wishing i did my philosophy degree

[amw]

Now that i have discovered that listening to a podcast when i cook is a nice background noise, i realized i was going to need more podcasts than just the 538 guys rambling about stuff they already wrote about, and Katie and Jesse making jokes about how embarrassing people are on Twitter

Comments

[terminal_ennui]

I’ve recently gotten sort of interested in the ways ecoanarchism intersects with ecofascism in that both are informed by a hardening back to a fictional greener truer time and a fetishization of an imagined past. Which is to say- more navel gazing posts?

And an aside: my husband’s undergraduate degree is in computer science but he minored in philosophy because that’s where AI is housed, and one major benefit of a formal philosophy education (which I picked up in law school) is that you learn to structure an argument logically- the more time I spend in a social work graduate program, the more evident it becomes to me that this is not a common skill. And that is to ALL of our detriment.

[amw]

Yes, i think this is where green anarchism, ecofascism and even survivalist libertarianism can all end up going to the same place, practically speaking. While it's true that in theory green anarchism should mean that we consider our impact on the world around us, that we try to avoid speciesist oppression and so on... In practice going back to subsistence farming or hunter-gatherer lifestyles would presumably result in the same oppressions that existed in those societies to begin with, i.e. patriarchy, survival of the fittest, and so on. I can't help but notice most anarcho-primitivist thinkers are men, you know

[geminiwench]

Favorite podcasts

[amw]

Thanks for the tips

[geminiwench]

When it comes to most topics, I don't expect perfection and do not consider myself an authority on anything

[dadi]

This is an extremely thought-stimulating post and I thank you for it. I tend to dwell mostly in my little bubble of angst and woe me these days, while all around change is happening - or should be happening . When I was younger and active in the Italian Communist party, there were really interesting discussions about the future of humanity, about the worth of each individual as such and as a part of the community. I used to love these discussions and push my brain to THINK. Which I am not doing right now, not at all.

[amw]

Since i can't easily travel because of the corona, i think i have started to see this sabbatical in more of an academic context - it's a chance for me to learn. My self-directed learning probably isn't as rigorous or challenging as it would be if i was taking a sabbatical from a university environment, but i am still trying to consume from various different viewpoints

[dadi]

Thank you! These thoughts are exactly what we debated over, and over again, in the early 90ies, when the Italian communist party was in the process of trying to transition into "post-communism"!

[mymimikyu]

I'll throw this out here for you, my favorite podcast group is Unpopular Opinion by Adam Tod Brown. I only listen to the non-political podcasts he produces, but there's plenty of other topics. I like learning with people, so Two Non-Doctors is fun, as is the Pretty Scary series.

[amw]

Thanks for the tips!

[king_of_apathy]

I was listening to that podcast with Coleman Hughes and Peter Singer just a couple of months ago! Read Singers 'Animal liberation' recently too.

[amw]

I hope Coleman doesn't get too caught up in that political contrarian world where his "brand" is just being the black guy who says reparations is bad. That Peter Singer interview is one of the more interesting ones i heard him do, mainly because it didn't focus too heavily on contemporary political stuff and took more of a cerebral view.

What did you think of Singer's book? For me reading his stuff didn't turn me any "more" vegetarian or vegan, per se, but i do think it helped me to get a better perspective of the pain and suffering in the world (both animal and human).

[king_of_apathy]

I've listened to a fair bit of Coleman's and John McWhorter's views on race in America etc. Being a white British guy living in Korea I'm of course a long way from being the person who what they're discussing would have an effect on, but they've always sounded reasonable to me. But yeah I hope that doesn't become all he's about, otherwise it just gets very one note

[amw]

Yeah, for me McWhorter and the like are less interesting from the point of view that they are right and everyone else is wrong (which is a bit of a condescending attitude they sometimes show), and more interesting in that they bring up points that tend to get ignored in the mainstream narrative about race in America. I see the same thing happening all the time in discussion of trans issues, where i know first-hand that the mainstream narrative deliberately leaves out inconvenient facts and misrepresents all deviation from the party line as "transphobia". It's really frustrating for me to see so much effort put into propaganda and tokenistic actions in highly-educated circles when the trans people who are really suffering are the poor. I really think society would be better served focusing on poverty alleviation and income inequality over increased representation at higher levels. Although, increasing representation isn't a bad thing either