Episodes
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
/388/ Betting on Bukele (I) ft. Nelson Rauda / Juan Rojas
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
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El Salvador’s Bitcoin Paradise Is a Mirage, Nelson Rauda, NYT
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Behind Bukele's Revolution, Juan Rojas & Geoff Shullenberger, Compact
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On Security, Bukele and Petro Have a Problem in Common, Juan Rojas, Americas Quarterly
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In response to killings, El Salvador’s bitcoin president attacks civil liberties, Nelson Rauda, LA Times
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The Rise of Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's Authoritarian President, Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker
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Chaos in Ecuador, Guillaume Long, Sidecar/NLR
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¡Viva la ‘eficracia’!, Martin Caparrós, El País
Tuesday Mar 28, 2023
/329/ Justice Warriors ft. Matt Bors & Ben Clarkson
Tuesday Mar 28, 2023
Tuesday Mar 28, 2023
On depicting dystopia.
Acclaimed cartoonists, writers and artists Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson join us for something a little different: to talk about their new comic book, Justice Warriors. Set in a grotesquely unequal world, a police procedural (of sorts) encounters an astrology-based social movement seeking justice.
We talk about how dystopian fiction often serves to manufacture consent and about how fiction can confront us with images of social decline. We also debate free will and determinism in a world that presents few opportunities, social justice warriors and politics that perpetuate the present, and why there is no 'pure' people set against the elite.
Links:
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The Nib - political satire & cartoons
Thursday Oct 20, 2022
/297/ Bungazão 2022 (Clean & Godly) ft. Benjamin Fogel
Thursday Oct 20, 2022
Thursday Oct 20, 2022
On corruption & anti-corruption.
When Bolsonaro won in 2018, he rode a wave of anti-corruption sentiment. Now he's doled out billions in pork via a secret budget, but this doesn't seem to bother his supporters. What happened?
Benjamin Fogel, who studies the history of corruption in Brazil, comes on to discuss how a moralistic account of corruption has fortified the far right. How has corruption been used as a political weapon in the past, and how has it shifted from right to left and back again?
How are scandals made rather than born? And what would an anti-corruption politics that is emancipatory look like – rather than the predominant technocratic or moralistic form today?
Readings:
- Against Anti-Corruption, Benjamin Fogel, Jacobin
- From Anti-Politics to Authoritarian Restoration in Brazil, Alex Hochuli, Jacobin
Tuesday Sep 14, 2021
Excerpt: /215/ Organize the Incels?! ft. Alex Gendler
Tuesday Sep 14, 2021
Tuesday Sep 14, 2021
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Excerpt: /138/ Fuck, Abolish, Defund: The Police
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
The protests in the US against police violence - and their globalisation - prompts us to discuss radical proposals for what to do about the police. We look at the US, the UK and Brazil, each in their own national contexts, and debate how policing is structure and what makes realistic responses to state repression a political priority.
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Symposium on Policing, NonSite, various authors incl. Dustin Guastella, Christian Parenti
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Global Perspectives on Policing, Verso Books blog, various authors incl. Alex Hochuli
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
Excerpt: /130/ Three Articles: BLM
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
On this latest Three Articles, we discuss the global Black Lives Matter protests.
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The Triumph of Black Lives Matter and Neoliberal Redemption, Cedric Johnson, NonSite
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The Triumph of American Idealism, Alex Hochuli, Damage
Tuesday Jan 28, 2020
Excerpt: /105/ The Lorax & the AK-47 ft. Leigh Phillips
Tuesday Jan 28, 2020
Tuesday Jan 28, 2020
This is a sample. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/BungaCast
On ecofascism.
Both the shooters in the Christchurch and El Paso massacres were declared 'ecofascists'. Now, a new governing coalition in Austria brings together Greens and the hard right in an unconventional union.
How does Malthusianism link the far right and ecology? What are the dangers of 'lifeboat politics', and how can the Left resist this logic? Is the Green New Deal a solution?
Readings:
- Eco-fascism: The ideology marrying environmentalism and white supremacy thriving online, Sarah Manavis, New Statesman
- First as Tragedy, Then as Fascism, Alex Amend, The Baffler
- Austria’s new government includes the pro-environment Greens. That’s a first., The Washington Post
- Why White Supremacists Are Hooked on Green Living, Sam Adler-Bell, TNR
- What Is Eco-Fascism, the Ideology Behind Attacks in El Paso and Christchurch?, Luke Darby, GQ
- Only a Green New Deal Can Douse the Fires of Eco-Fascism, Naomi Klein, The Intercept
Thursday Mar 07, 2019
/65/ Bunga Gets Ultra-Real ft. Steve Hall
Thursday Mar 07, 2019
Thursday Mar 07, 2019
On crime and the far-right. Prof Steve Hall explains what 'ultra-realism' in criminology means - and why we need to get beyond liberal idealism. We also discuss the rise of the English far-right, the EDL - and how a narrative of betrayal coheres it. Why do middle-class liberals have such a horror of authority - and why it's essential that the Left reclaim it. How are so many contemporary ideologies no longer fit for purpose? Also: what is 'special liberty' and how does it differ from entitlement?
Readings:
Interview with Steve Hall, Injustice-Film
The Rise of the Right: English Nationalism and the Transformation of Working-Class Politics (book)
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