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/259/ Conformist Rebellion (2) ft. Elena Lange & Joshua Pickett-Depaolis (Patreon)

Published:
2022-04-26 14:54:48
Edited:
2022-04-26 16:17:27
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

[Patreon Exclusive]

On Marxist critiques of the Left. 

The second part of our interview with Elena & Joshua about their new edited collection, The Conformist Rebellion: Marxist Critiques of the Contemporary Left. 

Plus an extended After Party where we debate the contemporary Left's connection (if any) to Marxism, the history of social democracy, and moral versus materialist critique.

Readings:

Counterattack journal

Counter Attack telegram

Elena's substack

Value without Fetish: Uno Kōzō’s Theory of ‘Pure Capitalism’ in Light of Marx’s Critique of Political Economy, Elena Lange

Files

Comments

Davka Smolah Collective

Picking on DSA brings up the point that, well, DSA does actually try to claim they want to replace capitalism with socialism. Emphasis on claim. As to the structural position of people like DSA with respect to the ruling class, well, they're a farm team. If they compete hard enough and win, they get to draw an actual salary as a managerial-class ideologue/apparatchik. That doesn't mean they're the ones cutting the checks, but they're in the market that cashes those checks. Re modernism, the word game being played by leftoids is the assumption that you can have pre-modernity (feudalism, RETVRN), the postwar social compromise (modernity, including the Soviet system, developmentalism, and other MLisms), or the neoliberal rentier/asset economy (postmodern) -- but you can't have an alternative modernity.

Gustav Theander

You should go back to doing the interview with all three of you, it was a much better format

Carson H

Wow, Phil really gives himself a lobotomy in the process of defending Elena's ridiculous assertion that "the left is the ruling class."

dshamz_

Yeah. Elena interchangeably uses the terms ‘ruling class’, ‘the left’, and ‘PMC’. I agree with a lot of what she says regarding her critique of the left, but there needs to be some finer conceptual distinction here. Overall, I find that she comes off a lot like Malcolm… someone more interested in shitposting contrarian ragebait than seriously thinking about working class politics. Which is unfortunate, because there’s a lot of things to fundamentally agree upon. Josh’s call for Marxists to leave the academy and wreck their lives is the correct position.

dshamz_

Doesn’t Chibber’s account of the Marxist retreat into the academy provide the answer to the question of why the left uses Marxist vocabulary and concepts in the service of anti-working class aims? Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Richard R

There's nothing subversive about aligning yourself with the petit bourgeoisie over the PMC. This is an especially blind analysis in the face of global capital, which is basically non-ideological and increasingly has no need to justify itself in cultural terms.

James Oakes

Elena notes that there have been critics of the PMC such as Adolph Reed Jr, but none by marxists. Really? When did Adolph Reed stop being a Marxist? Reviews of his new book, published by Verso, regularly and correctly identify Reed as a Marxist.

Andrea

Oh, BTW, leaving your book on a 100$ paywall is probably not helping the diffusion of their "not terrible Marxist book". Sure, it's the editor's fault, but as it turns out, they are not following those terrible Marxists who put their own books on libgen themselves, apparently, since it's not there (nor enywhere else). And yes, I am convinced an academic salary in Zurich is already enough of a compensation, at least for a Marxist thinker that thinks her work is indispensable for the cause.