This Wreckage

The long-awaited second installment of Diving Into The Wreckage, the VarnVlog/Antifada crossover series is here! This time, Sean and Derrick put on their doomer caps to discuss capitalism and global warming: Is there a way out within this mode of production? Why have emissions ramped up so much in our lifetimes? What kind of political forces make climate change so intractable? And what does the future look like if we keep going down this path?

This is an extended preview of a longer episode. To access the full ep and tons more bonus content become a patron today at www.patreon.com/theantifada

To watch the video recording of this conversation, do what you should be doing already and subscribe to C. Derrick Varn's excellent content as well: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog

Music: Gary Numan - This Wreckage

Sean and David Parsons, host of the excellent history podcast Nostalgia Trap, take a dive into the politics and ideology of fossil fuels through the lens of the 2005 George Clooney and Matt Damon film 'Syriana'. They go back to the 1990s and 2000s, especially the wake of 9/11 and the runup to the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, to look at the sometimes troubled and myopic, but always fraught, way that Americans understand their relationship to oil and geopolitics.

Out later this week will be follow-up crossover, 'Diving into the Wreckage 2' with C Derrick Varn, about the deep connection between capital accumulation and fossil fuel consumption, globalization and rising emissions, and the future we can expect with climate change. For access to this and more become a patron at www.patreon.com/theantifada

Continuing our discussion from the main episode, we go deeper into the denialism mess with Pavlos and ask ourselves what COVID and society's response might tell us about a possible revolutionary horizon. How do approach the real issues in the world without seeing like a state? We also discuss a second article written by an Italian collective, Wu Ming, that has a different take on the backlash against mandates: https://illwill.com/conspiracy-and-social-struggle

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The gang is back with returning guest, Pavlos Roufos, for a spicy discussion about ever-contentious pandemic politics and how the left should relate to it:

Why has SARS-COVID 19 and the state response to it caused such an uproar in parts of Europe and the United States? What contradictory functions does the capitalist state perform in class society, and how has this led to disaster? What is the attraction of denialism among the populist right and, increasingly, parts of the left? Is there a rational kernel inside the mystical shell of COVID conspiracism? How have the unvaccinated been made a scapegoat for the failures of the bourgeois state? And is there anything recuperable within the waves of protest and direct action against mandates and vaccines?

Even spicier bonus episode will be available for subscribers at www.patreon.com/theantifada to sign up today. Special thanks from all of us to our friends at Cured Quail for publishing the collective article in question: https://curedquailjournal.wordpress.com/2021/12/09/the-reality-of-denial-and-the-denial-of-reality/

Outro: Juice WRLD - Denial

We continue our discussion on the J6 "insurrection" with a reading of a NYT piece about a shadowy rightwing group you may not have heard of... likely because it's all a grift.

For the full episode and all our other bonus content support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada

song: John Cale - Praetorian Underground