1845) and "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy" (1859) Honestly it’s astonishing that so few (especially in the US) have an understanding of these points of view and are left reading sources like the Epoch Times to form a view of capitalism that isn’t “I love it, even though I don’t what it is”.

seo-speedwagon 3y ago
I was indeed being sarcastic. I found it pretty galling that this guy claimed no one is speaking to these things when, as you pointed out, there is a massive body of theory dating back over 150 years that addresses these things with diligence and scholarly rigor. You did much better than me by actually providing some references!
- yodon 3y ago
  >I was indeed being sarcastic You might want to take this as an opportunity to re-read Poe's law[0]. It does in fact always apply on the internet. [0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
- kloop 3y ago
  They said no one was speaking to this moment. The people you're talking about were speaking to their time. It's not automatically clear that proposals for an industrializing economy are applicable to a post-industrial highly financialized economy