Theorising the revolution
Dear friends, I have been thinking about labour and the nature of exploitation. Not the political party, though they could easily fit under a similar topic...
The postal service
Dear friends, In an almost bourgeois fugue state today I felt rising rage at the para-privatisation of the postal service in this country. Yeah, oddly...
Wealth vs solidarity, and the need for compassion
Dear friends, I have been thinking about the how the corporate class, the bootlickers, the “upper middle class” and others utterly slavish to the capitalist...
Optimism as antidote to despair
Dear friends, I have been thinking about optimism and despair. Actually, I’ve been reading on optimism over despair [1] and thinking about an analytical...
CEOs and death
Dear friends, Overnight in the US a person killed a private health care company’s CEO [1]. The suspicion, of course, is that this company denied the person’s...
Housing and economic mythology
Dear friends, When you think about it, a striking indictment of capitalism’s fundamental absurdity is that, humans remain the only species on Earth forced to...
The kids aren’t alright – they’re banned
Dear friends, Twice in one day! A new record. Yesterday the ALP passed into law legislation that bans all young people from social media [1]. This has been...
On immunity and the ruling class
Dear friends, I woke to news that France was refusing to arrest Netanyahu despite the ICC’s ruling on his creation and maintenance of genocide. So yes, in...
Spectacular populism, technology, and division
Dear friends, The acceleration of populist movements globally presents an interesting contradiction for analysis. Populism, a peculiar (if increasingly...
Liberals, whinging and performance politics
Dear friends, I’ve been “experiencing” liberal American post-election analysis on every form of media I visit. I’m sure you’re in the same boat as...
Identity politics and the crisis of working class solidarity
Dear friends, We live in a time of intensifying identity-based conflict, where every social and political issue becomes refracted through the lens of...
Fascism returns, and it’s everywhere all at once
Dear friends, I’ve heard a few (bad) hot takes on US politics lately and this has really got my hackles up about fascism. We need a common literacy to...
Some thoughts on Fedora on a Yoga
Dear friends, We’re doing a tech one today – why not. My tech journey over the last year has seen me rapidly disentangle myself from Apple’s locked-in...
It can’t happen here
Dear friends, It is happening here. The polarisation, the extremism, growing xenophobia and racism, anti-intellectualism, hatred, violence and climate-...
“For the economic policies”: the reason you may no longer have any rights
Dear friends, I accidentally engaged with some US election coverage in the last 24 hours. Amidst flitting between various streaming services, noticing how...
Singing gently to my soul: on youth alienation and precarity under late capitalism
Dear friends, What the heck do I have in store for you today? Well naturally I have been enjoying pop music and thinking about the “climate” that the youth...
On forestalled innovation
Dear friends, I spent a little of my time today listening to other contemporary Marxists [1] – and then wondering about how to add to some aspects of their...
Cognitive bias, attribute substitution and politics
Dear friends, Astute stalkers amongst you may remember some 14 years ago I made a YouTube video by the same title. Let’s not go there. I want to talk with...
Grim realities, emancipatory futures
Dear friends, We live in existentially challenging times – between actively unfolding western-backed genocides on several fronts, growingly desperate climate...
Assimilation and rebellion
Dear friends, An attendee at a presentation I gave once said to me “it seems you just truly wish to belong in the academy”. This remains one of the most...
Making meaning at the end of time
Dear friends, I have been necessarily pondering “end times” – conceptually a troubling thought. We’re seeing the slow motion collapse of ecology, social...
They’re telling us what’s next
Dear friends, We’re not listening, but the oligarchs are signalling the next phase of climate denialism. We’ve talked fairly extensively about AI and its use...
The struggle for liberation, perils of individualism, and radical praxis
Dear friends, I have been pondering the theoretical landscape of anarchism, particularly anarcho-syndicalism, and its tensions and harmony with Marxist...
Productively “slow,” or just bourgeois?
Dear friends, I am fortunate to hold a role which affords me the ability to take leave. And gladly, I have a few days off this week, mostly to pack up our...
The “power” of AI
Dear friends, Today I have some off the cuff thoughts about global heat death – revisiting an early theme (actually, the earliest in this particular...
(im)possibility politics
Dear friends, I’ve been continuing to ponder the nature of identity politics, the flexibility of superstructural systems, and the ever more obvious role of...
Our future: The AI panopticon
Apparently I’m on a bit of a roll, two posts in 24 hours, my apologies to your inbox. Dear friends, Do you ever find yourself thinking that the billionaire...
On burnout
Dear friends, Today I have been contemplating burnout. Workers under contemporary fast capitalism are, like machines, left on piles of scrap amidst declining...
Alienating the young people
Coming at you live, subscribers, I have a new way to view ideas and links all in one place (and via RSS if you hate trying to remember to visit websites like...
Spidey senses, public health, and capital
Dear friends, Today I ingested some media – what a gross way to say it – about the role and nature of the differential, challenged, and surmountable problems...
Are we moving closer to the sociopath strata?
Dear friends, What a week in the world. I wonder if there will be a time where we can say otherwise, though. We have seen the continued propagation of neo-...
Apple was never pro-creative
Dear friends, Do you remember the glory days of Apple as the underdog? From early scrapes with Microsoft, through years of struggling management, the...
The normalisation of greed
Dear friends, Not a day goes by where the direct affects of “line may only go up” capitalism doesn’t destroy another part of the human soul. Every single day...
Lead paint, entitlement and a generational class-backslide
Dear friends, I have a colleague, lets call them Geoff, who has worked for the University for 15 years. They have been promoted to level C during this time,...
Despotism and cynicism: a combination for the ages
Dear friends, Not a day goes by that it doesn’t feel increasingly painful to observe the tyranny of despots. However, I want to take a few moments, with my...
When ideology shapes ontology
Dear friends, Today I have a bit of a wondering rant about the way the world has -become- and how ideology grips us so deeply as to destroy lives,...
Health and capital
Dear friends, Healthcare in South Australia is deeply broken. This has lasted through successive governments, and is only getting worse. Commentary from...
A tolerable internet
Dear friends, We’re living in a strange world of technological “innovation” on the world wide web. After Web 2.0, the utter garbage fire that is Web 3.0 [1],...
The end of education and the rise of the fascist Australian Labor Party
Dear friends, Another day in hell. In the last fortnight we have seen: the ALP eject an elected member over their relatively limp anti-genocide stance [1],...
No men only kings and gods
Dear friends, Just what in the fiery circles of hell is happening. The United States’ Supreme Court has effectively ruled (in a grandiose movement) that...
I don’t have anything to hide
Dear friends, I can’t evade the growing news of increasing government surveillance of citizens internet usage. In the US, UK, Germany and many others there...
Negative distraction
Dear friends, I have been thinking about negative distraction since our last idea. Essentially stemming from the notion of capital’s necessary divisive...
Infectious and competitive mindsets
Dear friends, Participation in civil society demands capitalist participation. Indeed, as I have discussed elsewhere we are ontologically infused with...
Open soure software and a transition to Linux
Dear friends,Some of you will know I am a long time open source software supporter. I have even dabbled in using open source hardware [1]. If you’re...
An empty corporate shell
Good morning friends,I have a nugget of thought in my brain which doesn’t want to go away. So here we are the day the day after our last post, having ideas...
AI accessibility, or global heat death?
Greetings friends,Yesterday I was listening to one, amidst a litany, technology podcast. They were asserting, like the cacophony, that Apple needed to use...