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Sep 9, 2020
09/20
Sep 9, 2020
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worldwidescrotes
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Everywhere we look, past and present we see hierarchical societies where some people have more wealth, more power, and more rights than others. Was this always the case? Is hierarchy in our nature? Are egalitarian societies possible for human beings? If so, under what conditions? And is freedom compatible with equality? Suggested readings: Hierarchy in the Forest, by Christopher Boehm, 1999 The Dobe Ju/’Hoansi, by Richard Lee 1984/2012 Eating Christmas in the Kalahari , by...
Topics: anthropology, politics, political anthropology, hunter-gatherers, equality, hierarchy, human...
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840
Sep 9, 2020
09/20
Sep 9, 2020
by
worldwidescrotes
audio
eye 840
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This episode is an exercise for everyone who keeps writing to me to insist that one or the other wrong definitions of Left and Right is actually correct. We look at who was on the left and on the right in three different time periods: 1. - The early French revolution in 1789, which is what the whole Left Right analogy is based on. 2. - The 3 rd republic in France 1870-1940 where seating in the National Assembly was arranged on a Left-Right spectrum, analogous to the...
Topics: politics, history, left, right, left-right political spectrum, french revolution, socialism,...
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678
Jun 7, 2020
06/20
Jun 7, 2020
by
WorldWideScrotes
audio
eye 678
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Why protesters against police brutality have more bargaining power than they realize, and why police normally get away with murder. PLEASE SHARE THIS SERIES! 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 and bibliographoes available on the episode pages. What Is Politics Video Channel Vvideo version of this and all episodes available here, plus other stuff Audio Podcast...
Topics: Protesters, Police brutality
879
879
May 30, 2020
05/20
May 30, 2020
by
worldwidescrotes
audio
eye 879
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Definitions of political terms affect what we see and don't see in the world around us, and turn us into effective or ineffective communicators and political actors. Popular definitions of left and right popularized during the cold war and currently propagated by media and academia (the state vs. the market, big vs. small government, liberty vs. equality), frame the world in right-wing terms, while the historical definition (hierarchy vs. equality) frames the world in left wing terms. Competing...
Topics: politics, media, left-right political spectrum, government, racism, linguistic relativity
1,148
1.1K
Dec 6, 2019
12/19
Dec 6, 2019
by
WorldWideScrotes
audio
eye 1,148
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Political terms are almost 100% pure worbs - words that everyone uses, without knowing what they mean. That's why Jabba the Hutt is sucking our brains out of a straw. PLEASE SHARE THIS SERIES! 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 and bibliographoes available on the episode pages. What Is Politics Video Channel Vvideo version of this and all episodes available...
Topics: What Is Politics, Worbs, definition, capitalism, socialism, bernie sanders, Rand paul, alan...
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WorldWideScrotes
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How can people who don't have official decision-making power exert their influence over those who do? Concepts introduced and defined in this episode: POLITICS PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE POLITICS POLITIES GOVERNMENT DEMOCRACY AUTOCRACY CONSENSUS POLITICAL CONSTRAINTS ECONOMICS CAPITALISM IDEOLOGY CLASS THE MARKET BARGAINING POWER CONTRACTS Also available as a podcast on iTunes and Spotify Next episode: WHAT IS THE LEFT-RIGHT POLITICAL SPECTRUM, AND WHY SHOULD I CARE? help!...
Topics: what is politics, politics, capitalism, socialism, economics, political theory
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WorldWideScrotes
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In this episode we read and critique the conclusion of Chapter 2 of Dawn of Everything , “Wicked Liberty: The Indigenous Critique and the Myth of the Noble Savage”, (previously released in French in 2019 as La Sagesse de Kandiaronk.) Given that the conclusion of the chapter is a tirade against the concept of “equality” we first examine what the word equality means in a political context, and what the term “egalitarian society” implies, followed by an examination of the history of...
Topics: david graeber, david wengrow, the dawn of everything, anthropology, politics, hunter-gatherers,...
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957
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WorldWideScrotes
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eye 957
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What would happen if you could end sexism overnight by giving everyone a magic pink pill? A thought experiment about political strategy, with a real "pink pill" example from post-revolutionary rural China. PLEASE SHARE THIS SERIES! 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. What Is Politics Video Channel (video version of...
Topics: politics, gender, feminism, anthropology, china, sexism, patriarchy, class reductionism, race...
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712
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WorldWideScrotes
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The terms "cancel culture" and "political correctness" are used to delegitimize ideas like gender equality and racial equality by conflating them with toxic dominance behaviour practiced by up-and-coming elites in the guise of egalitarian goals. In this segment, by seeking to properly define these terms, we look at: The Class Filter: how ideas that are a threat to power historically get mutated into tools of power once they pass through elite institutions, in this case Ivy...
Topics: politics, cancel culture, socialism, right-wing, left-wing, elites, academia, what is politics
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720
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WorldWideScrotes
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The foundation of “cancel culture” and “political correctness” is the wage labour employment contract. ARTICLES QUOTED: Corey Robin, Chris Bertram and Alex Gourevitch 2012 - Life at Work , Crooked Timber Amanda Hess 2013 - How Sexy Should A Worker Be? The Plight of the Babe in the American Workplace , Slate Yvonne Abraham 2015 - Tom Brady has more rights than most American workers , Boston Globe PLEASE SHARE THIS SERIES! Audio Podcast click the link on your device to open the audio...
Topics: politics, cancel culture, employment, capitalism, what is politics
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WorldWideScrotes
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A critical reading of "The Wisdom of Kandiaronk, The Indigenous Critique, the Myth of Progress and the Birth of the Left" from David Graeber & David Wengrow's upcoming book The Dawn of Everything. In this chapter Graeber & Wengrow argue that: The European Enlightenment was heavily influenced by Native American critiques of European culture. That European intellectuals reacted against this by developing the theory of "stages of human progress" from egalitarian...
Topics: Anthropology, David Graeber, David Wengrow, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Hierarchy, Equality, Occupy Wall...
1,755
1.8K
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WorldWideScrotes
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In this episode we cover the rest of chapter 3 of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything, and we investigate the authors’ claims that: The seasonal social structures of the traditional Nambikwara, Lakota and Kwakiutl were the result of conscious choice, grand theatre, play and expedience. That rich ice age burials were examples of ritually celebrated “freaks”rather than examples of hierarchy - but that they were also somehow examples of hierarchy at the same time...
Topics: anthropology, david graeber, nuer, lakota, inuit, kwakiutl, kwakwak'wakw
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WorldWideScrotes
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Interview with Arnold Schroeder of Fight Like an Animal , a wonderful and endessly fascinating show that looks through 20 years of experience of hardcore climate activism, at why left political movements are so weak and ineffective and how to change that, and which covers everything from history, to political psychology, to anthropology, psychiatry, animal behaviour, religious cults, and much more. PLEASE SHARE THIS SERIES! Audio Podcast click the link on your device to open the audio...
Topics: activism, politics, socialism, anarchism, environment, law, fight like an animal
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WorldWideScrotes
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In this episode we cover chapter 3 of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything, 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...
Topics: dominance hierarchy, palaeolithic, paleolithic, hunter-gatherers, egalitarian origins, david...
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WorldWideScrotes
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In this episode we cover chapter 1 of The Dawn of Everything, which is entitled Farewell to Humanity’s Childhood; or Why This isn’t a Book About the Origins of Inequality. In doing so, we look at: 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....
Topics: David Graeber, David Wengrow, anthropology, occupy wall street, 1381, anarchsim, socialism,...
