Because consumer identities are constructed by external forces, Strasser said, they are uniquely vulnerable, and the people who hold them are uniquely insecure. If your self-perception is predicated on how you spend your money, then you have to keep spending it, especially if your overall class status has become precarious, as it has for millions of middle-class people in the past few decades. At some point, one of those transactions will be acutely unsatisfying. Those instances, instead of being minor and routine inconveniences, destabilize something inside people, Strasser told me. Although Americans at pretty much every income level have now been socialized into this behavior by the pervasiveness of consumer life, its breakdown can be a reminder of the psychological trap of middle-classness, the one that service-worker deference to consumers allows people to forget temporarily: You know, deep down, that you’re not as rich or as powerful as you’ve been made to feel by the people who want something from you. Your station in life is much more similar to that of the cashier or the receptionist than to the person who signs their paychecks.

Interesting piece, and also includes a section on the historical origins of the “service worker” (as in, when department stores came about). I would argue, of course, that this “middle-class class consciousness” is illusory, as most of these office workers are as dependent on selling their labour to fund their existence as anyone else. The differences in consciousness can be real, though.

Ignoring class divisions in Black America over the last 40 years has allowed the benefits of racial progress to be concentrated upon the Black middle- and upper- classes while the Black poor have largely been excluded. Popular culture embodies the problem in the same way higher education does, which is a problem because inequity is always a problem. However, the centrality of popular culture to America’s understanding of Black people, and the fact that popular culture contains within itself all the best platforms for sharing stories about ourselves, imbues the situation with a particularly bleak and sinister air.

This is a great piece, drawing together anti-capitalism, anger at racist policing, and criticism of our terrible fucking government that puts the wishes of our corporate donors ahead of scientific realities all the fucking time. There’s a lot of it I would quote, but really, you’d be better off just reading the full article because all of it is on-point.

About how authority figures under capitalism (even though it doesn’t specifically call out capitalism) lie to us all the time, and when you are raised immersed in lies you tend to believe further lies that accord with the lies you were raised with. Enjoyed this article.

My good lords, I must bring to your attention a grave issue that requires our utmost concern. You see, my fellow land-owning gentry, it seems that the invention of mechanized industry, the rise of “capitalism,” and the impact of the recent plague have brought upon us a wave of moral degradation and irredeemable sloth — specifically, nobody wants to be a serf anymore.

Publishing is doing great. Despite panic at the start of the lockdown, book sales were actually up during lockdown, as people turned to books to pass the time, joining online bookclubs and finding ways to support their local indie booksellers. But authorship? Not so great.

Every part of the publishing supply chain has undergone radical concentration over the past 40 years, starting with consolidation of mass-market distribution in the 1980s.

Despite the title, the majority of this article is about how traditional publishing has changed – become dominated by a few key players with the power to crush workers and authors because it’s not like they have anywhere else to go. Highlights that the problem with self-publishing is marketing (reaching readers), but the impression this article leaves me with is that it’s still, overall, the best choice.

Neoliberalism now dominates Australia’s formerly left-wing institutions, marginalizing working-class and socialist politics. Yet the center-left “progressive neoliberal” consensus shambles on, a corpse in search of a decent grave.

Excellent skewering of the ALP.

What happens when you can’t have a political conversation at work? People who have power in your company will continue to voice opinions that they don’t even acknowledge or recognize as politics. Power and privilege is all about a shallow understanding of how your own actions are not apolitical, they are just aligned with existing power.

Great blog post on capitalism, weaponised work ethic, and disliking work.