Why did social liberalism become widespread again, after thousands of years of socially conservative tribes, monarchies and empires?

How did democratic states re-emerge after thousands of years of the state being primarily a tool to help ruling classes steal grain and rice from peasants?

Why did the ballooning inequality of the industrial revolution suddenly contract into the social welfare state era that’s now being undone?  And what can we do about it?

Cover art: The Abisnthe Drinker, Viktor Oliva, 1901

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00:00 hello fellow kids: theory and action

7:00 states and the growth of commerce

8:56 egalitarian cities?  the indus valley civilization

10:53 urban religious orthodoxy vs rural resistance and idiosyncracy

13:57 urban life, commerce and social liberalism

16:22 from grain extraction empires to oligarchal commerce states

21:25 commerce, printing and the decline of state religion

24:57 the agricultural and industrial revolutions 

25:50 enclosure: the business controlled the state versus the population

29:31 urban life and social liberalism

31:09 capitalism, property rights and the new urban working class

33:24 the urban working classes organize

34:06 when the clergy clashes with the nobility

38:17 how capitalism breaks the standard political compass

39:56 capitalism as a system of (authoritarian) government

42:54 the rebirth of democracy: back to the first quadrant

45:17 similarities between people living in welfare states and hunter gatherer societies

46:02 the neo-liberal era: not so fast, star trek fans!

47:39 current material conditions and hopeful prospects for the future

51:53 flushing elitism out of the left

53:41 more hopeful prospects for the future

This segment outlines the role that bargaining power plays in:

1. how social classes and economic hierarchy emerged around the world in cultures that initially had tribes made up of equal families

2. how authoritarian kings and emperors emerged, where previously there had only been charismatic or democratically elected chieftains

3. the emergence of the exploitation state

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00:00 hello fellow kids: class structure is all about bargaining power, as determined by practical conditions

03:48 recap – from egalitarian socially liberal bands to conservative tribes

05:10 quadrant 3 preview / gimme

07:01 from charismatic/democratic chieftains to hereditary chiefs and monarchs

9:51 pacific northwest coast hierarchical feasting

11:18 vikings, from democratic to hereditary chieftains

13:08 chiefs vs kings

14:42 tribal vs nationalist solidarity

15:58 state and civilization: how ancient sumer went from democracy to despotism

19:25 states vs pastoralists

20:05 alliance of church and state

21:08 the nomadic pastoralist route to statehood

22:23 The purpose of the pre-democratic state

23:23 empire and clergy

26:13 incentives for social conservatism from above and below

27:07 the prohibition on pig meat

28:42 social conservatism as protection from superiors

29:20 recap

30:52 next time, gimme, seeya

How did human societies go from socially liberal, gender equal band societies to male dominated, gerontocratic, socially conservative tribal societies?

Why did some societies maintain gender equality despite adopting gerontocracy and tribalism?

Part 2 of a 4 part series tracking how human social evolution tracks the four quadrant political compass, and what we can learn from this to help create a better future

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0:00 Hello fellow kids / episode 1 recap
2:43 Episode 2 preview: from liberal egalitarianism, to conservative egalitarianism
3:53 Origins of agriculture
6:36 Agriculture, population pressure, surplus management and war
7:33 The Neolithic revolution
8:52 Origins of male dominance
11:36 Chronic conflict and patrilocal residence
13:40 Effects of lower female bargaining power
18:03 Patriarchal ideology and strict gender norms as a function of male bargaining advantage
20:00 Culture as an adaptation to material and social environment
23:05 Origins of sexual conservatism
25:35 Origins of tribalism and gerontocracy
26:16 Social conservatism, but economic egalitarianism
27:37 Pastoralism
30:13 Extended tribal organization
31:38 The Honour code
32:35 Male vs female honour
33:44 The neolithic y chromosom bottleneck
35:57 Economic and male political egalitarianism in pastoralism
37:42 Socially liberal tribal societies
38:37 Origins of matrilocal residence
39:56 Dudebros in matrilocal societies
40:55 Gender relations in matrilocal societies
43:36 Sex norms in matrilineal vs patrilineal societies
46:50 The importance of learning this stuff
48:19 Gimme
49:49 Next time, seeya

Can we stop our civilization from collapsing into more and more inequality and less and less democracy? Are our only choices to be ruled by an owner class of infantile, out of touch zillionaire lunatics, or else an intellectual class of moralizing authoritarian psychopaths?

In this 4 part series we do what the authors of Dawn of Everything failed to do: we learn how social change happens, so that we can grasp the opportunities and limits for social and economic change inherent in the conditions of the 21st century.

And we do this by looking at how human social evolution tracks the common political compass meme template – one episode per compass quadrant!

Human social evolution explained in 4 E-Z political compass memes…

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0:00 Hello fellow kids / the world today

2:12 Do we really have to eat da poo poo?

4:00 What is the four quadrant political compass meme?

4:42 Human agency, material determinism and hope

6:06 Four phases of human social evolution

7:37 The 2016 US election voter compass chart

9:35 Innit a bit racialist (and inaccurate) to talk about stages of social evolution?

11:36 Quadrant 1: immediate return hunting and gathering

12:28 Economic equality, political equality and individual liberty as functions of equality of bargaining power

16:04 Gender equality

17:46 Political equality and social liberalism: gender roles

19:34 Permissive sexual norms, polyamory and jealousy

20:07 Religious liberty and agnosticism

20:37 Equality and freedom as the natural state of human beings

21:30 Next time

22:29 Gimme

23:22 Upcoming Q&As

24:12 Upcoming long awaited episodes, seeya!

Why was Noam Chomsky – scourge of the american elite – BFFs with Jeffrey Epstein, the personification of the worst aspects of that elite?  

Why was Chomsky giving Epstein advice on how to deal with attacks against him in the media, months after a series of exposés appeared in the press detailing the extent of his crimes?  

Why was Chomsky bemoaning the “hysteria about the abuse of women” to someone accused of having sex trafficked dozens of under age girls?  

At first glance all of this seems completely as inexcusable as it is incomprehensible.  Chris Hedges’ declaration that Chomsky was seduced by the pimpin’ jetset superstar lifestyle that Epstein gave him access to, seems to be the only sensible explanation.  

But when you actually read the relevant emails, and look at them in the context and timeline of the accusations, and of Chomsky’s life and contemporary events – things very quickly start to make sense, and what becomes inexcusable is Hedges and the army of posturing leftfluencers throwing Chomsky under the bus so quickly, without even examining the evidence first.  

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00:00 Hello fellow kids: into

1:06 Chomsky’s Intellectual class: the Clergy of Capitalism

4:06 “Brand of Me” politics and cancel culture

5:46 Chomsky’s early activism vs. O.G. cancel culture

8:24 A lone left voice in the 1980s to early 2000s

9:39 Chomsky’s message vs Capitalists, Stalinists and Post-Modernists

12:50 The accusations against Chomsky

14:18 What most people knew about Epstein in 2015

15:57 Epstein’s 2008 conviction

17:31 Jerome Seinfeld vs Noam Chomsky

18:34 How did Chomsky and Epstein become BFFs?

20:28 The crime of hanging out with “literal fascists”

24:11 Chomsky vs Finkelstein: why we need to read a variety of authors

24:46 Chomsky’s shocking advice to Epstein in context

29:05 The total incongruence of Chomsky’s advice vs Epstein’s crimes

31:10 Chomsky’s advice in the context of late #MeToo and peak cancel culture

35:36 Interpreting the evidence: Professor Hedges X vs Normal Humans

38:21 Chomsky vs. Leftfluencer rat finks: who would you rather have as a friend? 

39:56 Chomsky & Epstein vs other great buddy combos

41:48 Another bad call that Chomsky made that was also used against him

43:13 Who benefits from ignoring the evidence?

44:15 Michael Parenti vs Noam Chomsky?

50:23 Tuition increases replace left wing scholars with pseudo-left wing wankers

54:57 Chomsky vs. Parenti continued: what is socialism?

57:52 Why the USSR became authoritarian

59:13 Go do something!

As inequality gets worse and worse, hostility for elites is at all time highs, and huge majorities of voters want higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy to pay for social programs, all the conditions are perfect for the left to be overwhelmingly dominant as a social and electoral force around the world.  Yet instead the left flounders as the far right is on the rise.

Why is this happening, and what can we do to stop the decline of civilization?

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0:00 How do you do fellow kids!

2:57 Four reasons why the left is weak and unpopular

5:10 What does the left even stand for?

7:16 The left becomes the right, the right pretends to be the left

9:46 Equality as synonymous with democracy

10:10 Bureaucratic, urban and anti-rural socialism

11:52 Why can’t the left deliver anymore?

13:17 The crises of the 1970s and the birth of neoliberalism

16:42 Why socialists gut the welfare state

18:16 What it will take to implement serious left wing policies in the neoliberal era

20:14 How D.E.I. spells D.I.E. for the left

21:31 Discrimination as a tool for competition over resources

23:35 Racism and american unions in the 1930s vs 1950s

25:09 Why left wing parties abandoned class for identity politics

26:47 How class-first politics fights discrimination

31:03 How identity-first politics creates discrimination

39:33 Identity-first politics as right wing politics in left wing disguise

40:14 Racial imperialism: buying off minority elites

43:01 Cancel culture: burning witches is right wing religious politics

43:33 Free speech as inseparable from democracy

44:42 Censorship of the Nazis in Weimar Germany

45:20 Cancel goblins accomplished more for the right than anyone since WW2

47:07 Cancel culture is the greatest right wing election campaign ever invented

49:48 How cancel Chucky-dolls benefit when the right to wins

51:34 Moving forward: flushing the toilet of the left

52:40 Cooperating with cancel gremlins, Stalinists, DEIdiots and other right wingers

54:05 Looking outside the bubble: Charlie Kirk viewers

55:08 Ditching a majority of the fake “left” in order to gain the majority of the population

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.

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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

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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.  

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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.

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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

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