Caleb Maupin is the author of “BreadTube Serves Imperialism: Examining The New Brand of Internet Pseudo-Socialism,” a book describing the ways “left-leaning” YouTubers have been co-opted and manipulated by elite interests to shepherd anti-establishment and revolutionary energy back toward the center and into traditional, corporatist outlets like the Democratic Party. Jimmy talks to Caleb about this phenomenon and how establishment interests seek to contain and control youthful disaffection with the status quo.
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BEN NORTON—Murray Bookchin is something of a saint in the anarchist community. His ideas on social ecology and what he termed “libertarian municipalism” and “communalism” have influenced generations of self-declared leftists, and he was frequently cited as an ideological force behind the anti-globalization and Occupy Wall Street movements.
Bookchin became especially influential in Kurdish circles after Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), adopted his ideas to advance a vision of “democratic confederalism,” a vision his followers later attempted to implement in northeast Syria — with the help of the US military.
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The debate on Grover Furr is always about form – the person, his writing style, his alleged motives, his allege dishonesty or lack of qualifications, and never about content – the evidence presented, what it shows, and whether it’s true or not. The infantile pseudo-left responds to science with provocation, facts with hostility, reason with insults, ideological questions with personal attacks, and the deep questions posed by Furr’s work with shallow criticisms. This is not to say that anyone who has criticisms of Furr’s work is automatically opposed to socialism. Far from it – criticism is an essential part of being a Marxist-Leninist. But by and large the criticisms of Grover Furr are not made from a principled standpoint.
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P. GREANVILLE—Those who know their history will surely remember that the CIA-engineered Indonesia coup of 1965 (Operation Djakarta), was one of the bloodiest—genocidal, some have rightly called it—anti-communist coups in the 20th century, with upwards of 3/4 of million people killed by the army supported by millions of mobilised fanatics, a coup that put ecologically and strategically precious Indonesia firmly in the exploitative basket of the corporatised West. Even today, Indonesia is a disgraceful, utterly corrupt and backward Western satrapy that remains a multinationals’ playground. Obama himself, of course, not only betrayed the public by NOT pushing for single-payer healthcare when he had the votes and a clear mandate, selling us instead “Obamacare”, a charlatan’s dream concocted by libertarian think tanks.
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ANDREI MARTYANOV—Yes, they all are–they all are avatars, holograms with zero capabilities to run anything, and still, who is guilty that this kind of human material gets elected? In Macron’s case, France. French people–they elected him, they fell for his utter BS and agreed for their country to be finished off. Same goes for the United States–no matter what were the manipulations at the ballot box–the fact that half the country voted for a senile, demented, con-artist and swamp creature–sorry guys, you wanted, you got it. [Not that the vile incumbent nincompoop was much better, both representing essentially the same oligarchy.—Ed] Now live with the consequences.
