Bungacast

/123/ Mr Bunga Goes to Washington (2) ft. Nicholas Kiersey

In the second in an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nicholas Kiersey, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in Texas and host of the Fully Automated podcast. What were things like on the campaign trail, and what went wrong for Bernie? Will Biden go the distance, and are there more shenanigans in store?

Readings:

• Like It or Not, If We Run Third Party, We Will Lose, Dustin Guastella, Jacobin
• The Tyranny of Decorum Hurt Bernie Sanders’s 2020 Prospects, David Sirota, Jacobin
• ‘Life After Bernie’: The Young Left Braces for Disappointment in 2020, Tim Alberta, Politico
• The Left Can’t Just Dismiss the Anti-Lockdown Protests, Ben Burgis, Jacobin

Excerpt: /122/ TFW NO GF

On the so-called "incel documentary", TFW NO GF.

 

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We discuss the new documentary TFW NO GF, which focuses on the lives of extremely online alienated loners in the US. It has consequently been labelled the "incel documentary". Because the subjects are allowed to speak for themselves, it's also been called "irresponsible".

 

We take apart what, if anything, makes this cohort distinct from the past - is it the internet? are they lonelier? are their prospects worse? - and try to place the phenomenon in a wider context. If you haven't watched the documentary, there are clips from it interspersed throughout.

 

TFW NO GF on Amazon Prime

List of Pirate Bay proxies

UNLOCKED /120/ Damaged Beyond Repair? ft. Anton Jäger

On the end of Left Populism.

 

Friend of the podcast Anton Jäger joins us to discuss the fate of Left Populism, investigate the response of the Left to the ongoing Coronacrisis, and question whether we're really witnessing the end of neoliberalism. We refer to his recent piece in Damage magazine, in the readings below.

 

Did Left populism ask the right questions but get the wrong answers? Are the next three years going to see the blossoming of the 'Well, Actually' Left? Or is the stage set for the triumph of covid corporatism?

 

Readings:

• It might take a while before history starts again, Anton Jäger, Damage
• Are we all covid communists now?, Philip Cunliffe, Medium

/121/ Those Murdering Bastards ft. Vincent Bevins

On The Jakarta Method.

We're joined by Vincent Bevins to discuss his new book on the 1965-66 mass killings in Indonesia, Cold War anti-communism, and the destruction it wrought around the world. The mid-60s proved pivotal, with US-backed coups in Indonesia and Brazil setting the template. What was their effect on the Left worldwide? How did it alter developmental trajectories across the Third World? What lessons can we take from these historical experiences?

Running Order:

• Indonesia - (10:43)
• Brazil & application of Jakarta Method - (36:14)
• Themes of anticommunism - (43:55)
• Global consequences - (53:03)
• Anticommunism today - (01:14:39)
• Bonus stuff - (1:21:18)

Reading:
The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World

Excerpt: /120/ Damaged Beyond Repair ft. Anton Jäger

On the end of Left Populism.

 

This is a sample. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/BungaCast

 

Friend of the podcast Anton Jäger joins us to discuss the fate of Left Populism, investigate the response of the Left to the ongoing Coronacrisis, and question whether we're really witnessing the end of neoliberalism. We refer to his recent piece in Damage magazine, in the readings below.

 

Did Left populism ask the right questions but get the wrong answers? Are the next three years going to see the blossoming of the 'Well, Actually' Left? Or is the stage set for the triumph of covid corporatism?

 

Readings:

• It might take a while before history starts again, Anton Jäger, Damage
• Are we all covid communists now?, Philip Cunliffe, Medium

Excerpt: /119/ Reading Club: Digital Socialism

On whether new tech can help build decentralised socialism.

Reading Club episodes are for $10+ patrons. Sign up: patreon.com/bungacast

We discuss Evgeny Morozov's New Left Review essay, Digital Socialism? The Calculation Debate in the Age of Big Data. A useful companion to this (mentioned by George in the episode) is a lecture given by Morozov, that can be found at the bottom of this page.

Thanks for all the questions, they are addressed in the last third of the episode. 

Excerpt: /118/ Three Articles: Covid

This episode is for subscribers only. To hear the full thing, go to patreon.com/bungacast

 

In this latest Three Articles, we discuss responses to Covid-19.

 

Articles

• Virus lays bare the frailty of the social contract, Editorial, FT
• Herd Immunity is Epidemiological Neoliberalism, The Quarantimes
• We’re on the Brink of Cyberpunk, Kelsey D. Atherton, Slate

/117/ Against The Virus ft. John McAfee

On freedom in coronavirus times.

John McAfee joins us to address the lockdown, privacy and armed insurrection. Plus: why he prefers Fidel to Che, and how it came to be that his US presidential campaign HQ is in Havana, Cuba.

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/116/ Mr Bunga Goes to Washington (1) ft. Nick Frayn

In the first of an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nick Frayn, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in New England. How have things gone on the campaign trail? What is next for the Democratic primaries delayed by the corona outbreak? Can Bernie regain ground in the primaries against Joe Biden? How will the corona crisis impact the Democratic primaries?

Readings:

• How the coronavirus pandemic is disrupting the US Democratic primary calendar, FT
• Biden Wins Coronavirus Primary, The Atlantic
• Joe Biden sweeps key primaries and moves closer to nomination, The Guardian

Excerpt: /115/ Singapore Shangri-La ft. Lee Jones

This is a sample. The full episode is available by subscribing at patreon.com/bungacast

Singapore is held up as a free-market utopia: rich, orderly and clean. But the reality is quite different. Why does Singapore exert such a magnetism for neoliberals, when its reality strays from orthodox prescriptions? What and who made this model 'global city', and how does its communist and anti-colonial past lead to its hyper-capitalist present?

Excerpt: /114/ Reading Club: The Light That Failed

This episode is for our $10 and up patrons. Go to patreon.com/bungacast for access.

On the end of the Age of Imitation.

We discuss Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes' The Light That Failed: A Reckoning and their arguments for why liberal democracy stopped being the model to follow - in Eastern Europe, Russia and even the USA.

Thanks for all the questions, they are addressed in the last third of the episode. 

/113/ Globoville ft. Richard Williams

On global cities. 

Global cities flaunt themselves to global capital and are shaped by it. They are self-conscious and eager to transmit 'globalness'. But why? And how has the city under globalisation been reshaped? What is the role of money and power - not to mention sex and culture? And does the sameyness of global cities now mean that medium and small cities are where we should be looking for cultural and political change? 

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Excerpt: /112/ Ideologies of the Near Future

On political conflict over the next decade

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We debate what ideological contestation is going to look like in the next 2/5/10 years. Will liberalism adopt Silicon Valley solutionism? Does the centre-right become fully nationalist? And the far right have a future if that happens? And where does the left go next?

/111/ Big Money Talk: The Case for MMT ft. Bill Mitchell

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has been hailed by some and scorned by others as offering a new framework to understand the financial system. But what is specifically 'modern' about MMT, and how does it differ from rival accounts of the financial economy? We talk to Bill Mitchell, one of the leading proponents of MMT, who gives us an introductory rundown, plus tells us why the Japanese economy is unfairly maligned and explains what the future has in store for MMT as its inexorably advances against orthodox rivals.  

 

-> Our earlier episode with Doug Henwood, a critic of MMT, can be found here: Episode 68 

-> The episode with Bill Mitchell's co-author, Thomas Fazi, is here: Episode 38

 

Readings:

• Reclaiming the State, Bill Mitchell and Thomas Fazi (book)
• MMT Has Been Around for Decades. Here’s Why It Just Caught Fire, Ben Holland & Matthew Boesler, Bloomberg
• An MMT response on what causes inflation, FT
• What you need to know about modern monetary theory, Gavyn Davies, FT
• MMT Is Already Helping, Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Jacobin
  
  

Excerpt: /110/ Three Articles: De-democratising

In this latest Three Articles, we discuss American democracy and those who pretend to save it or undermine it. 

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Readings:

• It’s time to give the elites a bigger say in choosing the president, Julia Azari, WaPo
• Michael Bloomberg: Smirking Id Of America’s Elites, Matt Purple, The American Conservative
• Bernie Sanders Was Right to Talk About Wage Slavery. We Should Talk About It, Too., Alex Gourevitch, Jacobin