For this week's interview I spoke with Mike Watson (@_leftaesthetics), co-host of The Acid Left and author of “Towards a Conceptual Militancy” and “Can the Left Learn to Meme: Lessons for the cultural left, from cat memes to gaming, to Stranger Things, and more.” with an upcoming book “The Memeing of Mark Fisher: How the Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism and What to do About It” coming out this September.
During the episode we discuss Mike's research on the history of memes in art, his thoughts on how the Left can improve their memeing over the internet, and the memetic strategies used in crypto that essentially function to hide what is actually happening with crypto investments. At the end we discuss a couple of specific memes which you can find on the page for this episode on the TBS site.
Sources
Mike Watson's site
Article on commodity fetishism: "Commodity Fetishism, Feet Pics, and Ideology"
Towards a Conceptual Militancy
Can the Left Learn to Meme: Lessons for the cultural left, from cat memes to gaming, to Stranger Things, and more.
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. At the moment I’ve spent more on this project than I’ve ever made so any amount helps. Also, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.
Send me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime.
ICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking.
The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.