Antifascist Dad Podcast

Matthew Remski

Your waypoint for antifascist lore, strategy, and wisdom from the generations, and now.

  1. 11H AGO

    30. Another Conspiracy Theory about Marxists w/ Richard Gilman-Opalsky

    Wecoming back my first return guest, philosopher and union activist Richard Gilman-Opalsky, for a deep dive into the viral controversy surrounding Gabriel Rockhill's new book Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? Rockhill's thesis, in its simplest form, is that the smartest left intellectuals you've heard of were bought by capital to function as controlled opposition. So Richard and I work through the Frankfurt School's origins, French theory's disillusionment with actually existing socialism, Herbert Marcuse's gifts and compromises, and Richard's core challenge to Rockhill: the concept of the enemy. Who are we actually fighting? The ruling class, or each other? SOURCES  Institute for Social Research, Goethe University Frankfurt Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment — Stanford University Press Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry — Routledge Gabriel Rockhill, Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? Richard Gilman-Opalsky, review of Rockhill — Marx and Philosophy Review of Books Richard Gilman-Opalsky, The Communism of Love — AK Press Herbert Marcuse papers — UC San Diego Library Angela Y. Davis official site Vivian Gornick, The Romance of American Communism — Verso Books Vladimir Lenin, "Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder" — Marxists Internet Archive Alexandra Kollontai Archive — Marxists Internet Archive Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia — Marxists Internet Archive University of Illinois faculty union strike coverage — Chicago Tribune Find Matthew on Bluesky at matthewremski.bsky.social, on Instagram at @matthew_remski, on YouTube and TikTok at @antifascistdad. Support the show and get early access to part two episodes at Patreon. Pick up Antifascist Dad from Penguin Random House — also available as audiobook and ebook.

    1h 19m
  2. 3D AGO

    UNLOCK 28.1 Adam Johnson Exposes the Sophistry of Fart Sniffers

    A coda to my interview with journalist and media critic Adam Johnson on how the genocide got sold. Here I zoom in on Adam's affect — the rhetorical technique he uses to puncture what I'm calling the habitus of liberal political discourse. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of embodied social capital, I analyze two moments where institutional power reasserts itself through laughter and procedure: State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller deflecting AP reporter Matt Lee's questions about Gaza with schoolboy metaphors, and Mark Carney laughing off a Grassy Narrows First Nation grandmother demanding justice for decades of mercury poisoning. I contrast this with Adam Johnson's use of bathos and polysyndeton — visceral, low-register language that breaks the spell.  Sources: UNRWA — Gaza child amputees statement, December 2025 OHCHR — Gaza disabilities report, August 2025 Institute for Palestine Studies — Blinken/Austin letter full text Al Majalla — Blinken/Austin letter full text Times of Israel — Miller/Lee briefing context, November 5, 2024 American Academy of Diplomacy — Matt Lee bio CBC News — Carney / Isaacs / Etobicoke press conference APTN News — Isaacs accepts Carney's challenge APTN News — Western University / Dryden Mill study, 2024 National Observer — Western University study, May 2024 CBC News — ISC budget cuts, July 2025 CBC News — Indigenous budget 2025, November 2025 Marxists.org — Junius Pamphlet DigitalCommons@UNL — Goodman & Silverstein, Bourdieu in Algeria Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social Instagram: @matthew_remski YouTube: @antifascistdad TikTok: @antifascistdad Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast Order Antifascist Dad

    33 min
  3. APR 26

    UNLOCK 27.1 Communicative Capitalism vs. Instagram Activism

    Following up on my conversations with Ciarra Jones and Leftie Jane by working through Jodi Dean's concept of communicative capitalism and what it means for those of us doing antifascist political work online. I start with Marx's distinction between use value and exchange value, using my late mother's hand-knit sweater. Dean's framework pivots on this split between use and exchange, and she ties it to the contradictions of networked media: the contribution trap, reflexive communication, the fantasy of participation, and the way followership mimics solidarity without producing it.  And... what about my own Instagram account, which has grown from 3,000 to 50,000 followers since January? I ask: what that growth actually means, what it conceals, and what ethical questions I need to keep asking myself to avoid becoming part of the infrastructure.  Sources Jodi Dean, "Communicative Capitalism: Circulation and the Foreclosure of Politics" Jodi Dean, Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging, Verso Books Karl Marx, Capital, Volume 1, Marxists Internet Archive Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, Marxists Internet Archive C. Thi Nguyen, Games: Agency as Art, Oxford University Press Robin Dunbar, Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social Instagram: @matthew_remski YouTube: @antifascistdad TikTok: [@antifascistdad] Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast Pre-order Antifascist Dad Chapters (00:00:08) - Communicative Capitalism vs Instagram Activism(00:09:40) - Jody Dean's Communication Capitalism(00:19:41) - Instagram's Cult of Growth

    27 min
  4. APR 19

    UNLOCK 26.1 Springtime for Democratic Socialism in Canada

    On March 29, 2026, Avi Lewis won the federal NDP leadership on the first ballot in Winnipeg, taking 56% of the vote in a field of five candidates. This episode contextualizes this huge win for international listeners — because what just happened in Canada matters to anyone who follows democratic socialist politics anywhere. I trace the Lewis family's roots from the Jewish Labor Bund  through to the founding of the CCF and the Regina Manifesto. I cover the right-wing media meltdown, the redbaiting from Alberta's PostMedia papers, and the dissociative pundit-class response I'm calling "moneyball fugue state." And I dig into the oldest conflict in leftist politics — Rosa Luxemburg's question about whether a socialist can enter the bourgeois state without becoming its servant — and why I think we need both revolutionary and reform comrades right now. Sources Avi Lewis elected NDP leader on first ballot with 56% of the vote — NDP official announcement Full leadership results and candidate breakdown — CBC live coverage Avi Lewis takes over a diminished NDP — can he make it a force again? — The Walrus NDP elects Avi Lewis as new federal leader — Globe and Mail What does Avi Lewis's arrival mean for the party? — CBC News Matthew Polacko, "The Rightward Shift and Electoral Decline of Social Democratic Parties under Increasing Inequality," West European Politics 45, no. 4 (2022): 665–692 LSE summary of the Polacko paper — LSE European Politics blog The Regina Manifesto (1933) — The Canadian Encyclopedia Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social Instagram: @matthew_remski YouTube: @antifascistdad TikTok: [@antifascistdad] Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast Pre-order Antifascist Dad

    37 min
  5. APR 15

    27. The Proto-Fascism of “Trust me” Carney w/ Leftie Jane

    My guest today is Jane Yearwood—aka Leftie Jane on the TikTok and Instagram machines. She lives here in Toronto and does amazing political commentary from a leftist and disability justice POV. Today we’ll be looking at why so many Canadians seem to believe that MAGA-stye fascism couldn’t possibly take root here, even though it actually is. So we talk about Canadian exceptionalism, including how settler colonial history and US foreign policy alignments have always been hidden from public education and are now almost invisible behind the halo of Mark Carney. We talk about online activism and reflect on the generations between us and the middle school students she tutors, and also her love for libraries as third spaces, but the heart of our focus is on five bills currently reshaping Canadian law. Bill C12, Bill C9, Bill C15, Bills C8 and C22. We give them good names for clarity: Bill C12: the scapegoat a migrant save a billionaire bill Bill C9: the no more protesting against genocide bill Bill C15: make Carney and his friends kings again Bill C8: the we’re going to spy on all your s*** bill Bill C22: the unlawful access to information bill One thing Jane wanted me to stress in these notes, because we weren’t quite explicit about this in our conversation, is the sheer volume and rush of reality-changing legislation is strategic. It has a very “flooding the zone” vibe to it. This is the Steve Bannon innovation of deliberate saturation of media channels with so much information and noise that critical thinking becomes impossible. That wave is mirrored only by Carney’s extended charm offensive, which reached a peak on March 29th when he was glazed by the celebrity class at the Juno Awards, Canada’s version of the Grammys. All things Leftie Jane! linktree Sources Bill C12 retroactivity and refugee claims, Migrant Rights Network Amnesty International statement on Bill C12 and international humanitarian law Avi Lewis on Canada’s deportation system, The Walrus Bill C9 (Combating Hate Act) text, Parliament of Canada Civil liberties concerns on Bills C8 and C22, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group Bill C15 omnibus provisions and ministerial exemption powers, Parliament of Canada Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk postcard campaign Jodi Dean, Communicative Capitalism: Democracy and the Illusion of Connection, MIT Press Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social Instagram: Chapters (00:00:06) - Trust Me Carney With Lefty Jane(00:02:23) - Why Canadians Can't See the Fascism at home(00:04:40) - The Future of Communication in a Digital World(00:25:53) - Bill C12: Scapegoat a Migrant, Save a Billionaire(00:38:37) - Bill C9: An Attack on Protest(00:43:56) - Bill C15: The Unlawful Access to Information Bill(00:49:48) - Disability Activists Write Postcards(00:58:45) - The Fight for Public Spaces

    1h 12m
  6. APR 13

    UNLOCK 25.1 Mark Carney's “Elbows Up” Hockey Schtick: a Review

    A close reading of "Elbows Up" — the hockey slogan Mark Carney skated on to sell his Trump response policies over the past year. It began on March 1, 2025. Mike Myers mouthed the phrase on SNL, inspiring former NDP MP Charlie Angus to publish a galvanizing Substack two days later tracing it to Gordie Howe. The slogan conscripts the legacy of a working-class Saskatchewan kid who was underpaid for decades by union-busting Jack Adams, repackaging disciplined obedience to capital as national pluck. Meanwhile Carney's budget eliminates 40,000 federal jobs and cuts $57 billion from public programs while gutting Indigenous Services and environmental funding. Anishinaabe scholar Niigaan Sinclair and others in Elamin Abdelmahmoud's essay collection push back hard. Elbows up, it turns out, describes the posture of a man who knows he'll be having beers with the other team when the game is over. Sources: Charlie Angus's original March 3, 2025 "Elbows Up" Substack Carney's March 22, 2025 "Elbows Up" post on X with Mike Myers Gordie Howe biography and career — Wikipedia Gordie and Edna's shared skates — Maclean's 1966 archive Jack Adams — Wikipedia Ted Lindsay union organizing and Adams's retaliation — Hockey Writers Carney's 2025 budget: 40,000 public service jobs cut, $57 billion from programs — Globe and Mail 15% departmental cuts apply to Indigenous Services Canada — Policy Options Environment and Climate Change Canada faces $1.3 billion in cuts — Ecojustice Foreign aid cut $2.7 billion, breaking campaign promise — Results Canada Elamin Abdelmahmoud's essay anthology Elbows Up: Canadian Voices of Resilience and Resistance Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social Instagram: @matthew_remski YouTube: @antifascistdad TikTok: @antifascistdad Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast Chapters (00:09:52) - "Are You Canadian?" Mike Myers(00:20:06) - Critics of Elbows Up

    24 min
4.8
out of 5
45 Ratings

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Your waypoint for antifascist lore, strategy, and wisdom from the generations, and now.

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