Tyler

(I’m with you on the big picture stuff. I just worry about extreme versions of historicism.)

Does it also apply to, say, communism? Can we still be communists in very different stages of capitalism? Why doesn’t the analysis go both ways: Sure, we can call ourselves communists, but because of the current global economic structure and its restraints, there’s no way to wield power communistly

This was a really great piece! I do still wonder: How strict is the claim that political categories like “fascism” must be tied to very specific sets of economic constraints/regimes of accumulation? (or did I misread what you were arguing for)?

Jamesonians like to periodize Theory by seeing it as another manifestation of the capitalist forces that determine culture and art, but what actually happens is that they tend to read the idiosyncrasies of contemporary Theory into cultural and aesthetic works.

The more I deal directly with the mental healthcare system the more I think Lacan is right. But the more I read and interact with Lacanians the more I think Lacanian psychoanalysis is a dangerous cult.

Of course it was a TA and of course the TA is at the hospital checking on their students. My heart breaks.

Obviously most blame for phone addiction goes to companies who built platforms to be dopamine machine, but I do think there's a level of personal responsibility that should be expected. People are too comfortable saying "I can't even watch a TV episode anymore." You have to make yourself do that.

To my followers: I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

The new PTA movie was kinda meh

We’re watching every major institution and check on executive power fall like a house of cards, and no one knows how to do anything about it.

Kracauer’s From Caligari to Hitler hits harder every year I teach it.

What I'm saying is: I wish the people who thunder about the classics so much had actually read them and taken them seriously. (The tell is if they use the word "Western Civilization" with deep seriousness.)

It is shocking how much this minority has managed to alter our collective memory about the pandemic.

Oh he’s like really doing bad

I don’t make mistakes, I ontologize failure.

Phones are poison in a classroom and should be banned from that space. I’m slamming my gavel here.

The lack of solidarity here also boggles the mind: It’s delusional to think this will lead to more full-time positions! All this will do is force an already exploited group into an even more precarious position.

It pisses me off so much when TT folks say “But adjuncting was never supposed to be a career!” The fact is, for lots of people it is. These people relied on our labor for years, and now they’re perfectly happy to throw us under the bus and ruin lives as long as it doesn’t affect them. But it will!

From the Professors community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the Professors community

I shouldn’t be but I’m a little shocked by the comment section here. Once again, the attitude towards adjuncts is: We desperately need you but also we hate your guts for taking this position and accepting low wages.
www.reddit.com/r/Professors...

A performance of The Bacchae but with the It’s Always Sunny cast.

This is insane, but I suspect it is coming for us all.

I hope I’m wrong, but I’m pretty confident that no matter what the right is going to stick with Trump and this will all blow over in a year.

Holy shit that is insane

I’ve had multiple conversations with older folks this summer - elder millennials, boomers, gen x - who casually mentioned that they can no longer read books and rely on YouTube summaries and audiobooks. A few even got agitated at the suggestion that they should keep trying. We are cooked.

I don’t usually do this kind of thing, but my friend is fighting an insane battle with AirBNB owners who have taken over his HOA and deserves whatever support people can give. The video barely scratches the surface of what he’s been dealing with for years. Chip in if you can. It’s a worthy cause.

Absolutely crucial point here. “Exploitation” is the genus and not a mere synonym of surplus value “extraction”

If your loved one is having a crisis and failing to get help, you are constantly told that the system can’t help them unless they want help, and that whatever happens to them in the meantime is financially and morally your responsibility.

Everyone laughs at psychoanalysis for blaming everything on parents and family, but believe me when I say that modern psychiatry is much more effective at blaming and shaming the family of those experiencing a crisis than psychoanalysis ever was.

I suspect my dad is in the early stages of another mental health episode, so expect more posts from me about Lacanian theories of psychosis as I feel more and more powerless to do anything about it.