'Woke capitalism' in 2020

Leo

Well-known member
h) E McGregor’s travel company appearance war crime, “you’ve got the whole wide world”. No. No you fuckin don’t because your flight has been overbooked to the sum of 4x actual plane capacity

but at least Wreckless Eric got a nice royalty check.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I assume they're fighting racism so that people of every colour and creed get an equal opportunity to be horribly exploited.
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
you mean you wouldnt like to be paid to play a 20 minute bass solo in 11/4 time
I wouldn't cheapen the sacred art of the bass solo by expecting to be paid.

But if I could make a living from puns, that would be great.
 

wg-

Well-known member

The idea that a professional bourgeoisie includes teachers and thus participants in the dramatically underfunded American education system become "middlemen and moral rent-seekers" is a bit of a stretch tbh, do you not think it undermines credibility in the argument automatically?

Likewise... "the progressive-aligned professions entered into a virtual alliance with “Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood""

Have they really?

The over-arching paranoia is everywhere now. it's a funny old game
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Likewise... "the progressive-aligned professions entered into a virtual alliance with “Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood""

Have they really?
I thought it wasn't a bad piece insofar as it talks about how the language of diversity, inclusivity, 'decolonization' and so on does nothing to counter the ever-widening gulf of economic inequality and the exploitation of workers because it comes from a professional class that is itself an outgrowth of neoliberalism. But yeah, the mention of Silicon Valley is a bit jarring, when you think of Thiel, Musk, and the political leanings of the tech-bro crowd as a whole.
 

wg-

Well-known member
Surely we've reached a point where we can acknowledge these "discourse" situations are just generating distraction that allows the real issues to continue apace without real interference

I dont take umbrage with the leanings of "tech" as a whole in terms of a comparison, it's these loose conspiracy definitions that somehow fit everyone into the woke scenario - "these teachers are in a virtual alliance with hollywood" - it's really basic conceptual stuff and so lazy that it's a wonder people actually spend the time tying themselves in knots about it
 

versh

Well-known member
This was the bit that stood out to me.

Threatened institutions, as Jean Baudrillard once observed, become adept at "speak[ing] of themselves through denial"; of "simulating" their own "death, to escape their real death throes." In this way, he writes, "power can stage its own murder to rediscover a glimmer of existence and legitimacy." The apparently transmogrified, newly "legitimate" artistic and academic institutions of the 2020s claim to be undergoing moral and ethical transformations much more profound and meaningful than the merely technocratic reforms and restructurings of the classic neoliberal period. By performatively confronting "past evils," including (most strikingly) their own former missions and operations, they claim to be joining the right side of history. A public confession of past wrongs committed, and "harm" inflicted, enables them to engage in "healing," renewal, and self-legitimation via the processes of "reflection" and "self-examination." It is as though bureaucracy has "got religion." Old works are judged by newly streamlined presentist standards. New publicity statements are issued and "ambitious" new internal policies and procedures put in place. By engaging in sustained self-critique, institutions seek to occupy all points of view, including marginal and oppositional ones. In this way, they can renew their moral foundations via a disavowal of their own authority. They become institutions whose power and legitimacy lie precisely in compelling others to confront "institutional power."
 

versh

Well-known member
The idea that a professional bourgeoisie includes teachers and thus participants in the dramatically underfunded American education system become "middlemen and moral rent-seekers" is a bit of a stretch tbh, do you not think it undermines credibility in the argument automatically?

Yeah, probably, but I don't have to agree with every aspect of an argument or article to get something out of it or find it interesting.

Likewise... "the progressive-aligned professions entered into a virtual alliance with “Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood""

Have they really?

That isn't stated as fact. It's specifically presented as the interpretation of one of the writers cited.

"Nancy Fraser interprets these events... "
 

versh

Well-known member
Surely we've reached a point where we can acknowledge these "discourse" situations are just generating distraction that allows the real issues to continue apace without real interference

Isn't that the point being made in the article though? That any material change is batted away with symbolic gestures, like a museum full of looted artifacts talking about decolonisation whilst hanging onto said artifacts.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
This bit made me laugh:

The recent campaigns by both established institutions (schools and universities) and recreational affinity groups (hiking and knitting) to “decolonise” their practices fit this profile.

My wife is a keen knitter, and a few years ago she told me about a brouhaha that engulfed the knitting world where all these white women were either excommunicating each other or committing a sort of verbal seppuku for the sins of only knowing other white knitters, only using white models on their blogs to show off their jumpers and scarves, or even being white themselves - in places like fucking Iceland.
 

Leo

Well-known member
My wife is a keen knitter, and a few years ago she told me about a brouhaha that engulfed the knitting world where all these white women were either excommunicating each other or committing a sort of verbal seppuku for the sins of only knowing other white knitters, only using white models on their blogs to show off their jumpers and scarves, or even being white themselves - in places like fucking Iceland.

haha, yeah, my wife's a knitter as well, told me about this awhile ago. There's one main knitting site/forum where people post photos of their work, and a huge percentage of the participants are from Iceland, Norway, Finland. It was quite the kerfuffle.
 

versh

Well-known member
Reading it back, the "virtual alliance" comment doesn't strike me as that ridiculous.

Reducing what had formerly been expansive ideals of social liberation to the self-serving slogans of “meritocracy, diversity, and empowerment” in the culture industries and corporate workplace, the progressive-aligned professions entered into a virtual alliance with “Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood.”

All that's saying is that as those ideals have been hollowed out, those professions have ended up behaving the same way as Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood, i.e. paying lip service to those ideals but never really threatening to change the system hampering them.
 
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