/496/ Insane-Washing the War (Which Did Not Take Place)
On the war on Iran that wasn't (yet).
Alex and George review the past month in the world and on Bungacast:
The crazy will-they-won't-they of a potential US war on Iran
The ex post facto justifications on all sides
Where does "sanewashing" come from
Ways to understand and not understand US political polarisation
And we deal with your questions and comments from the past month:
Woke Dungeons and Dragons
Being Safe versus Feeling Safe
More on victimhood, authenticity and the PMC
[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
Links:
Trump’s Tariff Gamble and the Decay of the Neoliberal Order, Lee Jones, American Affairs
Sanewashing, and how Defund The Police stopped meaning Defund The Police, Inverse Florida, Substack
Did Iran win the 12-day war?, Sohrab Ahmari, UnHerd
A Comprehensive History of Woke D&D, Mark of the Weather-Sun, Substack
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22:06
/495/ Heritage America vs the World? ft. James Pogue
On land conflicts, MAGA , and the frontier.
Journalist James Pogue talks to George and Alex about his book Chosen Country: A Rebellion in the West. The book concerns the events surrounding the 2016 armed occupation of the Oregon Malheur National Wildlife Refuge led by the rancher Ammon Bundy. We discuss:
Why were these 2016 events so important and so telling?
Is the Jacksonian concept of America still relevant?
Does knowing how these people think enable you to predict what Trump – or JD Vance – will do?
How is Mormonism the encapsulation of a certain America?
Is the division on the Right about 'winners' versus 'losers' (or lost-causers)?
Is this story also America First versus Globalists?
How unique is the US's forms of political polarisation?
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1:16:19
/494/ National Democracy or Globalist War ft. Wolfgang Streeck
On the dual crisis of the world.
Wolfgang Streeck, renowned economic sociologist, is back on to talk to us about the crisis of capitalist growth and of democracy. We focus on the solutions proposed in his brilliant new book, Taking Back Control? States and State Systems After Globalism.
Then, Lee and Alex discuss three key themes emerging from the interview: federalism and small states; the national interest; and the redefinition of democracy.
[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
With Streeck we discuss:
Why is the revival of nation-state democracy "possible, although not very probable"?
Have Europe’s right-wing populists given up on restoring governance to the national level?
Why are Europe's globalists turning towards a militarised bloc with securitised external economic relations?
Why haven’t left-wing populists been able to exploit the "dual crisis"?
How has democracy been redefined to mean a set of discursive and moral principles rather than power struggle?
Can we have an orderly de-globalisation?
Links:
Taking Back Control?: States and State Systems After Globalism, Wolfgang Streeck, Verso
Notes on the political economy of war, Wolfgang Streeck, Review of Keynesian Economics
/218/ Stability Über Alles ft. Wolfgang Streeck & /219/ Stability Über Alles pt. 2 ft. Wolfgang Streeck
/160/ Enemies of the People (Large & Very Small) ft. Wolfgang Streeck
/170/ Reading Club: Streeck's Critical Encounters
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54:16
/492/ The Armed Wing of the Deplatforming Movement ft. Alex Gourevitch
On the right to protest.
[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
Contributing editor Alex Gourevitch talks to Alex H and George about restrictions on speech and protest at US universities and beyond – particularly with regard to Palestine solidarity demonstrations.
How have uni administrators not just undermined by seemingly attacked the right to protest?
Why is Trump going after the universities this way?
How have progressives undermined the right of protest by talking up the role of 'harm'?
How have pro-Israel groups been complicit in treating political speech as an attack on identities?
Why have so many authorities chosen the defence of Israel as their hill to die on?
Links:
The Right to Be Hostile, Alex Gourevitch, Boston Review
/409/ Palestine, Protest, Repression: The Wider Context
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30:01
/491/ Squeezed Between Two Empires ft. Maciej Szlinder
On Poland's election, its history, its self-conception.
Philosopher Maciej Szlinder joins us to talk about Polish politics, society and history. Maciej is a member of the general council of the left-wing political party Razem ("Together"), as well as the president of the Polish Basic Income Network, so we discuss these matters as well as the general context.
How did Poland represent a beacon of neoliberal democracy to Western liberals in the 80s and 90s – and what happened next?
What does Poland represent, to Poles and to the rest of Europe, today?
Is the political duopoly of the centrist Civic Platform and the right-wing Law and Justice falling apart?
Why is political turnout up – and what anti-establishment parties are the young voting for?
Why is Poland the most pro-American country in Europe, and how does Trump affect that?
What is Poland's huge economic success felt like on the ground?
How does precarious employment and emigration impact Polish politics?
Links:
In the Polish Mirror, Gavin Rae, New Left Review
In Poland, Presidential Hopefuls Battle for Young Voters Who Don’t Like Them, NY Times
The global politics podcast at the end of the End of History. Politics is back but it’s stranger than ever: join us as we chart a course beyond the age of ’bunga bunga’. Interviews, long-form discussions, docu-series.
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