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The Syllabus

@the-syllabus.bsky.social

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Knowledge Curation Done Well. Non-Profit. Podcasts, videos, books, academic articles, and more. Subscribe: https://www.the-syllabus.com/

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 15d

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The Syllabus

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 11m

Peter Thiel recasts anxieties about technology and global governance as existential threats. Our essay of the week traces how Thiel’s apocalyptic worldview informs a far-right project hostile to solidarity and democracy.

By @laurabullard.bsky.social in @wired.com

The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession

Thirty years ago, a peace-loving Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the apocalyptic theories of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. They’ve been a road map for the billionaire ever since.

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 22h

Is the far right a backlash against neoliberalism, or its true heir? Using late-apartheid South Africa as a case study, our hidden gem of the week explores how foundational neoliberal thinkers actively engaged with and often rationalized the racist state.

By Elizabeth Soer

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 1d

In an era marked by escalating inequality and the resurgence of reactionary politics, "progress" is far from certain. Our book of the week insists on salvaging progress as a critical concept tied to real emancipatory potential.

By Rahel Jaeggi on @harvardpress.bsky.social

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 1d

From Marshall Islands stick charts to Landsat scenes and literary maps, this survey shows how every map encodes power: projections tilt perspective, borders assert claims, and data priorities decide what counts.

Feat. Lena Mattson at @librarycongress.bsky.social

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 2d

Amid fields and dust, this piece examines how Salton Sea—California’s largest lake—chokes to death: drought and water transfers drain it, exposing toxic playa that spikes asthma in one of the state’s poorest counties.

By Ash Sanders in @thebeliever.net

The Last Resort - Believer Magazine

Listen to this story: It is easy to miss California’s biggest environmental disaster. Driving north on Highway 111, you wouldn’t expect to find an inland sea. If it’s summer, the thermometer in your…

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 2d

Reading Adam Hanieh's recent book while on a plugged-in exercise bike, this piece argues oil capitalism seeps under our skin—from Vaseline and microplastics to fast fashion—speeding work and mechanizing desire.

By @alansearslefty.bsky.social in @journalspectre.bsky.social

Lube – Spectre Journal

Inspired by Adam Hanieh's Crude Capitalism, Alan Sears reflects on the influence of oil-centered capitalist development on our erotic lives.

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 3d

This podcast is featured in this week's edition of the Best of Social Justice: buff.ly/YHaQAvN

The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 3d

Tracing fascism's rise as a recurring project of reaction and violence, this conversation centers on the movements that fought it in the streets, unions, and culture. The guest weighs tactics from mass protest to community self-defense.

With @mark-bray.bsky.social on @kpfa.org

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A History of Fascism and the Fightback | KPFA

Guest: Mark Bray is a historian of Modern Europe History and human rights at Rutgers University. He is the author of several books including his national best-seller Antifa: The Anti-Fascist…

kpfa.org

The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 3d

This document can be found in this week's edition of the Best of Social Justice: buff.ly/YHaQAvN

The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 3d

This report exposes how renewable energy systems and transition mineral mining intensify inequalities—benefiting wealthy nations and elites while disempowering the Global South, Indigenous peoples, women, and workers.

By Mateo A. Zuluaga et al. at @oxfaminternational.bsky.social

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 4d

Reviving Adorno's critique of the standardization of music, our article of the week reads streaming as a turn from Fordist production to financialized platforms where music is assetized and homogenized.

By Paul N. Kullick & @johannespetry.bsky.social in @finandsoc.bsky.social

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 4d

This video is part of this week's edition of the Best of Social Justice: buff.ly/YHaQAvN

The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 4d

This talk critiques the “fetishization” of consent: defining rape as nonconsensual sex creates “legitimation costs,” where all consensual sex—even if unwanted or shaped by cultural or economic pressures—becomes ethically untouchable.

Feat. Robin West at @oxfordlawfac.bsky.social

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 5d

Long marginal yet increasingly cited amid today’s left crisis, Michel Clouscard diagnosed a bourgeois order now radicalized by consumerism and “hipsterism.” Our video of the week dissects the legacy of postwar French theory.

Feat. Michael C. Behrent

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 5d

This essay is featured in this week's edition of the Best of Social Justice: buff.ly/YHaQAvN

The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 5d

ICE is funneling more detainees into solitary. This piece traces how oversight has been gutted while ICE denies retaliation. New DHS rules expand reporting, but vulnerable people keep landing in the box.

By Christie Thompson & Patricia Clarembaux in @themarshallproject.org

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‘Unbearable’: How ICE Is Locking More Immigrants in Solitary Under Trump

A mother of three said she hallucinated after weeks in an ICE segregation cell in Louisiana. She’s one of thousands now facing the psychological toll of isolation.

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 6d

The concept of an "energy transition” is a corporate ideology that delays structural change. Our podcast of the week explains how the history of energy is cumulative, not a neat sequence of substitutions.

With Jean-Baptiste Fressoz on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 6d

China’s state-driven techno-optimism is rooted in a Marxist-Leninist vision of history as a progressive, material force. Our Italian pick of the week reframes state controls as a necessary dialectical counterweight to this relentless acceleration.

By Yoshimi

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 7d

Larry Ellison's £257m patronage has reshaped the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) into a well-funded engine of techno-solutionism. Our essay of the week tracks the symbiotic relationship between the TBI and Oracle.

By @petergeoghegan.bsky.social & @maybulman.bsky.social

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 7d

The Global South must pursue a green structural transformation (GST) as a triple task: industrialize, decarbonize, and adapt. Our hidden gem of the week examines the challenges around GST through the lens of industrial policy.

By Richard Kozul-Wright at @gdp-center.bsky.social

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 8d

Today’s global crises are a culmination of capitalism’s historical contradictions, but their scope is qualitatively different from past ones. Our book of the week develops a theory of capitalism's exhaustion.

By William I. Robinson on @universitypress.cambridge.org

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 8d

Fashion isn’t fluff but a psychic and political engine. This conversation tracks how Freud fretted over his barber and tailor, while Lacan’s gaze and Anzieu’s skin‑ego live in clothes as armor and second skin.

With Valerie Steele on @unhappinesspod.bsky.social

114: Fashion and Psychoanalysis feat. Valerie Steele - Ordinary Unhappiness

Abby and Patrick welcome Valerie Steele, Director and Chief Curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, to discuss her new book, Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and…

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 9d

Merriam survives on snarky posts, games, and sharper SEO. With U.S. lexicographers down from about 200 to under 50, this piece urges treating dictionaries as public goods amid fights over words like insurrection and woke.

By @stefanfatsis.bsky.social in @theatlantic.com

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Is This the End of the Dictionary?

Obsolete (adj.): no longer in use or no longer useful

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 9d

A New Dealer turned Columbia preservationist who helped save Grand Central, this piece traces how James Marston Fitch tied design to democracy and opposed suburban sprawl, urban renewal, and privatized luxury.

By Nancy Levinson in @placesjournal.bsky.social

Architects in Wonderland

Decades ago, James Marston Fitch argued that reuse of existing buildings should be prioritized over new construction. His thesis is more relevant than ever.

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 10d

This article is featured in this week's edition of the Best of Political Economy: buff.ly/z88CcZP