Episode 1421
Sanctions are a weapon / Nicholas Mulder
Jan 4 2022
One of the most interesting things about Trump is he actually doesn't care about the veneer of US support for democracy. We heard past presidents spend a lot of time portraying US military interventions, invasions, and wars within this rhetoric of democracy and promoting human rights and very lofty ideals that essentially masked military intervention, power grabs, attempts at extracting resources from other countries, and attempts to subjugate other countries. In some ways, I'd argue Trump has been refreshing because he doesn't bother with that rhetoric.
Twenty-two years after last joining us, we welcome back Mohamad Bazzi. He discusses his latest at the Guardian, "Trump promised no wars. Now he’s a Bush-style regime change president," and "Trump’s war in Iran marks the culmination of his imperial presidency."
"The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview in which he, "fights to wake up from a DARVOnian nightmare."
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Dec 13 2021
Dec 2 2021
Posted by Matthew Boedy
12-2-21 The Durian Witches
Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the thirst that is the drink.
There are a lot of unsturdy judgments laymen have come to about science and medicine. It seems the more we probe and discover about the universe the more fodder amateurs have to build mistaken beliefs on. And the more we probe mistaken beliefs, the more certain we become that what we call the nature of reality reflects not aspects of the universe so much as our prejudices. Prejudices about social stratification and the way society ought to be. Being a layman myself, and an especially dilettantish layman to boot, I exhibit these prejudices as much as, if not more than, anyone.
There’s an efficiency model of evolution, where a Darwinist mechanism weeds out losers within a generation or two, rapidly leaving a species better adapted to be its best self, without being weighed down by feeble kin. This model pairs nicely with an über-capitalist view of winner-takes-all, losers weepers. It also feeds the neo-Nazis’ and other eugenics enthusiasts’ Nietzschean argument that the weak masses of humanity have polluted our species. They have manipulated collective morality, fooling the strong into wasting time and resources taking care of them, whereas in some putative state of “nature” they would have been left to die for the good of posterity.
That state of nature exists in some parallel universe where humans are not communal animals with an innate impulse to care for each other. It’s a fantasy where humans are lonely gatherers competing in an austere landscape for limited resources.
Research lately indicates that beings caring for less self-sufficient members of their own species is a rule rather than an exception. Trees in a forest sense each other’s needs through a mycological nerve network and respond to the distress of others by redirecting nutrient resources and water their way. Lizards form bonds of affection. Vampire bats have been observed sharing blood with needy vampire bats nearby, even those outside their kinship circles. Nature as the realm of the rugged individualist is a pathological rationalization for maladaptive, greedy, cruel treatment of others. It is not somehow more real than the instinct for compassion and mutual aid.
On an only slightly related topic, I recently... read more