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Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit: History Since the End of History
From the writer hailed for giving voice to a generation in Kids These Days comes a bold rejection of a society in which inequality, student debt, and exploitation have come to define our lives
Our economic situation, political discourse, and future prospects have gotten much worse since a guy brought a sign that said "Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit" to the Occupy Wall Street protests. We all knew what he meant then . . . but where are we now? And how has so much happened since the so-called end of history?
Malcolm Harris, one of our sharpest and most versatile critics, tackles these questions in over 30 new and selected pieces, examining everything from the lowering of wages to the rise of fascism--and the maddening cultural landscape in between. Along the way, he cops to being the guy who tricked protestors into thinking Radiohead was playing Occupy Wall Street; investigates why the robots that will replace us so often look like sex objects; and, most comfortingly, assures us that Marx saw the necessity of a crisis moment just like the one we're in.
Rarely does a writer come along who can turn our world so thoroughly upside-down that we can finally understand it for what it really is, but Harris's wry and biting essays do just that, and help us laugh at what we see.
Our economic situation, political discourse, and future prospects have gotten much worse since a guy brought a sign that said "Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit" to the Occupy Wall Street protests. We all knew what he meant then . . . but where are we now? And how has so much happened since the so-called end of history?
Malcolm Harris, one of our sharpest and most versatile critics, tackles these questions in over 30 new and selected pieces, examining everything from the lowering of wages to the rise of fascism--and the maddening cultural landscape in between. Along the way, he cops to being the guy who tricked protestors into thinking Radiohead was playing Occupy Wall Street; investigates why the robots that will replace us so often look like sex objects; and, most comfortingly, assures us that Marx saw the necessity of a crisis moment just like the one we're in.
Rarely does a writer come along who can turn our world so thoroughly upside-down that we can finally understand it for what it really is, but Harris's wry and biting essays do just that, and help us laugh at what we see.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 25, 2020
29 people are currently reading
848 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
Want to read
January 29, 2020I'm sick of the gimmicky cussing in so many books titles, but this one just slays me! And it's taken from a protester's sign, so you know it's legit. Can't wait to get it and leave it on my desk at work.
Read
April 25, 2020Spellbinding. A sharp eye casting its gaze upon a surprisingly wide variety of topics. I absolutely loved the essay on "political correctness" and how art should deal with politics. The essays on Silicon Valley were excellent too.
May 1, 2020
I'm not a fan of every single essay, but I still think this is a collection well worth reading. There are a few that absolutely sing out, and a lot with just generally important historical and political insights.
March 1, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed Malcolm Harris’ previous book, and this is an excellent follow-up. Most of these essays have been published elsewhere, but there is some previously unpublished work, like the insightful “And Into the Fire,” the lead-off piece to the book.
November 17, 2021
I'm really tired of essay collections but this one's good. A lot of leftist writing is just in defense of leftism itself, but I think this is the first book that made me appreciate praxis. Fav has to be the materialist analysis of cultural appropriation.
July 11, 2021
Read this after loving Kids These Days. I think Harris' writing works better in longer form when he has time to develop and idea more fully. It's worth reading for the best pieces, those on arts, tech and Marxism.
December 30, 2020
for my last [I assume] review of 2020, I pick the book whose title made me laugh the hardest. Not sure if that speaks so well of my maturity.
Anyway, the book itself is not all that funny, but it is provocative. Collection of essays by a Marxist anarchist. His earlier book on all the ways in which we [old people] have messed things up for his generation [millenials] was good as well (Kids These Days). Incisive commentary on politics, culture, and economics -- most definitely not the same as what you get in slate.com, the Washington Post, or other sources I see more regularly.
Won't bother trying to recap, but for a sense of where he is on the spectrum, there was one aside I remember in which "joining the American Civil Liberties Union" [like Mike Dukakis, I am proud to be a "card-carrying member"] was depicted as kind of an ok, mainstream, boring, ineffectual, square thing to be doing.
Topic choices variable -- the revisionist history of role of nonviolence in civil rights movement -- good going -- thoughtful, contrarian, informative. The one about our imagery and sloganeering re "child soldiers" being too simplistic -- huh? I mean I guess so, but is that really one of the more important problems to take on. I assume he's not in FAVOR of their being child soldiers, so it boils down to a call for more subtle and sophisticated expressions of outrage about their plight.
Anyway, gist is that not every essay hit home equally in my reading, but overall a different perspective and worth attention.
Anyway, the book itself is not all that funny, but it is provocative. Collection of essays by a Marxist anarchist. His earlier book on all the ways in which we [old people] have messed things up for his generation [millenials] was good as well (Kids These Days). Incisive commentary on politics, culture, and economics -- most definitely not the same as what you get in slate.com, the Washington Post, or other sources I see more regularly.
Won't bother trying to recap, but for a sense of where he is on the spectrum, there was one aside I remember in which "joining the American Civil Liberties Union" [like Mike Dukakis, I am proud to be a "card-carrying member"] was depicted as kind of an ok, mainstream, boring, ineffectual, square thing to be doing.
Topic choices variable -- the revisionist history of role of nonviolence in civil rights movement -- good going -- thoughtful, contrarian, informative. The one about our imagery and sloganeering re "child soldiers" being too simplistic -- huh? I mean I guess so, but is that really one of the more important problems to take on. I assume he's not in FAVOR of their being child soldiers, so it boils down to a call for more subtle and sophisticated expressions of outrage about their plight.
Anyway, gist is that not every essay hit home equally in my reading, but overall a different perspective and worth attention.
November 29, 2024
Started reading this one as well after reading Palo Alto. I agree with him almost all the time and I'm jealous of his writing. Not all essays are equally good, some are obviously dated and sadly seem naive in hindsight..
I like the "And Into the Fire" essay the most:
"Life becomes a question of what kind of risk we'd rather take: the frying pan or the fire. Count my vote for the fire" [..] Fuck it. Gather a small group of people whom you'd trust with your life and who see the situation the way you do. Meet in person, without your phones, somewhere outside. Talk about who your collective friends and enemies are, and what your capacities are to help your friends and to frustrate your enemies. Name your group after one of our martyrs; there are too many from whom to choose. Discuss your own morality and rules because you need both and you can't use the government's. Prepare to defend yourselves and each other by whatever means are necessary. Be careful, and practice, and be careful while you practice, and practice being careful. The resistance will be patchwork at first, but we'll find each other quickly, a constellation flickering to life."
A marxist with the attitude of an anarchist. I like.
I like the "And Into the Fire" essay the most:
"Life becomes a question of what kind of risk we'd rather take: the frying pan or the fire. Count my vote for the fire" [..] Fuck it. Gather a small group of people whom you'd trust with your life and who see the situation the way you do. Meet in person, without your phones, somewhere outside. Talk about who your collective friends and enemies are, and what your capacities are to help your friends and to frustrate your enemies. Name your group after one of our martyrs; there are too many from whom to choose. Discuss your own morality and rules because you need both and you can't use the government's. Prepare to defend yourselves and each other by whatever means are necessary. Be careful, and practice, and be careful while you practice, and practice being careful. The resistance will be patchwork at first, but we'll find each other quickly, a constellation flickering to life."
A marxist with the attitude of an anarchist. I like.
November 27, 2023
Selection of essays written from 2011 and 2019. I didn't appreciate all of them, but several covering wage theft, student loans, Amazon, and Antifa fighters -- landed gut punches. The title is from a protest sign the author saw during Occupy Wall street and the essays are written from a leftist point of view. The whole collection gave me a great deal to think about. I'm a politically active person, and consider myself a liberal, but some of the essays have lead me to question whether I have delved deeply enough into a true understanding of the forces of oppression in the U.S., if that is possible for a middle class person to do. Harris' essays opened a good window into a variety of topics I want to explore more. I've had a sense for quite a while that Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit, but what am I going to do about it.
May 13, 2020
Whew. Tough read , partly because this was written before the majority of Trump life and now a pandemic. Bottom line truly is everything is fucked and we are so so screwed. Recommend still reading! This young , intelligent and rave author touches on a ton of important issues for us liberals.
May 20, 2020
Malcolm Harris the GOAT. Incredibly concise, does what Nathan Robinson does but better, and looks straight at the challenges facing the American left, on issues like labor, gender, culture, and more. King
abandoned
August 27, 2020I super super loved Kids These Days, but this book seems to be mostly just a haphazard collection of essays laid out in vaguely chronological order with little throughline other than “shit’s fucked is”. Not saying it’s not worth reading, it’s just not what I’m looking for.
September 11, 2020
Algunas partes se me hacen difíciles de seguir pero es más por mi desconocimiento que por cómo está escrito, creo yo. Ha expandido mis horizontes y he conocido un punto de vista que no había escuchado antes sobre muchas cosas.
April 28, 2021
It’s interesting to be reading about recent history I’ve lived through in books, instead of seeing it on the news. Along with some other books I’ve read recently, I thought many of these essays captured exactly what was going on in the 2000s.
April 1, 2020
Review forthcoming in Spectrum Culture.
August 6, 2021
Not bad.
October 1, 2021
and how!
real review at some point
real review at some point
March 17, 2023
Didn’t read
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews