3. Inspired Warrior Bootcamp: Reclaiming Left Power
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2,332 likes, 81 comments - blackspectrumscholar on August 27, 2026: "Intersectionality, developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw, gives us a framework for understanding how different systems of power overlap. Examining our positionality invites us to map where we stand within those structures.
Use the black-and-white wheel to reflect on your own position across each dimension.
If you value educational resources that make complex concepts more accessible and practically useful, consider supporting my work through Ko-fi or PayPal.
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Credit to Sylvia Duckworth (@sylviaduckworth), who developed the original Wheel of Power and Privilege in 2020 for the Canadian Council for Refugees.".
A few thoughts on Yanis Varoufakis’s 'Technofeudalism'. A friend basically threw the book at me, so I had no choice but to read it. My general feeling after reading it was: WTF??????????? Because in so many parts I kept thinking: what is this, really? I understand why the book is popular. The image is strong and memorable. Varoufakis argues that capitalism has been “killed” by a new form of capital - cloud capital - and that Big Tech is owning platforms, data, algorithms, visibility, infrastructure. Want to sell? Go through Amazon. Want to be seen? Please the algorithm. Want your app to exist? Go through Apple or Google. So we are no longer simply “free consumers” in a market; we are turned into data and attention. It feels like renting a house, except the house is the platform. BUT THIS IS NOT NEW! To be fair, Varoufakis is right to stress the new power of platforms and cloud rent. But WHY DID BRO TURN it into the death of capitalism rather than a mutation within capitalism.
So much of what he describes is already inside capitalism. It is just being inflated into something that sounds very new, very “we have entered another historical stage now.” 'Cloud capital', 'cloud serfs', 'technolords'??? But what is actually new here? Marx's Capital already captured all that, machinery in the hands of capital, living labour, labour-power, rent, monopoly, surplus value, accumulation, and the control of the labour process. Beneath the glamorous cloud there are still human beings: coders, delivery workers, warehouse workers, content moderators, data labelers, creators. People are still hired, pressured, exhausted, turned into data, and made to produce value.
To me, instead of abandoning the critique of capital and inventing another historical “layer,” we should return to Marx to see more clearly the forms of exploitation being hidden under AI, platforms and the cloud. The issue is that people are still mystified and alienated by their own labour. What we produce, machines, data, algorithms, platforms, AI, comes back to confront us as something alien, independent, intelligent. So when people see AI as the threat, or technology as the thing exploiting them, they are really seeing the alienated form of social labour. AI does not exploit anyone by itself. Capital uses AI to organize, control, accelerate and extract labour, and we see our labour alienated in front of us. THIS IS NOT NEW! The social relation that makes human products turn back and dominate human beings. Everything is still stagnant, still illusion-ridden, still capitalist. What new stage are we even talking about????? Magical, la la land?? ?
It’s Never (Just) the Economy: What Really Drives the Far-Right Vote
Heard anyone say lately that the economy causes far-right votes?
The real pull is closer to why an evening of trash TV feels so good: the relief of having someone to look down on, and someone to blame for what you feel you’ve lost.
The economy is just the more comforting story, because it means a democracy could spend its way back to safety.
My latest essay is now out 👇
the conflation of “democratic socialism” with socialism will never not annoy tf out of me. i write these long explanatory, educational posts to explain the difference only for someone to dismiss it as purity testing. 😭 ok so the National Socialist German Workers Party was actually socialist, then? if “socialism” is an arbitrary label anyone can slap on themselves and has nothing to do with their actual politics or advocacy, then why are we counting him out?? he was a member of a socialist party!
karl marx and fredriech engels weresocialists, but they criticized the classical socialist theorists for their naive view that appealing to reason could establish a society where the means of production are owned collectively. but, collective ownership of the means of production has always been the historical and theoretical definition of socialism. the nordic states, the new deal, and universal healthcare/education/housing are not socialist.
the working class does not own the means of production in the nordic states, the working class did not own the means of production under the new deal (it actually limited their ability to even organize toward that), social programs do not target the underlying issue that produces instability, inequality, exploitation, and oppression. they only marginally improve the lives of those living in the nation-state that enacts them. and capitalists funnel wealth back into these states through imperial extraction, genocide, and war.
it doesn’t matter what these parties and politicians call themselves, it doesn’t matter what their websites state, using popular language and compelling slogans that pay lipservice to a more equitable society that “empowers workers” and seeks to “abolish” capitalism is meaningless when actual democratic socialists continually uphold capitalism, private ownership, imperialism, and fascism.
the DSA’s website concedes the objective of abolishing private ownership, and describes democratic socialism as “a vision of a humane social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution.” but notice the markedly absent mention of class. what exactly is “popular ownership”? if capital has a share in ownership of the means of production, it is not socialist. if workers own the means of production, it is not capitalist. if private property remains, capitalism has not been abolished.
DSA’s candidates who’ve won an elected position have repeatedly betrayed the domestic and international working class by voting for/abstaining from legislation that materially supports apartheid. they have voted against workers’ strike settlements. they refuse to kick zionists out of their party, despite supposedly “officially” condemning zionism lol. they’ve endorsed billionaires whose wealth was acquired through for-profit detention centers and private equity.
their policies operate within capitalism and never actually challenge the status quo. Zohran Mamdani was called a Jihadi communist by fox news and various conserviatives, but this man capitulated to a room full of corporate execs the second he was elected and walked back nearly all of his campaign promises.
their candidates have proposed and passed some legislation (such as extending the eviction moratorium) that has somewhat benefitted the working class, but this legislation doesn’t place ownership into the hands of the working class, it doesn’t improve their ability to organize toward that goal, it doesn’t threaten capital or “empower” the most marginalized in our country. and capitalists have checks in place to prevent any marginally beneficial measures from passing at all.
so what are policies that actually do these things? well, i’m glad you asked!!!
complete divestment from “israel,” recognize Palestine, legally back BDS, abolish weapons manufacturers; criminalize lobbying; lift sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, the DPRK, etc
socialization of banking, energy, medicine, logistics, etc. compulsory conversion of corporations into workers cooperatives, enable democratic participation by workers
mandatory annual transfer of a percentage of corporate profits into worker-controlled funds
build or appropriate free high quality housing that is permanently publicly owned, national rent stabilization.
elimination of interest on mortgage, loans, car payments, etc.
repeal the Taft-Hartly act that made general strikes, sympathy strikes, and secondary boycotts illegal
national just-cause employment and implementation of fines on companies who try to implement at will employment
defund and demilitarize the police
, defund the military. abolish for-profit prisons, free and expunge all marijuana convictions, mass commutation.
create jobs: nation wide public transit/high speed rail, convert industries to renewable energy,
sustainable/regenerative farming, restore depleted topsoil, criminalize factory farming, and prevent overproduction.
each of these has historical precedent in the Western capitalist nations, meaning these are not out of reach, even under capitalism. yet i have not seen any of these types of policies put forward by DSA candidates, they instead focus on policies that operate within the margins of capitalism. extending the eviction moratorium is an example of a policy that seems to improve the lives of the working class, and is widley considered a huge win for the “left”. but mass evictions still took place and tenants owed all back rent when the pause lifted. there was no serious effort to make the moratorium permanent or to freeze rent while the moratorium was in place. land lords weren’t fined for failure to provide vacant housing to those in need.
anyway. democratic socialism is not socialism. real socialists aren’t getting elected. socialism is acheived through proletarian revolution that abolishes the bourgeois state and builds one for the proletariat.
The Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective (AISC) is a group of scholars committed to challenging US-led imperialism and supporting liberation movements of the Global Majority through critical knowledge production and international solidarity.
The Moving Letter James Baldwin Received from His Childhood Teacher at the Peak of His Fame and His Heartbreak
In early 1934, a twenty-four-year-old graduate student at Columbia Teachers College took an internship teaching drama and producing student plays at PS 24 in Harlem. Among her young charges at that…
Overview: Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is offering a blunt warning about negotiating with President Donald Trump, arguing that Trump’s unpredictability makes it difficult for other nations to rely on agreements reached with his administration. Kinew called Trump “erratic,” “irresponsible” and “not to be trusted,” saying, “you can’t make a good deal with a bad person” […]
‘Utter insanity’: Jaws drop as details spill on Trump admin’s Canada demands - Raw Story
Onlookers were left stunned Sunday as new details emerged regarding the now-collapsed U.S.-Canada trade negotiations, details that include a series of extraordinary demands from the Trump administration.Trade talks between Washington and Ottawa fell through Friday, leading both nations to vow to imp...
Unlearning & The Mechanics of Privilege
The Alberta Issue
Facing Fascism & Dystopia
Critical Thinking & Dialogue
Indigenous Climate Solutions
Journalists/Authors/Writers
Black Politics & Revolutionary History
Trump vs Canadian Nationalism
Studying DSA Success: Mamdani etc