What We Are Reading? (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Hope you are all well. This week I have a few pieces, so to start I was recently made aware of a text by Trotsky challenging Nietzsche. It's an interesting argument, especially in the sense that the kind of "Nietzchean thought" that Trotsky outlines is a pretty close parallel to many of the Alt-right self-help rhetoric that has grown in popularity. Read both Seymour on the wrong critique of social media, and Amber A'lee Frost on the correct one. Perry Anderson is one of the great historians of the left, his review of the Italian movement provides many critical lessons for the US left today. Italy for those who aren't familiar has experienced many of the ups & downs, radicalism, complacency, reform, & failure in a condensed history. It's worth visiting as we build our strategies. The last two from me, I highly suggest Matt Karp's piece looking at the way the SCOTUS has been challenged in the past, hopefully giving us inspiration for our future. 

Two suggestions from Matt, Robin Brown on Cecil Rhodes seemingly unorthodox plans for maintaining colonial power & book covering the American populist movement including in North Dakota Insurgent Democracy. 

Lastly, don't forget to check my Jacobin videos (Ben is doing them as well). My most recent one premiers tonight at 6 EST, where I remind everyone that the Red State/Blue State divide is a bad way to look at politics. 

- David Griscom 

On the Philosophy of the Superman - Leon Trotsky, 1900 

No, Social Media Isn’t Destroying Civilization - Richard Seymour, 2020

The Poisoned Chalice of Hashtag Activism - Amber A'lee Frost, 2020

An Invertebrate Left - Perry Anderson, 2009 

How Abraham Lincoln Fought the Supreme Court - Matt Karp, 2020

Books 

The Secret Society: Cecil John Rhodes's Plan for a New World Order - Robin Brown, 2015 

Insurgent Democracy - Michael J. Lansing, 2015