PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy

Paul Reitter just finished the first translation of Marx's Capital this century. He joins our episode to educate us on why we need a new version, the difficulties of rendering Capital in English, and of course who's mad at him.  Watch the interview here (video): https://youtu.be/pG0rQi6JwkU Buy-the-book link: https://amzn.to/3PvOiwc All public episodes are ad free on patreon at https://www.patreon...

This is the big one and it's hard to believe we haven't done this particular essay before, but it's the linchpin for the critical theory use of the term "ideology."  Check the patreon feed for the pdf if you want to check the source text, and to listen ad-free: https://www.patreon.com/c/plasticpills

This episode is based on an article Althusser wrote in the 60s, Marxism and Humanism, which you can find in "For Marx." He declares that Marxism and Humanism are fundamentally incompatible, which we all agree on because our liberal was at a conference this week. Get all the eps upon release with no ads at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

We read Althusser's "Marxism and Humanism," an Essay from his 1965 collection For Marx in which he declares the two fundamentally incompatible. We didn't make it far into the essay because we were having terminological disputes, but we shall return in finer detail soon. Get all the eps upon release with no ads at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

There's big news on the news, and we thought we would take a poke at interpreting this event—if in fact it is one—and giving it an ideological status.  Catch up on the whole series on ideology ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

We have been talking about Althusser once again on the Pod, and in advance of our new dive we are re-releasing an episode about why Althusser might be important. 

The federal union of the United States has decided to elect Presinald Trump as its leader from the years 2025-2029, as God wills. Here, three Canadians provide you with unsolicited opinions about the meaning of this event or lack thereof. Find this content ad-free for free at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Today we take the temperature of all the new futures popping up—the various Acc/s, the radical democracies, the Christofascists, and the Magacomms—and psychoanalyze them as all sharing one trait: they're too optimistic to be believed. Get all the full episodes at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

In 1933, Bataille linked Durkheim's sociology and psychoanalysis to the rise of fascism over the border. The parallels to the present moment are hard to miss. Get the full episode and many more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

MAGA Communism may strike you as contradictory and stupid sounding, but it is backed by 200 tweets of theory which include Marx, Lenin, Dugin, and Heidegger. We plunge the depths of the MAGA Communist tractatus: "MARXISM IS NOT WOKE" to explore its theoretical aspirations. Source text: https://x.com/InfraHaz/status/1672279505774448640 Find our recent episodes on fascist philosophy ad-free at https...

We face the fact that only a Nazi could properly explain American politics. Get all episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Back to business—we talk Aztec myths and Bataille on Sacrifice from The Accursed Share. Get the full episode and all the others at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

We don't often have current events to cover, but once in a while the current events are Hegel. The Hegelian E-Girl Council was to be the head of a new cult, which fell into a Twitter flame war about a week after its launch. Our guest's studio was the physical origin site of the Hegelian E-Girl Council which first blasted into the real world in NYC, and then onto theorytwitter for a glorious week b...

We move from Durkheim to Marcel Mauss and his book The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies . Referenced by Bataille, Levi-Strauss, Derrida and Baudrillard—this is a mandatory reading. The full episode and many more are available at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

After a brief recap of the Deleuzo-Guattarian Australian breakdancer we read chapters 6 and 7 of Durkheim's Elementary forms of Religious Life and try to get a hold on the primordial concept of concepts: MANA. The full episode and many more are available at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

What do Adin Ross, China, RFK and the Cult of the Individual have in common? This episode... that's it. All episodes are found only at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills Be sure to check out the plasticpills YouTube channel for new CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT this week. https://www.youtube.com/c/plasticpills

Durkheim, one of the founders of sociology, slowly came to the discovery by the end of his career that consciousness, langauge and thought itself were of religious origin. We tried to retrace a few of his steps from The Elementary Forms of Religious Life and try to come up with some examples to illustrate his radical hypothesis.   All public episodes can be found ad-free, for free, on our Patreon:...

The full episode (Pill Pod 176) and many more are available at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Conspiracy theory or actual conspiracy? Today we investigate how a small cabal of philosophers managed to take over America and caused the invasion of Iraq based on the writings of eminent political philosopher Leo Strauss.   Listen ad-free, for free, and get the source readings at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

We hear this is a big deal and the end of American democracy (or whatever), but we don't all know why. Lucky for us, Victor happens to read Supreme Court decisions on his spare time for fun. Has the sky fallen? The full episode (Pill Pod 174) and many more are available at  https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

We recap the Trump-Biden debate and then discuss the politics and economy of fear. Sources include Armageddon, Strauss, Hegel, and Durkheim.   Get all our episodes for free, ad-free, at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Some simulationist material analysis in the economy of signs from Pill Pod episode #172.  The full episode and many more are available at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills The "Look" of Dark Academia: https://www.pinterest.com/kathrynaesthetics/dark-academia-aesthetic/

We discuss Zizek's Hegelian defense of a monarchy to solve the problem of democracy. https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/in-defense-of-hegels-notion-of-monarchy/ Get all our episodes for free, ad-free, at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Get the book (it's easy and small:https://amzn.to/3KxgjB3) or listen to the lectures by Charles Taylor starting here: https://youtu.be/j_losVdiARc?si=DCHifoFktqHQDJuw. Find our second episode and all the others at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

We continue reading Simone DeBeauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity, and try to sus out its particular ethical dilemmas. The full episode and many more are available at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills