Critical Theory Working Group
@crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social
Resources & open reading groups for collective study of early Critical Theory.
Website: https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/
Podcast feed: https://media.rss.com/critique-of-the-podcast-form/feed.xml
Website: https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/
Podcast feed: https://media.rss.com/critique-of-the-podcast-form/feed.xml
Pinned
NEW ON THE CTWG SITE
MARGIN NOTES: A JOURNAL OF CRITICAL THEORY
V1: KERNELS OF EARLY CRITICAL THEORY
Critical Theory is only right in a wrong world.
Link: ctwgwebsite.github.io/projects/1_p...
MARGIN NOTES: A JOURNAL OF CRITICAL THEORY
V1: KERNELS OF EARLY CRITICAL THEORY
Critical Theory is only right in a wrong world.
Link: ctwgwebsite.github.io/projects/1_p...
POD EP10: Esther & Sebastian discuss Bloch’s 1932 fragment Nonsychronism & the Obligation to its Dialectics, a text that “takes its place inappropriately” (Benjamin)—on revolutions past, reaction present, & utopias future!
patreon.com/posts/episod...
patreon.com/posts/episod...
Episode 10: Working Through the Past with Ernst Bloch | Critical Theory Working Group
Get more from Critical Theory Working Group on Patreon
patreon.com
January 29, 2026 at 3:19 PM
POD EP10: Esther & Sebastian discuss Bloch’s 1932 fragment Nonsychronism & the Obligation to its Dialectics, a text that “takes its place inappropriately” (Benjamin)—on revolutions past, reaction present, & utopias future!
patreon.com/posts/episod...
patreon.com/posts/episod...
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
Of interest for people who want to see how Adorno deduces how neo-Kantians treat teleology as merely heuristic, how Horkheimer thinks error and development, and some cool connections in the intro on post-Kantian philsci!
January 25, 2026 at 1:52 PM
Of interest for people who want to see how Adorno deduces how neo-Kantians treat teleology as merely heuristic, how Horkheimer thinks error and development, and some cool connections in the intro on post-Kantian philsci!
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
ICYMI: Critique of the Podcast Form has an RSS feed and is now available on all podcast streaming platforms except Spotify!
media.rss.com/critique-of-...
media.rss.com/critique-of-...
December 28, 2025 at 4:22 PM
ICYMI: Critique of the Podcast Form has an RSS feed and is now available on all podcast streaming platforms except Spotify!
media.rss.com/critique-of-...
media.rss.com/critique-of-...
NEW FROM CRITIQUE OF THE PODCAST FORM:
The culture industry is at it again! Their new weapon: anime. Their strategy? The media mix.
The culture industry is at it again! Their new weapon: anime. Their strategy? The media mix.
December 28, 2025 at 3:34 PM
NEW FROM CRITIQUE OF THE PODCAST FORM:
The culture industry is at it again! Their new weapon: anime. Their strategy? The media mix.
The culture industry is at it again! Their new weapon: anime. Their strategy? The media mix.
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
Happy to share that my first article in the academic context has been published also representing the Critical Theory Working Group! @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social !!!
December 18, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Happy to share that my first article in the academic context has been published also representing the Critical Theory Working Group! @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social !!!
🫶
first of the end of the year posts: a retranslation of the final pages of the original version of Horkheimer’s T&CT, & a shoutout to the comrades @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social for the last two years!
open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...
open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...
December 21, 2025 at 5:49 PM
🫶
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
teaser for the upcoming CTWG collection of translations of Horkheimer’s fragments “towards a dialectical logic,” which is the second half of an insane 1934 letter to Fromm that I doubt very much anyone would consider a sketch for a “dialectical logic” lol open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...
December 8, 2025 at 9:42 PM
teaser for the upcoming CTWG collection of translations of Horkheimer’s fragments “towards a dialectical logic,” which is the second half of an insane 1934 letter to Fromm that I doubt very much anyone would consider a sketch for a “dialectical logic” lol open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
This is so fucking wild, man. I never thought about how the shitty music was so fucking consistent between bars and restaurants
December 7, 2025 at 6:17 AM
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
Rest in Power Asad Haider
December 5, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Rest in Power Asad Haider
Forgot to plug this one since I was sick
Episode 6 | Introduction to the History of Left Communism
-- Critique of the Podcast Form by @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social --
“Introduction to the history of left-communism, specifically the German/Dutch (councilist), Italian (Bordigist) and French (ultraleft) traditions.”
-- Critique of the Podcast Form by @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social --
“Introduction to the history of left-communism, specifically the German/Dutch (councilist), Italian (Bordigist) and French (ultraleft) traditions.”
Episode 6: Introduction to the History of Left Communism
Podcast-Folge · Critique of the Podcast Form · 26.11.2025 · 1 Std. 26 Min.
podcasts.apple.com
November 30, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Forgot to plug this one since I was sick
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
Hello all, this is a new blog post at the CTWG. It is a written adaptation of my Hessen presentation from Spring. There, I give a condensed summary of the Hessen-Grossmann thesis while situating it within a broader genealogy of Marxist science historiography. Hope y’all find this fruitful.
Roots & Branches. Boris Hessen’s Marxist Science Historiography | CTWG
An Introduction to a Marxist Science Historiography
ctwgwebsite.github.io
November 19, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Hello all, this is a new blog post at the CTWG. It is a written adaptation of my Hessen presentation from Spring. There, I give a condensed summary of the Hessen-Grossmann thesis while situating it within a broader genealogy of Marxist science historiography. Hope y’all find this fruitful.
POD EP 5: A Conversation About Dialectical Biology, with Mac Parker and Anatarah Bin AlKaf—on Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins' "Dialectical Biologist"!
patreon.com/posts/episod...
patreon.com/posts/episod...
Episode 5: A Conversation About Dialectical Biology. | crittheoryworkgroup
Get more from crittheoryworkgroup on Patreon
patreon.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:44 PM
POD EP 5: A Conversation About Dialectical Biology, with Mac Parker and Anatarah Bin AlKaf—on Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins' "Dialectical Biologist"!
patreon.com/posts/episod...
patreon.com/posts/episod...
NEW: Part I of "Reflections on the Right and its Violence" by J. E. Morain
This essay on reactionary violence seeks to show the basic unity behind conservative acts of social murder, neo-nazi terror attacks, and everything in between.
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Re...
This essay on reactionary violence seeks to show the basic unity behind conservative acts of social murder, neo-nazi terror attacks, and everything in between.
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Re...
November 9, 2025 at 2:41 PM
NEW: Part I of "Reflections on the Right and its Violence" by J. E. Morain
This essay on reactionary violence seeks to show the basic unity behind conservative acts of social murder, neo-nazi terror attacks, and everything in between.
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Re...
This essay on reactionary violence seeks to show the basic unity behind conservative acts of social murder, neo-nazi terror attacks, and everything in between.
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Re...
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
New Recording—Pod EP 4: Amadeo Bordiga and the Murder of the Dead, with Samuel J. Thomas, J.E. Morain, & James Crane. On Bordiga’s incredible 50s/60s run of eco-communist polemics against the so-called “civil engineering” of capitalist civilization!
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
Episode 4: Amadeo Bordiga and the Murder of the Dead | crittheoryworkgroup
Get more from crittheoryworkgroup on Patreon
www.patreon.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:22 AM
New Recording—Pod EP 4: Amadeo Bordiga and the Murder of the Dead, with Samuel J. Thomas, J.E. Morain, & James Crane. On Bordiga’s incredible 50s/60s run of eco-communist polemics against the so-called “civil engineering” of capitalist civilization!
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
NEW: “Racketology and the Development of Competition.”
In this reply to Mac Parker’s “Economic Limits of Racketology,” Jack Barrett argues Horkheimer offers an expanded concept of competition + a preemptive critique of Baran & Sweezy’s theory of monopoly!
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Co...
In this reply to Mac Parker’s “Economic Limits of Racketology,” Jack Barrett argues Horkheimer offers an expanded concept of competition + a preemptive critique of Baran & Sweezy’s theory of monopoly!
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Co...
October 13, 2025 at 6:36 PM
NEW: “Racketology and the Development of Competition.”
In this reply to Mac Parker’s “Economic Limits of Racketology,” Jack Barrett argues Horkheimer offers an expanded concept of competition + a preemptive critique of Baran & Sweezy’s theory of monopoly!
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Co...
In this reply to Mac Parker’s “Economic Limits of Racketology,” Jack Barrett argues Horkheimer offers an expanded concept of competition + a preemptive critique of Baran & Sweezy’s theory of monopoly!
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Co...
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
Adorno & Horkheimer taught me it was okay to be annoying
October 6, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Adorno & Horkheimer taught me it was okay to be annoying
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
rereading Bordiga’s stuff on how communism liberates human beings, animals, rivers, solar radiation, electrons, etc from the stupid & stupefying compulsions of capital accumulation & making the airhorn noise by myself at 3AM
October 7, 2025 at 6:37 AM
rereading Bordiga’s stuff on how communism liberates human beings, animals, rivers, solar radiation, electrons, etc from the stupid & stupefying compulsions of capital accumulation & making the airhorn noise by myself at 3AM
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU: You find yourself wondering: why can’t I find any two hour long podcast episode about Kanafani’s literary works as condition/consequence of his conception of resistance culture? YOUR SEARCH IS OVER
September 28, 2025 at 2:55 AM
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU: You find yourself wondering: why can’t I find any two hour long podcast episode about Kanafani’s literary works as condition/consequence of his conception of resistance culture? YOUR SEARCH IS OVER
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
New Recording—Pod EP 3: Ghassan Kanafani: Realism Against Reality, with Sebastian Kokesch & yours truly. On the necessary connection between aesthetic autonomy & revolutionary political commitment in some of Ghassan Kanafani's best-known literary works!
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
Episode 3: Ghassan Kanafani: Realism Against Reality | crittheoryworkgroup
Get more from crittheoryworkgroup on Patreon
www.patreon.com
September 28, 2025 at 12:54 AM
New Recording—Pod EP 3: Ghassan Kanafani: Realism Against Reality, with Sebastian Kokesch & yours truly. On the necessary connection between aesthetic autonomy & revolutionary political commitment in some of Ghassan Kanafani's best-known literary works!
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...
Reposted by Critical Theory Working Group
On this day in 1940, Walter Benjamin took his own life in the town of Portbou, after being denied entry by Spanish officials.
“If the killing of Lorca was Fascism’s first crime against literature, Benjamin’s death was undoubtedly the second.” - The Listener
“If the killing of Lorca was Fascism’s first crime against literature, Benjamin’s death was undoubtedly the second.” - The Listener
September 26, 2025 at 2:42 PM
On this day in 1940, Walter Benjamin took his own life in the town of Portbou, after being denied entry by Spanish officials.
“If the killing of Lorca was Fascism’s first crime against literature, Benjamin’s death was undoubtedly the second.” - The Listener
“If the killing of Lorca was Fascism’s first crime against literature, Benjamin’s death was undoubtedly the second.” - The Listener
it’s not too late to sign up for the last meeting of the session (eventbrite.com/e/views-from...), & thanks to everyone who’s already contributed to the PCRF fundraiser—as of today we’re 87% of the way to meeting our goal! Help us to 100% if you can! pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/p...
September 23, 2025 at 11:02 PM
it’s not too late to sign up for the last meeting of the session (eventbrite.com/e/views-from...), & thanks to everyone who’s already contributed to the PCRF fundraiser—as of today we’re 87% of the way to meeting our goal! Help us to 100% if you can! pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/p...
We'll be starting up in 20 minutes
Thanks to everyone who came out for the conclusion to Rabea Eghbariah’s “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept”—join us next Sat., 9/20 @ noon EST as Anatarah bin AlKaf opens our discussion of “Resisting Erasure” (2025) by Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox, & Rafeef Ziadah!
September 20, 2025 at 3:41 PM
We'll be starting up in 20 minutes