Will Shetterly's Blog, page 78

Eddie Glaude's impromptu definition of neoliberalism is pretty solid

FromMichael Eric Dyson vs. Eddie Glaude on Race, Hillary Clinton and the Legacy of Obama's Presidency | Democracy Now!: Well, a neoliberal economic philosophy involves a kind of understanding that the notion of the public good is kind of undermined by a basic market logic that turns us all into entrepreneurs, where competition and rivalry define who we are, where the state’s principal function—

Bad behavior all around: on grumbling authors, agents who charge writers for pitches, and aspiring publishing people who shame writers

Because David Benjamin's post is still public, I'll share the link:My Latest Rejection, #319: Jennifer Johnson-Blalock. But if you're tempted to join the people who're mobbing him, please finish this post first. I'll make it as brief as I can. I learned about this story in the wrong way. First I saw Steve Brust sharing a link to this tweet by John Scalzi: Read a blog post by an author

Captain Fanboy on Wonder Woman, Justice League, and Dr. Strange trailers, plus Iron Man 2

1 When I heard DC was going to set Wonder Woman's origin in World War I, I thought it was a silly change done just to make it different from the Captain America movie. But after seeing the trailer, I realized the change is brilliant for two reasons: 1. Wonder Woman's purpose is to end war—she should be there for the first world war. 2. Wonder Woman's role is to be a hero for women and men

How does privilege theory explain what I just saw?

About ten minutes ago: I'm waiting on my bicycle at the corner of Hiawatha and 35th. In the middle of the street is a young white man with a cardboard sign—I can't read it from where I am, but it's undoubtedly a variation on "Homeless. Please help." Maybe he's a vet—many homeless men and women served in the military before the US's leaders abandoned them. A pristine SUV stops beside him. The

A short timeline of socialism and feminism

1837 Charles Fourier, a utopian socialist, coined the word "féminisme". 1845 Friedrich Engels, discussing female factory workers who supported their husbands inThe Condition of the Working Class in England, wrote, If the rule of the wife over her husband—a natural consequence of the factory system—is unnatural, then the former rule of the husband over the wife must also have been unnatural.

A short timeline of socialism and anti-racism

Note:"Anti-racism" in the title is used in its general sense of "opposing racism". The word was rarely used until academics at Ivy League schools began promoting it in the 1980s as a synonym for Critical Race Theory, but now it's also used by people who oppose racism and reject Critical Race Theory. 1864 Karl Marx,congratulating President Lincolnon his re-election, wrote, While the

A short timeline of socialism and the fight for racial equality

1864 Karl Marx,congratulating President Lincolnon his re-election, wrote, While the workingmen, the true political powers of the North, allowed slavery to defile their own republic, while before the Negro, mastered and sold without his concurrence, they boasted it the highest prerogative of the white-skinned laborer to sell himself and choose his own master, they were unable to attain the

#BLM, we're in this together: The odds of being killed by US police are not significantly different, regardless of your race

Dear Reader, I majored in English, so if my math is wrong, please don't hesitate to say so. I'm always grateful for the chance to correct a mistake. • If you hang out in the places I do, you'll constantly hear it's more likely for a black person to be killed by the police than a white person, but you won't hear the actual odds, so I thought I'd run the numbers using data fromUnited States

The 3-to-1 rule, or Using race to ignore class

A Multi-Level Bayesian Analysis of Racial Bias in Police Shootings at the County-Level in the United States, 2011–2014is fascinating for what it reveals and what it leaves out—the writers don't think class is worth including, so they provide statistics like this: The median probability across counties of being {black, unarmed, and shot by police} is 3.49 (PCI95: 1.77, 6.04) times the

Two socialist cartoons: Eat your pheasant, drink your wine...

...your days are numbered, bourgeois swine.