…it was a great (unrecorded) “episode” where we covered the future of university teaching in an AI age, the trials and tribulations of foreign policy writing, and got insights into what it’s like being the only sober person on the night of Newcastle’s cup celebrations.

Brews: IPA & Amber Ale

There is a sense, among many, that Israel is so broken, its leadership so cynical, that it is truly a hopeless political experiment best left to the messianic settler-supremacist clan that runs it.

I struggle to offer a counterpoint.

5/ For the past 10 years, this political logic of *uncaring* is what I've been seeing in Sudan, Syria, Palestine, Colombia, Cyprus and elsewhere.

The entirety of my latest book is exactly about this. Documenting abandonment as a logic of governance.

4/ Quick observations:

Abandonment is no longer a failure of sovereignty but inherent to it.

Abandonment isn't wielded as punishment. It isn't biopolitical per se.

Abandonment is not wielded for profit. It's not privatised. This isn't neoliberalism.

Take them seriously: They truly don't care.

3/ Later, Gawande notes that a foreign health minister told him recently "I never imagined America could be indifferent, could simply abandon people."

Of course, America has always abandoned people, at home and abroad. This this isn't new at all.

But abandonment is now becoming brazen and blunt.

2/ When Gawande says hundreds of thousands will die, Remnick is rattled: "I'm sorry, Atul, [...] this is nothing short of outrageous. And how is it possible that this is happening? Obviously these facts are filtering up to [...] the administration at large, and they don't care."

Bingo. They don't.

Bingo

My friend and colleague Ben Anderson has written about joy and right wing politics. Affect Theory in general has lots to say about this, though I have to admit I’m probably not best placed to expand on this.

Rule No. 6: "A good tactic is one your people enjoy."

For the Trumpists, the cruelty is the point. They enjoy it.

What is "the point" for the anti-Trump coalition broadly imagined?

What kind of tactic would manifest an enjoyable expression of that point?

And a big shout-out to Judith Koch who helped record, edit and sort out all the technical aspects that made this happen!