Claim: "Rousseauianism's plateauing obsequiously" is the only proposition in the English language that contains both (1) a truth (2) and four consecutive vowels in every word that it's made up of.

I just finished Karin Hausen's 1976 article "Die Polarisierung der 'Geschlechtscharaktere': Eine Spiegelung der Dissoziation von Erwerbs- und Familienleben". Is anyone aware of an English translation? It's influential in the German context, yet fairly unknown beyond that.

Power phrases to impress your colleagues at the next post-work aperitivo

Really nice to see this piece published (co-authored with the great @yvette-wang.bsky.social). It's basically an endorsement of counter-paradigmatic research disguised as a symposium report ;-) exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/ex...

Within ten years, England lost close to 75% of people identifying as "English-only" and almost tripled the percentage of "British-only" – simply because the census changed the order of these options. Sounds sus. Why wouldn't the numbers track (though potentially exaggerate) a real shift?

From the interstices between workweek and weekend: "Thought arose in the course of the liberation from terrible nature (...). Pleasure is nature's revenge. In pleasure, human beings divest themselves from thought, escape from civilisation." (Adorno/Horkheimer, DoE, Stanford 2008, p. 82)

Just a local newspaper using "on every corner" on every corner. "Ganter Beer is on every corner in Freiburg. And that's exactly what the brewery celebrates, with the slogan 'Drink local on every corner' for a campaign that celebrates local Ganter on every corner."

The FT dips a toe in the dialectic of enlightenment: "In ever scarier times, it is soothing to believe that a secret plan is at work, even if it is a distasteful plan. ... liberal societies struggle to understand — or even to credit the existence of — irrational actors." on.ft.com/4i6islx

The hopeless search for Trump’s cunning plan

Attempts to read grand strategy into the US president’s doings have run their course

on.ft.com

On 1 April, the White House celebrated the beginning of the "Financial Literacy Month". Is this all just the punch line of a very elaborate practical joke?

Horkheimer on the politics of galactic ambitions in late capitalism: (1/2) "[M]an's avidity to extend his power in two infinities, the microcosm and the universe, does not arise directly from his own nature, but from the structure of society." (Max Horkheimer, Eclipse of Reason, 1947/1974, p. 74)

(1/3) Good news, critical theorists! You might make it onto the syllabus of Christopher Rufo's seminar on the decline of Western civ "Last question: You’re in charge of a curriculum, and you have to include one author you are opposed to ... Who do you pick? Rufo: Without a doubt, Herbert Marcuse."

Opinion | The Anti-D.E.I. Crusader Who Wants to Dismantle the Department of Education (Gift Article)

Christopher Rufo’s mission to make universities feel “existential terror.”

nytimes.com

The webform of a large German funding body asks me to add "last-name prefixes". Among the options are: - "Baron vom" - "Ritter von" - "dell'Isola" - "L'Homme" and of course - "Freiherr v.u.z." I'm feeling seen, though I'm mildly displeased that it won't allow me to specify the acreage of my estate

Two days to go!

Simon Gansinger@simgans.bsky.social · 2y ago

🗣️📢 Criminal law theorists! Historians of political thought! Normative people! Hegelians and not-so-much-Hegelians! Here's a call for abstracts for a cute conference on Hegel's concept of wrong, to be held in September 2025 in the equally cute city of Freiburg 🌲🌳🌲 #cfa #lawsky #philsky #crimsky

Cheered myself up by looking at recent polling for the Hungarian election next year.

Among those who did not cast a ballot in Germany's previous federal election, close to a majority voted for the hard-right: 48% AfD 24% CDU 11% BSW 8% Left 7% SPD 3% Greens Liberal democracy depends on passive disillusionment.

🧵 This is my first federal election in Germany. Having lived in Austria and the UK, I'm used to dumb campaign posters, but the Germans really take it to a new level. Here are my top 5 displays of election dadaism:

Horkheimer often talks about the "immediatisation" of social relations under authoritarianism (eg "When power does not have to take the detour via the domestic market, intellectual mediations, such as law, disappear".) Does he elaborate on the *concept* of mediation anywhere? 🙏 for any pointers

@Austria: you know things are *bad* when the best political news that's come out of the country in several months is that the coalition talks have finally broken down.

Addendum: Carl Schmitt stole the title of "Legality and Legitimacy" from Otto Kirchheimer, whose "Legalität und Legitimität" was published some weeks before Schmitt's. In 1933, Kirchheimer (with Nathan Leites) published a rejection of Schmitt's book, highlighting its authoritarian implications

I was hoping we could wait a little longer before revisiting Carl Schmitt's "Legality and Legitimacy"

Musk "should get therapy", Andreessen can't "jog 10 feet", Zuckerberg "is such a beta", Trump "wants nothing more than have the NYT love him"... The flaw of the ad hominem critique is that it unintentionally buys into the deluded story of the narcissist: what makes him important is his personality

Opinion | What Elon Musk Wants

The journalist Kara Swisher discusses Elon Musk's goals in government — and the factors that have led to his radicalization.

nytimes.com

I'd say the call for concretes is closing in 3 weeks but that would be too corny.

Simon Gansinger@simgans.bsky.social · 2y ago

🗣️📢 Criminal law theorists! Historians of political thought! Normative people! Hegelians and not-so-much-Hegelians! Here's a call for abstracts for a cute conference on Hegel's concept of wrong, to be held in September 2025 in the equally cute city of Freiburg 🌲🌳🌲 #cfa #lawsky #philsky #crimsky

Do hills in Freiburg just... vanish? "Loretto Street – named after the former Loretto Hill, once the 'Slier Hill'"

My hunch is that the point of all these executive actions that are legally "unclear", "illegal", or "really, really illegal" is to dilute the importance of legality altogether. Not to push the boundaries of the law but to make the question "Was this done according to the law?" sound silly

Didn't check the date, but then tell me that an article on tech oligarchy is from 2024 without telling me that it is from 2024: "'Look at what Zuckerberg is doing on the left with his money,' she said. But seriously, look at what Mark Zuckerberg is doing with his money these days: not very much!"

American billionaires have long placed their thumbs on the scale of democracy—but never like this.

Welcome to the oligarch election.

motherjones.com

"Performance and skill are sometimes an incentive for a racket to admit the outsider ... The Volsci readily welcomed the fugitive Coriolanus, whose affinity to power shone brightly. He was a man of the gentile rackets and had the qualities of a general, which makes someone invariably recommendable."

Whatever that salute by Musk was or wasn't (apart from clownishly uncool), he's 1930s enough to attract the ire of modern-day Strasserism. Here's Steve "Gregor" Bannon on Breitbart (11 Jan 2025): "He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down."

My article on Horkheimer and Roe v Wade made it into Exchanges' list of most popular articles of 2024 😳 Am I benefitting from Trump's re-election? Ok let's not ask questions...

Exchanges Interdisciplinary Research Journal@exchangesjournal.bsky.social · 2y ago

So, what were the most popular articles in Exchanges last year? Wonder no longer! blogs.warwick.ac.uk/exchangesias... Is your favourite article among them? Or are there any surprises for you? Let me know! #popular #articles #journal #2024

A note on the horrific images from the goldmine in SA. If "union representatives argue [sic!] that these are people", the argument can't be won against people who casually accept the death of hundreds as a good "deterrent of some sort, like help isn't coming as quickly as they would like" (00:17:20)

Global News Podcast - Negotiators close to securing Gaza ceasefire deal - White House - BBC Sounds

Hamas and Israeli officials are conducting indirect talks in Qatar

bbc.co.uk

1/ For unfortunate reasons, I'm sitting in an IKEA cafeteria, doing some work to distract myself from the aroma of Köttbullar and existential angst. An employee approaches me and asks what I'm reading. I respond that it's a book by Hegel, a 19th cent philosopher interested in the idea of freedom.