Every year I like to give readers a little reminder of why they’ve subscribed to this blog by providing a brief recap of my most popular posts. In 2024 my writing was dominated by coverage of the genocide in Palestine, the 2024 election, and the usual discussions of socialist theory and politics. Despite my ban on Twitter about halfway through the year, this site is still experiencing significant growth:
As usual, I end the year grateful just to have an audience interested in my work. If you’d like to become a paid subscriber it’ll help me provide even more content. It’s just $6.25 a month or $50 a year; this is a good deal given the sheer volume of writing I put out! In the future I’d like to produce some audio and video and may even commission some guest posts, but everything depends on my funding.
Thanks so much for reading. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and happy holidays for those who don’t!
- Carl
TOP ARTICLES OF 2024
SOCIALISM
Fetterman and the socialist litmus test — Being willing to identify as a socialist is a crucial act of solidarity with other socialists and a mandatory expression of opposition to capitalism.
Socialism and the age of endurance — Socialists have no real reason to expect the end of capitalism anytime soon, but Marxism can still play an important role in informing political thought and action.
Determinism in the USSR — A three-part series on the story of how Marxist thought inspired the Soviets to become philosophical determinists — and how Stalin crushed their perspective in the name of free will.
PALESTINE
Zionism as textbook barbarism — It’s become fashionable on the left to describe Israel as a fascist nation, but here I argued that Zionism was engaging in something much older: a form of pre-civilizational barbarism.
The limits of political “strategy” — Moral action is incoherent without strategic thought, but when strategy becomes an end in and of itself it becomes morally bankrupt.
Will BRICS act to stop Israel: Nasrallah edition — Some leftists may celebrate the so-called “Axis of Resistance’s” periodic condemnations of Israel’s war; but when countries like Russia and China fail to take action, they’re complicit in the killing.
LIBERALISM
Left politics and the closing of the liberal mind — American Democrats, increasingly afflicted with epistemic closure, are abandoning their historic commitment to intellectual pluralism.
Once again: no, socialism is not liberalism — Despite what the discourse would have you believe, socialism is not just a form of extremely committed or slightly modified liberalism.
THE DEMOCRATS
Just tell the damn truth — Democratic attempts to manipulate the public with convenient lies always prove counterproductive in the end.
This is the CARES election — My prediction that the 2024 presidential election would ultimately be decided by voters who were struggling in the wake of the CARES Act expiration.
Exit polls show income realignment — For the first time in decades, Republican won poor voters while Democrats leaned entirely on the rich.
MISCELLANEOUS
The Ukrainian influencer complex — In what proved my most controversial story of the year, I argued that the hawkishness of Ukrainian online influencers was out of step with the broader population.
Fascism and daddy issues — From the perspective of the Frankfurt School, the increasingly psychosexual character of hard right politics is extremely worrying!
Class consciousness, rationalism, and the rise of peasant brain — Widespread irrationalism in the discourse has an explanation in the material economy.
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