/435/ Reading Club: Stalin's General – Winning WWII (sample)

On disinformation, misinformation and the popular will. Holly Jean Buck, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo, joins us to talk about her recent pieces arguing that the climate movement's focus on disinformation is misguided. We discuss: What is disinformation and misinformation in the climate context? Are there parallels to be drawn with anti-disinfo campaigns on vaccines during the pandemic? How is the deterioration in trust in elites and scientific institutions to be responded to? What do Holly's focus groups tell her about popular views on climate politics? Does the return to industrial policy mean we should focus on "people who know how to make and run stuff"? And what is solar radiation management, carbon capture and storage, carbon dioxide removal, and related technologies? Links: Obsessing Over Climate Disinformation Is a Wrong Turn, Holly Jean Buck, Jacobin A Climate Disinformation Focus Takes Us the Wrong Way, Holly Jean Buck, Jacobin Of Course "Misinformation" Isn’t the Cause of Climate Change, Alex Tremblath, Breakthrough Institute Books: After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration, Holly Jean Buck, Verso Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero is Not Enough, Holly Jean Buck, Verso

On corruption, charisma, populism & assassination in Slovakia. Slovak sociologist Dominik Zelinksy joins us to discuss Slovakia's positioning between East and West. We discuss: Why was Prime Minister Robert Fico a target of an assassination attempt? Whether Fico – not a zany outsider but a competent insider – is a "populist" Why Slovaks are not so anti-Russian, and why they are sceptical of NATO How has anti-corruption politics played a role What is "charismatic mimicry" and why have Western leaders aped Ukraine's Zelenskyy? Links: Slovakia's election: "more than a fight between democracy and autocracy", Dominik Zelinsky, LeftEast Assassination Attempt Prompts Soul-Searching in Slovakia, Jakub Bokes, Jacobin Slovakia’s Election Result Is About Declining Living Standards, Not Just Ukraine, Jakub Bokes, Jacobin Charismatic Mimicry: Innovation and Imitation in the Case of Volodymyr Zelensky, Paul Joosse & Dominik Zelinsky, Sociological Theory. Thread on Twitter/X about the article  

On the electricity grid and the institutions involved. [Episode originally released only to subscribers on 20 June 2024. Join us at patreon.com/bungacast] Fred Stafford, a STEM professional, a writer on energy and power, and an editor at Damage, talks to Alex and regular contributor Leigh Phillips about the utility of utilities and his recent essay in the second print issue of Damage, "Deinstitutionalized"./ What actually is a utility: is it a question of ownership, structure, purpose..? How did the 70s energy crisis, neoliberal economics, and environmentalism create a perfect storm that broke up regulated utilities? How does the regulatory regime on energy in the US actually work? Why have environmentalists been so keen to line up with neoliberal deregulation and to attack utilities – in Europe as well as the US? Why should the left think about a restoration of the investor-owned utility model, and not just jump straight to public ownership? Links: The Utility of Utilities, Fred Stafford & Matt Huber, Damage Big Public Power from the Atom, Matt Huber & Fred Stafford, Damage Power Loss: The Origins of Deregulation and Restructuring in the American Electric Utility System, Richard F Hirsch

On Geoffrey Roberts’ 2013 biography of Field Marshal Zhukov. [Patreon Exclusive] Who was the Soviet general and architect of Soviet victory on the Eastern Front during the Second World War? We discuss: What does Zhukov’s life tell us about modern warfare? What can we learn about the life and fate of the Soviet regime? How should we view the Ukraine war and renewed geopolitical rivalry between the West and Russia today? What are the popular perceptions and folk memories of world war?   Links: Stalin's General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov, Geoffrey Roberts Saving Private Ivan, Mike Davis, The Guardian Negotiate Now, or Capitulate Later: Ten Incentives for Ukraine to Make Peace with Russia, Geoffrey Roberts, Brave New Europe Putin’s Trump Card: Ukrainian Membership of NATO, Geoffrey Roberts, Brave New Europe ‘Now or Never’: The Immediate Origins of Putin’s Preventative War on Ukraine, Geoffrey Roberts, Journal of Military and Strategic Studies

On the NGO-isation of the state. [Patreon Exclusive] Researchers and writers Matthew Thompson and Jonny Gordon-Farleigh join us to discuss their recent Damage article with George Hoare. Civil society was once occupied by popular forces that could function as a bulwark against both capitalist marketization and state authoritarianism. Today, it has been colonized by the NGO, which, in turn, colonizes our hollowed-out politics. We ask: What are 'private NGOs', and what are quangos? How has 'projectification' taken over? What does the NGOisation of society mean? How does this kill public accountability? What are concrete examples of this process? What comes next? Any possibility for resurrecting things like Working Men’s Clubs?  Links: Bodiless Bodies: The Rise of Para-Institutions, George, Matt & Jonny, Damage Reconstructing Public Housing: Liverpool’s hidden history of collective alternatives, Matthew Thompson The NGOization of the West, George Hoare, Café american

On your questions & criticisms. [Patreon Exclusive] We respond with comments on episodes 420 to 432 and various other points you wanted to us to discuss. In this episode: Does our politics lack self-critique? When did the breakdown of the UK's political system begin? How hegemonic is "settler" discourse? Will there be a coup in France? Do we need more analysis of the PMC? How did victimhood become a means for the expression of political demands?   Links: The Making of a New Political Subject, George Hoare, Café americain Vulnerability as Ideology, Peter Ramsay, The Northern Star

On Naomi Klein & Naomi Wolf and "political diagonalism" Episode in association with Damage magazine. Patreon Exclusive. Ben Burgis talks to Alex and George about his review in Damage of Naomi Klein's Doppelgangers. We discuss: Whether Naomi Klein is representative of the average left-wing position this century What Klein's trajectory and that of Naomi Wolf tell us about contemporary politics What is "pipiking" – Philip Roth's term for making everything a farce? What role do conspiracy theories play for the Right today? For the Left? What's wrong with the idea of "settlers" and "indigenous", and how does it play out with regard to Jews and to Native Americans? Are we right to hold up “proper left” and “proper right” as ideals to which the ideological confusion of our times should return?   Links: Left Identitarianism Is Also A Mirror World, Ben Burgis, Damage Ben Burgis' columns at Jacobin What comes after wokeness?, Alex Hochuli, Substack The Making of a New Political Subject, George Hoare, Café american

On the structure of the Chinese state and its external relations. [Patreon Exclusive: for the full episode, go to patreon.com/bungacast] We welcome back Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri to reflect on the outcome of the recent plenum of the Chinese Communist Party and to ask who, if anyone beyond Xi Jinping, is calling the shots. How will the CCP respond to the US election? Why is China not a monolithic, integrated state in the way some think? How important is the the Sino-Russian alliance? Does it matter more to Russia or to China? What happened to "wolf-warrior diplomacy"? Is it still a thing?  What's going on economically with the property bubble, and with Chinese manufacturing over-capacity? Should we be worried about WWIII over Taiwan or the South China Sea?   Links: China’s plenum must offer action not rote slogans, Financial Times Views of China and Xi Jinping in 35 countries, Pew Research Centre Fractured China: How State Transformation is Shaping China’s Rise, Lee Jones & Shahar Hameiri

On the tourist city, the tourist industry, and its critics. Renowned Italian journalist Marco d'Eramo joins us to talk about his wide-ranging inquiry into the age of tourism, The World in a Selfie. We also discuss how migration is the obverse of tourism, and take a look at Marco's most recent book, Masters, on the neoliberal revolution from above. Why is hating tourists the main characteristic of being a tourist? Why is the tourist/traveller dichotomy a false one? What is the threshold for a city becoming a place that exists primarily for tourists? How should we understand tourism economically, and why is the tourist city a mono-industry? Is the "authentic" travel experience ever possible? Why do critiques of tourism so often slide into snobbery or outright class contempt? How is the city changing under the impact not just of "over-tourism" but rising rents, exclusions, and remote working? Links: The World in a Selfie: An Inquiry into the Tourist Age, Marco d'Eramo, Verso Masters: The Invisible War of the Powerful Against Their Subjects, Marco d'Eramo, Wiley Barbed Wire, Marco D'Eramo, Sidecar The cost of Europe’s backlash against tourists, Barney Jopson, Financial Times

On Julien Benda's famous 1927 work. [Patreon Exclusive] We continue on the theme of 'Intellectuals and the Public' by discussing the often cited by little read The Treason of the Clerks. We ask: If Benda was responding to the intellectuals' role in the Dreyfus Affair and WWI, was he already a man out of his time? What are intellectuals' proper role in society? Can they be abstract universalist moralists? Benda laments the end of humanism – can we endorse this lament, even if things are too far gone now? Is Benda a centrist dad, urging us all not to get too passionate or engaged? How do Benda’s ideas related to Gramsci’s notion of the traditional versus the organic intellectual? If Benda was critical of the 'realism' of his day – as opposed to the detached ethics of pre-20th century intellectuals – how might we use Benda to critique the cynicism of today? Readings: Treason of the Intellectuals, Mark Lilla, Tablet (from preface to new edition) The Treason of the Intellectuals, Niall Ferguson, The Free Press Julien Benda’s political Europe and the treason of intellectuals, Davide Caddedu Edward Said on imperialist hypocrisy on Kosova: The treason of the intellectuals, Green Left