my main outlets are @liberalcurrents.com and @newrepublic.com
i've also had stuff in @prospectmagazine.co.uk, @theunpopulist.net, & @thebulwark.com
www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/writing
my politics are progressive liberal (& always anti-fascist), interested in international comparisons (i've lived & worked in politics in few countries), & a lot of my work focuses on political values
if you follow me from one of my threads, - i'm fairly new to writing, been doing it a year or so
my project is something like "resurgent fascism as a global phenomenon - how has it been understood, how should it be opposed?"
www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/writing
updated page with all my writing
thanks to @volts.wtf & @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com for the endorsements
www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/writing
labour is now clearly worse on human rights than the prior tory governments
new episode with @danielsohege.bsky.social
www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/labour-back
"why wont democrats embrace leftism?" i ask as bernie sanders endorses various tax-cut proposals that would make funding a real social democracy absolutely impossible
This hits quite a lot of nails on the head
& while we're on 'toby takes that no one agrees with'
maga christianity is real christianity
www.liberalcurrents.com/trump-the-re...
well, yeah, right
i don't at all think 'man i wish we coulda had president romney' but this is so clearly different
It was really great recording this with @polphilpod.bsky.social. Talking about how on issues such as immigration and trans rights Labour is now more right wing than previous Conservative governments, including Theresa May, and how their attempts at "progressive policies" can't balance it out.
Say what you want about Mitt Romney—he never celebrated a vision of cleansing violence sweeping across the nation
labour is now clearly worse on human rights than the prior tory governments
new episode with @danielsohege.bsky.social
www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/labour-back
musk sharing an ai video of him, in armour, passionately kissing (i think) keira knightley
"Those rules that the state should enforce are not just those of the market however—even for conservatives who rely heavily on this rhetoric it is not all that their project is about. The extra-human order manifests in other ways." www.liberalcurrents.com/it-wasnt-fas...
because james finds my account of why the takeover happened when it did unsatisfying
but i could flip that & ask, if it was always inevitable, why did it take so long, why now?
it seems like none of us are super happy with the answers here
seeing as we've also been covering that one a bsky recently
& while we're on 'toby takes that no one agrees with'
maga christianity is real christianity
www.liberalcurrents.com/trump-the-re...
final thought:
i think both sides of this debate, broadly, agree many conservatives became fascists - i guess a question is to what extent was that transformation/ takeover inevitable?
the continuity model, tends to assume or imply it was always going that way, to me that feels like a strong claim
anyway, if you have time, read both and make your own mind up
www.liberalcurrents.com/it-wasnt-fas...
i do get why people are suspicious of conservatism =/= fascism
all too often it sanitises the former, pines for it & i don't
i just also *do* think they were different, it's a weird middle ground position, but that's what i think lol
now, if you want to ask who is to *blame* for the rise of modern fascism, i think that's different
first, obviously, the fascists
but, beyond that, if there's another ideology to blame, that stood aside, wouldn't fight, allowed itself to be displaced, it's conservatism, not liberalism
there is no existing order that fascism wants to conserve, everything is irredeemably contaminated & must be made anew
conservatism imagines continuity of *existing orders* with the past, however fictional, fascism imagines a resurrection of it
i guess i would still stress the divergences
so, here for instance, when 'mirroring back' the image that conservatism projects has some basis in existing social orders, it reflects a hierarchy it wishes to preserve
nuclear families did not exist that way for all of history, but some do exist now
& on a writ large level, it just seems like pre-trump conservatism was in a state of decay, intellectual dead wood that fascism inhabited & grew out of, fungus like
one agreement, one disagreement -
first, yes, conservatism can often become fascism:
to the extent that conservatives see less & less in the existing order worth defending, fascism becomes an attractive alternative (& they often describe their radicalisation like this)
it's really good, if you have the time, read the whole thing
a comprehensive critique of my conservatism essay -
argues that, even if their core themes were a bit different, conservatism *became* fascism
well, love that way of summarising the sentiment, if you see what i mean, i might use that
oh, i love that
Yeah it really comes down to "do you reject the Devil and all his works"
