Marxism in Defence of The West (Ft. Ralph Leonard)

Get access to The Backroom (100+ exclusive episodes) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OneDimeBenjamin Studebaker joins me on 1Dime Radio for another episode in our regular series of wide-ranging conversations. This time we get into the geopolitical situations in Iran, Ukraine, and Cuba, asking whether the U.S. and Russia are both stuck in wars they cannot neatly win. We analyze how Iran’s power structure has changed, what Ukraine’s drone strategy signals about the war with Russia, and how North American energy business interests fit into the picture. We also touch on Cuba’s demographic pressures, the influence of the “success” of the Venezuela action, and the limits of the U.S. legislative system.In The Backroom on Patreon, Studebaker and I dig into a simple, yet highly nuanced question: what is politics, actually? What does it mean to DO politics? What makes something, or someone, political? When is something politics, and when is it not? What is the difference between Politics as usual, administration, and real politics? What differentiates Politics from social justice activism? Timestamps:00:00:00 The Backroom Preview: A Better Future00:03:48 Intro00:06:07 Has Regime Change Already Occurred In Iran?00:15:00 Will Iran Spike Oil Prices?00:17:48 Israel vs America’s Interests00:24:12 Trump’s Gas Price Problem00:37:00 Iran’s Legitimacy Crisis00:50:11 Can Cuba Survive?01:05:42 Ukraine’s Drone War01:11:37 The Energy Politics Behind Ukraine01:20:00 Is America Politically Paralyzed?01:28:37 Can Ukraine Still Negotiate?01:35:00 Was Mearsheimer Right About NATO?01:40:00 China, Trade, and Global Power01:54:23 Backroom Preview: What Is Politics?GUEST:Benjamin Studebaker• Website: https://benjaminstudebaker.com/• Substack: https://substack.com/@bmstudebaker• Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-legitimacy-in-liberal-democracies.html• Political Theory 101: https://open.spotify.com/show/3JwcqFCSwC9gwR6rUXwFFQFOLLOW 1Dime:• Substack: https://1dimereview.substack.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/1DimeOfficial• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1dimeman/• Check out my main channel videos: https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeeLeave a like, drop a comment, and give the show a 5-star rating on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to this.

Get access to The Backroom (100+ exclusive episodes) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OneDimeOn this episode of 1Dime Radio, I sit down with British-Nigerian writer Ralph Leonard to ask what it even means to be a Marxist today, after the political fallout of the 20th century. Ralph describes himself as a “conservative Marxist,” which sounds like a contradiction until you realize that one of the core questions in this conversation is whether socialism, properly understood, is not the worship of capitalist progress but a defense of society against capital’s destructive acceleration.We get into Marxism’s roots in the Enlightenment, liberalism, and the Western political tradition, why Marxism is in many ways a radicalization of Western values rather than a rejection of them, and how Stalinism distorted Marxism into a state-worshipping ideology that dismissed freedom and democracy as “bourgeois” illusions. We also discuss race as ideology, decolonization theory, nationalism, Zionism, the USSR, and whether its failures were historically necessary or politically avoidable.In the exclusive Backroom, Ralph and I talk about whether world revolution was ever plausible and why I see Marxist internationalism as the doctrine’s fatal flaw. We explore how left-wing localism inadvertently helped create the conditions for fascism, why civic nationalism may be the only coherent path for a democratic left, and the hard limits of multiculturalism exposed by Canada’s immigration crisis.Timestamps:00:00:00 The Backroom Sneak Peek00:03:53 Introduction to Conservative Marxism00:17:30 Marxism, Enlightenment and the State00:33:00 Western Values and Decolonial Critiques00:55:20 Historical Necessity or Preventable Atrocity01:14:15 Race, Culture and Western Identity01:24:43 Zionism Opposed to LiberalismGUEST:Ralph Leonard• Ralph’s writing at UnHerd: https://unherd.com/author/ralph-leonard/Ralph’s Twitter: https://x.com/buffsoldier_96FOLLOW 1Dime:• Substack (Articles and Essays): https://1dimereview.substack.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/1DimeOfficial• Instagram: instagram.com/1dimeman• Check out my main channel videos: https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeeLeave a like, drop a comment, and give the show a 5-star rating on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to this.Tags: #Marxism  #Socialism #TheWest #TheEnlightenment  #WesternCivilization

Get access to The Backroom (100+ exclusive episodes) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OneDimeOn this episode of 1Dime Radio, regular guest, David McKerracher and I talk about his new Substack article The Natality Pill. Part of this discussion includes the concepts of castration culture, and the Liberal Rumspringa. We trace how secular adolescence, PMC institutions, and marketized intimacy sever people from natality, tradition, and each other. We also touch on midwifery’s suppression and left‑wing self‑sabotage.In The Backroom on Patreon Dave and I  discuss the controversial questions of Race, Sex, Gender and all of the topics woke white liberals never like to go near. Timestamps:0:00 The Backroom Preview: The Lesson of Bernie Sanders3:53 Introduction           06:28 Natality Pill and Wanting Kids12:33 From Kibbutz to Liberal Rumspringa50:24 Bernie Bends the Knee57:10 Privilege Stack and Literalists01:19:58 Castration Culture Explained01:24:25 Parents, Patriarchy, and Growing UpFOLLOW 1Dime:• Substack (Articles and Essays): https://1dimereview.substack.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/1DimeOfficial• Instagram: instagram.com/1dimeman• Check out my main channel videos: https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeeGUEST:Dave — Theory Underground• Check out the Theory Underground YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theory_underground• Check out the Underground Theory Book (Im in it too!) : https://www.amazon.com/Underground-Theory-David-McKerracher/dp/B0CH2CXSGNCheckout Dave’s Substack: https://substack.com/@theoryunderground?r=2sschq&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=stories&shareImageVariant=blurLeave a like, drop a comment, and give the show a 5-star rating on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to this.

Get access to The Backroom (100+ exclusive episodes) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OneDimeOn this episode of 1Dime Radio, I am joined once again by Marxist writer Ted Reese, author of Socialism or Extinction and Abundant Material Wealth For All, for a wide-ranging conversation on AI, automation, capitalist breakdown, Marxism, technology, falling profit rates, monopoly, food, health, and the possibility of socialism in the 21st century.Ted argues that capitalism is not simply politically or morally bad, but increasingly obsolete on its own economic terms. As automation, AI, and productivity push commodity values down, capitalism responds through monopoly, rent-seeking, militarized technology, state dependency, and new forms of social enclosure. We discuss Henryk Grossman, Marx’s theory of capitalist breakdown, whether AI makes Marxism more relevant or obsolete, why the left should not become anti-technology, and whether socialism could emerge through a more peaceful transition rather than a romanticized fantasy of violent revolution.In the Backroom episode on Patreon, Ted and I continue the conversation with a debate on immigration. I challenge the standard Marxist perspective on migration and argue that mass migration under capitalism is not a path toward international socialism, but a system tied to global capital mobility, labor discipline, brain drain, and the weakening of working-class political organization. We debate whether the current migration regime brings us closer to socialism or further away from it.Timestamps:00:00 The Backroom Preview: How Immigration Stops Socialism03:17  1Dime Radio Intro04:17  Introducing Ted Reese06:37  Abundant Material Wealth For All09:13  Can Socialism Happen Peacefully?14:22  International Revolution, National Politics, and Capitalist Breakdown16:23  Automation, AI, and Why Capitalism Becomes Obsolete23:53  Falling Profit Rates and Capitalist Decline27:00  Monopoly, Mergers, and the “Final Merger”30:09  AI, Robots, Neo-Feudalism, and Capitalism’s Demand Problem36:53  Technology, Progress, and the Anti-Luddite Left42:47  Palantir, Militarized Tech, and State-Capitalist Dependency49:01  Why AI Will Get More Expensive55:46  Is Marxism Obsolete in the Age of AI?58:21  Capitalism, Food, Health, and Human Decay01:03:50  Get the Second Half in The BackroomGUEST:Ted Reese• X/Twitter: https://x.com/Grossmanite• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/grossmanite• Linktree: https://linktr.ee/grossmanite• Abundant Material Wealth For All: https://grossmanite.medium.com/new-book-abundant-material-wealth-for-all-out-now-7d1ec5e9ac05FOLLOW 1Dime:• Substack (Articles and Essays): https://1dimereview.substack.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/1DimeOfficial• Instagram: instagram.com/1dimeman• Check out my main channel videos: https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeeLeave a like, drop a comment, and give the show a 5-star rating on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to this.

Get access to The Backroom (100+ exclusive episodes) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OneDimeProfessor Benjamin Teitelbaum joins 1Dime Radio to discuss the right after Trump. Teitelbaum is an ethnographer, scholar of radical politics, and author of War for Eternity and Lions of the North. In this episode, we discuss Steve Bannon, Alexander Dugin, Traditionalism, the tech right, Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin, Nick Land, Nick Fuentes, the abuse of the word “fascism,” and whether a coherent post-Trump right is emerging from the ruins of MAGA.In this episode of The Public, Benjamin gives his analysis of the different factions on the political Right. In The Backroom on Patreon, Benjamin and I discuss the FUTURE of the “dissident right” and populism AFTER Trump.Timestamps:00:00:00  Backroom Preview: The Far Right Is Not Going Away00:03:26  1Dime Radio Intro00:04:28  Experience Interviewing Steve Bannon and Studying the Far-Right00:11:26  What Does Steve Bannon Actually Believe?00:15:10  Bannon vs Dugin00:25:13  Ideology, Geopolitics, and Opportunism00:29:40  What Is Traditionalism?00:39:07  The Conservative Right vs the Futurist Tech Right00:42:42  Curtis Yarvin, Hierarchy, and the Tech Right00:48:41  Democracy, Socialism, and the Distribution of Power00:55:12  Is “Fascism” a Useful Label?01:07:13  Nick Fuentes01:17:31  What Is MAGA Without Trump? Continue in The BackroomGUEST:Benjamin TeitelbaumAssociate Professor of Musicology and International Affairs at the University of Colorado Boulder• Benjamin Teitelbaum at CU Boulder: https://www.colorado.edu/center/benson/benjamin-teitelbaum• War for Eternity: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/315812/war-for-eternity-by-teitelbaum-benjamin-r/9780141992037• Lions of the North: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/lions-of-the-north-9780190212605FOLLOW 1Dime:• Substack (Articles and Essays): https://1dimereview.substack.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/1DimeOfficial• Instagram: instagram.com/1dimeman• Check out my main channel videos: https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeeLeave a like, drop a comment, and give the show a 5-star rating on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to this.

Get access to The Backroom, 100+ exclusive episodes, on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OneDimeIn this episode of 1Dime Radio, I am joined by Ashley Frawley, sociologist, senior editor at Compact, COO of Sublation Media, visiting researcher at the University of Kent, and author of Semiotics of Happiness and Significant Emotions. We discuss her Compact essay “How Society Got a Sex Change,” the rise of the “trans subject” as the ideal subject of contemporary capitalism, and why gender ideology should not simply be understood as a culture war distraction, but as part of the class war itself.This conversation covers the politics of vulnerability, therapy culture, indigenous identity, “healing” discourse, the feminization of the ideal worker, faux feminism, the role of NGOs and international institutions, the EU’s promotion of gender ideology, and why the contemporary ruling class increasingly prefers subjects who are fluid, dependent on institutions, and detached from tradition. We also discuss the parallels between today’s gender panic and past moral panics, including the Satanic Panic and multiple personality disorder, and why social distress often takes culturally specific forms.The second half of this conversation is available in The Backroom on Patreon.Timestamps:00:00:00 MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA (The Backroom Preview) 00:04:00  Introduction to Ashley Frawley00:09:00  How Society Got a Sex Change00:13:00  From the Masculine Subject to the Feminine Subject00:19:00  Women, Work, and the New Spirit of Capitalism00:25:00  Faux Feminism and the War on Motherhood00:30:00  The Trans Subject as the Ideal Capitalist Subject00:37:00  Institutions, IVF, and the Managed Self00:40:00  Is Gender Ideology Being Pushed?00:45:00  NGOs, the EU, Canada, and Progressive Policy Diffusion00:48:00  Happiness, Therapy Culture, and Psychological Solutions to Economic Problems00:50:00  Multiple Personality Disorder and the Satanic Panic00:58:00  Why Some Moral Panics Travel Across Countries01:03:00  Gender Ideology, Power, and the Good Subject01:06:00  Preview of The Backroom on PatreonGUEST:Ashley Frawley• Ashley at Compact: https://www.compactmag.com/contributor/ashley-frawley/• “How Society Got a Sex Change”: https://www.compactmag.com/article/how-society-got-a-sex-change/• Ashley on X/Twitter: https://x.com/AshleyAFrawley• Ashley at Sublation: https://sublationmedia.com/author/ashley-frawley/• Ashley’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AshleyAFrawleyFOLLOW 1Dime:• Substack (Articles and Essays): https://1dimereview.substack.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/1DimeOfficial• Instagram: instagram.com/1dimeman• Check out my main channel videos: https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeeLeave a like, drop a comment, and give the show a 5-star rating on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to this.

Get access to The Backroom (100+ exclusive episodes) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OneDimeThis is a Backroom episode being released publicly as a window into what 1Dime patrons get regularly. Dr. Jane Hayward, Lecturer in China and Global Affairs at the Lau China Institute, King's College London, joins for an honest accounting: Trump's tariffs, labour conditions, the real estate collapse, Belt and Road, and why decades of “China is about to collapse” coverage keeps ageing poorly. Most conversations about the Chinese economy talk past the real questions. The Western press cycles through collapse predictions that never land. The online left points at high-speed rail and calls it socialism. Neither camp is seriously reckoning with what China's model actually is, what it costs workers, or what it implies geopolitically. If you have never heard a Backroom episode before, this is what over 100 exclusive conversations sound like. Become a patron for full access.Timestamps:00:00:00 Intro / 1Dime Radio Bumper00:03:22 Welcome to the Backroom00:07:01 Why So Many on the Left Romanticize China00:17:06 Labour Conditions, State-Controlled Unions, and Worker Rights00:26:22 Trump’s Tariffs: Reindustrialization Rhetoric vs. Geopolitical Containment00:39:28 Belt and Road — Is “Debt Trap Diplomacy” Real?00:52:59 China’s Real Estate Collapse Explained01:00:14 Why “China Is About to Collapse” Keeps Getting It Wrong01:09:25 Hukou Reform, Urbanization, and the Urban-Rural Divide01:13:42 Civil Society, NGOs, and Internal Policy Debate Under XiGUEST: Dr. Jane HaywardLecturer in China and Global Affairs, Lau China Institute, King’s College London• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@janehaywardchina• Website: https://www.janehaywardchina.co.uk/FOLLOW 1Dime:• Substack https://1dimereview.substack.com/• X https://x.com/1DimeOfficial• IG https://www.instagram.com/1dimeman• Channel https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeeLeave a like, drop a comment, and give the show a 5-star rating on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to this.#China #ChineseEconomy #ChinaEconomy

Get access to The Backroom (100+ exclusive episodes) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OneDimeThis week on 1Dime Radio, I’m joined once again by Dr. Cadell Last, founder of Philosophy Portal, for a deep discussion on *nationalist internationalism*, the idea that genuine internationalism actually requires nationalism as a precondition. We explore why national sovereignty, taxing the rich, immigration control, labor power, and democratic self-determination often cannot be secured by isolated states alone, but instead require serious international coordination between nations.This episode was originally a patron-only bonus episode. In the Backroom preview at the start, we also get into Nick Fuentes, the return of repressed contradictions, and the increasingly unavoidable questions around race, gender, immigration, and identity that mainstream liberals and much of the left have struggled to confront directly.Timestamps:00:00:00  Backroom preview, race, white culture, and repressed contradictions00:03:53  Immigration, demographic change, and the Nick Fuentes phenomenon00:10:49  A different critique of immigration00:14:23  Nationalist internationalism00:18:05  Why Marxist internationalism lacks a real libidinal anchor00:30:56  Marxism’s cultural blind spot00:37:13  Global capitalism, assimilation, and the nation-state00:43:03  Borders, capital flight, and international coordination00:48:48  Religion, depoliticization, and politics as substitute faith00:52:01  What kind of socialism can answer the meaning crisis?00:59:27  The EU, the UN, and stronger unions against fragmentation01:03:25  Final thoughts on nationalism and internationalism as a dialectical processGUEST:Dr. Cadell Last, Philosophy Portal• Website: https://cadelllast.com/• Philosophy Portal: https://philosophyportal.online/about• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PhilosophyPortal• Substack: https://philosophyportal.substack.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/cadellnlastFOLLOW 1Dime:• Substack: https://1dimereview.substack.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/1DimeOfficial• Instagram: instagram.com/1dimeman• Check out my main channel videos: https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeeLeave a like, drop a comment, and give the show a 5-star rating on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to this.Tags: #Nationalism #Internationalism  #Immigration 

Get access to Part 2 & The Backroom (100+ exclusive episodes) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OneDimeIn this episode of 1Dime Radio, Benjamin Studebaker returns to lay out his case for a *supranational federation*, his answer to a problem that keeps resurfacing across both left and right politics: the limits of the nation-state in a world shaped by capital mobility, capital flight, interstate competition, and war. We break down Benjamin’s six-part “Why Federalism” series, why he thinks national governments cannot meaningfully tax capital or secure lasting peace on their own, and what kind of political system he thinks would actually be necessary to move beyond today’s global deadlock.In The Backroom on Patreon, Benjamin gives his take on the phenomenon of Clavicular, looksmaxxing, dating culture, and the broader social collapse behind both. Part 2 of our conversation on the Supernational federation will also be available only on Patreon, in which I challenge Studebaker on some issues I have with his proposal. Timestamps:00:00:00 The Backroom preview: looksmaxxing, Clavicular, and modern dating00:03:11  Benjamin Studebaker returns, Why Federalism, and the limits of the nation-state00:07:31  How competition makes political systems converge00:10:37  From military competition to commercial competition00:15:24  Why fear-based internationalism fails00:20:20  Why even nationalist goals now require supranational politics00:29:58  The democratic vs technocratic split00:35:18  The Chamber of Labor and the Chamber of Status00:42:25  Tribune, First Citizen, and global executive power00:45:31  How could a supranational federation actually emerge?00:51:01  Healthcare, universities, and organizing around concrete issues01:08:56  Capital mobility, tax competition, and why national solutions get undercut01:19:55  Medicare for All, capital, and the limits of monetary sovereignty alone01:25:01  Why China has to be part of the project01:30:04  Can nation-states build this, or would they sabotage it?01:40:30  Why the left needs a positive vision, not just critique01:48:24  Issue-based organizing, consumer unions, and a new political frameworkGUEST:Benjamin Studebaker, political theorist, PHD from Cambridge, author of The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy: The Way Is Shut and Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies• Website: https://benjaminstudebaker.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/BMStudebaker• The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy: https://link.springer.com/book/9783031950087• Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-legitimacy-in-liberal-democracies.html• Why Federalism, Part 1, The Problem that Needs to Be Solved: https://www.streitcouncil.org/post/why-federalism-the-problem-that-needs-to-be-solved• Why Federalism, Part 2, Creating the Cataracts: https://www.streitcouncil.org/post/why-federalism-creating-the-cataracts• Why Federalism, Part 3, The Unit Question: https://www.streitcouncil.org/post/why-federalism-the-unit-question• Why Federalism, Part 4, On Citizenship: https://www.streitcouncil.org/post/why-federalism-on-citizenship• Why Federalism, Part 5, On the Role of China: https://www.streitcouncil.org/post/why-federalism-on-the-role-of-china• Why Federalism, Part 6, The Conclusion: https://www.streitcouncil.org/post/why-federalism-the-conclusionFOLLOW 1Dime:• My Substack (Articles and Essays): https://1dimereview.substack.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/1DimeOfficial• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1dimeman• Check out my main channel videos: https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeeLeave a like, drop a comment, and give the show a 5-star rating on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to this.

Get access to The Backroom (100+ exclusive episodes) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OneDimeIn this episode of 1Dime Radio, I sit down with my friend Artin Salimi for a nuanced debate on immigration, what the right gets wrong, what the left gets wrong, and why the issue cannot be reduced to either xenophobic panic or liberal denial. We get into labor markets, Thatcherism, Brexit, brain drain, asylum, nationalism, class politics, and the ways neoliberal capitalism both drives migration and weaponizes it politically. This is a serious attempt to think through one of the most explosive political questions of our time without demonizing immigrants or parroting elite talking points.In The Backroom exclusive on Patreon, we continue our debate on immigration, and I put forward some of my more controversial hot takes, pushing further on borders, nationalism, class power, elite blind spots, and what a serious alternative to both neoliberal globalism and right-wing scapegoating might actually look like.Timestamps:00:00:00  The Backroom preview (Patreon): Socialism, Borders & Brain Drain 00:03:19  Nuanced Discussion on Immigration00:05:00  Why immigration dominates politics00:11:33  Thatcherism and the neoliberal immigration trap00:16:56  Brexit and why immigration still rose00:21:26  Labor demand, empire, and who actually benefits00:24:01  What both the right and left get wrong00:32:35  Immigration is economics, but not only economics00:39:37  Borders, deportations, and pathways to citizenship00:42:22  Refugees, asylum, and what integration actually requires00:50:10  Migrant labor, unionization, and the underclass problem00:55:02  Rootless cosmopolitans, nationalism, and elite blindness01:05:05  Empire, colonial history, and migration blowback01:14:02  PMC politics, Bernie, AOC, and why the left sounds alien01:17:51  Full Backroom episode on PatreonGUEST:Artin Salimi, YouTuber, rapper, and academic• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArtinSalimi• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artinsalimi666/• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/artin-salimi-208799242FOLLOW 1Dime:• Substack (Articles and Essays): https://1dimereview.substack.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/1DimeOfficial• Instagram: instagram.com/1dimeman• Check out my main channel videos: https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeeLeave a like, drop a comment, and give the show a 5-star rating on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to this.