Welcome new subscribers, free and paid!

What I do here

First of all, thanks for subscribing! I try to put up free content once a week —they are short essays, about art, film, television and fashion, read through a culture industry lens. I write these essays for enjoyment and for readers’ enjoyment. They are brief breaks from the writing of the book on Trauma Culture, which is coming along and is difficult, rewarding and sometimes grim

Once a month, I have reading group meetings that focus on the concept of the Authoritarian Personality, identified in the early 1950s as a right wing phenomenon, but emerging in our times as a liberal/Left position that married to the values of the Professional Managerial Class have stymied any political momentum on the American Left: unfortunately, its ideologically produced affects and priorities have also been exported to American client states, through NGOs, State Department and funding of non-American elites by US governmental and private organizations.

These meetings are for paid subscribers only. The next one is on March 3, 8:30 PST, when we finally tackle the Authoritarian Personality. I don’t record these Zooms ever because of privacy issues and also because I think we can all be more free in debate and discussion. Such is the political turpitude of our times that anything you say and question can and will be held against you. The group so far has proven incredibly productive, with people hailing from all age groups, professions and educational backgrounds willing to be led through some fascinating theoretical/political stuff. I will be posting about the last discussion in a few days, but have to gather my thoughts to do so.

I do post criticisms of the US liberal/Left behind the paywall, reserving these essays for people who might have a deeper commitment in the project of criticizing and rebuilding Leftism in the US. For some reason, these topics are so taboo that to open them up for public commentary invites the most scurrilous and disgusting responses from Internet troglodytes who believe that making death threats and inviting people to do violence against themselves is somehow in line with their progressive political agendas. They might be sixteen year old anarchists who read Judith Butler and Leon Trotsky on their Ipads, but I don’t want to hear from them. Joshua Citarella has investigated some of their on line communities and activities. More power to him.

Paid subscribers can also leave comments and questions for me after posts.

In May, we will begin a new reading group topic. If you subscribe, you get links to all the readings.

So, once again, welcome and thank you for subscribing.