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/365/ It’s So Over (Again) ft. Ryan Zickgraf (Patreon)

Published:
2023-10-03 07:58:50
Edited:
2023-10-03 09:19:38
Imported:
2026-06
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On the end of politics.

Is the craziness of the past years, since 2016, ebbing away? Is the establishment back in charge? Journalist Ryan Zickgraf joins us to argue that, yes, the period of 'hyperpolitics' has passed.

Trump has lost his edge, BLM has imploded, boring Biden rules, the Proud Boys are nowhere to be seen. Fewer protests, fewer small campaign donations, fewer news articles shared.

What is the implication of this? It seems that people are exhausted by the politicisation of everything. The upsurge in engagement in formal politics may be dwindling. But the culture wars are as hot as ever. And the venues for 'escape' from politics are more politicised than ever.

Accelerated social decline means we aren't exactly going back to the 1990s, but is history over all over again?

Readings:

America's Politics of Nothing, Ryan Zickgraf, Compact

After Anti-Politics: The Apeiron, Alex Hochuli, Sublation

Everything is Hyperpolitical, Anton Jäger, The Point

/361/ A Nightmare on the Brains of the Living ft. Benjamin Studebaker

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Comments

Davka Smolah Collective

I want to push back a bit on Alex's suggestion that culture wars are a way of managing and defanging repoliticization. As an alternative hypothesis, I'd suggest that they might reflect rising discontent and politicization under conditions where people still don't really disagree about the underlying material questions that can actually change their lives. As a symptom, culture wars give people the comforting illusion of politics, for instance by arguing that a Twitter Stalinist is a better DSA member than a "Fight for $15" organizer. There is of course no real prospect of bringing back Gosplan, but the appearance of an argument gives the comforting feeling that you're doing something more political than tweaking a liberal End of History into a social-democratic End of History. The state and local eviction issues provide a very good fit to this alternative, actually: most liberals know that the rise in taxes for free school lunches and restriction on property rights for eviction protections, without federal support, can't win over anywhere near as large a political coalition, especially among their professional-class social base, as revulsion towards Trump.

Jonas Kyratzes

I'm not convinced that a lot of what gets discussed as "political" in this context really is politics in any meaningful sense. I don't think there was a political response to Trump or any of the other big controversies of the last decade. There was a politics-themed culture war, there were politically-themed products to buy and consumer choices to get absurdly passionate about, but I think that's all completely hollow. It's the absence of politics, really.

Wes

Feel like you guys have been going out of your way to bash making cities a little bit less car centric. Currently I live in Nashville which is number one in vehicle miles traveled while being the only US city in the top 25 for population without dedicated transit funding. The cost of that is near constant traffic congestion, insanely high vehicle/pedestrian/cyclist injury and death rates (I think we surpassed the Netherlands 2022 annual ped deaths in February) as well as an increased risk of asthma for every child within a mile of the major arterial roads and highways. There is basically a 3-5 car pile-up every other day. You guys constantly focus on the negative politics of these movements without giving credence to the positive (more transit, better walking and biking infrastructure). Bikes and transit are simply more efficient moving people than cars which is why they're being advocated for, just because someone at the world bank also likes an idea doesn't mean it's rotten.