"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to Socialism or regression into Barbarism."
- Rosa Luxemburg

Many of you are familiar with the idea of social class. There is, of course, the idea of social class as portrayed in popular culture. Social class has been around since time immemorial -- the Romans, for instance, had a class system, and the current incarnation of the Wikipedia page on this topic renders it well.

The neoliberals' cultural stuck is in decline. When they had that suave dude Barack Obama telling everyone he was like Gandhi or Mandela, that was totally a thing. Cultural neoliberalism was rockin' da house as every branch of government, both state and Federal, was being awarded to Republicans.

1) What we usually get in defense of capitalism these days is "gee, if we could have well-regulated/ environmentally conscious/ socially equitable capitalism then it would be totally kewl." You get the capitalism they feed you, not the stuff you want.

So the latest news from California is this:

New fires flared up in Riverside, Ventura and San Bernardino Counties on Wednesday and Thursday just as winds eased in the north and firefighters wrangling the state’s largest active blaze, the Kincade fire, managed to contain more than half of its 76,800-acre footprint for the first time.

Yan Lianke's (2010) novel The Four Books is about a re-education camp in China during the Great Leap Forward.