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John Merrick @johnmerrick.bsky.social · 17h

A superb essay by Ashok Kumar from the latest issue of the BREAK–DOWN – a brilliant tour of the political economic terrain of fossil capital, from which springs essential strategic advice for activists. A must read!

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Dani Díaz @diazcarrete.bsky.social · 1d

Now I wonder about Schopenhauer's views on colonialism. There's this open-access book about Schopenhauer's politics that might be relevant: www.cambridge.org/core/books/s...

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 15h

Anders in Aarhus

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 17h

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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

US anti-fascism expert blocked from flying to Spain at airport

Rutgers University professor who published book on antifa was informed at boarding gate that his trip was cancelled A Rutgers University professor who taught a course on anti-fascism was blocked from leaving the US for Spain on Wednesday night, according to media reports, hours after Donald Trump hosted a White House roundtable highlighting the impact of antifa – or “anti-fascist” – far-left activists. Mark Bray, an historian who published the 2017 book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, and has taught courses on anti-fascism at the New Jersey university, was attempting to board a plane at Newark airport bound for Europe when he was informed at the boarding gate that the reservations for him and his family had been cancelled. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Mikkel Krause Frantzen @mikkelkfrantzen.bsky.social · 1d

okay, if Pynchon did not win, but it is okay, László Krasznahorkai is a good choice too

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 1d

not bad!

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Robert Heinze @rheinze.bsky.social · 1d

That’s it I’m founding a religion based on the teachings of the prophet Jean Baudrillard

David Ingram @davidingram.bsky.social · 2d

In July 2024, five months before he allegedly set the fire, Mr Rinderknecht asked ChatGPT to create an image of a "dystopian painting" that included a burning forest and a crowd of people running away from a fire. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Pacific Palisades fire suspect snared by ChatGPT image, say investigators

Investigators say evidence collected from the 29-year-old's devices showed an AI image of a burning city.

www.bbc.com

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

James Boggs, auto worker and political visionary, stating demands fit for the age of AI already in 1963: "Society must recognize that the magnificent productive tools of our day are the result of the accumulated labors of all of us and not the exclusive property of any group or class."

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 1d

for all of us! Then we can just hang out while our AIs do the work

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 1d

I remember struggling through it

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 1d

that’s a tough book!

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 1d

heading to Aarhus to finally answer the perennial question:

ABOLITION OR SOCIALIZATION?

Danish Society for Marxist Studies @dkmarxsoc.bsky.social · 11d

New conference program just dropped!

Go check it out!

marxistiskestudier.com/wp-content/u...

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 1d

I’m thinking about skipping my own talk so I can see this instead! (Don’t tell @dkmarxsoc.bsky.social )

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 2d

I got interviewed for the Deadbeat Philosophy podcast, talking about Audre Lorde's thought and her impact, including why philosophers should care.

Lorde's work makes a demand of her readers, and I think more philosophers and theorists need to answer to it

Audre Lorde as Philosopher (w/ Caleb Ward)

open.spotify.com

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 1d

cool events coming up at the Centre for Social Critique in Berlin! @ktbberlin.bsky.social

Land Question: Oct 30/31

Grounds of Planning: Dec 4/5

criticaltheoryinberlin.de

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 2d

Almost by accident, Nepal’s Gen Z revolutionaries helped to overthrow the government. In interviews with dozens of young Nepalis, they make clear that the country’s abrupt and violent shift was not what they envisioned. nyti.ms/4nJedA8

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Barry Eidlin @eidlin.bsky.social · 2d

Today's Marxist Sociology Blog post is a banger from @lwestheuser.bsky.social & Linda Beck based on their Critical Sociology article. It examines how workers think about class & class politics. Against ideas that they are irrelevant or "lost to the right" 1/
marxistsociology.org/2025/10/work...

Workers’ Political Consciousness in Demobilized Class Societies: Redistribution, Recognition and Representation | Section on Marxist Sociology

A sole focus on right-wing ideology captures only a narrow part of working-class consciousness. Most workers—including many right-wing voters—are politically demobilized and distant from all politics,...

marxistsociology.org

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 2d

Climate barbarism, managing decline, socializing nature, and one more forthcoming text on carbon civilization and boom: it’s a book!

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Daniel James @schlawinerkreis.bsky.social · 2d

9/ Hegel’s legacy splits in two. One line turns pro-imperial: British Idealists like Edward Caird cast empire as reason’s outward growth, a moral duty to “raise barbarous races” toward civilisation. The other anti-colonial: C. L. R. James reclaims Hegel’s dialectic through the Haitian Revolution.

Half-length 1871 photograph of philosopher Edward Caird by Thomas Annan; Victorian studio portrait, seated, dark jacket, direct gaze. One of the British Idealists who moralised empire.

Black-and-white 1938 portrait of C. L. R. James, head and shoulders in suit and tie, looking left—author of The Black Jacobins, reading Hegel through Haiti.

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Daniel James @schlawinerkreis.bsky.social · 2d

2/ Our central claim: Across his system, Hegel builds an account of colonialism as racial domination, linking world history, freedom, property, and statehood. It’s grounded in the four-stages theory and what he calls the absolute right of the Idea, vindicating colonialism in the name of liberty.

A colour lithograph published as a supplement to The Graphic for the Indian and Colonial Exhibition (24 July 1886), showing the British Empire in pink and centred on Greenwich. Britannia sits enthroned above the globe, framed by banners reading Freedom, Fraternity, and Federation. Around the border, allegorical figures represent the empire’s peoples: Indigenous hunters and labourers at the margins, traders, soldiers, and settlers nearer the imperial core. Insets list trade, population, and area statistics, fusing allegory with empirical data. Animals and crops – elephants and tigers for India, kangaroos and sheep for Australia – mark each region by its resources and stage of economic life (Driver 2010).

Crane’s composition depicts a hierarchy of civilisation. Britannia embodies imperial authority, while her subjects appear as differentiated types of labour and culture. The blend of commercial data and moral imagery turns empire into a story of progress, where freedom, property, and self-government are equated with discipline and productivity. The bent “Asian porter” and Atlas labelled Human Labour expose the burden that sustains this freedom (Driver 2010).

The map’s spatial order mirrors the stadial logic of Scottish four-stages anthropology that also shapes Hegel’s philosophy of world history. Hunters, pastoralists, agriculturalists, and commercial peoples occupy successive ranks in a teleology culminating in Europe as bearer of universal freedom. The banners of Freedom and Federation vindicate colonial domination, echoing Hegel’s historical theodicy in which the “absolute right of the Idea” is realised through European expansion (Driver 2010).

Reference

Felix Driver, “In Search of the Imperial Map: Walter Crane and the Image of Empire,” History Workshop Journal 69 (2010): 146–157.

A black-and-white engraving depicting Hegel lecturing at the University of Berlin. He stands before rows of students, gesturing with one hand while holding a manuscript in the other. His face is animated, suggesting the intensity of oral exposition. The students below him sit closely packed, taking notes or gazing upward toward the lectern, where the philosopher appears framed by a dark wooden pulpit and a high window that lets in a diffuse light.

The scene evokes, amongst others, Hegel’s lectures on the Philosophy of History in the winter term of 1822–1823, when he proclaimed that Europe represents the culmination of world history. In these lectures, Hegel argued that the principle of freedom had been fully realised in modern Christian Europe and that what lay outside it was “intrinsically overcome.” “For Europeans,” he declared, “the world is round” – the globe itself already encompassed by Europe’s spiritual and political dominion.

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 2d

A fantastic and important contribution to Hegel scholarship!

Daniel James @schlawinerkreis.bsky.social · 2d

1/ I'm excited to share that Franz Knappik’s and my Cambridge Element on Hegel and Colonialism is finally out – open access below! We trace how Hegel defends European colonial rule, including transatlantic slavery, and how that defence runs through his entire philosophical system.

Thread below ⬇️

Hegel and Colonialism

Cambridge Core - Classical Philosophy - Hegel and Colonialism

www.cambridge.org

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Daniel James @schlawinerkreis.bsky.social · 2d

1/ I'm excited to share that Franz Knappik’s and my Cambridge Element on Hegel and Colonialism is finally out – open access below! We trace how Hegel defends European colonial rule, including transatlantic slavery, and how that defence runs through his entire philosophical system.

Thread below ⬇️

Hegel and Colonialism

Cambridge Core - Classical Philosophy - Hegel and Colonialism

www.cambridge.org

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 2d

reposting this with new URL
www.break-down.org/socialising-...

Socialising Nature

How we can live together without exploiting each other? This is the work of socialising nature.

www.break-down.org

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