Spoiler alert: the billionaire is most worried about union wages

Put an English translation on Substack.

open.substack.com/pub/theoryde...

Den­ke­r*in­nen zur Krise der Demokratie: Ist die liberale Demokratie noch zu retten? Zehn kluge Menschen aus Philosophie, Soziologie, Politik-, Geschichts-, Literatur-, Gender- und Integrationsforschung antworten: ja, nein, vielleicht.

taz.de/Denkerinnen-...

It's salvageable, but we shouldn't salvage it. A forum on the future of "liberal democracy."

Thoughts from Wendy Brown, Carolin Amlinger, Axel Honneth, Veronica Gago, Isabell Lorey, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Naika Foroutan, Christoph Menke, Rahel Jaeggi, and me.

That's what liberal democracy is in practice.

Other participants include Wendy Brown, Axel Honneth, Veronica Gago, Dipesh Chakrabarty, and Rahel Jaeggi.

It’s just in print now (70k copies!), but I’ll share the web link when available.

Today, I’m in a forum at the German newspaper Taz on the question, “is liberal democracy worth saving?” My answer is nein: Societies that allow ownership and control to concentrate never produce freedom and democracy.

Need to hold their feet to labor’s fire

Göran’s Superstructures This is a very provisional draft

Here is a draft of a short essay I wrote in preparation for our conversation:

open.substack.com/pub/theoryde...

Ideology and Class After Althusser: An Introduction to Göran Therborn (feat. Mike McCarthy) YouTube video by Emancipations with Daniel Tutt

Here is the link to the show:

youtu.be/JwABPh0biJE?...

I had a great conversation with Daniel Tutt about ideology, power + domination, and class politics for his Emancipations podcast. We get into the really rich theoretical work of Göran Therborn and provide a bit of an introduction to his approach.

*salutes beaver comrades*

Göran’s Superstructures This is a very provisional draft

Göran’s Superstructures
open.substack.com/pub/theoryde...

“Bottom Feeder Report”?

Don’t throw up in the rental!

Let a thousand 1984s blossom

»Wir müssen BlackRock und Co. demokratisieren« Der Politökonom Michael A. McCarthy entwirft die Vision eines demokratischen Finanzsystems. Arbeitende sollten freie Tage bekommen, um über Investitionen mitzuentscheiden.

www.surplusmagazin.de/wir-mussen-b...

For anyone that reads German, I had a great conversation with Maxine Fowé for @surplusmagazin.de about the politics of contemporary finance capital. The link to the conversation is now live.

A New Vision for Public Lands - Dissent Magazine Policy debates around public lands point to larger unresolved questions about the nature and function of the public trust. What should we do with this national resource at a moment of major transition...

Really great @dissentmag.bsky.social piece on the use of public lands by my friend, @hiangelo.bsky.social. A must read!

dissentmagazine.org/article/a-ne...

cover of book, "The Master's Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (and a Radical Plan to Rebuild It)," by Michael A. McCarthy. Published by Verso Books.

“Capitalist democracies are beset by elite-driven, popular divisions that result in a hyper-sensationalized political culture.”

@itsmccarthy.bsky.social

My current read! 📕 Reminded yet again how so much of what passes for polijournalism stokes this sensationalism.

Financial democracy or democratic finance? With Mike McCarthy, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Community Studies, UC Santa Cruz Why is democracy so broken and how might it be fixed? The answer to both […]

info here: besi.berkeley.edu/event/financ...

I will be at UC Berkeley later this moth to give a public talk: "Financial democracy or democratic finance?"

There must be, it was a big thing in sociology when it happened

For those that need extra content, the article argues makes the (sloppy and stupid) case that it is justified to fire professors for the because of the political implications and content of their work.

Shocking to see an editorial board with a political axe to grind completely destroy the scientific credibility of a journal in the name of...science! Theory & Society further sinks itself into the bog of bitter sociology in this latest one, an argument for the need to end academic freedom.

Aspirational Fascism When you see someone that lived an undeniably good life in the service of others executed by the state and to then have that murder justified by our federal government, it should put the extreme dange...

substack.com/@theorydecay...

excited to be chairing this upcoming free event on critical theory and psychoanlysis:

www.eventbrite.com/e/melanie-kl...

I think we need to come to terms with the fact that many people have been so deeply interpellated by Trumpism that they genuinely want blood. It’s not masking some other hidden motivation, that is the motivation.

Never trust people who want to “de-politicize,” climate change. This has always been true but especially now. They will try to trick you into thinking they are the adults in the room but they are either disqualifyingly naive or in the pocket of fossil fuel interests.