Aufhebunga Bunga
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/174/ Social Ungluing ft. Benjamin Fong
🕑 Added 2021-02-02 08:00:02 +0000 UTCOn American breakdown.
Editor of Damage Magazine, Benjamin Fong, joins us to talk about the lack of shared narratives in contemporary America. We discuss QAnon and conspiracy theories, Biden's authoritarian liberalism, and "pro-worker" conservatives.
We also interrogate the use of psychological analyses of politics and reaffirm the value of psychoanalysis, in a preview of a more detailed forthcoming discussion on our patreon.
Readings:
- The Siren Song of “Pro-Worker” Conservatism, Benjamin Fong & Dustin Guastella, Jacobin
- Therapy Without Therapists, Briana Last, Damage
Comments
Aufhebunga Bunga
Our episode tomorrow is on psychoanalysis, with Ben Fong. I don't recall whether we got onto Mark Fisher though. If not, one for another time!
Paul Brewer
I hate to say this, but it has been 'brewing' for a while and this is as good a moment as any -- but some of the BungaCast commentary on the US is too often framed through a British lens. Britons are far more cynical about the political class, something that I suspect has become permanently fixed by the Expenses Scandal, an under-discussed topic in the BungaCast universe as far as I have listened. The idea of an opportunistic vote strategy here is a non-starter, insofar as Americans still have a lot of faith in the idea that politics is a moral, rather than transactional, struggle. Although Americans tend to regard Congress collectively quite poorly, this is often linked to a higher regard for their specific representatives. It's those bad people in other parts of the country (or state -- there is usually a sharp geographical divide in states) who are the problem. Americans like transactional politics on the QT, but publicly voice their belief in the moral dimension.
Bernhard Pirkl
A lot of this was spot on, thanks guys. I wonder what Fong thinks of Mark Fisher regarding mental so-called health.
