A couple of other suggestions came out of the blue after the last thread that might lead to other reviews or articles on TK, but I love the book club idea and thought a good place to start might be with some of the titles suggested in the last thread. Sadly, this is not a comprehensive list, but I was trying to weigh for recency as well as group interest. Once the poll closes, I’ll have a review up within a week. Happy New Year!
Matt, since I don't use Twitter and probably others don't, maybe you can allow people here to vote too. Make four comments yourself, one for each title, and subscribers use the hearts to vote.
TY. I'm protecting my mental health like a newborn baby and closed all my social media accounts. Would love to be able to see the 4 books, please. And thank you.
I’m listening to that right now on Audible. We should also add in Revolt of the Elites. How about we read all of Christopher Lashe and be done with it. The guy is timeless.
I second this. Lasch is a must. I keep going back to "The Revolt of the Elites" for my #1 book, "The True and Only Heaven" and "The Culture of Narcissim" of his are earlier ideas on the same theme. Conservatives have taken over as the guardians of American democracy since the Elites became global citizens and have abandoned their civic obligations.
And by "conservatives", I mean the regular citizens in your community who keep the small towns running. They are not necessarily political. They are family first people. I revere our town's water and sewer people and our snow removal is the envy of the Mid Hudson region. Lasch gave me the big picture of who in the town is window dressing which is important for the town to look prosperous, but who in the town is really essential. They can be full of themselves as they are also often the car dealers and lumberyard owners. But, by and large they keep things human.
Yes! The longer I live in my small rural town, the more I appreciate the core of blue collar families that has been here for generations. They may not use the proper pronouns but they know how to handle a chainsaw or a bulldozer and generally Get Things Done. My inner redneck has been growing at the expense of the inner semi hippie.
Sounds awful. And it's dated, as in pre-Net, ergo no longer relevant. I prefer facts to opinions anyway. That's why I read a lot of history books. Lasch is allegedly a historian but this book looks to be more philosophical and heavily theoretical. Maybe he was a wannabe social engineer? You have to be an oligarch to play that role.
I think a closer reading of Lasch and some thought would change your mind. He was a very good thinker. I don't even know how to respond to someone who thinks "pre-Net" is "no longer relevant" except to say that you must young, and not well read.
I don't know if there's an irony here, but I clicked my like button to see who gave me the previous like and it seems I inadvertently "liked" my remarks. That and the fact I chose "The Culture of Narcissism", seems rather appropriate.
That seems like good enough reason for me! I’ll switch my vote to this. Not that I think my vote is that important but then again maybe by writing this it will make people feel sorry for me and then tell me how important my vote is and 😂😂😂 Yaaay ME!
The Limousine Liberal, Steve Fraser. Shows how the Democrats' new coalition between educated suburban professionals and inner city minorities recapitulates the old liberal Republican coalitions of the 1960s, e.g. John Lindsay in NYC, Lowell Weiker, Ella Grasso in CT, etc. The common theme in both: hatred for the working class and, more substantively, unions. And, of course, the hatred was/is mutual. Archie Bunker, we should remember, was a Democrat from Queens. And we can be certain he would vote Trump. Meathead, of course, is a Warrenite. (Maybe Edith would go for Bernie, though she'd would dare tell Archie).
Anything by David Graeber, but if I had to pick one it would be "Debt: The First 5000 Years." The 2nd of his would be "Bullshit Jobs". Free online stuff of his is "Revolutions in Reverse." 2nd: Sheldon Wolin's "Democracy Inc" Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism". (Dense, but important). "Solidarity for Sale" by Fitch. Christopher Lasch's "The Revolt of the Elite"; Ray Oldenberg's "The Great Good Place".
I'm not going to make a book suggestion, but a discussion suggestion - Instead of feeding the disgusting monstrosity that is Twitter (so many comments state that they do not have an account there), why not utilize a forum specifically designed for book discussions like GoodReads or LibraryThing?
Alas, GoodReads is owned by Amazon and those of us that avoid Amazon as we avoid Twitter (and apparently its not a small contingent) will be left out. LibraryThing I am less familiar with.
I mostly agree with you about GoodReads. The data provided to GoodReads is sold over and over. I use the site but there are many books that I do not add because it would draw unwanted attention to my account. I use it for book discussions on mainstream reading. I do not discuss politics there unless I am able to land safely in the middle.
OTOH, Amazon is putting zero work into the site (no more API) and no longer seems to care about it in general. In addition, the books that Matt lists are hardly controversial. They're not something that's going to get you blacklisted from anywhere. They're not even out of the mainstream groupthink.
LibraryThing is ... different. Go there and look for the post "What Makes LibraryThing LibraryThing?" It's a mess, but it's an endearing mess. It's the users that make it so. I have no fear of posting my thoughts about anything I read out of the mainstream.
And to all of you with reading-deficit disorder, the time for proposing new titles has passed and Matt is asking you to vote on the four books he has selected.
I’ve been joking around on this comment section but in all seriousness, why are so people running to Twitter to vote? Doesn’t this crowd mostly decry the social media giants? Why not abstain from voting on Twitter and instead pressure Matt to use some other way of counting the vote? We have met the enemy and it is us.
No, he/she is not. Matt’s twitter post is followed by a stream of replies suggesting other books to review. I guess it’s the nature of twitter, but still is hilarious.
"On December 17, 2006, The New York Times began a series of front-page stories about documents obtained from Alaska lawyer Jim Gottstein, showing Eli Lilly had concealed that its top-selling drug caused diabetes and other life-shortening metabolic problems. The "Zyprexa Papers," as they came to be known, also showed Eli Lilly was illegally promoting the use of Zyprexa on children and the elderly, with particularly lethal effects. Although Mr. Gottstein believes he obtained the Zyprexa Papers legally, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn decided he had conspired to steal the documents, and Eli Lilly threatened Mr. Gottstein with criminal contempt charges. In The Zyprexa Papers, Mr. Gottstein gives a riveting first-hand account of what really happened, including new details about how a small group of psychiatric survivors spread the Zyprexa Papers on the Internet untraceably. All of this within a gripping, plain-language explanation of complex legal maneuvering and his battles on behalf of Bill Bigley, the psychiatric patient whose ordeal made possible the exposure of the Zyprexa Papers."
There is some relevance to today as it is a cautionary tale about believing drug company statements about their drugs or relying on the FDA's determination of safety and efficacy of drugs.
Thank you Jim. My elderly mother was a victim of the Zyprexa scam when she was in hospital and it was killing her. This was around 2007 in Texas. My brother and I had to go to extreme measures to get the doctors to stop giving it to her, and she very nearly died before they took her off. She recovered rapidly thereafter. They teated us as interlopers with real disgust that we were trying to interfere in their prescriptions. The doctor-pharma brainwashing and payoffs were obvious. It was horrifying to be so powerless in the face of this wall of terror, at least that is what it felt like.
I am glad you managed to get your mother off Zyprexa. A number of people have told me their elderly parent improved greatly after being taken off Zyprexa. Others have told me they saw the deterioration and when their parent died, the doctor said, "your parent was old." There is now a black box warning on Zyprexa's label that it doubles mortality in the elderly. I think that was at least partially as a result of the documents I released which my book, The Zyprexa Papers, is about.
The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better; Will Storr; ISBN: 9781683358183
My take on this is that persistent notion that until we understand how narratives work, the control they exert both on us and those we interact with, we will forever be screaming at the sky wondering why things keep getting worse.
Synopsis:
The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain responds to storytelling
Stories shape who we are. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions and mold our beliefs. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human. So, how do master storytellers compel us? In The Science of Storytelling, award-winning writer and acclaimed teacher of creative writing Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can write better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers—and also our brains—create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.
I dunno, seems to me the best way to get out the importance of stories is to tell one that resonates - Crow and Weasel by Barry Lopez, who just died :(
Something on cryptos would be good - especially with Matt’s background writing on the banking industry.
I’ve put off getting into cryptos, at my loss so far, because there are parts of it that don’t make sense to me, and I mean this not so much in how they work but what is “really” going on and what will happen to them. People talk about how one of Bitcoins strengths is there will only be a finite amount mined - yet it can be infinitely divided? It is anonymous, yet ... it isn’t. And the we can move toward the more suspect/conspiratorial - how are governments going to reign them in and who will benefit by the method, was it really created by some anonymous player, who really is holding the wealth and is it just a transfer scheme, etc. (I’m kind of liking “suspect” for “conspiracy theories” that are grounded in reality and the actual lies the public is told. “It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s a suspect theory - I know the lizard people aren’t controlling the world, but damnit the CIA has lied since it’s inception.”)
My issue with crypto is the amount of processing power, energy resource required to "mine" it. At bottom it seems as exploitative as any other currency. Unless something major has happened to mitigate that, but I have not heard of it yet.
Government takes over all Utilities, land and food hires everyone to work for it, and simply issues EBT cards with the same income for all. The ultimate equality and political perfection.
Is there a way to see this without social media (twitter)? Will never in a million years join Twitter, but I would read a book and discuss it with a group online.
I cannot stress enough how Christopher Lasch is a timely read for our times, despite the fact that he died 25 years ago. Also, Matthew Crawford's' Why We Drive, Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road, Fabian Scheidler, The End of the Megamachine, A Brief History of a Failing Civilization (a great re-actualization on Lewis Mumford's The Myth of the Machine ) and Thomas Frank's The Road to Oblivion.
Yes! An aristocrat imprisoned in a grand hotel during the early Soviet days has working class people pretty much his only friends. I'm part way through. Have had trouble reading during the pandemic. My attention span is shot.
WTF?? All four of those books cover the same general material (huge social problems traceable to the elite classes). That stuff has been covered to death. Why not pick one title that covers that issue, and three others that are on completely separate subjects?
Why are any of these more relevant than "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" or "The Sound and the Fury" ? The human condition and human nature are still the same
I would agree, and yet, in this very thread, a fellow of apparently high self-regard dismissed Lasch (and presumably, contemporaries) as "irrelevant" because he wrote in that pointless "pre-Net" era. What to do about such engrained presentism?
Intriguing question. Live in the moment, maybe? Reach into our zen zones ? If the kingdom can be lost because of the lack of a nail in a horseshoe, where does the present and its future possibilities intersect with the past and its legacies? I think of Sherlock Holmes writing koans in beautiful calligraphy.
"Through a Glass Darkly: The U.S. Holocaust in Central America" - written by Thomas R. Melville, As recounted by Ronald William Hennessy of events from the 1960s.
On the back cover, (FR) Daniel Berrigan, S.J. -
"'Through a Glass Darkly' is a meticulous, passionate, at times humorous, at all times insightful chronicle of mass murder in Guatemala and El Salvador. At long last, the truth is out. And this extraordinary document is completed, even as the imperial bones of Ronald Reagan are provided with insufferably banal splendor, through Washington avenues, on to the National Cathedral (sic). There, ironies collide as G.W. Bush mounts the same pulpit whence more than a year ago, he initiated the criminal war against Afghanistan and Iraq. Now the mad logic continues, a criminal president eulogizes the architect of mass murder in Central America. Still, in this book, something else, something infinitely precious and rare: the truth."
... and from Stephen Kinzer -
"Too few Americans know about the tragedy that has enveloped Guatemala for decades and about America's role in that tragedy. 'Through a Glass Darkly' tells the story in a way that is passionate and deeply moving but also detailed, factual, and informative. Readers will never again think of Guatemala --or the United States--in the same way".
BTW, Kinzer is a prolific author who writes well. A few faves for a better understanding of 20th century history and how we got here are "Poisoner in Chief" (Sidney Gottlieb), "The Brothers" (as in Dulles) and "All the Shah's Men."
You can go deeper with books by Tim Weiner. For instance "Legacy of Ashes" and "Enemies: A History of the FBI" are essential.
I spend a lot of time in Germany. To this day, they find it too painful to talk of WWII and the holocaust. We will find it just as hard to talk about this book, in particular, since the last administration has been so cruel to the survivors of this mass murder, fighting to come to the US as a last desperate measure to find a life for their families.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Unfortunately, this book is not widely read and the conditions it records are little known and unlikely to be disseminated among the US public in a meaningful way--
None of the above ! We need books that light up the "little grey cells." These are intellectually extremely weak choices, based on one-trick-pony solutions to complex processes that developed malignancies over time. Lasch is the only one of the four authors who attempts some more comprehensive understanding. These choices advocate emotional lunges to replace common sense. Narcissism is at least a factor in evolution, a core malignancy. Without merit, we get Tammany tyranny or Athenian-style mob rule. Inequality is always present in every system of education or government. And deficits occur when a very few can extract excess social wealth and fob the cost onto everybody else -- everybody else owes the interest payments, which can become huge as a % of national production. We don't need a "book club" for these thoughts. Aristotle addressed most of them pretty adequately in his "Politics." The closest this list comes to a serious thought process is trying to answer the question: "How can we have a good society for all citizens and also have Picasso, Mozart, and Pasteur ? "
Appreciate the Poirot reference but, given that you made it, I posit that your little grey cells *will* light up if/when you read "The Deficit Myth," the table of contents alone of which debunks the baseless charge that its ideas constitute a simplistic solution to "complex processes that developed malignancies over time." In the first place, said malignancies did not merely "develop" - they have been cultivated. This book introduces the reader to those issues and proposed solutions to them in layperson's language, with remarkable aplomb and preternatural tact.
You are right that Kelton makes a fair effort to sift the relevant from the misguided notions. Neither our recent-past policy-makers mor Kelton, however, appreciates
some of the nuances ignored in the measures to which they pay such close attention. No one has clearly explained why $4 Trillion added to US bank reserves in 2009-11 resulted in almost zero monetary stimulus. To me, the answer is obvious -- the actual money supply is not be found in reserves supplied by the Fed, but in loans outstanding to domestic borrowers. Loan growth in 2009-12 barely increased at all -- especially when commercial paper and other traditional sources of credit are taken in to account. The quarterly Survey of Senior Bank Loan Officers showed showed 19 -- 19! -- consecutive tightenings in loan standards from 3Q 2007 to 2Q 2012. That means the same borrowers were squeezed consecutively at least 4 times - on an annual basis -- in that period. Talk about pushing on a string! The Propensity to Lend fell off a high, steep cliff -- the Fed was powerless to create loan supply -- which is what increases money used in the real economy. Similarly, Kelton talks about the poor track record of the unemployment - inflation trade-off model. But just as with loan supply, loan demand is driven by a Propensity to Borrow. Anecdotal evidence indicates the Great Recession dramatically reduced the small-business and consumer appetites for money to put to use. Even now, we hear people wondering why the $1,200 or $600 checks are not being spent, helping to grow the economy. How can they wonder? Do they not know at all what our lives are like? After you've had your lines of credit cut four times in three years by the same lender, do they think suddenly you are optimistic about drawing down the skimpy stub of your former spending power still available ? Kelton is the only other person I've read who uses the right number for 2007-09, that homeowners lost $8 Trillion, but even she misses that it was a 2005-12 phenomenon, not 2007-09. But to rely on any model predicting inflation or unemployment without recognizing the huge swings in Propensity to Lend and Propensity to Borrow that are the canaries in the money mines, are still far too crude and inattentive, in my opinion.
Possibly the simplest point is: economists believe numbers tell a story. Certainly the population of dogs in Germany reported for 1921 - 25 paints a
grim picture. But Sentiment -- as economists use the term -- drives both business and consumer behavior in ways the economists cannot measure and rarely imagine. If your home's value is increasing 5% per year, maybe you will put in a deck or replace a shower much quicker than if you just saw its value drop (50%). Maybe if you hadn't been raked over the coals about the loans you made to people solidly employed in good jobs in 2003-07, you would be optimistic about lending to them today. There's nothing trivial about certain decision forces that cannot be measured accurately from one decade to another, And all that was true before the Pandemic. I admire Stephanie Kelton for her correct belief that a lot more can be done. But we are dealing with a Science that is not just Dismal. It;s also murderous.
I won’t speak for others but I take ACTUAL racism seriously. “I don’t like that,” or “that wasn’t funny to me,” does not = racism. If it did no one would ever speak to anyone unless it was to tell them how racist they are
you have to understand the nature of the confusion we're mired in; that retort has been used sarcastically for so long that it's now trite.
Also, even obvious Internet sarcasm is liable to being misunderstood.
But the main problem is that you kicked things off with a non sequitur, just as an excuse to employ the word "racist" sarcastically. And while I don't usually autopsy jokes because it takes the funny out of them, in this case there was nothing to lose. That wasn't humor; it was bait. Well, you caught someone. Now what?
For entertainment purposes I’ll give the next 2 mins to this thread before I forget it existed.
The world needed another person with the superhuman ability to read motives and pass judgement under the cloak of anonymity. “Bait” would imply there was something I wanted to pursue. When My motive was to express that I feel weary of and disinterested in the constant and usually baseless labeling of people, things, facts, ideas as “racist.”
Is it my white privilege? Does someone really believe I am a racist? Is it just my low tolerance for B.S.? Doesn’t matter what you call me I will express my opinion freely and by whatever means I choose; humor, scholarly reference, personal experience. There was no personal attack and the reply by Certex goes a long way to supporting my point.
PS - I find your post ironic given that your comments are typically of the bait and bludgeon variety. Excuse me - I’m off to see the progress toward choosing a book.
I take racism seriously, obviously. But, like everydamnedbody else, I have had so much pain and horror and stress with this year and its madness (ever worked at a covid testing centre? I have. Talk aboot going into the absolute eye of a pandemic storm) I just have to react with humour after a certain point. Only thing that keeps me sane. Well, that and Pornhub, and bath salts, and scratch cards, and chocolate, and beer, and...eh...well, that thing is still illegal, so...no comment. And stuff like the video linked to below helps too, I suppose. Have a laugh on me. Well, on the band, but, well, you know what I mean. Slainte! Happy Hogmanay (look it up) from Scotland! Worship Odin! :)
Welcome. My brother introduced me to the band a couple of days ago. I just listened to an album of theirs for the first time. One of the funniest and weirdest bands I have ever heard in my life. Magic! Was going to say "Racist against non-funny bands," but some folk round here have no sense of humour. :)
If you read only to affirm your take on "real issues" you are missing out and missing the point. Further, your insistence on serious has badly damaged your sense of humor.
Mascot just can’t leave it. He/she loves to create conflict. Thanks for your original post. And thanks for calling me a racist and for letting me bait you
Cos I felt like it. You being racist to me? Laughing. How can you be racist against a book title? It was absurdist humour, meaningless, abstract. Now go away.
The more I think about it, it occurs to me that this particular thread itself might be a good springboard for a discussion that encompasses many of the ideas expressed in various books that are proposed - given that apparently a goodly number of Matt's readers eschew Twitter, FB, etc. as a means of "communicating", why are the books to be chosen listed on Twitter? If indeed "the medium is the message", what "message" does using a medium like Twitter, which privileges sound bites and #hash tags over any nuanced discussion of ideas, convey?
Just a thought, there's more, but, it seems to me, it's a start ....
Yes, if Matt’s readers cannot construct an alternative to Twitter in this situation, then we have no real high ground from which to criticize the sheep-like masses who mindlessly use social media. In our case, there is no bureaucracy between us and Matt. We comment and he reads. We could have insisted that he simply post four separate posts, one for each book and we click “like.” No need for fancy poll-taking software. Just him and us.
Frankly I rather cringe at the perpetual use of "sheep like masses" to describe my fellow humans - does smack a bit of "elitism" doncha think?
In any case - I guess I don't understand the idea of a "book club" - I thought it was that a bunch of folks read the same book and then discuss it together ...
The "message" could be to get more people that are using Twitter off of Twitter.
This being said, there is nothing wrong with social media by requirement. It is the predatory, unregulated, capitalistic layer on top that renders it harmful.
Would the problems of mob cruelty, unwarranted privilege and censoriousness be more digestible if administered to the requirements of "The Party"?? I would suggest that the problems are endemic to human nature, absent good faith pushback, and the attribution of these problems to the "capitalistic layer" is more knee-jerk than insightful.
Simply, when you put it that way it sounds like you're suggesting that if we just got The. Right. People. running things, the problems would go away. You may remove the corrupting influence of profit, but humanity does not lack for morally objectionable motives.
Valentine was given complete access to CIA agents by Wm. Colby who thought he was on their side. Valentine's father was an agent. His previous book was about the Phoenix program in Vietnam. Basically the Phoenix program was rolled out worldwide by the CIA. The USA Fusion centers which bring all the police and National Security State actors to work together, as well as the militarization of the police is fruit of that program.
For those who dont know, the Phoenix program was an extra-judicial program of surveillance, assassination and torture directed against anyone not actively supporting the USA's regime in Vietnam.
Agreed: Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch. It’s foundational and sets up many of the other suggestions. A great ‘same page’ from which to begin this project — not to mention, dare I say? — this year?
Because ultimately everything seems to splinter into Judean People's Front/People's Front of Judea disputes over ideological purity while the Romans make out like bandits.
I don't think it would be appropriate for Matt to organize an Amazon boycott unless he feels strongly about it. However, there's certainly nothing wrong with posters in the comment section urging others to not buy from Amazon. I love the convenience of Amazon, but many have rightly raised concerns about their business practices. Personally I've been moving away from Amazon because i'm sick of receiving Chinese knockoffs of real products half of the time. This is just one more reason to shop elsewhere.
Also Better World Books. They also have depository bins all over the country in which you can leave books you don’t want. They ship them to places in the world that need books - even textbooks.
A LOT of lucky finds at library sales! They sell over-donated (popular) and under-accessed (often very good) books at the sales at our central library, for next to nothing. $20 will get me more than I can carry out, and more than I can read before the next sale.
Jeff Bezos made 13bn in ONE day. He could give every American $3000 and still have as many riches he had before the pandemic. No one has to use Amazon for anything! And shouldn't!
Jeff Bezos ex-wife MacKenzie Scott gave more than $4 billion to charity. She donated to 384 organizations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico and some of that money came here to Vermont. Our Foodbank got $9 million. That's pretty amazing.
As Anand G says it would be better for all if the rich actually paid a fair share of taxes. That way her $$ would allow the people to legislate where the money goes as opposed to a 1% er who is unelected.
13bn in one day would be 4,745bn in a year, which is about 23% of the US's GDP. And Bezo's net worth is estimated at 185bn.
$3000 for every American is $1,000,000,000,000 ($1 trillion), about 6 times his net worth. Try $200 per American.
So 13bn is a reasonable figure for his annual earnings, but 2-3 orders of magnitude too high for daily.
Mind you I'm not saying he's not rich. But no need to add gratuitous zeros. And he did something to earn it by creating a valuable, useful infrastructure.
I use Amazon constantly. I'm not mad at Bezos nor is it justifiable to be mad at him just because he has done far better than you (and me and almost everyone else on the planet). His company killed it and continues to kill it. When that happens many people including, of course, the founder make bank. There's nothing at all wrong with that.
Of course there's something wrong with that. No one should be allowed to make 13bn in one day. After 5 millions income, taxes should be 100%. If you can't live on 5 million, tough. Bezos' goal is to sell anything and everything on the market with no competitors. Good grief, he's now going into pharmaceuticals. Monopolies are illegal and he wants to, as one man, monopolize the world. He's crazy AND he uses seasonal workers that are often retired and walk miles on concrete in huge warehouses and are timed to the second in their work. I've seen it. He's sick.
Alas your calculations are not correct. 330 million is right for the US population, but dividing that into 13bn gives $39.39, not $40 million. You were off by a factor of a million.
George's calculations were wildly off, but tell me if this makes sense and is economically, politically and morally sustainable: Three men (Bezos, Buffett and Gates) have more net wealth than the bottom 50 percent of Americans (approximately 160 million people). You don't need a calculator.
Actually, Bezos made 13bn in ONE day, not EVERY day. Besides the math, that amount is insane for one person to "earn' in one day. His ex-wife said, Jeff could cure world hunger if he wanted.
Jeff Bezos made 13bn in ONE day. He could give every American $3000 and still have as many riches he had before the pandemic. No one has to use Amazon for anything! And shouldn't!
I hate to break it to you, but that's $900 billion dollars. It's not good to accept sound bites, especially those that come from journalists (most journalists are completely inept at math).
He also lost 7bn in a week this year. Talk about foundations made of sand if you think the federal government can go full candyman in seizing Bezos wealth for leftist edification.
The fact is it's a capitalist system; Jeff Bezos knows how to compete in this system. I cannot blame him for operating his business better than his competition. I prefer Amazon not be an Oligopoly as it is - but unless America forms a new system of commerce, here we are.
The issue is not one of capitalism, but of unregulated capitalism. Amazon will be broken up, either through anti-trust action, or violently. Inevitable.
"unregulated capitalism" What the fuck are you talking about? Bezos has made damn less than whatever you and the rest of the ijits on this site think. That his stock appreciated however much in a day or a week or a year means nothing about him other than paper wealth. Whaddyawanna regulate you Prog?
Take a course in economics.
Really, Chui, you can't really be this stupid and have a credit card to pay Taibbi's monthly charge. Get a clue. We should notify the credit rating agencies.
Linda, charity begins at home. This is America! Be generous and share your wealth with those less fortunate. Spend your money wherever you like but please let me spend my money including where to direct my charity, as I choose.
A while ago I heard a speaker say that “race” is a political idea. Obviously there are different skin colors which pols would like to take credit for creating but I’m interested in your opinion of race as a “category” for political purposes? Surely it’s useful when pandering for votes and power but in the larger sense when? was post Civil War when this became the standard political fare? I thought citizens of all races seemed to be moving closer to a social equivalence until the 90s(?). At what point did the regression begin? Were we making progress or was my perception more fairy tale than reality?
"I thought citizens of all races seemed to be moving closer to a social equivalence until the 90s(?). At what point did the regression begin? Were we making progress or was my perception more fairy tale than reality?"
Your perception matches objective reality. The regression began with Obama. As a proponent of Critical Race Theory (CRT), Obama instituted divisive policies throughout the federal government. The most noticeable was Mandatory Diversity Training (MDT).
Prior to Obama, the guiding principles for race relations were those of MLK. His vision from the mountaintop was a colorblind meritocracy where people were valued for the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. This was working and vast progress had been made since the turbulent 60s. The only institutional racism in government up to that time was Affirmative Action (AA), instituted by LBJ. AA was not consistent with MLK's dream but it does not make race the primary criterion for hiring and advancement.
Obama, being a foreign-born mulatto with divided allegiances, denied his white half, and instituted a policy of divisive hate by making color the primary criterion on which people should henceforth be judged. This policy was advanced further by favoring govt contractors of color and eventually basically forcing private companies to fall in line with the victimhood views of CRT.
Results: Guilt and shaming ensue. Incompetence escalates. Everybody figures out the government is full of compulsive liars and globalist cheats on the take. Weapons sales hit record highs. A presidential election is stolen by corrupt social justice warriors convinced that two wrongs make a right and the end justifies the means. Next, Civil War II. It's the end of the world as we know it.
Is the winning selection going to have future editions published with a "Matt Taibbi Book Club Selection!" medallion on the cover? No reason for Oprah to have all the fun.
I get a lot of value out of your read on things Matt, and this sounds like a great way to further the scope of TK. One suggestion - instead of just criticism of the parts of the eventual book that you disagree with, can you use the problems it brings up as a jumping off point for your own musings? I’ve noticed how a few of the authors seem to point toward a socialist panacea for the big and real problems they bring up, and your experience in what collectivism can turn into seems helpful here for expanding that conversation in pragmatic terms.
I vote for 1) Culture of Narcissism and 2) Tyranny of Merit. Not in the same vein as the suggested for, but on your own, highly recommend Last Stands: Why Men Fight When All is Lost by Michael Walsh. I'm reading it now and it is fascinating.
Maybe for future reviews, something a little more contrarian could be fun. Rather than approaching a collection of reviews as "books someone loves or was told to love," more of a "books someone despises or was told to despise." Something like a, "Why Burn This Book?" review. Take a look at books which have triggered a "burn that!" response. Books landing on a list for cultural/political reasons and billed as bad for you. Candide, Frankenstein, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Clockwork Orange, Of Mice and Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest, The Jungle, and on and on.
I'm reading Vijay Prashad's Washington Bullets which is a history of US imperialism. You can hear him talk with Paul Jay on the Analysis News from earlier this month.
Matt, since I don't use Twitter and probably others don't, maybe you can allow people here to vote too. Make four comments yourself, one for each title, and subscribers use the hearts to vote.
Well said. I want nothing to do with an openly censorious company like Twitter.
My vote is for "The Deficit Myth"
TY. I'm protecting my mental health like a newborn baby and closed all my social media accounts. Would love to be able to see the 4 books, please. And thank you.
+1 My life is much improved after I quit Twitter.
I recommend OpaVote so we can rank our choices and get a majority winner using ranked-choice voting: https://www.opavote.com
Yes!
Yes
I'm not on twitter either.
I don't Twitter either, but I'm okay with any of the choices.
I am not on twitter so I will vote here: The Culture of Narcissism
I’m listening to that right now on Audible. We should also add in Revolt of the Elites. How about we read all of Christopher Lashe and be done with it. The guy is timeless.
I second this. Lasch is a must. I keep going back to "The Revolt of the Elites" for my #1 book, "The True and Only Heaven" and "The Culture of Narcissim" of his are earlier ideas on the same theme. Conservatives have taken over as the guardians of American democracy since the Elites became global citizens and have abandoned their civic obligations.
And by "conservatives", I mean the regular citizens in your community who keep the small towns running. They are not necessarily political. They are family first people. I revere our town's water and sewer people and our snow removal is the envy of the Mid Hudson region. Lasch gave me the big picture of who in the town is window dressing which is important for the town to look prosperous, but who in the town is really essential. They can be full of themselves as they are also often the car dealers and lumberyard owners. But, by and large they keep things human.
Yes! The longer I live in my small rural town, the more I appreciate the core of blue collar families that has been here for generations. They may not use the proper pronouns but they know how to handle a chainsaw or a bulldozer and generally Get Things Done. My inner redneck has been growing at the expense of the inner semi hippie.
Same here in small town NE.
Started Revolt a week ago, its excellent, the author is dead, and I believe it was his last work published in 1994-5.
Here's Lasch's intro to "Revolt of the Elites" which was published before the book came out. Lasch actually died after he wrote the intro and before his book was published. This is the book in a nutshell. http://archive.harpers.org/1994/11/pdf/HarpersMagazine-1994-11-0001862.pdf
Sounds awful. And it's dated, as in pre-Net, ergo no longer relevant. I prefer facts to opinions anyway. That's why I read a lot of history books. Lasch is allegedly a historian but this book looks to be more philosophical and heavily theoretical. Maybe he was a wannabe social engineer? You have to be an oligarch to play that role.
I think a closer reading of Lasch and some thought would change your mind. He was a very good thinker. I don't even know how to respond to someone who thinks "pre-Net" is "no longer relevant" except to say that you must young, and not well read.
"I don't even know how to respond to someone who thinks 'pre-Net' is 'no longer relevant'..."
Yet you do, thereby negating your assertion. Not logical. This is a near perfect example of doublethink. Check Orwell for the definition.
"...you must young, and not well read."
Wrong and wrong again. Sorry, 2 wrongs do not make a right, Sunshine.
"...blitheringly dumb...?"
I see we have another bright light here. I need to add that one to my lexicon right away.
"You must have gone to school in America."
Brilliant deduction, D. - Public schools - 100%. And thank you for recognizing that this thread is about me.
"And yet you are trolling like an idiot..."
And you're replying like Pavlov's dog. Good show.
Re your facts, so what?
Also not on twitter, but if I were, I would also vote for The Culture of Narcissism.
Maddness of Crowds
By Douglas Murray
Great book!
The deficit myth
I don't know if there's an irony here, but I clicked my like button to see who gave me the previous like and it seems I inadvertently "liked" my remarks. That and the fact I chose "The Culture of Narcissism", seems rather appropriate.
That seems like good enough reason for me! I’ll switch my vote to this. Not that I think my vote is that important but then again maybe by writing this it will make people feel sorry for me and then tell me how important my vote is and 😂😂😂 Yaaay ME!
Amusing Ourselves to Death. Neil Postman
May be the book I’ve referenced most over the last year. Eye-opening.
A great book!
The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-populism, by Thomas Frank. Or his earlier book, 'Listen, Liberal'.
Yes! I just listened to that. We need our words back.
The Limousine Liberal, Steve Fraser. Shows how the Democrats' new coalition between educated suburban professionals and inner city minorities recapitulates the old liberal Republican coalitions of the 1960s, e.g. John Lindsay in NYC, Lowell Weiker, Ella Grasso in CT, etc. The common theme in both: hatred for the working class and, more substantively, unions. And, of course, the hatred was/is mutual. Archie Bunker, we should remember, was a Democrat from Queens. And we can be certain he would vote Trump. Meathead, of course, is a Warrenite. (Maybe Edith would go for Bernie, though she'd would dare tell Archie).
Anything by David Graeber, but if I had to pick one it would be "Debt: The First 5000 Years." The 2nd of his would be "Bullshit Jobs". Free online stuff of his is "Revolutions in Reverse." 2nd: Sheldon Wolin's "Democracy Inc" Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism". (Dense, but important). "Solidarity for Sale" by Fitch. Christopher Lasch's "The Revolt of the Elite"; Ray Oldenberg's "The Great Good Place".
Boo and mega boo on using Twitter! Down with tyranny!
I'm not going to make a book suggestion, but a discussion suggestion - Instead of feeding the disgusting monstrosity that is Twitter (so many comments state that they do not have an account there), why not utilize a forum specifically designed for book discussions like GoodReads or LibraryThing?
Alas, GoodReads is owned by Amazon and those of us that avoid Amazon as we avoid Twitter (and apparently its not a small contingent) will be left out. LibraryThing I am less familiar with.
I mostly agree with you about GoodReads. The data provided to GoodReads is sold over and over. I use the site but there are many books that I do not add because it would draw unwanted attention to my account. I use it for book discussions on mainstream reading. I do not discuss politics there unless I am able to land safely in the middle.
OTOH, Amazon is putting zero work into the site (no more API) and no longer seems to care about it in general. In addition, the books that Matt lists are hardly controversial. They're not something that's going to get you blacklisted from anywhere. They're not even out of the mainstream groupthink.
LibraryThing is ... different. Go there and look for the post "What Makes LibraryThing LibraryThing?" It's a mess, but it's an endearing mess. It's the users that make it so. I have no fear of posting my thoughts about anything I read out of the mainstream.
How about about "War With Russisa"? Stephen F. Cohen
Mike Feldman,
Excellent suggestion!
Mike Feldman,
Excellent suggestion!
The Deficit Myth
I second The Revolt of the Elites by Lasch.
Third!
What are the four suggestions? I am not on Twitter. Thanks.
Yes. Would like the four suggestions shared in email.
And to all of you with reading-deficit disorder, the time for proposing new titles has passed and Matt is asking you to vote on the four books he has selected.
I'm not going to re-activate a Twitter account just to vote on this.
They can suck it.
Twitter is cancer.
I’ve been joking around on this comment section but in all seriousness, why are so people running to Twitter to vote? Doesn’t this crowd mostly decry the social media giants? Why not abstain from voting on Twitter and instead pressure Matt to use some other way of counting the vote? We have met the enemy and it is us.
Three of those four titles are "The [Something] of [Something]." It's like a Middlebrow Concerned Citizen Title Generator.
We need paper ballots!
"reading-deficit disorder?" you sound like an a$$.
No, he/she is not. Matt’s twitter post is followed by a stream of replies suggesting other books to review. I guess it’s the nature of twitter, but still is hilarious.
What are they?
Books.
Click on his Twitter link in the square box after his paragraph.
I am not on Twitter.
Neither am I but you can see the books.
I literally, physically do not go to the Twitter website.
The culture of narcissism;
The tyranny of merit;
The deficit myth;
The cult of smart
I’m not voting to protest Matt’s use of Twitter.
No one “literally” “physically” “goes to” the Twitter site. 😁
Sorry it’s a rectangle box.
Ohh OK
The Zyprexa Papers, by me. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0578627264/lawprojectfor-20
The description is:
"On December 17, 2006, The New York Times began a series of front-page stories about documents obtained from Alaska lawyer Jim Gottstein, showing Eli Lilly had concealed that its top-selling drug caused diabetes and other life-shortening metabolic problems. The "Zyprexa Papers," as they came to be known, also showed Eli Lilly was illegally promoting the use of Zyprexa on children and the elderly, with particularly lethal effects. Although Mr. Gottstein believes he obtained the Zyprexa Papers legally, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn decided he had conspired to steal the documents, and Eli Lilly threatened Mr. Gottstein with criminal contempt charges. In The Zyprexa Papers, Mr. Gottstein gives a riveting first-hand account of what really happened, including new details about how a small group of psychiatric survivors spread the Zyprexa Papers on the Internet untraceably. All of this within a gripping, plain-language explanation of complex legal maneuvering and his battles on behalf of Bill Bigley, the psychiatric patient whose ordeal made possible the exposure of the Zyprexa Papers."
There is some relevance to today as it is a cautionary tale about believing drug company statements about their drugs or relying on the FDA's determination of safety and efficacy of drugs.
Thank you Jim. My elderly mother was a victim of the Zyprexa scam when she was in hospital and it was killing her. This was around 2007 in Texas. My brother and I had to go to extreme measures to get the doctors to stop giving it to her, and she very nearly died before they took her off. She recovered rapidly thereafter. They teated us as interlopers with real disgust that we were trying to interfere in their prescriptions. The doctor-pharma brainwashing and payoffs were obvious. It was horrifying to be so powerless in the face of this wall of terror, at least that is what it felt like.
I am glad you managed to get your mother off Zyprexa. A number of people have told me their elderly parent improved greatly after being taken off Zyprexa. Others have told me they saw the deterioration and when their parent died, the doctor said, "your parent was old." There is now a black box warning on Zyprexa's label that it doubles mortality in the elderly. I think that was at least partially as a result of the documents I released which my book, The Zyprexa Papers, is about.
Hi Joyceleigh,
I hope you read the book and let me (& Matt) what you think.
The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better; Will Storr; ISBN: 9781683358183
My take on this is that persistent notion that until we understand how narratives work, the control they exert both on us and those we interact with, we will forever be screaming at the sky wondering why things keep getting worse.
Synopsis:
The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain responds to storytelling
Stories shape who we are. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions and mold our beliefs. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human. So, how do master storytellers compel us? In The Science of Storytelling, award-winning writer and acclaimed teacher of creative writing Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can write better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers—and also our brains—create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.
I got a message that you replied to my "dunno" reply, but I can't find it here in this thread, sorry - if it shows up, I'll respond :)
It posted twice and when I deleted one, it deleted both.
I dunno, seems to me the best way to get out the importance of stories is to tell one that resonates - Crow and Weasel by Barry Lopez, who just died :(
It’s like an infomercial
In what sense?
Well, I was just concerned that the site could be used to promote books for sale in a dishonest way. It occurred to me. Just generally.
taibbi's site? This thread is in the service of a developing book club. By definition that is the pursuit of promoting books for reading.
Not sure what is dishonest in such an exercise...
Thanks. A relatively new discovery for me. Still working my way through the Storr ecosystem.
Something about crypto currencies. That's the biggest story in finance in terms of what retail investors might be drawn to or shy away from.
Something on cryptos would be good - especially with Matt’s background writing on the banking industry.
I’ve put off getting into cryptos, at my loss so far, because there are parts of it that don’t make sense to me, and I mean this not so much in how they work but what is “really” going on and what will happen to them. People talk about how one of Bitcoins strengths is there will only be a finite amount mined - yet it can be infinitely divided? It is anonymous, yet ... it isn’t. And the we can move toward the more suspect/conspiratorial - how are governments going to reign them in and who will benefit by the method, was it really created by some anonymous player, who really is holding the wealth and is it just a transfer scheme, etc. (I’m kind of liking “suspect” for “conspiracy theories” that are grounded in reality and the actual lies the public is told. “It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s a suspect theory - I know the lizard people aren’t controlling the world, but damnit the CIA has lied since it’s inception.”)
Frankly I think it is a a scam .....
My issue with crypto is the amount of processing power, energy resource required to "mine" it. At bottom it seems as exploitative as any other currency. Unless something major has happened to mitigate that, but I have not heard of it yet.
Government takes over all Utilities, land and food hires everyone to work for it, and simply issues EBT cards with the same income for all. The ultimate equality and political perfection.
Is there a way to see this without social media (twitter)? Will never in a million years join Twitter, but I would read a book and discuss it with a group online.
Well, there's always Mastodon...
I like Dr. Kelton's work, having read some pieces on MMT --- so I'd vote for the Tyranny of Merit
I mean --- more interested in Sandel's work here
I cannot stress enough how Christopher Lasch is a timely read for our times, despite the fact that he died 25 years ago. Also, Matthew Crawford's' Why We Drive, Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road, Fabian Scheidler, The End of the Megamachine, A Brief History of a Failing Civilization (a great re-actualization on Lewis Mumford's The Myth of the Machine ) and Thomas Frank's The Road to Oblivion.
A Gentleman In Moscow.
Yes! An aristocrat imprisoned in a grand hotel during the early Soviet days has working class people pretty much his only friends. I'm part way through. Have had trouble reading during the pandemic. My attention span is shot.
Wonderful book.
Debt the first 5000 years
WTF?? All four of those books cover the same general material (huge social problems traceable to the elite classes). That stuff has been covered to death. Why not pick one title that covers that issue, and three others that are on completely separate subjects?
Why are any of these more relevant than "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" or "The Sound and the Fury" ? The human condition and human nature are still the same
I would agree, and yet, in this very thread, a fellow of apparently high self-regard dismissed Lasch (and presumably, contemporaries) as "irrelevant" because he wrote in that pointless "pre-Net" era. What to do about such engrained presentism?
Intriguing question. Live in the moment, maybe? Reach into our zen zones ? If the kingdom can be lost because of the lack of a nail in a horseshoe, where does the present and its future possibilities intersect with the past and its legacies? I think of Sherlock Holmes writing koans in beautiful calligraphy.
I'm not on Twitter as well, my vote goes to The Culture of Narcissism.
Twitter? Why....
Right?
Can't do Twitter
"Through a Glass Darkly: The U.S. Holocaust in Central America" - written by Thomas R. Melville, As recounted by Ronald William Hennessy of events from the 1960s.
On the back cover, (FR) Daniel Berrigan, S.J. -
"'Through a Glass Darkly' is a meticulous, passionate, at times humorous, at all times insightful chronicle of mass murder in Guatemala and El Salvador. At long last, the truth is out. And this extraordinary document is completed, even as the imperial bones of Ronald Reagan are provided with insufferably banal splendor, through Washington avenues, on to the National Cathedral (sic). There, ironies collide as G.W. Bush mounts the same pulpit whence more than a year ago, he initiated the criminal war against Afghanistan and Iraq. Now the mad logic continues, a criminal president eulogizes the architect of mass murder in Central America. Still, in this book, something else, something infinitely precious and rare: the truth."
... and from Stephen Kinzer -
"Too few Americans know about the tragedy that has enveloped Guatemala for decades and about America's role in that tragedy. 'Through a Glass Darkly' tells the story in a way that is passionate and deeply moving but also detailed, factual, and informative. Readers will never again think of Guatemala --or the United States--in the same way".
BTW, Kinzer is a prolific author who writes well. A few faves for a better understanding of 20th century history and how we got here are "Poisoner in Chief" (Sidney Gottlieb), "The Brothers" (as in Dulles) and "All the Shah's Men."
You can go deeper with books by Tim Weiner. For instance "Legacy of Ashes" and "Enemies: A History of the FBI" are essential.
“Overthrow” for an overview. Kinzer is a great great writer! a former NY Times international. correspondent. And I second “Legacy of Ashes”.
Mark Riebling's "Wedge: The Secret War Between the FBI and CIA" is good too
I spend a lot of time in Germany. To this day, they find it too painful to talk of WWII and the holocaust. We will find it just as hard to talk about this book, in particular, since the last administration has been so cruel to the survivors of this mass murder, fighting to come to the US as a last desperate measure to find a life for their families.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Unfortunately, this book is not widely read and the conditions it records are little known and unlikely to be disseminated among the US public in a meaningful way--
Hate the last part of the title because it derails people but Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 by Charles Murry
The last bit, "by Charles Murray" gets some people's cancellin' glands workin' too.
I agree with this suggestion.
None of the above ! We need books that light up the "little grey cells." These are intellectually extremely weak choices, based on one-trick-pony solutions to complex processes that developed malignancies over time. Lasch is the only one of the four authors who attempts some more comprehensive understanding. These choices advocate emotional lunges to replace common sense. Narcissism is at least a factor in evolution, a core malignancy. Without merit, we get Tammany tyranny or Athenian-style mob rule. Inequality is always present in every system of education or government. And deficits occur when a very few can extract excess social wealth and fob the cost onto everybody else -- everybody else owes the interest payments, which can become huge as a % of national production. We don't need a "book club" for these thoughts. Aristotle addressed most of them pretty adequately in his "Politics." The closest this list comes to a serious thought process is trying to answer the question: "How can we have a good society for all citizens and also have Picasso, Mozart, and Pasteur ? "
Appreciate the Poirot reference but, given that you made it, I posit that your little grey cells *will* light up if/when you read "The Deficit Myth," the table of contents alone of which debunks the baseless charge that its ideas constitute a simplistic solution to "complex processes that developed malignancies over time." In the first place, said malignancies did not merely "develop" - they have been cultivated. This book introduces the reader to those issues and proposed solutions to them in layperson's language, with remarkable aplomb and preternatural tact.
You are right that Kelton makes a fair effort to sift the relevant from the misguided notions. Neither our recent-past policy-makers mor Kelton, however, appreciates
some of the nuances ignored in the measures to which they pay such close attention. No one has clearly explained why $4 Trillion added to US bank reserves in 2009-11 resulted in almost zero monetary stimulus. To me, the answer is obvious -- the actual money supply is not be found in reserves supplied by the Fed, but in loans outstanding to domestic borrowers. Loan growth in 2009-12 barely increased at all -- especially when commercial paper and other traditional sources of credit are taken in to account. The quarterly Survey of Senior Bank Loan Officers showed showed 19 -- 19! -- consecutive tightenings in loan standards from 3Q 2007 to 2Q 2012. That means the same borrowers were squeezed consecutively at least 4 times - on an annual basis -- in that period. Talk about pushing on a string! The Propensity to Lend fell off a high, steep cliff -- the Fed was powerless to create loan supply -- which is what increases money used in the real economy. Similarly, Kelton talks about the poor track record of the unemployment - inflation trade-off model. But just as with loan supply, loan demand is driven by a Propensity to Borrow. Anecdotal evidence indicates the Great Recession dramatically reduced the small-business and consumer appetites for money to put to use. Even now, we hear people wondering why the $1,200 or $600 checks are not being spent, helping to grow the economy. How can they wonder? Do they not know at all what our lives are like? After you've had your lines of credit cut four times in three years by the same lender, do they think suddenly you are optimistic about drawing down the skimpy stub of your former spending power still available ? Kelton is the only other person I've read who uses the right number for 2007-09, that homeowners lost $8 Trillion, but even she misses that it was a 2005-12 phenomenon, not 2007-09. But to rely on any model predicting inflation or unemployment without recognizing the huge swings in Propensity to Lend and Propensity to Borrow that are the canaries in the money mines, are still far too crude and inattentive, in my opinion.
Possibly the simplest point is: economists believe numbers tell a story. Certainly the population of dogs in Germany reported for 1921 - 25 paints a
grim picture. But Sentiment -- as economists use the term -- drives both business and consumer behavior in ways the economists cannot measure and rarely imagine. If your home's value is increasing 5% per year, maybe you will put in a deck or replace a shower much quicker than if you just saw its value drop (50%). Maybe if you hadn't been raked over the coals about the loans you made to people solidly employed in good jobs in 2003-07, you would be optimistic about lending to them today. There's nothing trivial about certain decision forces that cannot be measured accurately from one decade to another, And all that was true before the Pandemic. I admire Stephanie Kelton for her correct belief that a lot more can be done. But we are dealing with a Science that is not just Dismal. It;s also murderous.
Not on Twitter, now or ever, so I guess I am not registered to vote.
The four poll choices are racist against books whose titles do not start with the word 'The.' Disgusting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9WWz95ripA&ab_channel=NapalmRecords
this is great how Matt's readers take real issues like racism so seriously
I won’t speak for others but I take ACTUAL racism seriously. “I don’t like that,” or “that wasn’t funny to me,” does not = racism. If it did no one would ever speak to anyone unless it was to tell them how racist they are
Shut up, you racist.
Ouch
you have to understand the nature of the confusion we're mired in; that retort has been used sarcastically for so long that it's now trite.
Also, even obvious Internet sarcasm is liable to being misunderstood.
But the main problem is that you kicked things off with a non sequitur, just as an excuse to employ the word "racist" sarcastically. And while I don't usually autopsy jokes because it takes the funny out of them, in this case there was nothing to lose. That wasn't humor; it was bait. Well, you caught someone. Now what?
The American sense of humour is no laughing matter.
I was just trying to help out!!!
For entertainment purposes I’ll give the next 2 mins to this thread before I forget it existed.
The world needed another person with the superhuman ability to read motives and pass judgement under the cloak of anonymity. “Bait” would imply there was something I wanted to pursue. When My motive was to express that I feel weary of and disinterested in the constant and usually baseless labeling of people, things, facts, ideas as “racist.”
Is it my white privilege? Does someone really believe I am a racist? Is it just my low tolerance for B.S.? Doesn’t matter what you call me I will express my opinion freely and by whatever means I choose; humor, scholarly reference, personal experience. There was no personal attack and the reply by Certex goes a long way to supporting my point.
PS - I find your post ironic given that your comments are typically of the bait and bludgeon variety. Excuse me - I’m off to see the progress toward choosing a book.
I deserved zero minutes. I wasn't replying to you.
In short if you clicked the link IT WAS FUNNY - with a humorous reply.
I take racism seriously, obviously. But, like everydamnedbody else, I have had so much pain and horror and stress with this year and its madness (ever worked at a covid testing centre? I have. Talk aboot going into the absolute eye of a pandemic storm) I just have to react with humour after a certain point. Only thing that keeps me sane. Well, that and Pornhub, and bath salts, and scratch cards, and chocolate, and beer, and...eh...well, that thing is still illegal, so...no comment. And stuff like the video linked to below helps too, I suppose. Have a laugh on me. Well, on the band, but, well, you know what I mean. Slainte! Happy Hogmanay (look it up) from Scotland! Worship Odin! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9WWz95ripA&ab_channel=NapalmRecords
OMG! Master of IKEA?! Thanks, I needed that.
Welcome. My brother introduced me to the band a couple of days ago. I just listened to an album of theirs for the first time. One of the funniest and weirdest bands I have ever heard in my life. Magic! Was going to say "Racist against non-funny bands," but some folk round here have no sense of humour. :)
If you read only to affirm your take on "real issues" you are missing out and missing the point. Further, your insistence on serious has badly damaged your sense of humor.
Whimper whine whinge. T'was but a bit of folly verbiage to do with the fact that all four books start with the word 'The.' In other words, it was a...
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/joke
And, more pertinently...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th4Czv1j3F8&list=RDth4Czv1j3F8&start_radio=1&ab_channel=NapalmRecords
Mascot just can’t leave it. He/she loves to create conflict. Thanks for your original post. And thanks for calling me a racist and for letting me bait you
Not touching any low-hanging 'bait' joke fruit. :)
and the labeling of "racist" was necessary to the jest, because...
Cos I felt like it. You being racist to me? Laughing. How can you be racist against a book title? It was absurdist humour, meaningless, abstract. Now go away.
I don’t see the four books
Ahem, click on his Twitter link above. But down with using Twitter!
Well, if one doesn't do Twitter - why can't the list be posted here?
I dunno. Matt’s post is not the model of clarity. Probably asked an assistant to post this.
The more I think about it, it occurs to me that this particular thread itself might be a good springboard for a discussion that encompasses many of the ideas expressed in various books that are proposed - given that apparently a goodly number of Matt's readers eschew Twitter, FB, etc. as a means of "communicating", why are the books to be chosen listed on Twitter? If indeed "the medium is the message", what "message" does using a medium like Twitter, which privileges sound bites and #hash tags over any nuanced discussion of ideas, convey?
Just a thought, there's more, but, it seems to me, it's a start ....
Yes, if Matt’s readers cannot construct an alternative to Twitter in this situation, then we have no real high ground from which to criticize the sheep-like masses who mindlessly use social media. In our case, there is no bureaucracy between us and Matt. We comment and he reads. We could have insisted that he simply post four separate posts, one for each book and we click “like.” No need for fancy poll-taking software. Just him and us.
Frankly I rather cringe at the perpetual use of "sheep like masses" to describe my fellow humans - does smack a bit of "elitism" doncha think?
In any case - I guess I don't understand the idea of a "book club" - I thought it was that a bunch of folks read the same book and then discuss it together ...
The "message" could be to get more people that are using Twitter off of Twitter.
This being said, there is nothing wrong with social media by requirement. It is the predatory, unregulated, capitalistic layer on top that renders it harmful.
Would the problems of mob cruelty, unwarranted privilege and censoriousness be more digestible if administered to the requirements of "The Party"?? I would suggest that the problems are endemic to human nature, absent good faith pushback, and the attribution of these problems to the "capitalistic layer" is more knee-jerk than insightful.
Simply, when you put it that way it sounds like you're suggesting that if we just got The. Right. People. running things, the problems would go away. You may remove the corrupting influence of profit, but humanity does not lack for morally objectionable motives.
What I meant was I thought it a bit of an oxymoron to tout a book club on Twitter, given its DNA .....
Neither do I. Please repeat somewhere.
Yes. Will someone just list them? I would also add any book by Max Blumenthal.
I did above, or is it below? Anyway, an hour ago.
The Revolt of the Elites by Christopher Lasch.
"CIA as Organized Crime" by Valentine
Valentine was given complete access to CIA agents by Wm. Colby who thought he was on their side. Valentine's father was an agent. His previous book was about the Phoenix program in Vietnam. Basically the Phoenix program was rolled out worldwide by the CIA. The USA Fusion centers which bring all the police and National Security State actors to work together, as well as the militarization of the police is fruit of that program.
Well that's not terrifying at all.
For those who dont know, the Phoenix program was an extra-judicial program of surveillance, assassination and torture directed against anyone not actively supporting the USA's regime in Vietnam.
Agreed: Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch. It’s foundational and sets up many of the other suggestions. A great ‘same page’ from which to begin this project — not to mention, dare I say? — this year?
What would be nice is if, whatever it is, it wasn't written by someone with an a agenda.
Big Coal is one such book.
I suppose everything is to a certain extent and especially now, but some of these titles made me want to wrap a warm towel around my head.
I recommend a book called "Take Back The Power! : Sustainable Energy and Freedom are Within Your Grasp" at Amazon.com
Please boycott Amazon.com
ThriftBooks AbeBooks GoodWillBooks for used books!
Powell's in Portland is a union shop.
@MattTaibbi, Linda, Annam and Stephanie have a point here--maybe ask people to purchase from independent and/or local book stores.
Why does everything have to have underlying morality?
Because ultimately everything seems to splinter into Judean People's Front/People's Front of Judea disputes over ideological purity while the Romans make out like bandits.
I don't think it would be appropriate for Matt to organize an Amazon boycott unless he feels strongly about it. However, there's certainly nothing wrong with posters in the comment section urging others to not buy from Amazon. I love the convenience of Amazon, but many have rightly raised concerns about their business practices. Personally I've been moving away from Amazon because i'm sick of receiving Chinese knockoffs of real products half of the time. This is just one more reason to shop elsewhere.
Nietzsche: Twilight of the Idols
Not a question for mortals
I, for one, chose to live by my principles.
https://bookshop.org/
and Quimby's
I think Barbara's in Chicago is still open?
Does it still have windows?
😁😆 and so so sad.
https://www.ocpp.org/2016/10/27/blog20161027-Powells-Measure-97-tax/
Library
Also Better World Books. They also have depository bins all over the country in which you can leave books you don’t want. They ship them to places in the world that need books - even textbooks.
And their postage is free. Even to Australia.
Amazon now owns AbeBooks
It's a losing battle.
Well, that just made my day.
wtf? 12 years ago...
Abe Books sadly is a division of Amazon designed to make you think you have found an independent bookseller.
Thriftbooks and my local book bargain bin also sometimes have a lucky find at library sales.
A LOT of lucky finds at library sales! They sell over-donated (popular) and under-accessed (often very good) books at the sales at our central library, for next to nothing. $20 will get me more than I can carry out, and more than I can read before the next sale.
Is Wordery.com clean? (I know Book Depository is Amazon.) There's indiebound too.
Abe books is owned by Amazon.
Check out BetterWorldBooks.com
AbeBooks now owned by Amazon - sorry!
Never. How elite of you. Amazon saved our asses over here during Covid.
Jeff Bezos made 13bn in ONE day. He could give every American $3000 and still have as many riches he had before the pandemic. No one has to use Amazon for anything! And shouldn't!
Jeff Bezos ex-wife MacKenzie Scott gave more than $4 billion to charity. She donated to 384 organizations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico and some of that money came here to Vermont. Our Foodbank got $9 million. That's pretty amazing.
Hah! And you all ridiculed "trickle down" economic theory!!
As Anand G says it would be better for all if the rich actually paid a fair share of taxes. That way her $$ would allow the people to legislate where the money goes as opposed to a 1% er who is unelected.
Yah, but only Scott decided where that money would go.
Well -- it is her money...
I’d rather like that they would pay taxes so the decisions on charity could be spread out.
Hah! And, of course, a Prog like you has a problem with that. So fookin' idiotic.
13bn in one day would be 4,745bn in a year, which is about 23% of the US's GDP. And Bezo's net worth is estimated at 185bn.
$3000 for every American is $1,000,000,000,000 ($1 trillion), about 6 times his net worth. Try $200 per American.
So 13bn is a reasonable figure for his annual earnings, but 2-3 orders of magnitude too high for daily.
Mind you I'm not saying he's not rich. But no need to add gratuitous zeros. And he did something to earn it by creating a valuable, useful infrastructure.
These are fake money. They cannot be converted to anything useful. If he sold all his shares he’d get a small fraction of the current nominal value.
I think more people are struggling mathematically than economically, frankly.
I use Amazon constantly. I'm not mad at Bezos nor is it justifiable to be mad at him just because he has done far better than you (and me and almost everyone else on the planet). His company killed it and continues to kill it. When that happens many people including, of course, the founder make bank. There's nothing at all wrong with that.
Of course there's something wrong with that. No one should be allowed to make 13bn in one day. After 5 millions income, taxes should be 100%. If you can't live on 5 million, tough. Bezos' goal is to sell anything and everything on the market with no competitors. Good grief, he's now going into pharmaceuticals. Monopolies are illegal and he wants to, as one man, monopolize the world. He's crazy AND he uses seasonal workers that are often retired and walk miles on concrete in huge warehouses and are timed to the second in their work. I've seen it. He's sick.
It is more the worker abuse that is the cause for divesting from amazon.
Alas your calculations are not correct. 330 million is right for the US population, but dividing that into 13bn gives $39.39, not $40 million. You were off by a factor of a million.
George's calculations were wildly off, but tell me if this makes sense and is economically, politically and morally sustainable: Three men (Bezos, Buffett and Gates) have more net wealth than the bottom 50 percent of Americans (approximately 160 million people). You don't need a calculator.
Actually, Bezos made 13bn in ONE day, not EVERY day. Besides the math, that amount is insane for one person to "earn' in one day. His ex-wife said, Jeff could cure world hunger if he wanted.
You're way off on your math. 13 billion/330 million = $40, not $40,000,000. It's still a hell of a lot of money though.
It's actually a little less than $40. This happens a lot:
https://youtu.be/6egeUxIEQnM
Wow. Fail.
$130 billion divided by 330 million = $393 each
You're off by six orders of magnitude, bro.
Why should he ?
Jeff Bezos made 13bn in ONE day. He could give every American $3000 and still have as many riches he had before the pandemic. No one has to use Amazon for anything! And shouldn't!
I hate to break it to you, but that's $900 billion dollars. It's not good to accept sound bites, especially those that come from journalists (most journalists are completely inept at math).
He also lost 7bn in a week this year. Talk about foundations made of sand if you think the federal government can go full candyman in seizing Bezos wealth for leftist edification.
Learn how to shop local. THAT’s what’s going to save your ass.
It saved mine
And fried a lot of others ...
The fact is it's a capitalist system; Jeff Bezos knows how to compete in this system. I cannot blame him for operating his business better than his competition. I prefer Amazon not be an Oligopoly as it is - but unless America forms a new system of commerce, here we are.
The issue is not one of capitalism, but of unregulated capitalism. Amazon will be broken up, either through anti-trust action, or violently. Inevitable.
"unregulated capitalism" What the fuck are you talking about? Bezos has made damn less than whatever you and the rest of the ijits on this site think. That his stock appreciated however much in a day or a week or a year means nothing about him other than paper wealth. Whaddyawanna regulate you Prog?
Take a course in economics.
Really, Chui, you can't really be this stupid and have a credit card to pay Taibbi's monthly charge. Get a clue. We should notify the credit rating agencies.
Yes, we already have anti monopoly laws on the books.
Someday that might happen but not with these current political parties.
Linda, charity begins at home. This is America! Be generous and share your wealth with those less fortunate. Spend your money wherever you like but please let me spend my money including where to direct my charity, as I choose.
See https://popularresistance.org/amazon-posted-job-to-monitor-employees-efforts-to-unionize/; https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/10/business/amazonbasics-electronics-fire-safety-invs/index.html;https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/oct/02/almost-20000-amazon-workers-in-us-test-positive-for-covid-19;https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/opinion/amazon-antitrust.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20201009&instance_id=22979&nl=opinion-today&regi_id=17409781&segment_id=40414&te=1&user_id=789f1698844dc1d874e6d8c07b0c93b5;https://popularresistance.org/amazon-expects-employees-to-operate-like-fast-moving-machines/;https://www.seattletimes.com/business/because-of-injury-claims-state-wants-amazons-automated-warehouses-to-pay-higher-workers-comp-premiums-than-meatpacking-or-logging-operations/?utm_source=marketingcloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TSA_102120175703+Because+of+injury+claims%2c+Washington+wants+Amazon+warehouses+to+pay+higher+workers%e2%80%99_10_21_2020&utm_term=Former%20Subscriber;https://www.seattletimes.com/business/because-of-injury-claims-state-wants-amazons-automated-warehouses-to-pay-higher-workers-comp-premiums-than-meatpacking-or-logging-operations/?utm_source=marketingcloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TSA_102120175703+Because+of+injury+claims%2c+Washington+wants+Amazon+warehouses+to+pay+higher+workers%e2%80%99_10_21_2020&utm_term=Former%20Subscriber;https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/nov/26/amazon-and-apple-not-playing-their-part-in-tackling-electronic-waste;https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/12/becerra-amazon-california-covid-19-investigation/?campaign_id=49&emc=edit_ca_20201216&instance_id=25099&nl=california-today®i_id=17409781&segment_id=47096&te=1&user_id=789f1698844dc1d874e6d8c07b0c93b5.
Why in the world would I support a business like this because it's
convenient for me but bad for so many others?
Hope this helps:
https://tinyurl.com/
Thanks. I knew about TinyURL but didn't think to use it. Here's another Amazon article, TinyURLed: https://tinyurl.com/ybfqnq7c.
I agree, Linda.
No
Already divested.
I choose "The Deficit Myth". thank you mary margaret flynn
Review Ibram X Kendi =]
Sounds like some high quality entertainment
So do Glenn Loury and John Mc Whorter. https://youtu.be/3qanSigtOO4
A while ago I heard a speaker say that “race” is a political idea. Obviously there are different skin colors which pols would like to take credit for creating but I’m interested in your opinion of race as a “category” for political purposes? Surely it’s useful when pandering for votes and power but in the larger sense when? was post Civil War when this became the standard political fare? I thought citizens of all races seemed to be moving closer to a social equivalence until the 90s(?). At what point did the regression begin? Were we making progress or was my perception more fairy tale than reality?
"I thought citizens of all races seemed to be moving closer to a social equivalence until the 90s(?). At what point did the regression begin? Were we making progress or was my perception more fairy tale than reality?"
Your perception matches objective reality. The regression began with Obama. As a proponent of Critical Race Theory (CRT), Obama instituted divisive policies throughout the federal government. The most noticeable was Mandatory Diversity Training (MDT).
Prior to Obama, the guiding principles for race relations were those of MLK. His vision from the mountaintop was a colorblind meritocracy where people were valued for the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. This was working and vast progress had been made since the turbulent 60s. The only institutional racism in government up to that time was Affirmative Action (AA), instituted by LBJ. AA was not consistent with MLK's dream but it does not make race the primary criterion for hiring and advancement.
Obama, being a foreign-born mulatto with divided allegiances, denied his white half, and instituted a policy of divisive hate by making color the primary criterion on which people should henceforth be judged. This policy was advanced further by favoring govt contractors of color and eventually basically forcing private companies to fall in line with the victimhood views of CRT.
Results: Guilt and shaming ensue. Incompetence escalates. Everybody figures out the government is full of compulsive liars and globalist cheats on the take. Weapons sales hit record highs. A presidential election is stolen by corrupt social justice warriors convinced that two wrongs make a right and the end justifies the means. Next, Civil War II. It's the end of the world as we know it.
IF you're interested in the US history of slavery/anti-slavery etc. : https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/Popular-sovereignty#ref612691
Cool. I suggested only two books, and both made the final 4. “The Deficit Myth” and “The Tyranny of Merit.” Somehow I feel validated.
Is the winning selection going to have future editions published with a "Matt Taibbi Book Club Selection!" medallion on the cover? No reason for Oprah to have all the fun.
I get a lot of value out of your read on things Matt, and this sounds like a great way to further the scope of TK. One suggestion - instead of just criticism of the parts of the eventual book that you disagree with, can you use the problems it brings up as a jumping off point for your own musings? I’ve noticed how a few of the authors seem to point toward a socialist panacea for the big and real problems they bring up, and your experience in what collectivism can turn into seems helpful here for expanding that conversation in pragmatic terms.
I don't use twitter either
Bullshit Jobs or Debt by David Graeber. We need to rethink and reimagine the purpose of work, who does it and how it gets done.
I vote for 1) Culture of Narcissism and 2) Tyranny of Merit. Not in the same vein as the suggested for, but on your own, highly recommend Last Stands: Why Men Fight When All is Lost by Michael Walsh. I'm reading it now and it is fascinating.
Maybe for future reviews, something a little more contrarian could be fun. Rather than approaching a collection of reviews as "books someone loves or was told to love," more of a "books someone despises or was told to despise." Something like a, "Why Burn This Book?" review. Take a look at books which have triggered a "burn that!" response. Books landing on a list for cultural/political reasons and billed as bad for you. Candide, Frankenstein, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Clockwork Orange, Of Mice and Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest, The Jungle, and on and on.
I like this post. Let’s add to it and make it a Top post.
My suggestions are Das Kapital, the Koran, and Eat, Pray, Love.
Anything on the NY Times Non-Fiction Best Seller list
Where to vote on these books? And what are the four book to choose from?
The Jakarta Method.
I'm reading Vijay Prashad's Washington Bullets which is a history of US imperialism. You can hear him talk with Paul Jay on the Analysis News from earlier this month.