Archive (Page 3) • Open Mode • Buttondown

Ferment & Rot

October 6, 2024

Hey everyone, I hope you're all keeping well. I'm back to teaching so I've not had much time to think or write (I remembered the other day that I used to...

educating desires/constructing majorities

September 20, 2024

Two phrases echoing in my head lately (my head is a largely empty cave in which the distress and exhaustion feedback, punctuated by these occasional echoes):...

'your sickness is insubordination, pleb!'

August 27, 2024

I wrote this the other day on the alphasmart then lost the cable to get the words off the alpha. Harrumph. I've now ordered like 4 of those cables in hopes...

pointless yet circuitous

August 23, 2024

Hey gang, Not a lot of point here (in general, existentially, it feels like some days, god damn, but I mean this post in particular - even more so than...

What is public health, and to whom?

August 9, 2024

I mentioned the other day that I’ve started Christopher Hamlin’s history of public health in the mid-19th century UK. As I said there, Hamlin argues that in...

Notes on Hamlin's history of public health

August 5, 2024

I started reading a book on the history of public health - Public Health and Social Justice in the Age of Chadwick, 1800-1854, by Christopher Hamlin - on...

A four cornered impasse? (Politics of 4 kinds; efficacy conditions; etc)

August 2, 2024

As usual at the edge of my peripheral vision I can see a silhouette of what might be an idea and I want to try to get a good look at it here but first I need...

correction! I goofed: 4 things! not 3!

August 1, 2024

Hey gang, I screwed up. In my last post I dropped in 3 things I wrote, efficiently labeled Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3. As it turns out, however, there...

The hits don't start v4: Scraps from the cutting room!

July 31, 2024

Greetings friends, enemies, and acquaintances wavering between amity and enmity, I hope you’re all treading water. Sometimes one keeps doing a thing despite...

unpacking social/labor power reproduction

July 29, 2024

I wrote nearly all of my last post, on Rafael Khachaturian's chapter in the capitalist state book, yesterday. I finished earlier today and sent it out. This...

notes on Rafael Khachaturian's account of the pandemic impasse

July 28, 2024

hey all, I hope you’re maintaining. I’m a little worse for the wear lately (and 1400 bucks poorer between the mechanic and the veterinarian, deep sigh) but...

mediation, fetishism, and social murder (more Marxish nerdery)

July 26, 2024

Lately I get backaches if I don’t walk enough. (I say ‘lately’ in the hope it’s a temporary phase I’m passing through and not a permanent phase I’m aging...

character masks and whatnot

July 23, 2024

Marx nerd post, sorry gang! This was on my mind as I took a walk today, typing it out here to turn quarter thoughts into half thoughts. Marx writes in...

briefly again: made a record

July 15, 2024

hi all, in case you’re interested, my friend Malik and I cowrote a record. I think you could call it noise rap. Malik wrote the lyrics and performed the...

briefly: two more talks friday July 12 and wednesday july 17

July 10, 2024

Hey gang, I hope you’re all well. For anyone subscribing to this thing, I’m sorry to be in your inbox again so soon, but I wanted to give you a quick head’s...

My Correct Views On A Couple Things: A Response to Tony Smith on Marxism and Reformist Struggle

July 9, 2024

As regular readers of my little blog are probly sick of hearing me say, I had a chapter in this book...

talks and discussion on the capitalist state (my social murder chapter)

July 7, 2024

hey all, I hope you’re maintaining. In case you’re interested, the fine people at Red May hosted a panel today with me and Jasmine Chorley-Schulz talking...

My review of Beverley Best's new book on Capital volume 3

June 22, 2024

This is my review of Beverley Best’s new book, The Automatic Fetish. (https://www.versobooks.com/products/3032-the-automatic-fetish) The book is a close...

murder o'clock?

June 20, 2024

I wrote a while back about how there’s an issue of scale when it comes social murder. (https://buttondown.email/nateholdren/archive/theres-social-murder-but-...

Doris Lessing and new left notes; embattled curiosity

June 17, 2024

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all maintaining. I typically write things for my little blog when I have a specific thought I’ve only partially glimpsed and am...