WHAT IS POLITICS?

Politics is the only practical discipline where none of the main terms have any clear consensus definitions.  Scholars write entire books about things like capitalism, markets, socialism, government, democracy, politics, the left and right, without defining them, or really knowing what they’re talking about. 

When such fundamental words have no meaning they can be manipulated by powerful people to pit potential allies against eachother, and to align people with their actual enemies, on top of making everyone generally more confused and apathetic than they would be otherwise.

If this was the situation in architecture or engineering we’d have buildings crashing down all around us. And this is exactly what’s happening in politics today.

The point of this podcast/youtube channel is make sense of all of this muddle so that we can all understand what’s going on all around us and figure what it is that we want when it comes to politics, and how we can achieve it.

WHAT IS POLITICS?

THEORY LECTURES: NEW TO OLD

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12.1 - The Secret History of Israel/Palestine, part I: The Jews of Europe and the rise of Zionism

12: From “Never Again” to “There are No Uninvolved Civilians” - the ABCs of Israel/Palestine

9.2 - A Rainbow of Inequality: When Social Control Masquerades as Social Justice

11.1 Why the Russian Revolution Failed: When Rich Kids do all the Socialism

11 - Why Every Communist Country is a One-Party Dictatorship

10.4 What Causes Seasonal Political Structures? Graeber & Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything Ch. 3

BRAINSTORMS / Q&As

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Brainstorm: Israel/Palestine - Who Started It?

Q&A: ABCs of Israel/Palestine

THEORY LECTURES: OLD TO NEW

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1. Worbs: when political terms have no meaning | What is Politics?

2. What is Politics, and Why Should Anyone Give a $#&%?

3. The Left-Right Political Spectrum is about Class Conflict | What is Politics?

4. How Political Definitions Shape Reality | What is Politics?

5. How we know what Left and Right actually mean: who’s who, 1789-1917

6. Political Anthropology: When Communism Works and Why | What is Politics?

INTERVIEWS

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Varn Vlog: Daniel of “What is Politics” about The Muddling of Class Politics and the Left

Daniel from What is Politics on the anthropology of Engels, egalitarian societies, and more

Living in a Material World w/ Daniel of WHAT IS POLITICS - The Rewilding Podcast

Varn Vlog Arnold, Daniel, and Varn discuss Disciplined Minds

Varn Vlog: Daniel of "What is Politics" on Why Material Conditions Matter, Part 1: Graber's Mistakes

Varn Vlog Daniel of What is Politics on Why Material Conditions Matter, Part 2

SCHORTZE

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SCROTE'N'TOTE: The Gentleman's Satchel®

Why inequality is always dangerous | What is Politics?

What the Left-Right Political Spectrum is Really About | What is Politics?

STARSIXNINE

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Play With Me | starsixnine | OP-Z

Prince: Delirious | starsixnine | Elektron Model:Cycles

Sea Serpents | Star69 | (Arpanoid, Black Fountain, Randy's Revenge, Astral Destiny)

Björk: Unravel | starsixnine

Fus Ro Dah | starsixnine | Star69

What Was It You Wanted? Bob Dylan | starsixnine | Elektron Model:Samples