The Digger

Photograph Source: Coco Curranski –  CC BY 2.0 The question, “What is neoliberalism?” invites a response similar to the old canard about art: “I don’t know what it is, but I know it when I see it”. Unlike art, which seldom rears its head outside a rarified, specially designated setting, neoliberalism is everywhere, which is why we seldom acknowledge its ubiquity, even as we endure its predations on every aspect of our lives. If neoconservatism is late-stage capitalism on rage-inducing steroids, ranting about imaginary external threats, then neoliberalism is peak capitalism on hallucinogenic horse tranquilizers, dreaming about itself. Unlike its bug-eyed, more visibly bloodthirsty counterpart, neoliberalism doesn’t appear when the occasion demands it, but remains thoroughly entrenched in everything it touches, leaving nothing untouched or unscathed. The word itself brings to mind a host of vague concepts that add up to little in terms of understanding just what it is exactly. C

P Left-wing critics of Trump and of the worldwide resurgence of the populist right have been throwing the word  fascist  around liberally in recent years. But many people have missed the less readily apparent—but far more significant—manner in which the losers of the Second World War won the ensuing peace, defeating liberalism and socialism alike. Their armies were vanquished, but some of their dangerous ideas have prevailed, becoming more ubiquitously accepted with each passing year. Liberalism vs. Collectivism Liberalism is premised on individualism: the notion of individual choice and self-determination and the concomitant idea that government should protect and preserve individual rights and liberties from encroachment, including by government itself. Both left and right collectivism, on the other hand, begin from the foundation laid out by thinkers like Rousseau and Hegel, which assumes that the polity’s collective health and destiny shou

Land Without Bread The Green New Deal forsakes America’s countryside DAYS AFTER THE HEART-STOPPING NOTRE-DAME CATHEDRAL FIRE in April, Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg trained her eyes on the United Kingdom’s parliament and chastised its meager response to climate change. “I want you to panic,” the baby-faced sixteen-year-old quietly instructed the adults in the room. “Avoiding climate breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling.” For those who don’t get the reference, Notre-Dame’s cornerstone was laid in 1163. The magnificent Gothic structure was not completed until 1345, a work of cross-generational faith, common purpose, and, undoubtedly, obedience. This was, after all, the Middle Ages. The loosely defined proposal for a Green New Deal hits the panic button, American-style, but it does not exactly lay a cornerstone. Which is to say that it avoids prickly issues of land use—generally

We hear so much about Nazi this and fascist that from the left. Do you ever wonder why don't they actually pursue real fascists? These questions will continue to vex us. So in the name of an unnamed left movement for an unnamed cause, I call on all of you to help me expose a real Nazi. Here is the unband Instagram account of one of Americas favorite pet Nazis.  Alex Zwiefelhofer has been tied to the Ukrainian fascist sympathizer Jarrett William Smith and fugitive Craig Lang. I am so glad to see that Instagram is ensuring the free speach of at least somebody. Holy cow 148 followers! https://www.instagram.com/az4721/

The French civic-nationalist and anti-Zionist intellectual Alain Soral was sentenced to two years prison last week for sharing a rap video entitled “ Gilets-Jaunes .” The music clip ( watch it while you still can ) is typical of the Yellow Vests in denouncing French media, political, and financial elites, and making a plea for direct democracy, notably the famous proposed Citizen’s Initiative Referendum ( Référendum d’Initiative Populaire  or RIC). The video also argues for the abrogation of the banking law of June 1973 – known as the “Pompidou-Rothschild Act,” after the then French president and the investment bank he used to work for. Critics claim the law has reduced France to debt slavery by making her dependent on financial markets for loans rather than self-finance through the national bank. The video also features a pyre where various figures are symbolically burned: President Emmanuel Macron, various media (TF1,  Le Monde , BFMTV . . .), the Rothschild bank, and, most