24 episodes
WHAT IS POLITICS? WorldWideScrotes
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- Education
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4.8 • 106 Ratings
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Politics is one of the only practical disciplines where none of the main concepts have clear, coherent definitions.
We define ourselves with terms like "left” and "right" and we believe in things like "democracy," “markets,” "capitalism" and "socialism" even though we don’t really know what any of these words actually mean.
This series aims to make sense out of the political muddle that we've inherited from media, academia, and from decades of cold war propaganda, so that we can figure what it is that we want when it comes to politics, and how we can achieve it.
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Q&A on the ABCs of Israel/Palestine
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. BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102834580 (no paywall) I purposefully don’t monetize my channel... Continue Reading →
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Brainstorm: Israel/Palestine – Who Started It?
What was supposed to be an informal QnA about the “Israel/Palestine ABCs” episode, turned into a What is Politics “live” brainstorm session à la Matt Christman “grillstream,” where I discuss my arguments and readings on who and what started the... Continue Reading →
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12: From “Never Again” to “There are No Uninvolved Civilians”: The ABC’s of the Israel/Palestine Conflict
Elites use identity, particularly national identity, as a way of advancing their own interests, often against the interests of the populations that they pretend to represent. But before we can understand this, we need an ABC of the conflict, to... Continue Reading →
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9.2 – Equity, Equality and Lizard People: when right wing politics masquerade as left wing politics
When ideas and movements that threaten to overturn established hierarchies of power are absorbed into elite institutions like Ivy League universities and for-profit corporations, they get transformed into ideas that support the status quo, while remaining cloaked in the language... Continue Reading →
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11.1 Why the Russian Revolution Failed: When Rich Kids do all the Socialism
The leaders of the Russian Revolutions of February and October 1917 sought to establish socialism: a deeply democratic economic and political system where the employee/employer relationship is abolished, and where workers control their workplaces, the means of production and the... Continue Reading →
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11. Why are Communist countries all one-party dictatorships?
Why has every communist country so far been a one party dictatorship? Is it something inherent to Socialism or Marxism? Is human nature incompatible with political equality? Has “true” communism never been tried yet? If so, then... Continue Reading →
Customer Reviews
Excellent!
This is an excellent podcast!!! I have learned so much and truly appreciate the content!
REQUIRED “READING”
I wanted to write a full essay as a review, and I still might do that… but just to get something on the books, I’ll say here that this podcast says ALL THE THINGS I’ve been scratching around the edges of in my own mind for YEARS (e.g. why… private property? Patriarchy? Capitalist cruelty? Upside down bizarro world dynamics of the exploited standing up for their exploiters?) except this guy (whose name I can’t find right now and maybe he *wants* to be anonymous?) does aaaaaallllllllllllllllllllll the research and connects all the dots so the ideas that have been floating around in my brain like loose tea leaves become a piping hot cuppa with this podcast.
I’m on episode 8 I think and I’ve listened to each episode at least 3 times before moving onto the next. Still, I can’t WAIT to absorb enough to feel ready to play the next in the queue… This is the fundamental HOW IT ALL WORKS (FOR REALLLLLL!!!!) ish that EVERYONE should know. I’m assigning this whole series to my kids, ages 14 & 12, and I’ll just have them listen over and over again until they understand it. If they learn nothing and school and only political literacy from this podcast, I’ll consider that a mom WIN
Essential
I don’t think I’ve ever come across a more compelling, well-researched, and thoroughly listenable podcast about politics. Daniel does an incredible job of weaving together the many disparate historical and anthropological threads that make up our mangled conception of politics into a clear, concise, and most importantly, accurate, narrative that is severely lacking in today’s society. To merely recommend this podcast would be doing it a disservice; the information contained within is invaluable, it’s widening of the listener’s intellectual horizons a rarity.