WHAT IS POLITICS?

Why did social liberalism become widespread again, after thousands of years of socially conservative tribes, monarchies and empires? How did democratic states re-emerge after thousands of years of the state being primarily a tool to help ruling classes steal grain... Continue Reading →

This segment outlines the role that bargaining power plays in: 1. how social classes and economic hierarchy emerged around the world in cultures that initially had tribes made up of equal families 2. how authoritarian kings and emperors emerged, where... Continue Reading →

How did human societies go from socially liberal, gender equal band societies to male dominated, gerontocratic, socially conservative tribal societies? Why did some societies maintain gender equality despite adopting gerontocracy and tribalism? Part 2 of a 4 part series tracking... Continue Reading →

Can we stop our civilization from collapsing into more and more inequality and less and less democracy? Are our only choices to be ruled by an owner class of infantile, out of touch zillionaire lunatics, or else an intellectual class... Continue Reading →

Why was Noam Chomsky – scourge of the american elite – BFFs with Jeffrey Epstein, the personification of the worst aspects of that elite?   Why was Chomsky giving Epstein advice on how to deal with attacks against him in... Continue Reading →

As inequality gets worse and worse, hostility for elites is at all time highs, and huge majorities of voters want higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy to pay for social programs, all the conditions are perfect for the left to be... Continue Reading →

Today, free markets are championed as the foundation of capitalism, while socialists argue that free markets cause growing inequality and exploitation of the working classes, and thus need to be constrained by the state, or else abolished entirely. But in... Continue Reading →

In this episode we outline:  How to build enough affordable housing for everyone using an existing housing model that’s proven to work. How to pay for it. How to convert existing market rate housing into affordable housing. How we can... Continue Reading →

In this chapter of Secret History of Israel/Palestine, we look how the small urban elite stole much of region’s land from it’s rightful peasant owners, turning them from an independent tribal peasantry, into a class of impoverished, indebted tenants on... Continue Reading →

Who were the people of Palestine and what were their lives about in the late 19th century, before the first Zionists began arriving from Europe in the 1880s?   This episode focuses on the fellahin – the peasants of Palestine... Continue Reading →

In the book Abundance, left liberal authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson identify unnecessary bureaucracy and red tape as an important factor in why there is a shortage of housing across the USA. Very quickly, billionaires and powerful donors have... Continue Reading →

Why are human beings so greedy and why are our societies so hierarchical, if our ancestors were so fiercely egalitarian?    What is “human nature” in this regard? A new theory about inequality of wealth and power in human societies.... Continue Reading →

My message to Jewish supporters of the war in Gaza. (TIMESTAMPS BELOW)   TO SUPPORT MY EXISTENCE: PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS:  PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS:   KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS:  TRANSCRIPT BIBLIOGRAPHY / WORKS CITED VIDEO... Continue Reading →

Market Exit, like many others before him, tells us that the left-right political spectrum is obsolete and does more harm than good. That’s because he doesn’t know what they mean. This video explains: 1. What the political left and right... Continue Reading →

Why are nationalist / populist / far right candidates and parties getting elected all around the world?  Why isn’t the populist left enjoying the same success? Why does inequality keep getting worse nomatter who gets elected? PAYPAL ONE TIME OR... Continue Reading →

This series focuses on those aspects of the origins of the Israel/Palestine conflict that partisans on both sides mutually ignore. This episode examines jewish life in Europe and the conditions leading to the rise of Zionism until the first wave... Continue Reading →

This is a Q&A where I respond to questions and critiques about episode 12: The ABC’s of Israel/Palestine (https://youtu.be/OLr_VCqnId0) and also go off on a whole bunch of related tangents. TIMESTAMPS BELOW! BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102834580 (no paywall) I purposefully don’t monetize... Continue Reading →

What was supposed to be an informal QnA about the “Israel/Palestine ABCs” episode, turned into a What is Politics “live” brainstorm session à la Matt Christman “grillstream,” where I discuss my arguments and readings on who and what started the... Continue Reading →

Elites use identity, particularly national identity, as a way of advancing their own interests, often against the interests of the populations that they pretend to represent. But before we can understand this, we need an ABC of the conflict, to... Continue Reading →

When ideas and movements that threaten to overturn established hierarchies of power are absorbed into elite institutions like Ivy League universities and for-profit corporations, they get transformed into ideas that support the status quo, while remaining cloaked in the language... Continue Reading →

The leaders of the Russian Revolutions of February and October 1917 sought to establish socialism: a deeply democratic economic and political system where the employee/employer relationship is abolished, and where workers control their workplaces, the means of production and the... Continue Reading →

Why has every communist country so far been a one party dictatorship?   Is it something inherent to Socialism or Marxism?   Is human nature incompatible with political equality?   Has “true” communism never been tried yet?  If so, then... Continue Reading →

In this episode we cover the rest of chapter 3 of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything. In this chapter, the authors claim that the seasonal social structures of the traditional Nambikwara, Lakota and Kwakiutl were... Continue Reading →

We cover the first part of chapter 3 of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything: ”Unfreezing the Ice Age”, and we investigate the authors’ claims that human inequality has no origins based on archeology from upper... Continue Reading →

In this episode we cover chapter 1 of David Graeber & David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything, entitled Farewell to Humanity’s Childhood; or Why This isn’t a Book About the Origins of Inequality. In doing so, we look at... Continue Reading →