@snoopydawg

I'd say the system is real flawed and corrupted and maybe even failed.

I've been exploring the rabbit hole of the Frankfurt School's Critical Theory and trying to figure out how it screwed up (imo) much of what passes as contempory critical theory today (ie.: DiAngelo's White Fragility, Kendi's Anti-Racism, etc.). Taibbi's piece is the first thing I've come across that considers it from a leftist perspective although his focus is primarily upon Marcuse (and there's a lot more Frankfurt School folks). There's also the newish book Cynical Theories which comes at it from a classical liberal, anti Marxist, cultural Marxism conspiracy point of view.

I'd really like to read folks' takes on the new Curtis doc. I recall people here weren't at all keen on his Hypernormalisation movie. In doing some research on Curtis, though, I came across one of his favorite musical covers (I'd say he's incredibly astute at using music in his films), a bluegrassy version of a Snoop Dog song that he sees as "reaching out across the divides of the present day. Black and white working-class people in America share a lot more than the present polarisation allows." Edit/add just looked up the lyrics. They're not at all my cup of coffee but I do like the music and the idea of mixing/crossing over the genres. I have a hard time figuring out what's racist, sexist, etc, these daze, especially when it comes to music.

[video:https://youtu.be/iNd2GvhvHkY]

#1

Great article.

The American system, flawed as it was and is, was designed to prevent this kind of concentration of power, through checks and balances and the protection of individual rights

Was there anything we could have done to stop them from stripping us of our rights? Yes I think that we have always had a way to bend congress to our will. General strikes or walkouts or some type of action that got their attention. Protests were once the avenue open to us, but the PTB ignored the Iraq war protests which had millions upon millions of people in the streets. Congress watched as presidents got stronger instead of saying no, enough.

Good to see you, Wally.

@artisan

I'm listening to the Yasha Levine / Evgenia Kovda podcast now. I've been keeping an eye on Levine and Ames' twitter accounts to keep abreast of what's really going on in Russia.

I'm glad they are addressing the matter of Serkov in Hypernormalisation. I'm not sure I agree that he's as unimportant as they seem to gauge (sure, he's a copycat but that doesn't mean he wasn't/isn't important in terms of the exercise of mediating power vis-a-vis Putin).

Here's a Curtis "wipe" about Serkov:

[video:https://youtu.be/Od4MWs7qTr8]

#2 #2

gives his review, "Adam Curtis, get out of my head". Admits to not watching the last 3 episodes but nevertheless offers a critique for an hour and a half.

the best tracks from the new Adam Curtis documentary

I stumbled on Hypernormalization without knowing anything about it. I was taken by what an original piece it was, to intertwine the stories of Hafez Assad and Donald Trump. And a cameo of the young Patti Smith, perfect.

In episode 6, I bristled a bit that Navalny was portrayed simply as a corruption fighter and that Russia and China were hopeless cesspools of corruption.