Constructive Criticism

Recent posts

Oct 27, 2022
Towards making correct decisions: Against moralism
Moralism is a certain pattern of thinking (and an accompanying rhetoric) which many comrades use, sometimes unknowingly. The purpose of this note is to clarify what this pattern is and to explain why it does …
Oct 17, 2022
What is fascism, and what does it have to do with capitalism?
The purpose of this post is to clarify the relationship between the following things Fascism Capitalism Democracy Liberalism Socialism What is fascism Fascism is part of how capitalism defends itself in times …
Oct 9, 2022
Magic is indistinguishable from sufficiently advanced technology: Rain dances of the future
A nice forest. Photo: Jody Amiet/AFP/Getty Images. When it’s dry, and trees are thirsty, the forest emits large amounts of nice-smelling, piney chemicals called terpenes. This is a magical ritual performed by …
Sep 16, 2022
Burritos and Distributed Domination in the App Era
I went to try the veggie burrito at Aliberto’s. It’s very good. While I was eating, a woman1 came in, went to the counter, and gave the details of the order she was picking up to the man behind the …
Sep 15, 2022
An honest techno-Utopianism
I just watched some of the videos of the talks from the “Schelling Point Conference”. These talks give a clear display of a current within the crypto/web3 space: techno-utopianism. Techno-Utopianism is an …
Jul 16, 2022
Why “Socially Responsible Investing”, divestment campaings, and other schemes are doomed to fail
I recently read a blog post analyzing various purported “socially responsible investing” (SRI) products and showing how they were anything but. This kind of analysis is valuable for learning and …
Mar 24, 2022
The 7 coordinates of human society
There is a nice idea – which I learned from the work of David Harvey (or in podcast form) – of analyzing society in terms of a number of “moments”, or aspects of society at a given …
Feb 8, 2022
The capitalist class is not the primary enemy
A lot of socialist rhetoric focuses on framing the capitalist class as the primary enemy of socialists and of the working class. However, the capitalist class itself is not the primary enemy of socialism. The …
Jan 1, 2022
Using mathematical language to strengthen the movement towards communism
In a series of blog posts I have written, and probably in more that I will write in the future, I explain my understanding of Marxist ideas in partially mathematical terms. There are a few reasons I am doing …
Jan 1, 2022
Words and ideas are material
During the most recent DSA meeting, a comrade argued against expelling Jamaal Bowman by stating that the resolution to expel him was “resolutionary socialism” – that is, that those who …