Re: What The World Needs

1

Maybe an app called guillotine that chops every Jacobin piece to 800 words. Can't help the humor though.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 11-12-15 8:49 PM
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Or called morcellation.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 11-12-15 8:51 PM
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Food for thought.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 11-12-15 8:53 PM
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Lobster Thermidor?


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 11-12-15 9:06 PM
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If only we had control of a website where people write stuff.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 11-12-15 9:24 PM
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Stuff White People Write.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-12-15 9:55 PM
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Speaking of white people, I signed a birthday card for the bartender. That's something that comes up for everybody, right¿


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-12-15 10:00 PM
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Stupid Spanish phone?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-12-15 10:02 PM
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9

Jesus yes.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 11-12-15 10:20 PM
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OP co-sign! I would try to write for it, but it would end up sounding like my college newspaper columns that were undergrad Lewis Lapham pastiches.


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 11-12-15 11:01 PM
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5 to 10.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 12:10 AM
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Don;t forget the eclecticism.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 3:46 AM
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Yeah, I was going to say that I thought ogged started something like that in 2003.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 4:46 AM
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Nah. Ogged's thing was about golf.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 6:19 AM
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I break my years-long silence to say: OH MY GOD, YES. I don't know if I've ever made to the end of a Jacobin article. It's like Z Magazine, but with more grad students.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 6:27 AM
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You are all corrupt and bourgeois. Brevity is privilege. Suffer the prose of the self-acclaimed chroniclers of the revolution.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 6:55 AM
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Also, Jacobin's print design is extra snooze-inducing, and I'm sure the people running it believe just the opposite.


Posted by: Bave | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 8:42 AM
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One of the things I like about Jacobin, aside from their publication of an article by Kareem, is their willingness to have incredibly long articles about minor details of left-socialist politics in small countries. What's going on with a merger between a former Trotskyist party and a splinter-group from the mainstream, corrupted Socialist Party of Luxembourg? Let's find out, in DETAIL.


Posted by: Roberto Tigre | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 10:25 AM
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I like that in an abstract way, but not in an "I would actually like to find out by reading the article" way.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 10:53 AM
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Well, yes.


Posted by: Roberto Tigre | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 10:59 AM
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Kotsko, you dog-fucking neckbeard, how the heck are ya?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 1:06 PM
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Why are you assuming he hasn't shaved?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 1:09 PM
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Must remember to carefully shield child from any awareness of jacobin, otherwise will be condemned to enthusiastic and lengthy retelling of article described in 18 at breakfast table.


Posted by: dairy queen | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 1:25 PM
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23: but that sounds delightful. If it had already happened you would already have reported on it as a delightful occurrence, I have no doubt.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 1:26 PM
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I'm wearying under the deluge of updates on the elections in Myanmar/Burma, complete with details re constitutional disposition, regional demographics, etc etc etc.

Besides I'm already on record as finding some of the kid's enthusiasms tedious (and as I recall was told to fuck off once for saying so re invented languages).


Posted by: dairy queen | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 1:33 PM
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I, myself, am an incredible downer for pointing out that no, Sanders will not be our next president.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 1:35 PM
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But were you told to fuck off in an invented language?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 1:37 PM
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They're all invented. It's just a question of how recently and how many people were involved.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 1:42 PM
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Ha! to both LB and nosflow.

Would've been lovely if whoever it was had done so! Can't remember who it was.


Posted by: dairy queen | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 1:46 PM
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matt bruenig fits the bill

https://twitter.com/MattBruenig?lang=en

http://mattbruenig.com/


Posted by: lemmy caution | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 2:00 PM
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28 gets it wrong. As with religions, there is one, true, and eternal language, and the rest are all corruptions. Anyone with a soul will endeavor to discover the echt Quelle.

The rest of us make cock jokes.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 2:05 PM
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That's the Chomsky position, I guess.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 2:07 PM
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I suppose the original language is Quenya.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 2:17 PM
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31: I thought cock jokes were the one, true, and eternal language.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 2:18 PM
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the one, true, and eternal language.

More of a trinity, tbh.


Posted by: Turgid Jacobian | Link to this comment | 11-13-15 2:27 PM
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The company speculated a little on the multiplicity of languages; and all agreed, that had it not been for the unfortunate affair of the Tower of Babel, all the world would have spoken French.


Posted by: Opinionated Voltaire | Link to this comment | 11-14-15 5:47 AM
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I feel slightly bad about unlurking specifically to plug my friend's project but Nathan Robinson -- author of leftist "children"'s books such as The Man Who Accidentally Wore His Cravat to a Gymnasium, The Day the Crayons Organized an Autonomous Workers' Collective, and Don't Let the Pigeon Question the Rules! -- just launched a KickStarter for his new magazine which was inspired by Jacobin but also aims to be "as exuberant and playful as Mad or Spy."

I love his work so much I don't know where to start but I'd check out the Where Are You Coming From Survey:
http://thenavelobservatory.com/2014/12/07/the-where-are-you-coming-from-survey-part-i/

If you like it, Google the Manatee Facts Podcast or check out the magazine.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/804992239/current-affairs-a-colorful-political-magazine


Posted by: Howie | Link to this comment | 11-17-15 11:52 AM
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The Day the Crayons Organized an Autonomous Workers' Collective

OK, this doesn't exist.


Posted by: Roberto Tigre | Link to this comment | 11-17-15 12:02 PM
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38: http://www.amazon.com/Crayons-Organized-Autonomous-Workers-Collective/dp/0692363033

Not that hard to find. Should I order you a copy?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 11-17-15 12:05 PM
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And, of course, it it does. It's a IWW-style critique of the sellout pie-card unionism of the popular book for 4 year olds The Day the Crayons Quit.

The number-one bestselling picture book in America [RT -- the bourgeois faux-unionist The Day the Crayons Quit] teaches readers how to crush a labour uprising. In The Day the Crayons Quit (2013), each of Duncan's [RT -- Duncan is the kid/protagonist in TDTCQ] crayons files a work-related grievance, complaining of intolerable conditions ranging from unpaid overtime to sexual exploitation. As the crayons issue their heartbreaking testimonies, it becomes clear that Duncan is a monster, who can and will snap them in half on a whim. Yet though the book provides clear evidence for the justice of the crayons' claims, in its tone it consistently trivializes their struggle to better their lives. By its conclusion, readers are left with the mistaken impression that the interests of capital and labour can be harmonized. The Day the Crayons Organized an Autonomous Workers' Collective is a different book. It is a refreshing corrective to the original book's reactionary workplace politics. The crayons of TDTCOAWC do not beg their overlord for scraps, but seize power on their own terms. In doing so, they illustrate the promise held by an uncompromising new kind of radical labour movement.

Posted by: Roberto Tigre | Link to this comment | 11-17-15 12:14 PM
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The Day The Crayon's Autonomous Worker's Collective Debated Trotskyism


Posted by: Roberto Tigre | Link to this comment | 11-17-15 12:16 PM
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This guy is amazing.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 11-17-15 1:09 PM
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Ok well since folks are enjoying the material now I feel a little less guilty about including some additional recommendations.

1) The Pigeon book is also online:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9nd49adixmvr8jv/Don't%20Let%20The%20Pigeon%20Question%20the%20Rules.pdf?dl=0

2) The Manatee Facts Podcast is seriously amazing:
http://thenavelobservatory.com/2014/07/24/manatee-facts-podcast-episode-1/

3) Nathan would kill me if I didn't also link to a serious one. Here's his piece on Turkey using ISIS as cover for a war against Kurdish Activists
http://www.thenation.com/article/turkey-is-using-isis-as-cover-for-its-war-against-kurdish-activists/


Posted by: Howie | Link to this comment | 11-17-15 5:08 PM
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