Snackuleata

I once took an unpaid internship in machine learning and automation (before I turned left). I never bought into the techbro hype that the machines would completely replace people's jobs, but I still felt some trepidation about what I was doing, but I couldn't articulate why. Of course, the problem I was having was that, since wages have been mostly stagnant since the 80s, I was increasing the productive power of the company, and therefore the value of the employee's work, without a commensurate increase in wage. I kind of knew that from the aforementioned cultural osmosis, but thinking critically about it while reading theory really drew it into sharper relief. Not helping my discontent was that I was helping automate a job I had no idea how it worked. I was just given data, told to make it do something, and tried my best to do it. So the commodity fetishism part of the text was also impactful, especially now that I've gotten the context about use values and exchange values and how the two are only tangentially related.

Alright, let's get at it!

I just want to swing in to say I've read the chapter. Honestly, I thought I'd have picked up most of this stuff through cultural osmosis, but the first chapter here has already got me thinking about my employment in a more profound way than I was anticipating. Especially the part about productive power.

Please add me to the list! I'm ready!

Edit: I'm already on. Thanks!

Saw it as a meme on r/traa back when I browsed and saved it to my phone. Years later, decided to spice up my Hexbear profile, stumbled back on the picture, and decided to roll with it.

I plan on reading Capital Vol 1 next year. Otherwise I just read based on what's happening in the world or what I feel like. Constantly feel like I'm a step behind and trying to catch up. I wasn't all that consistent reading this year, so I'm hoping to do better next year.

Some of my favorite books this year were:

• Revolution in the Air by Max Elbaum. Marxism in the 70s was wild. So many microsects and esoteric party lines. Pretty frustrating to read knowing Reagan was on the horizon. But I enjoyed it immensely.
• Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker. I have a bit of a troubled history with my autism, so reading a book that not only provided the usual pablum about autistic people being people too, but actually started making more radical demands around neurodivergent rights affected me.
• Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Thought I'd read something "lighter" for my birthday. Listened to this on audiobook at work and had a rough time. 10/10 would ruin my birthday again.
• The Darker Nations by Vijay Prashad. This really changed how I see geopolitics. I enjoyed learning about the anti-colonial struggles, but the part that was really new was learning how the third world movements ran aground on developmentalism, and the national bourgeoisie pretty much took over from the revolutionaries. I hope the modern iterations can learn to solve this problem.
• How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney. It's criminal how little African history is taught. This is probably also the most economic book I've read all year. It's a nice change of pace. Though I am a bit wary how closely Rodney subscribes to developmentalism, and in the first few chapters frequently justifies African society by pointing out how they were following in the footsteps of European development. I get the point is to illustrate how far back colonialism set Africa back, but I feel you don't need the stagist theory to justify that.
• Revolution: An Intellectual History by Enzo Traverso. Revolution means a lot of things to a lot of different people through time. I admire the aspirations of the earlier revolutionaries, and how the idea of what a revolution was changed as they kept happening. So many unexpectedly heartwarming and relatable anecdotes too.
• Everyone On the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian K Jarboe. My favorite fiction book of the year. I picked this up from the massive George Floyd Itch.io bundle from a few years back. A bunch of sci-fi short stories about being queer in places you don't belong. Some of the stories I didn't fully get, but a bunch of them are really memorable and touching.

I wish we got the story of the new movie with the visuals of the old movie.

Reading Capital was already one of my New Year's Resolutions, so having more people to hold me accountable and discuss with would be great!

Are we getting back to "the Taliban will take over America" levels of Islamophobia?

No, you see, we had to suspend democracy in order to save democracy. If we allowed democracy to happen and Trump won, then democracy would be finished.

The lavender scare is back on the agenda it seems.

Wait, did they get all the NFT owner's permission to post all these apes for free, or did they have to abandon the whole concept of the NFT to get their warning out? Funny how the libertarians always have to abandon their principles when the real world happens.