I APPROACHED PLATYPUS’ RECENT INTERVIEWS with John Zerzan and Derrick Jensen with much interest. I was especially curious to see if either had modified their views in any way given the recent appropriation of nihilistic environmental rhetoric by various white nationalists and self-proclaimed eco-fascists, including last year’s mass shooters in El Paso and New Zealand.
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THE CURRENT POLITICAL POLARIZATION in the U.S. is not Democrat vs. Republican or the minorities of race, gender and sexuality against straight white men: It is between the politics of free stuff vs. the politics of jobs — demands for more free stuff vs. demands for more jobs.
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ANY REVOLUTION IN THE UNITED STATES will express the desire to preserve, sustain and promote the further development of the original American Revolution. The future of socialism, not merely in North America but in the whole world, depends on the fate of the American Revolution.
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MY FAVORITE QUOTE FROM TOM PAINE is, “The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” I would change “mankind” to “humankind,” but otherwise that quote is close to a succinct summary of my worldview.
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THE RECENT AND PREDICTABLE CONSERVATIVE VICTORY in the UK General Elections has produced much outrage and wringing of hands on the European Left and abroad. They had hailed Corbyn as the promise of a return to working class politics, a chance to redeem the Labour Party from its recent Blairite past, and the man who would finally give a voice to the people.
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