G.A. Cohen's "Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence" is a book I've spent a lot of time with over the years.* But it's clearly been a long time since I went back to the very beginning of the book. 🧵
Ben Burgis
@benburgis.bsky.social
GTAA host, Jacobin columnist, adjunct philosophy prof, TMBS crew for life
PS: ICYMI, our poor diabetic cat, Pebbles, is currently hospitalized at the vets after a frightening glucose crash. Thank goodness, she's stabilized, but the bills are a LOT, so if you've ever been curious about my Patreon: patreon.com/stephanieburgis ...or my books, today's the day to try them!
Get more from Stephanie Burgis on Patreon
Get more from Stephanie Burgis on Patreon. Become a member for just $1.99/month. Hi! I'm a fantasy writer and an obsessive book-lover. This is my…
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Saw a headline in my inbox right after I got up that started "Trump, Hegseth clash..." and my sleepy brain managed to misread it as "Trump, Megadeth clash..." and for a minute there I was actually pretty intrigued about what they could be fighting about.
Anyone hand-wringing about whether @abdulelsayed.bsky.social can win this fall should ask yourselves what you know that AIPAC doesn't. You think they would have spent so much on Stevens if they didn't think El-Sayed could beat Rogers? From their perspective Rogers would be even better than Stevens.
Damn, 65 million isn’t enough to buy a state-wide election any more? Inflation is out of control.
@benburgis.bsky.social and I discuss why socialists can have a more realistic conception of human nature than competing traditions today at 100 m.youtube.com/watch?v=fWDi...
Socialism and Human Nature (ft. Matt McManus)
YouTube video by Give Them An Argument w/Ben Burgis
m.youtube.com
Today, at Philosophy for the People, an announcement:
Cohen Class Starting in Two Weeks
The Substack Philosophy Class is finishing "Anarchy, State & Utopia" on Tuesday. The next Tuesday is off. After that, we're starting up on G.A. Cohen's "Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality."
benburgis.substack.com
Cannot emphasize enough to my friends who still live in Michigan that you have a chance to make history in this election by sending the very first former GTAA guest to the U.S. Senate:
A building I walk by all the time going back and forth from my apartment to downtown. Hard to overstate how weird this name is if you watched hundreds of hours of Buffy the Vampire Slayer at a young age:
I put some folded-up towels on top of a bookshelf--not a giant apartment, it was as convenient a place to put them for the moment as any--and of course it instantly became Ash's favorite spot in the apartment, since it checks the equally important boxes of Soft and Up High:
It's really amazing to see your edited work you've killed yourself on for months finally in hard copy that you can hold in your hands and not just your mind, isn't it, Ben? Even better when a copy is put in the department lounge room and students and faculty are browsing it years later. 😁
Ben Burgis@benburgis.bsky.social · 3w agoIncredible to finally see this thing in the three-dimensional physical world.
Incredible to finally see this thing in the three-dimensional physical world.
The Mayor of New York City sat behind his desk, plainly and forcefully told the truth about the genocide in Gaza, and said that Netanyahu was not welcome in the city. Two years ago, that would have been utterly unthinkable. My latest for @jacobinmag.bsky.social:
Mamdani Is Right. Netanyahu Belongs Behind Bars.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani charged Benjamin Nentayahu with genocide, said he is unwelcome in New York City, and called for his arrest. Two years ago, that would have been unimaginable. Going forward, it sho...
jacobin.com
The Right recently lost its mind over DSA's call to get rid of the Senate. But it would be a massively positive expansion of democracy. My latest for @jacobinmag.bsky.social:
Yes, We Really Should Abolish the Senate
The Right recently lost its mind over the socialist proposal to get rid of the US Senate. But socialists are right to call for the abolition of a deeply undemocratic political institution.
jacobin.com
@benburgis.bsky.social an I will be chatting about G.A Cohen and liberalism in a few hours. Join us! www.youtube.com/live/OokAJAb...
A Socialist's Dialogue with Liberalism (ft. Matt McManus)
YouTube video by Give Them An Argument w/Ben Burgis
youtube.com
Matthew Whalan's new book "Jimmy: A Brief Death Penalty Story" comes out I think sometime next month, with an introduction by me on the death penalty more generally:
He'll (mostly) refrain from inserting himself in front of the camera while I'm on air if I continually pet him off to the side.
Very proud our Cohen collection with @benburgis.bsky.social is finally here! Loki seems surprised to finally see it.
At 1:30 PM East Coast/10:30 AM West Coast, I'll be going live with Jacobin's Branko Marcetic to rank the most amazingly wrong pro-Iran War pundits:
The Iran War’s Most Embarrassingly Wrong Pundits (ft. Branko Marcetic)
YouTube video by Give Them An Argument w/Ben Burgis
youtube.com
I'm in @jacobinmag.bsky.social today, looking at the Right's meltdown over the DSA's new "Workers Deserve More" platform (and trying to call balls and strikes about what's good in that platform and where it could be strengthened).
The Democratic Socialists of America Want to Expand Democracy
Right-wing and centrist pundits, and even House Speaker Mike Johnson, have rushed to denounce the Democratic Socialists of America’s new “Workers Deserve More” platform. But the platform’s central ins...
jacobin.com
This picture of me, Michael Brooks, my then-wife Jennifer and his girlfriend Theodorah was taken seconds before I hugged him goodbye and Jenn and I left for the airport at the end of what I never would have guessed was the last weekend I got to spend with him. He's been gone six years today.
I'm just going to note here that Matt Yglesias, who has very strong views on what voters in the rustbelt want, thinks that Lansing is in Wisconsin.
This week's Philosophy for the People essay is up:
Socialism and Eglitarianism
A response to Jesse Spafford
benburgis.substack.com
Live with DSA-endorsed Congressional candidate (in FL-25) Oliver Larkin:
Meet Socialist Congressional Candidate Oliver Larkin
YouTube video by Give Them An Argument w/Ben Burgis
youtube.com
The book won't even be out yet for a couple more months, but already right-thinking people everywhere are feeling petrified by the chilling vision of my big-brained co-author:
