Who Are These Guys?

 “Against the Web – A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right” by Michael Brooks, 2020

This guy is a podcaster and YouTuber, formerly associated with the Young Turks and probably a member of DSA as he quotes the unofficial DSA journal Jacobin frequently. He describes himself as a Marxist or a “humanist socialist” – presumably unlike the inhuman ones. I've never watched his TMBS & Majority Report podcasts. This book is a pointed and somewhat humorous polemic against several gurus of the 'new' Libertarian or ultra-conservative Right that I don't give a shit about but maybe you do - Dave Rubin, Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro and Brett Weinstein. These five make Joe Rogan look like a grounded intellectual.

We're supposed to care because some of them influence young, white U.S. males living in this precarious, unstable, reactionary society. Peterson markets himself as a self-help guru for these lost souls while embracing 'free' market fundamentalism – the thing causing the chaos. It's a guaranteed business, like making people sick and selling them a cure. Brooks seeks to use actual history and science to refute their conservative naturalizing and myth-making. He takes you through a roll-call of these 5, pointing out in detail their extreme follies as members of the misnamed “Intellectual Dark Web.” Here's a sample:

Rubin – He actually calls him 'dumb as a rock.' A fact-free vile babbler.

Harris - “Sadly” supported dropping a nuclear bomb on some unnamed Muslim country in the context of the Bush wars and sadly supported Israel doing 'terrible' things in Gaza. 'Realist' intellectuals are always sad, but have to speak the hard truths. Harris made an ass of himself debating Chomsky.

Peterson – Shallow pop pusher of Western tradition myths and anti-Marxism. In a debate with Slavoj Zizek Peterson's only Marxist reference was the Manifesto he'd read at 18. Zizek wiped the floor with him. He confuses post-modernism with Marxism for one thing and thinks Foucault was a Marxist. He also enjoys 'enforcing monogamy.' An evidently popular blowhard.

Shapiro – Rabid cliched neo-con now pretending to be an elevated intellectual. Is fighting for 'Judeo-Christian' civilization, a 20^th century invention. Supports ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, endorses 'enemy' civilian casualties, doesn't want non-'white' babies, completely opposes abortion and likes Israeli settlements.

Weinstein – I can't keep one Weinstein or Brooks straight from another, but this one spun a 'free speech' academic scandal into heroism, speaking engagements and cash.

Brooks goes into the frauds of IQ tests and skull measurements to determine a highly variegated thing like 'intelligence,' something the social-Darwinist 'race-science' Right still endorses to justify hierarchies like color castes and class. He makes fun of Universal Basic Income plans that hearken back to the measly grain rations distributed to the formerly rural plebeians in imperial Rome. He notes limitations to the concept of 'cultural appropriation,' given the interrelations of culture around the world. He ends with pleas for international and inter-'racial' solidarity and cites the ANC / SACP's original Freedom Charter as a guide to social action. The ANC gave that up to end political apartheid, allowing 'economic apartheid' run by rich whites to continue in South Africa.

Brooks excoriates what he calls the 'ultra-woke' as the answer to the Right. Moralistic and personalist uber-identitarians that are content to shame, name-call, police or guilt-trip working-class people instead of working to unite them help no one except their own sense of moral superiority and middle-class politics. They provide a convenient target for the Right, as their micro-stupidities repel many, even those on the actual Left. Their anti-class attitudes dove-tail neatly with Democratic Party 'kente-cloth' elites, NPR and lots of non-profits and NGOs. Brooks adopts Marc Fisher's description of this group as living in a Vampires' Castle. An odd turn of phrase, but hey, maybe they do bloodsuck on real struggles.

Why Brooks uses the word 'cosmopolitan' in his sub-title is unclear – I guess its his attempt at sophisticated internationalism? Fascists hate cosmopolitans – those pointy-headed wine and cheese eaters – so perhaps there's a FU in there somewhere. “Cosmopolitan” was a code word for Jews and Marxists in fascist ideology, since 'blood and soil,' not urbanism, were their preferred parameters. Perhaps their slogan originated because of how much blood they could spill on that soil? At any rate, a long podcast or three turned into an enjoyable, breezy book centered on some of the pompous stars of the pseudo-intellectual Right.

Prior blog reviews on this topic, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 17 year archive using these terms: “Mondragon,” (Wolff); “Zizek,” “Jacobin,” “Adolph Reed,” “Chomsky,” “CLR James,” “identity politics,” “ANC,” 'atheism.'

And I bought it at May Day Books!

Red Frog / June 22,2024