partial knowledge and unpleasant shocks
I’m making my way through Beverley Best’s new book The Automatic Fetish with a mind to probably writing a review of it later. I have some quibbles that I’m...
Border Country and whatnot
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts I’ve been reading this Raymond Williams novel, Border Country. I finished it today and thought I’d jot down some...
quick update - money shit
hey gang, thanks for your interest in my little blog thing, I appreciate it greatly. As of today there are 98 people subscribing, which surprises me (far be...
shocking cancellation of the future
Railway worker Morgan Rosser poured himself into his position as secretary of his union branch and even more so into the railway workers’ sympathy strike...
no such thing as masses
hey everyone, I hope you’re all maintaining despite the bullshit. I’m feeling kinda ground down, personally, but am still keeping my head up. My semester at...
panel on a book Monday May 20, plus lots of other random stuff
hey all, I mentioned that my friend Rob Hunter and I cowrote a review of a Marxist theory book we like a lot (that’s here https://spectrejournal.com/on-...
Experience, theory, possibility, outrage
A comrade wrote me a thoughtful and kind note (hi Chris, and thanks again!), and I feel very fortunate to have someone reach out to think with me and invite...
Fragment on higher and lower communism
Someone wrote to me (no really!) asking about lower and higher phases of communism (‘higher and lower’ here meaning both the degree to which the exit from...
thinking about moral injury
I saw a tweet the other day that felt like a flash lighting up a lot of experiences I’d only seen the outlines of in the dark. It said “I was complaining to...
There’s social murder, but then there’s SOCIAL MURDER (a note on scale)
I’ve thought for a while now that social murder is an apt concept for understanding the covid pandemic. (I’m far from the only one to think that; the...
Tomorrow's future... today! ("The way-hey-ting is the hardest part." Or, "this crying, this screaming, [our] voice is being born")
I was talking with an old friend today who I hadn’t seen in ages, might be seriously eleven years. They happened to passing through town for work so we got...
book review for your consideration
Hello friends - I'm being uncharacteristically brief today, just passing along a link to something I think you should read: https://spectrejournal.com/on-...
connecting a few more dots (more notes on social murder and Williams)
I said in my last post that I might try to connect the new-to-me ideas from Raymond Williams that I’m excited about with the social murder analysis I’ve been...
Explaining the explanations (or, neither their crises nor their normality!)
I’ve often had a strong gut-level suspicion that the pandemic would have played out differently if we weren’t in the Trump years. What I don’t mean is that...
No such thing as long covid?! Well fu-uh-uck you, pal!
I got real mad about this earlier today and had trouble focusing on some other things I had to do. (“I get mad, I get mad, I get mad.”...
The hits don't start volume 3 (me in Bill of Health)
Me again - greatest hits collection installment three. Installment 1 is here https://buttondown.email/nateholdren/archive/the-hits-dont-start-volume-1-me-in-...
The hits don't start, volume 2 (me in Peste)
Hey again friends, the greatest hits collection continues. The last post is here: https://buttondown.email/nateholdren/archive/the-hits-dont-start-...
The hits don't start, volume 1 (me in LPE)
hey everyone, I’ve written, I don’t know, a medium-sized handful of pieces about aspects of the pandemic. One of the sites I wrote for is currently offline...
I don't want to donate but if I really have to...
Hello friends, enemies, and indifferent strangers, I hope you’re all keeping as well as the hellworld permits. I’m writing with a note just for my own sake....
Enforced meaninglessness plus more on the first New Left
I think I’ve mentioned before on here that I no longer want to say ‘manufacturing consent’ about the pandemic because ‘consent’ to me conjures up a content...