Welcome
Blog
Archive

Matthew Wang Downing’s
Philosophy Blog

Distinctions

Jan 3
Jan 3 Contradiction in the Capitalist Mode of Production

MWD
capitalism, general audience, leftism, Marxism, summary, synthesis, criticism

Summarizing Marx’s analysis of the contradiction between ‘capitalist social relations’ and ‘the productive forces developed under capitalism’.

Nov 27
Nov 27 Why ‘Nonviolent Communication’ Seems So Strangely Effective

MWD
ethics, leftism, philosophy audience, synthesis

Not actually strange from the perspective of deontological ethics.

Nov 27
Nov 27 Summarizing ‘Nonviolent Communication’ by Marshall B. Rosenberg

MWD
ethics, general audience, leftism, summary

I recommend this book!  A summary of how we might go about expressing and hearing our observations, feelings, needs, and requests.

Oct 28
Oct 28 Fascists are Building "Dual Power" in the Social Influence Space

MWD
general audience, leftism, on fascism, stray thoughts, summary

Fascists are strategically building a “parallel economy” in a way that has superficial similarities to the left’s strategy of building dual power.  What's the difference, and how does this affect our analysis of building dual power?

Oct 8
Oct 8 Fascism: The Mass Coordination of Fearful Individualists

MWD
criticism, general audience, leftism, on fascism

Fascism funnels a fear-based individualism into coordinated, exclusionary political actions. It sucks.

Sep 18
Sep 18 “Dignity” is Not Enough. We Need Power.

MWD
capitalism, criticism, general audience, leftism, organizing, organizing audience, stray thoughts

The only way to guarantee working class dignity is through working class power.

Sep 4
Sep 4 A Pitfall to Avoid in Mass Line Organizing

MWD
organizing, organizing audience, stray thoughts, thinking tools

Might be good to be aware of this when beginning mass line style organizing.

Aug 30
Aug 30 Organizing Between Crises: Tenant Union Case Study

MWD
Marxism, leftism, organizing audience, organizing, stray thoughts, thinking tools

When we try to organize and grow capacity “in preparation for” a crisis, what this practically means is that we are organizing in response to smaller-level crises in ways that build our organizational capacity for larger crises.

Aug 16
Aug 16 Defining ‘Material’ and ‘Social’ Relations

MWD
capitalism, analytic, leftism, general audience, organizing audience, philosophy audience, Marxism, summary

thoughts on the important distinction between ‘material’ and ‘social’ properties and relations in Marxist analysis

Aug 12
Aug 12 Conservative Disinformation vs. Marxist Analysis

MWD
general audience, leftism, capitalism, thinking tools

Thoughts on identifying conservative disinformation and reactionary moral panics.

Jul 27
Jul 27 Addendum: Tariffs, and Regions Favoring their own Capitalists

MWD
capitalism, Marxism, Luxemburg on Monopolies, stray thoughts

Thinking about Luxemburg’s analysis of monopolies, a stray thought about tariffs and international competition.

Jul 1
Jul 1 Summary + Marxist Analysis of Market “Disruption”

MWD
capitalism, synthesis, summary, Marxism, Luxemburg on Monopolies

Thinking about Luxemburg’s analysis of monopolies - Part 4

Load More
 
favicon2.png

Distinctions focuses on my interests in philosophy of science, meta-ethics, democratic institutions, left organizing, and dialectical materialism.

 

Blog     Recommended     Archive