We continue reading Simone DeBeauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity, and try to sus out its particular ethical dilemmas.

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We read Simone DeBeauvoir's defense of Existentialism as an ethic that is not hyper-individualistic, nihilistic or absurdist.

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Here's the homework: https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/ambiguity/

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Here is your homework in the meanwhile: https://monthlyreview.org/2024/01/01/the-dialectics-of-ecology-an-introduction/

We look at Schopenhauer's comparison of various religions' metaphysical explanations for suffering, and why conservative celebrities are converting to the dumbest one.

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Schopenhauer on the Sufferings of the World: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10732/10732-h/10732-h.htm#link2H_4_0002
Ayaan Hirsi Ali converts: https://unherd.com/2023/11/why-i-am-now-a-christian/
Russell Brand gets baptized: https://www.christianpost.com/voices/russell-brand-just-got-baptized-but-what-does-it-mean.html

Deviating from our usual strategies for the leftist future, we look to the strategists of the conservative future, as discussed in this article, where Christopher Rufo debates Mencius Moldbug aka Curtis Yarvin. It was pretty anti-climactic so we also veered into some more Moldbuggery found here.

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This week we discuss how modern liberal democracies co-opt resistance and adapt to internal opposition as a mechanism of inverted totalitarian control. Our guest is Tony from 1Dime, who made a video on what he calls "contained opposition", find it here: https://youtu.be/7uPevWDAYFI.

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Find the 1Dime podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0yQRX2YMFFsCMekReE9toW?si=798a164d02884310

Erik and Pills read Walter Benjamin's most famous essay (and perhaps the most famous essay of critical theory), The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. 

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We're still on why everything's ending, this time with another pillar of civilization: art, and modern art in particular. Part of the discussion comes from Frederic Jameson's Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, the cover of which features a (particularly ugly) Warhol print (https://amzn.to/3PD4M6m).  The other two books referenced are The Diary of Andy Warhol and The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, written by the man himself.

Check out the Plasticpills YouTube channel to see the new video about why Warhol is to blame for killing art: https://www.youtube.com/c/plasticpills  

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We read Walter Benjamin's (perhaps) undelivered address to the Anti-Fascist Club: The Author as Producer, and try to test whether or not it holds up. 

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Most everyone agrees that the university has failed its ideal, but few agree as to the reasons for why this happened. Did it get too arcane? Too expensive? Too woke? Maybe there's a bit of everything, but these explanations forget the most material cause: the private-sector vampires sucking it dry. We read a case study that you can find here

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