Today, free markets are championed as the foundation of capitalism, while socialists argue that free markets cause growing inequality and exploitation of the working classes, and thus need to be constrained by the state, or else abolished entirely.

But in the 19th century, it was socialists who touted the wonders of the market and decried state interference with free trade, which they blamed for causing the inequality and oppression of the working classes.

This is the introductory episode in a series aimed at “flushing the toilet of the left,” which will demonstrate that it’s the rules of unlimited property rights, backed by the state, that are the cause of inequality, exploitation, and lack of freedom, while the market is simply a form of democratic decision-making, which is entirely compatible with socialism and socialist ideals.

TO SUPPORT MY EXISTENCE (I do not monetize my channel, and increasingly depend on donations to do this!):

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS

KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

TRANSCRIPT (COMING SOON)

BIBLOGRAPHY

VIDEO VERSION

RSS FEED

tweeter

ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE

0:00 Intro: Property rights lead to dictatorship unless constrained by democracy

1:36 the Matthew Effect

3:23 Markets vs capitalism and unlimited property rights

4:20 Adam Smith vs economics 101

6:03 Mercantilism vs. markets

7:13 Smith’s free market as an equalizing force

8:40 Adam Smith vs unlimited private property rights

9:12 The state forms to protect the wealthy from the poor

9:38 Property as power: rent and enclosure

12:15 Contracts as coercion by property owners, backed by the state

14:34 Contracts between equals

15:35 Contracts between unequals: master and hireling

16:29 Adam Smith: prophet of socialism

17:55 Thomas Hodgskin: property rights as modern feudalism

19:42 The Labour movement and Adam Smith

20:48 From free market socialism to communism in the era of laissez-faire

23:59 Marx and Bakunin: anti-market socialists

26:12 Summary / next time

In this episode we outline: 

How to build enough affordable housing for everyone using an existing housing model that’s proven to work.

How to pay for it.

How to convert existing market rate housing into affordable housing.

How we can accomplish all of this even within current neoliberal economic constraints.

THIS IS NOT AN INTELLECTUAL EXERCISE, IT’S A REAL POLICY PLAN, MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Art by Khosro Berahmandi

Khosro Berahmandi Instagram

Khosro Berahmandi website

TO SUPPORT MY EXISTENCE (I do not monetize my channel, and increasingly depend on donations to do this!):

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS

KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

TRANSCRIPT: (coming soon)

VIDEO VERSION

RSS FEED

tweeter

ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE

Gary Stevenson – Why Is Housing So Expensive? 

Gary Stevenson – Inequality is Driving Everything

Gary Stevenson – Why the Rich Get Richer

Gary Stevenson – The Covid Inflation Crisis Explained

Gary Stevenson – How Covid Makes the Rich Richer

0:00 Hello fellow kids / Introduction

2:32 Khosro Berahmandi’s $435, 2 bedroom apartment

4:08 The no-equity cooperative

8:12 Why aren’t there more cooperatives?

9:58 Financing cooptopia

10:41 Problems of taxation

13:04 Problems of borrowing

13:51 Problems of printing money

14:53 How to overcome these problems 

18:00 The problem with public housing

19:15 How to deal with inflated land costs

20:19 Densification vs building new neighbourhoods

21:27 How to phase out rental housing

22:40 Gremlin children of landlords

24:25 A massive boon to the economy

25:33 Freeing landlords from rent dependency

25:54 Rent control

26:59 Try a test run in your city!

28:03 Do dis now!

28:30 In the meantime / gimme

In this chapter of Secret History of Israel/Palestine, we look how the small urban elite stole much of region’s land from it’s rightful peasant owners, turning them from an independent tribal peasantry, into a class of impoverished, indebted tenants on their own land.  

These events set the stage for much of the conflict to come between Zionists and the majority fellahin class.  

We also look at the 19th century origins of Palestinian identity, and early stirrings of proto Arab nationalism.  

TO SUPPORT MY EXISTENCE:

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS

KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

TRANSCRIPT 

BIBLIOGRAPHY / WORKS CITED

VIDEO VERSION (includes high entertainment val-u memes)

RSS FEED

tweeter: @worbsintowords

ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE

0:00 Hello fellow kids

1:59 The Tanzimat: the great 19thC reform programme

3:29 Political reform: disenfranchisement of the fellahin

7:21 Land reform: theft of the fellahin’s land

10:00 My horse!  My money!

14:35 From tribal peasants and sheikhs to capitalist tenants and landlords

18:37 The underlying philosophy of “What is Politics?”

20:16 The Nobility, Clergy, Bourgeoisie, Financier and Professional classes, all rolled into one

22:17 Patrons and clients in unequal societies

32:21 Who were the Ay’an?

38:08 The middle class

39:25 19th century Palestine as a backwater in decline

46:51 Palestinian identity

52:59 National identity vs political consciousness

56:234 Palestinian identity continued

59:12 South Syrians?

1:00:33 The 19th Century origin of Palestinian identity among urban classes and Christians

1:06:41 Democratic reform and the 1876 constitution

1:07:47 Islamic arguments for democracy

1:09:21 Abdülhamid II shuts down the parliament and constitution

1:10:37 Proto-Arab-nationalism

1:11:54 Next time on Secret History of Israel/Palestine

1:12:48 Gimme, seeya!

Who were the people of Palestine and what were their lives about in the late 19th century, before the first Zionists began arriving from Europe in the 1880s?  

This episode focuses on the fellahin – the peasants of Palestine who comprised 70% of its population in the late 19th century, who are the first to clash with Zionist immigrants, and who later bore the brunt of the 1948 war which established the modern state of Israel.    

We also look at the Bedouin, whose social structure and culture are the archetype for fellahin culture, and who were the founders of Arab civilization as a whole.  

This is the 2nd in a multipart series about the “secret” or hidden origins of the Israel/Palestine conflict, focusing on episodes of history that both Israeli and Palestinian nationalist historians and partisans ignore and overlook because they don’t fit into either nationalist narrative.

TO SUPPORT MY EXISTENCE:

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS

KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

TRANSCRIPT

BIBLIOGRAPHY

VIDEO VERSION (includes high entertainment hi val-u images and memes)

RSS FEED

tweeter: @worbsintowords

ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE

cover image: 19th century tatreez / embroidery on a dress from an unspecified village between Hebron and Jaffa

0:00 Hello fellow kids

1:53 Diaper Warning

3:25 Secret History?

6:51 Why focus on peasants and Bedouin?

10:59 Origins of Palestine

13:48 Origins of the Palestinians

14:45 Ottoman Palestine

15:48 Europe and the Ottoman Empire

26:35 The Millet System

30:27 Ottoman social structure

31:33 Intro to the fellahin

36:00 Tribes vs the state: Bedouin social organization

46:05 Material roots of Bedouin culture

57:44 Advantages/disadvantages of tribal organization

59:16 Urban vs Rural religion

1:01:13 Fellahin social organization

1:10:20 Fellahin attachment to land

1:15:01 Male dominance

1:26:22 Slavery 

1:27:51 19thC population pressure

1:31:38 Communal land vs. economics 101 vs. Papa Smurf

1:47:13 Village religion

1:52:16 Village sectarian relations

1:55:17 Next time on Secret History of Israel/Palestine

In the book Abundance, left liberal authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson identify unnecessary bureaucracy and red tape as an important factor in why there is a shortage of housing across the USA.

Very quickly, billionaires and powerful donors have rallied to fund American politicians who campaign on an “Abundance Agenda”.

Why is big money so excited about Abundance?  What will happen if the “Abudance Agenda” that they’re funding is adopted by the U.S. Democratic party?

00:00 Introduction

01:39 Bloodbundance: the analogy

07:50 IRL

08:47 The Abundance book thesis

11:03 Who’s supporting the “Abundance agenda”?

12:06 Why zillionaires support the “Abundance agenda” trojan horsery

15:50 Neoliberalism vs Welfare Capitalism vs. Fascism

19:40 Divide and conquer, blame democracy

22:41 The “Abundance agenda” in action: California

27:16 Next time on What is Politics

TO SUPPORT MY EXISTENCE:

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS

KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

TRANSCRIPT

BIBLIOGRAPHY / RELEVANT READING

VIDEO VERSION (includes high entertainment val-u memes)

RSS FEED

tweeter: @worbsintowords

ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE

Why are human beings so greedy and why are our societies so hierarchical, if our ancestors were so fiercely egalitarian?   

What is “human nature” in this regard?

A new theory about inequality of wealth and power in human societies.

TO SUPPORT MY EXISTENCE:

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS

KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

TRANSCRIPT

BIBLIOGRAPHY / WORKS CITED (coming soon)

VIDEO VERSION (includes high entertainment val-u memes)

RSS FEED

tweeter: @worbsintowords

ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE

My message to Jewish supporters of the war in Gaza.

(TIMESTAMPS BELOW)

TO SUPPORT MY EXISTENCE:

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: 

PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS:  

KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: 

TRANSCRIPT

BIBLIOGRAPHY / WORKS CITED

VIDEO VERSION

AUDIO PODCAST (or search for “worbs” on your podcast app)

RSS FEED

tweeter: @worbsintowords

ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE: 

BLURB

00:00 hello fellow jews: competing israeli and palestinian moral universes

04:31 moral justifications for the war “we have no choice”

06:43 “all the atrocites are fake, but they deserve it”

07:46 defeating the Nazis

08:40 moral poisoning by fake history

10:53 how to protect Israel

14:00 how Israel could have had all the hostages back in October 2023

15:31 Tamir Pardo ex-Mossad chief’s view on the hostages

16:38 the prisoner exchange

18:03 the need to “do something”

18:32 identity politics and the state

19:30 public reactions to Israel’s war in Gaza vs to Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen

21:45 how an ordinary person sees October 7th and the response to it

24:25 ex-PM Ehud Olmert’s view on the war

25:36 Israeli reactions to civilian deaths in 2002 vs 2025

28:06 polls in favour of ethnic cleansing

29:17 comedian Gil Kopatz’ Holocaust remembrance day thoughts

30:12 the Israeli Knesset debate on starvation in Gaza

37:39 how we got here: historical propaganda about 1948 and Oslo

39:31 The original vs current Israeli explanation for the Palestinian refugees of 1948

43:31 The lessons that Israelis and Palestinians learned from the failure of Oslo

45:53 the official Israeli/US version of the failure of Oslo vs reality

54:03 recent polls of Israelis and Palestinians on co-existence

56:10 Netanyahu on making it impossible for people to stay in Gaza

57:14 Israeli soldiers’ testimony on destroying neighbouhoods in Gaza, Lebanon and West Bank

1:05:00 Smotrich on preventing people from returning to Gaza

1:05:42 Genocide

1:11:05 Blocking aid for 90 days 

1:13:08 The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation 

1:14:52 Netanyahu and Smotrich on why they resumed aid to Gaza

1:16:29 daily mass shootings at GHF aid distribution lines

1:18:16 human shields

1:22:09 outtro

Market Exit, like many others before him, tells us that the left-right political spectrum is obsolete and does more harm than good. That’s because he doesn’t know what they mean.

This video explains:
1. What the political left and right actually mean
2. Why elites don’t want us to know what they mean
3. How confusion about left and right is a major cause of growing inequality
4. How understanding what they mean is a crucial to the survival of democratic civilization
5. How to vote in your own economic interest!

And I finally explain why communism is on the left and fascism is on the right, even though both systems produced similar authoritarian, nationalist political systems.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

TRANSCRIPT

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS

KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS

AUDIO PODCAST: or search for “worbs” on your podcast app

RSS FEED

tweeter

ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE

(spotify)

Why are nationalist / populist / far right candidates and parties getting elected all around the world? 

Why isn’t the populist left enjoying the same success?

Why does inequality keep getting worse nomatter who gets elected?

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=XJ6HBHFJ6C3RU 

PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS:  https://www.patreon.com/whatispolitics 

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

TRANSCRIPT: (TBA) 

AUDIO PODCAST: https://www.podfollow.com/worbs or search for “worbs” on your podcast app

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/pbq6bPkrpOM

RSS FEED: http://feeds.feedburner.com/WHATISPOLITICS

tweeter: @worbsintowords

ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE: starsixnine.bandcamp.com

https://ia601201.us.archive.org/18/items/the-rise-of-the-far-right/THE RISE OF THE FAR RIGHT.mp3

This series focuses on those aspects of the origins of the Israel/Palestine conflict that partisans on both sides mutually ignore.

This episode examines jewish life in Europe and the conditions leading to the rise of Zionism until the first wave of Zionist immigration in 1882. 

Cover image: Marc Chagall, Falling Angel (1923-1947)

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=XJ6HBHFJ6C3RU 

PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS:  https://www.patreon.com/whatispolitics 

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

TRANSCRIPT: (TBA) 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: (TBA)

YOUTUBE VERSION (full of illustrative graphics and articles): https://youtu.be/am5HpdExLjo

AUDIO PODCAST: https://www.podfollow.com/worbs or search for “worbs” on your podcast app

AUDIO PODCAST RSS FEED: http://feeds.feedburner.com/WHATISPOLITICS

tweeter: @worbsintowords

ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE: starsixnine.bandcamp.com 

https://spotify.link/uYoXHLwmkDb

CHAPTERS

0:00 introduction

2:43 when both sides hide the same facts

4:27 The Haïtian revolution: Silencing the Past

8:28 Palestinian and Israeli versions of history

19:24 Class conflicts of interest in hierarchical societies

23:03 Origins of the Jewish diaspora in Europe

26:00 Origins of the Ashkenazi Jews

28:06 Origins of Christian hostility towards the Jews

32:44 The Jews between al-Andalus and Christian Europe

36:23 Medieval anti-semitism as an instrument of class rule

37:17 European Jewish class structure: financiers, beggars and thieves

41:13 Jewish migration to Eastern Europe

42:05 The rise of liberalism and decline of anti-Judaism

43:04 Jews in the Russian Empire

45:45 The Rise Nationalism and Anti-Semitism

46:04 What is nationalism? The psychology of group identity

51:55 Identity politics and class in hierarchical societies

55:38 Nationalism, democracy and class conflict

1:00:32 Nationalism vs democracy and socialism

1:03:27 Nationalism, anti-Semitism and Socialism 

1:10:30 The Socialism of Imbeciles: Anti-Semitism as an instrument of class war

1:17:18 Anti-Semitism vs anti-Jewish discrimination

1:18:55 Nationalism in the European Empires

1:20:32 Assimilation, Integration, Socialism, Autonomism and Zionism: Jewish reactions to the rise of industrialization and anti-semitism

1:24:15 The purpose of the Jewish state in early Zionism

1:25:25 Jewish secular and religious hostility to Zionism

1:26:35 The Dreyfus affair and the rise of popular Zionism in the West

1:28:56 The assassination of Alexander II and the rise of popular Zionism in the East

1:33:06 What is Colonialism?

1:46:45 Power imbalances vs Worbs: Colonialism, Capitalism, Patriarchy and manipulation

1:50:55 Secret #1: Zionism, The Jewish province?

1:57:45 Zionism before Autoempancipation

1:59:11 Muhammad Ali Pasha and the birth of modern Zionism

2:01:19 19th Century religious Zionism

2:05:26 Romanian independence and the rise of Zionism

2:07:28 Autoemancipation 1882

2:24:49 The Jewish Province: Ottoman Pashalik / American Territory

2:30:32 The BILU Manifesto

2:37:58 Why Palestine?  Zionism and Judaism

2:46:16 Early Zionist thoughts about the Arabs in Eretz Israel

2:50:14 Outro, donation info, seeya!

https://archive.org/download/12-1_20250401/12.1%20-%20JEWS%20IN%20EUROPE.mp3

This is a Q&A where I respond to questions and critiques about episode 12: The ABC’s of Israel/Palestine (https://youtu.be/OLr_VCqnId0) and also go off on a whole bunch of related tangents.

TIMESTAMPS BELOW!

BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102834580 (no paywall)

I purposefully don’t monetize my channel in order to spare you the annoying ads, and it takes me months to make the scripted episodes, so please help if you can!

PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS: https://www.patreon.com/whatispolitics

PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=XJ6HBHFJ6C3RU

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

VIDEO VERSION: https://www.youtube.com/@WHATISPOLITICS69

RSS FEED: http://feeds.feedburner.com/WHATISPOLITICS

tweeter: @worbsintowords

ALL MUSIC BY STARSIXNINE: starsixnine.bandcamp.com https://spotify.link/uYoXHLwmkDb

0:00 intro

1:55 Rashid Khalidi on the Comedy Cellar Podcast

5:33 Why I Became a Lawyer

11:36 Israel’s assaulton Gaza is pointless

13:28 Hamas’ 2020 conference on what to do after victory

14:31 Oct 7 happened because the IDF was AWOL

15:56 israeli vs palestinian propaganda

18:12 Israelis unconsciously aware that the war is just for revenge

20:26 Mowing the lawn and keeping Gazans on a diet

22:12 Why I don’t cover current events
24:54 How hard it is to figure out what’s true with Israeli/Palestine history:
27:32 Did Zionists do terror against Jews in Baghdad to convince Jews to emigrate?
28:34 Did Israel steal Yemeni Jewish babies to give to holocaust survivors?

33:50 What I’m bringing to the table 

36:15 Israeli views on Arab civilian casualties, 2002 vs 2024

43:09 Hamas isn’t nationalist
43:29 Hamas vs Fatah members’ teeth
44:01 Hamas did not “win by a landslide”

46:40 the Hannibal directive

51:52 victories for activism: forcing Israel to let more aid into gaza

55:22 BEGIN Q&A

55:56 left and right / the social psychology of voting

57:20 critique: i “both sidesed” the conflict
57:53 cancer eviction story
59:35 could we make a little interpersonal violence legal?
1:01:08 why present both sides?

1:09:58 cancel culture in pro-Israel politics
1:18:12 academia’s role in neutralizing activism
1:20:33 “you don’t understand the nuances” David Graeber critiques
1:22:47 pomo as poetry, not scholarship
1:27:20 back to cancel culture
1:28:48 Gina Carano

1:32:46 Cancel culture in palestinian activism:
972+ Project Lavender article
1:35:18 cancelling Norman Finkelstein

1:37:44 back to Q and A

1:38:23 why is the US so involved in the Israel/Palestine conflict?

1:46:26 why don’t i call it genocide?

2:13:58 The culpability of the original zionist settlers vs holocaust refugees and jews from the arab world

2:19:48 Atlantic article disputing that Israeli leaders made genocidal statements

2:33:29 Do Arabs in Israel really have equal rights?

2:43:51 75 years of occupation since 1967?  Whose land is it?

2:48:39 college “leftist” activists supporting hamas uncritically

3:01:57 “we must support a liberation movement, no matter how reactionary it gets”?

3:04:26 Are American settler colonialists guilty 250 years later?

3:12:07 From authoritarian child rearing to children raising their parents: why do we always do everything idiotically?

3:17:45 One state, two states, no states

3:21:05 Should Israelis have to leave?

3:27:08 Reading Hamas’ 2024 “Our Narrative” pamphlet

3:41:59 outtro

https://archive.org/download/12.2-israel-qna/12.2%20-%20ISRAEL%20QnA.mp3