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/229/ Repetition Compulsion ft. Doug Lain, pt. 1 (Patreon)

Published:
2021-12-07 15:00:54
Edited:
2021-12-07 15:14:34
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

On branding and the left.

Douglas Lain, until recently publisher of Zer0 Books and now of Diet Soap Media, joins us to talk about what happened with Zer0. Mainly, we discuss the left at the End of History, revisit No Logo and the anti-branding stance, and compare Gen X and Millennial lefts - is it just a continual story of decline?Links:

Diet Soap Media: Patreon | YouTube

OK Bunger! The Problem of Generations

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Comments

Davka Smolah Collective

Douglas Lain welcome to the red-brown Strasserite cryptofascist post-left.

Gary

Great episode all around. I appreciate Phil’s observation of branding/advertising as a powerful utopian vision because it illustrates one of the challenges of the left in a straightforward manner. It’s one of the many forces which challenge the left on its own territory, and I think leftists (speaking from my organizing experience) repeatedly fail to take those forces for what they are. If we are to promote a socialist utopian vision which challenges the dynamic and shapeshifting capitalist utopian vision, being “correct” is not sufficient. We have to be strategic.

Mathieu Dube

The left has no base. That's the problem. It's super interesting to hear academics and social media ppl discuss politics, but that's not "internationalism" and it's not a revolutionary movement. It's baffling to hear that Naomi Klein chatting with Europeans intellectuals about "climate change solutions"(which will probably end up justifying austerity) is the hope of a international working class solidarity.

Caleb

I think what's lost in the conversation about branding is a discussion of the relationship between branding and identity formation. Branding is just the attempt to make a good into an instrument of identity-formation over and above the obvious use-value of that good. You drink a beer to *get* drunk or to enjoy its taste, but you buy craft beer to *be* cultured. You listen to podcasts to stay informed, you listen to Bunga to build your red-brown credentials. Barring meaningful differences between how different goods fulfill their obvious functions, what distinguishes a branded commodity from its generic counterpart is its role in identity formation. Haven't read No Logos, but I’m keenly aware that what makes the whole adbusters/anti-branding movement thing so risible is that it represents a revolt against "commodity culture" and not a revolt against the commodity form — it’s an attempt to purify or even redeem our relationship to commodities by rejecting the identity-forming surplus of branding rather than an attempt to alter social relations by abolishing the commodity form, hence the notorious adbusters shoes. I’ll say one more thing – we all know identity is mediated by alterity; we construct our identities by rejecting or assimilating signifiers whose meanings are publicly shared (e.g., social roles, belief systems, affects, etc…). We are in part this constellation of signifiers. Branding just extends this aspect of self-fashioning to the marketplace. I feel like this makes it difficult to pinpoint what makes the consumption of brands so much more objectionable than similar forms of identity formation under capitalism.

Daniel L

"Introduce dialectical thinking to the Anglophone left" (approx 19.30mins) - great goal!!! Also, the point towards the end re. the only international solidarity /force at the moment is through neoliberalism...