Is it just me or did we just do one of these link roundups? Every day sure is beginning to feel the same. Nonetheless, as long as the links continue to demand rounding up, I will perform this task for you, loyal readers. One piece of exciting news is that we here at Flood are hoping to increase our written content, and we have updated our submission guidelines accordingly. If you’ve ever thought about pitching us, now’s the time! Please send pitches or full submissions to floodmediabrisbane (at) gmail (dot) com.
I really enjoyed this piece on the history of ‘populism’ in the United States, including some interesting parallels between 1896 and today. I meant to just skim it to get a broad sense of what it was about, but ended up reading the whole thing, which is a pretty ringing endorsement given that my attention span has been totally destroyed by the internet. Author Thomas Frank writes of the current anti-populist discourse:
“This struggle has a fundamental, almost biblical flavor. It is a battle of order against chaos, education against ignorance, mind against appetite, enlightenment against bigotry, culture against barbarism. From TED talk to red carpet, the call rings forth: Democracy must be controlled . . . before it ruins our democratic way of life.”
Matt recommends this longread about China and the future of state capitalism, although I cannot personally speak to its merits (see: destroyed attention span). Probably will fill an hour or so of quarantine time, though! If longish, theory-heavy pieces are your jam, there’s also this piece in Viewpoint about crises: political, economic, organic … every type of crisis!
“Today, rather than speaking of the working class, it might be more precise to speak of the endangered class.” New York City sounds like it’s getting close to being a literal hell on earth, as this first-person account from a delivery driver in Manhattan confirms. As well as being an up-close look at the dystopia of service work during a pandemic, this piece is a call for a solidarity of condition and position - “a solidarity between those who have a lot more to worry about than the virus alone”.
If you’re in the mood for another piece about why Blairites are psychopaths (I know I always am), this piece by James Mills, a former staffer on Corbyn’s leadership campaigns, will float your boat. (By ‘float your boat’ I mean ‘make you really angry by confirming all your worst suspicions’.) If you haven’t yet read Tristan Ryan’s piece on what went down in UK Labour and what left-electoralists can learn from it, I’d recommend that to your attention, too.
Photo by Robert Metz on Unsplash