WHAT IS POLITICS?

Japanese subtitles for the first episode of the show (Worbs) are now available thanks to the hard work of Ippei, a fan of the show!

so tell your nihon-guy and nihon-gal friends to nihon-go check it out!

(could not resist, my apologies to all residents of japan and the rest of the world as well)

1 month ago | [YT] | 120

WHAT IS POLITICS?

UPCOMING VIDEOS + SPANISH, TURKISH AND UKRAINIAN SUBTITLES

Hello fellow personages - I have 3-4 big-assed episodes on the secret history of the origins of the Israel-Palestine conflict coming up in hopefully March and April, plus there are subtitles for several videos on Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian

Spanish: Eps 1-7
Ukrainian: Eps 1-2
Turkish: Eps 1-2

And more to come

So tell all your Iberian, Latin American, Ottoman and Ukrainian friends and enemies!

10 months ago | [YT] | 128

WHAT IS POLITICS?

HELLO! DONATION METHODS, BOOK, SCHEDULE, INFO

Hello fellow kids - just an update to answer questions people have been asking me since the last episode:

ALIVE AND WELL

People have been asking me if I’m still alive and doing ok, and yes, totally alive! Doing reasonably well! I’ve just been basically reading full time for the next Israel-Palestine episode since a couple of weeks after the last episode - discovered a whole bunch of new material I hadn’t previously read, and I really want to make sure I get this right, since I’m covering things most people don’t talk about or know about when it comes to this. Also I read very slowly because I end up taking notes every paragraph if it’s good material.

HELP FINDING A BOOK!

Speaking of which, I’m almost finished reading, but am having trouble finding one important book - can anyone help me find a copy of this?:

Yehoshua Porath The Palestinian Arab National Movement 1929-1939

Note that this is the second volume - the 1918-1929 volume is easy to find, this one is impossible for some reason, even though it’s available electronically.

SCHEDULE

A few supporters thought I had stopped producing videos because of the big delay since the last one, which made me realize that a lot of people probably skip the end of the videos where I explain that stuff, so just to be clear:
I charge patreon supporters per episode, not per month, and they come out when they come out, sometimes several months apart, because that’s how long it takes to do all the reading, writing, notes, finding images etc.
My new “schedule” is one scripted episode that takes a few months to put together, and then an unscripted Q&A shortly afterwards, and sometimes an unscripted “brainstorm” episode discussing various topics related to the episode that won’t fit in a scripted episode or Q&A, and then eventually a new scripted episode a few months after that.

MONTHLY OR ONE TIME DONATIONS

Several people have asked me if there’s any way to donate per month, or give one time donations, which makes me realize that peopel don’t read the show notes either so - yes there is, and it’s greatly appreciated especially at times like now, when I’m doing giant marathon episodes that take 5 months like this one where I’m going several months without income!
you can do that here:

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=XJ6HBHFJ6C…

KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: ko-fi.com/whatispolitics

BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND TRANSCRIPTS

also, people often ask me if they can find bibliographies or related books or transcripts, and yes, they’re in the show notes for every episode!
That’s all for now, as usual I’m always there to answer any questions, very much looking forward to getting this episode done as i think it will change how people understand this conflict in a much needed way.

See ya!

1 year ago | [YT] | 128

WHAT IS POLITICS?

hey, i finally got the bibliography for this episode done - you can see it in the video post here: www.patreon.com/posts/99426446

many thanks to supporter Tanveer Singh who did the drudge work of coming through all the articles I posted in the video. Normally I compile a bibliography list as I’m writing the script, but much of the stuff on this was current events and i was getting screenshots as i was editing so i didn’t have time to make that into a list. 

QnA brainstorm episode is coming in the next couple of weeks where i respond to questions and criticisms from people here and on youtube and I blather about various related things and give some updates, should be fun!

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 101

WHAT IS POLITICS?

Oh, hello!  

A few people have written to me to see if I was OK or if I stopped making the show. I’m still alive and relatively well, though I’ve actually been pretty sick the last few weeks and extremely stressed out…

I was about 6 weeks into an episode about what happens when you inject class analysis into kimberlé crenshaw’s first article on intersectionality, when the oct 7 attacks happened in israel, and israel’s crazy response, so i switched to doing an episode on that which has of course turned into 2 episodes …

while doing that I had all kinds of crazy stress with work stuff, and with the quebec government abolishing the right to lease transfer which is a disaster for tenants and for my practise … also lots of stupid personal stuff

BUT

Today after months of working on it (since oct 7!) and endless stupid obstacles, I filmed and recorded the first episode on Israel Palestine conflict, so i’m enormously relieved.

with editing and images it should be another 2-4 weeks and it will finally be out, and the next one hopefully won’t take too long after that.

have a ton of stuff in the works:

Class Analysis of the Origins of the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Why the Russian Revolution Failed at Socialism pt 2
Why Socialism Would Solve All of Jordan Peterson’s Problems
Dawn of Everything Chapter 4
The Purpose of Identity Politics is Genocide and Exploitation
What Happens When You Inject Class Into Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Article on Intersectionality
Interview w Camilla Powers and Chris Knight from RAG

and more…

In the meantime I totally forgot to post this fun interview I did for Derrick Varn’s show several months ago now, and forgot to share - we really went all over the place, interesting stuff about the russian peasants and more, it‘s just under 3 hours long so bring your camping equipment!

Apologies to Varn for not having posted it way sooner!

1 year ago | [YT] | 101

WHAT IS POLITICS?

‘ello - the Lefty Book Club which is a great reading club, finally posted a discussion they had with me from last year where we talked about all the anthropology stuff - and it was a super interesting discussion if i do say so myself, where i discuss a bunch of things which I still haven’t made videos about, but will in the future, so do check it out.  

the book they were reading was Engels’ The Origin of the Family, but we quickly jumped off into everything else.

and check out their other episodes, they’ve got Norman Finkelstein and Adolph Reed, and Matt Christman and Varn on there, great stuff all around.

2 years ago | [YT] | 62

WHAT IS POLITICS?

Hey all, can anyone name me some good books on trade agreements resulting in:

Mass immigration to the US

the rust best / deindustrializaton

decline in taxation of wealthy and corporations and resulting inability to fund social programs and infrastructure adequately

2 years ago | [YT] | 85

WHAT IS POLITICS?

Hey all - I did another interview with Josh Spodeck, the Man With No Fridge on his This Sustainable Life podcast - this was a really fun interview - I got to elaborate on some theories that I haven’t had a chance to get into on my own show, and he brought up some historical facts that I wasn’t aware of that are super interesting and relevant to the stuff I talk about, and then in the end we get into an argument as to whether CEOs would just murder people on purpose for profit.

joshuaspodek.com/guests/daniel-host-of-what-is-pol…

There are also Turkish subtitles now available for the first episode of the show, and more coming - don’t tell your Armenian friends!  But do tell your Turkish friends.

The second part of my interview on Fight Like an Animal should be out in a bit - I really went off the rails on that, but should be interesting..

And episode is coming hopefully in the next couple of weeks - I wanted to do something easier as a break from the Russian Revolution and Dawn of Everything, but of course it turned to something bigger ...

2 years ago | [YT] | 74

WHAT IS POLITICS?

Hey all - I recently did an unhinged interview with my podcast bff Arnold Schroeder from Fight Like an Animal on his podcast

The first part of the interview is up, and the first part of the episode is him reading from his book in progress. And his book in progress is fucking amazing so far, so definitely check it out!

I sound like an inarticulate maniac on the interview, but I was having a good time!

you can find it on your podcast apps, but here’s the podcast website with all the great references - if you like my show you should definitely be listening to Fight Like an Animal, we’re constantly working on the same themes from different complimentary angles, and it’s just the best:

www.againsttheinternet.com/

and here’s the RSS feed that you can add to any podcast app

feeds.buzzsprout.com/1052548.rss

The epsiode is #61, the incompetent authoritarianism of Lenin

N.B. arnold says something in the intro about Lenin wanting monuments to himself and being inherently very dictatorial - we don't get into it in this part of the interview, but I don't actually agree with that! I'll talk about it more next episode, but to me what makes Lenin and Trotsky et al so interesting as a warning to intellectuals today, is that they weren't setting out to be murderers or tyrants, but via various mistakes they painted themselves into a corner that turned them into that.

2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 74

WHAT IS POLITICS?

Hey all - the first episode of the show now has spanish subtitles https://youtu.be/I3valcuAqMA so you can share with all those hispaniards in your life who need more folds in their brain.

more on the way - thank you David Ruelas Paredes!

click on the li’l gear thingy and the subtitles and blammo, español! It’s close enough to french that it seems accurate and i’m pretty sure it’s not just me saying things “i am a poo poo face, my face is like fece” but even if it did, i would find that very entertaining and i’d approve.

2 years ago | [YT] | 31