All articles filed in Critique

by Tongo Eisen-Martin Karl Marx warned that the ideological opiate of (theoretically) state-protected rights make our alienation of labor (and identity) acceptable, seamless, and at times euphoric; always institutional. Marx writes: “This crystallization of social activity, this consolidation of what we ourselves produce in an objective power above us, growing out of our control, thwarting…

by Maru Pabón. As the maintenance of any given state of affairs depends largely on the ability to keep pests under control, animals are pulled into the category in relation to the processes of labor they disturb; the leaves they munch on, the shit they spread. If locusts troubled agrarian societies, it was because they devastated the production of goods around which the economy was centered.

by Caleb Brennan. “Tough guy, huh?” asks the officer. “You having fun?” goads his partner.  As his knee crushes the windpipe of his victim, his body language is stern and unfeeling, as if taking the position is some sort of burden. “He’s not responsive right now, bro!” one pedestrian says. “Check for a pulse,” says another. A cop with nothing to say turns away, expressing his indifference with his posture.

by Sasha Dukarov Warren. Why are politicians and economists talking like doctors, and doctors talking like generals? Whose “crippled” body is this that needs protection? 

by Jon Greenaway. At a recent rally, Donald Trump (in one of his typically free-associative speeches) decided to complain about Bong Joon-Ho’s latest film, Parasite, which took home Best Picture at the Oscars. To Trump, this was something of a distaster.

by Nicolás Vargas. As little as a month ago, it was easier to feel a sense of revolutionary optimism than it is now. Multiple wildcat strikes paved the way to union victories, a presidential candidate who championed working class values was gaining momentum and winning delegates. Then, a pandemic struck.

by Steven Monacelli. We all deserve a clean conscience, a clean ass, and a clean bill of health. To have all that, we need to add an additional demand to our calls for universal healthcare: universal bidet attachments, clean asses for all.

by Tyler Wells Lynch. Good science-fiction doesn’t predict the future; it tweaks a feature of the present and extrapolates, obsessively. Ursula K. Le Guin likened extrapolative works of science fiction to the methods of a scientist feeding large doses of a food additive to lab mice “in order to predict what may happen to people who eat it in small quantities.”