For Left Notes, I wrote about the depressing trend of people forming intimate relationships with AI www.left-notes.com/p/ai-chatbot...

Maybe We Shouldn’t Normalize AI Relationships

More and more people are building “relationships” with AI chatbot friends and lovers. It’s an extremely depressing sign of the times.

left-notes.com

"Opportunities are for those who seize them... the coming year may be as bright as we choose to make it." Seconding the wisdom of James Connolly's 1916 new year's greeting in the face of world war. A difficult year ahead, but we choose how we respond and what we do with it.

Not a lot to crow about from 2024, but I'm proud of the writing work @nickfrenchnyc.bsky.social and I did. Check out some of the highlights from our year taking notes for the left. www.left-notes.com/p/left-notes...

Left Notes’ 2024 in Review

This year was less a year for the record books and more a year for the dustbin of history — at least from the point of view of left-wing politics. But we’re looking back on it anyway.

left-notes.com

Left Notes’ 2024 roundup: @nealmeyer.bsky.social and I look back on the year www.left-notes.com/p/left-notes...

Left Notes’ 2024 in Review

This year was less a year for the record books and more a year for the dustbin of history — at least from the point of view of left-wing politics. But we’re looking back on it anyway.

left-notes.com

In Mexico City, the left-wing party Morena is building community centers (UTOPIAs, an acronym) in working-class neighborhoods. They're places to work out, make art, relax, & give seniors community. Would be interesting if a NYC mayor adopted this idea. 👀 www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

‘Living proof that you can spend money on the poor’: Utopia comes to Mexico City

A visionary mayor has harnessed her imagination to promote health, wellbeing and culture in one of the Mexican capital’s most impoverished neighbourhoods

theguardian.com

In case your New Year's resolution is to stay on top of some good writing about 1) the Democratic Party (its travails and how the left and labor movement should respond) and 2) democratic socialist philosophy, you can subscribe here. www.left-notes.com

Left Notes | Neal Meyer | Substack

Writing about politics, the labor movement, and philosophy from a democratic socialist perspective. Click to read Left Notes, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

left-notes.com

I (and my pseudonymous co-author) did an analysis of Sunday Morning news shows and their coverage of Gaza. We found this coverage defined by double standards, casual dehumanization of Palestinians, and softball questions to US and Israeli officials. www.thenation.com/article/soci... Key findings 🧵

How Sunday Morning News Shows Promote an Anti-Palestinian Agenda for Washington

Since October 2023, NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, and CNN’s State of the Union have not featured a single Palestinian guest.

thenation.com

Manchin and Sinema at it again, yet both will soon be gone. But fear not, next time there's a Democratic president some new conservative Democratic senators will miraculously step forward to make it impossible to pass a progressive agenda. It's a feature not a bug of how the Democrats operate.

I love a well created, informative, and political venn diagram.

Agartha Christie@agartha-christie.bsky.social · 2y ago

Here's a way I'm thinking about US socialist electoral strategy that might help frame people's thinking. It centers on the differences/overlaps of three different ecosystems: labor, progressives, and socialists. Each of them brings different benefits to electoral campaigns they’re working on.

There is some brave soul walking down 40th St in Manhattan by himself shouting "strike! strike! strike!" (At least that's what I think he's saying.) I support this.

I made an excursion into the Humboldt vs. neoliberal university model, some (left) Alasdair MacIntyre takes on virtues in academia and ideas about what to change and how. 😉 Check out my chapter about neoliberalism in academia in this new book: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Neoliberalism in academia—What we can learn from physiology

Neoliberalism has transformed academia by centering competition. Competition for high-impact papers and grants is supposed to “optimize” science. Howe…

sciencedirect.com

Great, very readable introduction by @graceblakeley.bsky.social to the world of the Workers Party in Belgium. They are one of the most interesting left-wing parties in the world right now. They're building a real base in the working class. Lots to learn! tribunemag.co.uk/2024/12/goin...

Going Back to Class

The Workers’ Party of Belgium is defying the trend of leftist movements losing touch with the working class by using community organising to build a Marxist party with mass appeal.

tribunemag.co.uk

“My people are losing their fucking jobs. I’m losing members. And you’re babbling about career changes. Bullshit. We need security. We don’t need goddamn retraining.” AFL-CIO pres to Robert Reich in 1993 during the NAFTA debate. Neatly captures why Dems have been hemorrhaging workers for decades.

Feeling like it's finally time to start playing A Charlie Brown Christmas on repeat for the next 23 days. 😎🎄

a cartoon of charlie brown holding a christmas tree in front of a treasure chest with the number 1 on it

ALT: a cartoon of charlie brown holding a christmas tree in front of a treasure chest with the number 1 on it

media.tenor.com

Genuinely interesting piece from the failing NYTimes. Relevant to internal DSA political life. The desire to identify the people with "good politics" vs. the people with "bad politics" in the org is understandable but needs to be overcome. It's a mark of our political immaturity.

Hell ya Bernie: "I think that what Osborn did should be looked at as a model... He took on both parties... [W]here people can run in the Dem primary and win, that’s fine. Where it is more advantageous to run as an independent... we should do that..." www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Bernie Sanders: We Need More Working-Class Candidates to Challenge Both Parties

Politics / Q&A / November 26, 2024 Bernie Sanders: We Need More Working-Class Candidates to Challenge Both Parties The senator says in this exclusive interview that challengers to status quo politics ...

thenation.com

Rich people are much less likely to be vegetarians.

New @businessweek.bsky.social: Trump’s team has been working to reassure business advocates about his Teamsters-backed Labor pick, saying they’ll find her nomination more palatable once the choices for deputy labor secretary and other posts are revealed Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Trump’s Labor Pick Is a Break With the Past

Can she deliver for the Teamsters? Plus: B-schools’ minority enrollment, and a visit with the Points Guy.

bloomberg.com

I wrote some reflections on the deep roots of Trumpism’s success in the US today, beyond the particular campaign failures that Democrats are now agonizing over www.left-notes.com/p/trump-rawl...

This Is What Democracy Looks Like?

A manifestly unfair, hypocritical, atomized society is a perfect breeding ground for right-wing pathologies. Curing them means figuring out how to inject some badly needed doses of solidarity.

left-notes.com

Training what Gramsci called "permanent persuaders" — party activists who constantly are organizing their neighbors/coworkers/friends — is a critical political task. Volunteers knocking on strangers' doors and having 30 second convos at election time isn't enough. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Democrats’ much-touted ‘ground game’ was a disaster. Here’s how to fix it

Cable ads and bussed-in volunteers don’t cut it any more. If the party wants to win, it must engage voters in a collective push for change

theguardian.com

Take note Dems: to win in 2028 you have to reject student loan forgiveness and economic populism in general, demagogue about migrants forcing fentanyl on your kids, and focus on obscure, possibly apocryphal, govt regulations of day cares. So says this entirely organic PR push by blue dog democrats

I started trying to find people in DSA and on the left and add them here. I'll try to update as I find more. I'm pro this plaltform. go.bsky.app/3k6HDva

My entire life the Democrats have had two rhetorical responses to losing a presidential election. The cycle continues.

As anyone who watches home remodeling shows knows, starting from scratch (while not easy) is often *easier than* a gut renovation. That’s why the basic line of the left is still valid: build a new party that's independent of the Dems. Some thoughts on the election: www.left-notes.com/p/it-wasnt-j...

It Wasn't Just a Bad Campaign

The era of neoliberalism spawned an illiberal strongman. Labor and the left need a deeper analysis of what went wrong and a new direction to recover.

left-notes.com

An evergreen reminder for all of us on the left, especially in the months after an important election.

DSA should… buy this old water tower in Cincinnati and convert it into the new national HQ. For $29,000 what a steal!