Dear All
Ash and Kirsty's conversation is flawless. A million thanks to Ari for posting the link. These two young women do they exactly what I have been asking for, they put class first and identities second and thereby arrive at a Marxist analysis of contemporary society from which we can build a proper left for the future.
I have said nothing else here, even if my tonality has been different than Ash and Kirsty's stylish performance. So if we seriously discuss substance and not just tonality, I frankly don't understand how you can celebrate awesome Ash and Kirsty on the one hand, Brian, and then dismiss my arguments as "reactionary" on the other. What exactly is the difference between what we have argued? Ash and Kirsty are as beautifully Marxist as I have asked for. So what's the deal here?
As for Nettime, this at least was an open and curious leftist forum on the relationship between humans and technology.for years. Lovink and I first met through a shared informationalist reading of Deleuze. Maybe that is no longer the case. Maybe Marxist Libertarians like say myself, Brendan O'Neill, Tom Slater and Joanna Williams from Spiked Online, Peggy Sastre who started the French all-female opposition to the Hollywood-driven #metoo campaign with Catherine Deneuve, et cetera, are no longer welcome. Maybe Marxist thinkers who agree with me on every point I have written here, like Slavoj Zizek and Alain Badiou, are also no longer welcome. Maybe white men in general are no longer welcome unless they shut up infinitely and admit eternal guilt for their gender and skin color.
Maybe Nettime is and should be precisely the identitarianism-only forum that some members apparently would like it to be when they scream for "exclusion exclusion". We have seen this happen with many Rousseauian political sects in the past. It could certainly happen here too. Maybe it already did. And I have no problem with that. Like Angela, I would just like the founders and moderators of Nettime let us know what their intentions are going forward. Should I not fit in within these ambitions, please note that I am more than happy to leave. And probably many other Nettime members too who have been supportive of me lately but not even bothered to post this to the list. The ceiling is apparently way lower now here than it was a few years ago. But I'm fine with that if that is what is desired. Viva "Nettime The Safe Zone" in that case!
Finally to Florian, I am anything but "querfront". I'm the exact opposite. I take neither side at Charlottesville, I do not unite the two. It is actually precisely the unification of a Hitler camp and a Stalin camp that I would want to avoid at all costs. I'm a Marxist Libertarian of the French bent like thousands and thousands of leftists since the 18th century. An avid reader of Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, Kristeva, Paglia, Deleuze, Foucault and Zizek. Meaning I'm also happy to collaborate with liberals and conservatives but neither with the extreme right nor with the extreme Rousseauian sects to the left.
If my ideological position is not welcome on Nettime, I'm happy to leave. No hard feelings. The Intellectual Deep Web and other forums are full of tech thinkers who share my convictions. I will probably meet and hang out with people like Ash and Kirsty there too. But a policy decision of where the limits lay when it comes to ideology and tonality on Nettime would be most welcome. Fully agreed. And thank you for listening before I shut up and leave in the case.
Best intentions indeed
Alexander
Alexander's positions have been thoroughly critiqued from many quarters. After building on those critiques, Ian has just enumerated his many reactionary statements. I think it's definitive and I won't engage with him anymore.
Ari just sent in a video where a brilliant young woman, Ash Sarkar, talks about the deliberate persecution of black radical socialists after the 1960s, and about the way that leftist social movements were weakened as a result. She goes on to develop a class analysis which doesn't diss off intersectionality (that's the main identity politics concept she discusses) but instead, fills the gaps she sees in present-day politics on the left. In the middle of it she invokes Angela Davis, a black Marxist feminist who was not killed in the 1970s and went on, among other things, to help start the movement against mass incarceration which has been one of the key forces of change in American life during these last years. The only point where I might disagree with her is that Angela Davis has certainly not been forgotten in the US, though maybe in the UK, so in that case, let's remember a little.
The difference is: talking about specific people and events in the present, building constructive positions, and covering an amazing amount of ground in short words.
Check it out if you missed it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5_-jA2X18best, Brian