Back to business—we talk Aztec myths and Bataille on Sacrifice from The Accursed Share.

Get the full episode and all the others at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

We don't often have current events to cover, but once in a while the current events are Hegel.

The Hegelian E-Girl Council was to be the head of a new cult, which fell into a Twitter flame war about a week after its launch. Our guest's studio was the physical origin site of the Hegelian E-Girl Council which first blasted into the real world in NYC, and then onto theorytwitter for a glorious week before bursting into flames for the internet's schadenfreude.This was, in our consideration, not the abortive event it may seem at first glance, but a sign for the near future of theory. 

Sorry for the ads but all public episodes are ad-free for free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills, plus more

Find Jreg's channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@JREG and his podcast here https://www.youtube.com/@HSTPOD

Some simulationist material analysis in the economy of signs from Pill Pod episode #172. 

The full episode and many more are available at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

The "Look" of Dark Academia: https://www.pinterest.com/kathrynaesthetics/dark-academia-aesthetic/
https://petapixel.com/2023/05/04/ai-reveals-its-biases-by-generating-what-it-thinks-professors-look-like/

It's another literature corner episode, featuring The Purloined Letter and the interpretive stylings of the illustrious Lit Vic (find more of his utterances on Twitter @HoratioVictor). We discuss the short story as well as Lacan's psychoanalytic interpretation of it found in the seminar from Écrits.   Join us at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills if you like content.

This episode topic was chosen by our patrons. Get the episode and have your say on the next one over at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Is capitalism over? Whether or not it is, Friday is a good day to coin some new academic terms. We discuss making up words to advance your career and then a new term drop: techno-feudalism. Find the full interview with Zizek and Varoufakis here: https://youtu.be/XIgFnfHhcRc There are many vids and pods for you to consume at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills   Tell us what you think @podpill, @plasticpills, @victorbruzzone, @mattpolprof

Movie episode! This is more than a film, it's now a cultural event, and content is content and we are serious about that content. Please time your molly accordingly.  Get all our exclusive episodes, video lectures, and bonus CONTENT at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

The resurrection took longer than expected as the Pill Pod got COVID, but we're back with a sprawling 100 minutes of sex, drugs, and democracy: Chile elected a socialist (again); France failed to become a communist state in '68; and we ask whether an authoritarian turn the only way to prevent climate catastrophe, because we read an article which asks that. Find the article on our Patreon, even if you aren't a https://patron www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Kids be getting Tourette's from TikToK? This episode features Pills, Victor, and Erik taking on mass sociogenic illnesses from the phenomenological perspective, then a dash of psychoanalysis for good measure.    Get this episode and all our exclusive content by supporting us over at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Pills and Matt interview he who was once known as Cuck Philosophy, and who is now known as Jonas Čeika, author of How to Philosophize with a Hammer and Sickle. Get the book here: https://amzn.to/3Im0uuy

Here's 10 minutes of a 100 minute episode on how Merleau-Ponty's analysis of the Schneider case forever changed the philosophy of mind. Get all our exclusive eps, including this one, at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Phenomenology is sometimes viewed apolitically, today we try to get a handle on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological Marxism.   The sections of the text we read of this ep can be found on Patreon (even if you're not a patron). That's at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Here we go back a few pages to discuss the "prejudices" in philosophy of mind including empiricism, intellectualism, psychologism, and clinical physiology.  For 4 bucks you get immediate access to this and 40 more exclusive episodes, and maybe one day we can pay off our student loans: https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

We discuss Zizek's Hegelian defense of a monarchy to solve the problem of democracy.
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/in-defense-of-hegels-notion-of-monarchy/


Get all our episodes for free, ad-free, at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

No politics, no metaphysics, no grand narratives, as this week, and for the following weeks, the Pill Pod is going back to the things themselves. That's right—we are talking phenomenology. Our touchstone text will be Phenomenology of Perception by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, but we do not expect to stay within the lines. Today, we try to get a handle on "lifeworld", "horizon", and a few of MMP's particular goals as a phenomenologist. If this goes well, after a few weeks we hope to help you feel less insane as denizens of Feedworld. If there are sections of text attached to the public episodes (as there is for this ep), you'll be able to find them attached on Patreon, EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT A PATRON. That's at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills  

The Pill Pod gets academic as our new volume is out, edited by Matt and featuring contributions Victor, Erik and our episode guest Ben (@benburgis) of Give Them an Argument. We argue that much of the antagonism between socialism and liberalism has been fabricated by internet creatures who want to piss off their dads. The exorbitantly expensive volume, meant to siphon money out of university library budgets, can be found here: https://amzn.to/3GjWJ8e

We are name dropping that Baudrillard, Virilio and trying to remember what Emmanuel Levinas said, giving a biased review of the new Pills vid, and trying to figure out what's up with all the images. Get the full ep and hours more educational content by supporting our efforts over at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Jordan DeJonge joins the pod to revisit the question "just how reactionary was Nietzsche?" as asked in Domenico Losurdo's newly translated intellectual biography: Nietzsche, The Aristocratic Rebel (https://amzn.to/3mF15gS). While most left-wing intellectuals read Nietzsche selectively, this 1000 page tome opts to take seriously the implications of Nietzsche's anti-democratic thinking.

Erik brings a shocking discovery to the Pill Pod, oh yea and what the hell is structuralism anyway?   Get the full ep and hours more educational content by supporting our efforts over at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Evoked by no less than Agamben, Byung-Chul Han, Deleuze, and Zizek's wardrobe, Bartleby is a compelling character. This week we are joined by Lit Vic to bust us into some literary analysis of a prophet of American capitalism: Herman Melville, in his text "Bartleby, the Scrivener." Read the text for free here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11231 Anything you've missed is up at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Parts I and II comprise 3+ hours of discussion on Zizek's Organs Without Bodies: On Deleuze and Consequences. Join up with us on Patreon to get it all and 30+ exclusive episodes www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Professor Jeremy Gilbert from across the pond gives a primer on his primer: Twenty-First Century Socialism. Gilbert gives a jargon-free explanation as to why buy-in to the system of consumer product bribery is no longer working, how "socialism" is being detoxified in the anglosphere, along with some proposed goals for socialists if we can avoid microwaving ourselves this century. Gilbert's (inexpensive) book: https://amzn.to/3k5CUZ3

Part 1 of our reading of Zizek's attempt to take down Deleuze, whom he calls an ideologist of late capitalism in "Organs Without Bodies." Join up with us on Patreon to get the full dish, and find out who reigns supreme in the final decision next week www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Jack Black (no, the Other Jack Black) joins the Pill Pod to discuss his new book "Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy: A Psychoanalytic Exploration." Cover the hits from Hegel to Monty Python, and up to Žižek, Zupančič and Sacha Baron Cohen. Check out Jack's book here: https://amzn.to/3kGAEq6

Get the book (it's easy and small:https://amzn.to/3KxgjB3) or listen to the lectures by Charles Taylor starting here: https://youtu.be/j_losVdiARc?si=DCHifoFktqHQDJuw.

Find our second episode and all the others at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

This is a preview for a 2.5 hour romp through performativity and performative speech acts in analytic and continental philosophy, stopping off at J.L. Austin, Louis Althusser and others on the way to Judith Butler. Get the full ep and hours more educational content by supporting our efforts over at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

In memoriam of the coalition state-building adventure in Afghanistan, we look to the inveterate morons who continue to ventriloquize the "humanitarian empire" of the United States, including Canada's own failed philosopher king: Michael Ignatieff. Way back in 2001, Ignatieff painted the picture of the Afghanistan project in the New York Times, which now deserves a second-look. Find the article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/28/magazine/nation-building-lite.html     As always, all exclusive episodes and other content are available on Patreon at www.patreon.com/plasticpills.

As a supplement to Plastic Pills' new documentary on Project Cybersyn, the Pill Pod is joined by Marion, who is usually our Foucault correspondent but here in her capacity as a Mexican political theorist. We get through a segment on some unanswered questions about the documentary, and then an brief overview of Latin American politics, as well as some correction on the misconceptions and stereotypes about the region propagated by anglophones.   As always, our bonus content is available through Patreon (www.patreon.com/plasticpills) where you can also see the pre-release of the doc.

Quarantine Agamben! He's at it again! This episode we getinto it the kindred bond between critical theory and conspiracy theory, how states do and do not dominate in response to pandemics, and how Deleuze dominates Agamben in response to Foucaults. Find Agamben's blog post here: https://www.quodlibet.it/giorgio-agamben-cittadini-di-seconda-classe  Get all episodes at https://patreon.com/plasticpills

Professor David Matijasevich, author of Radical Democracy and Its Limits, joins Matt and Victor to discuss the limits of radical democracy and the aesthetic ideal of protest politics, and how they are often the luxury of those who are already cozy in a political system wherein are not threatened by existing power structures. He contends that our understanding of political action should be broadened to include that which does not occur against the backdrop of liberal democracy, including his case studies in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Link to Radical Democracy and Its Limits https://amzn.to/3wNU1lg

Here's a preview of this week's episode featuring Uncle Bob, Baudrillard, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Lacan and the simple question: Dude, why not just bin "meaningfulness" as an evaluation of life? Full episode is a click away at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

In Round 4 of the Pill Pod's Fight Night, we feature a theoretical battle over the foundation of politics: is politics founded on the struggle for recognition? Or is it the aesthetic creation of a future? French Insurrectionist Jacques Ranciere pits himself against the chief of the Frankfurt School's third generation, Axel Honneth.   If you're partial to the format, you can find Round 1: (Baudrillard vs. Foucault) and Round 3: (Foucault vs. Derrida) over at www.patreon.com/plasticpills  

This week we depart from the usual solemnities to diagnose the latest object of conservative hysteria: critical race theory. It's being banned from curricula, bounced around conservative media outlets, and kicking off the careers of some new fear-mongering pundits. But what actually is it? Find all our exclusive episodes over on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Professor Ashley Frawley, author of The Semiotics of Happiness, joins us to discuss the cyclical history of some slippery signifiers: "self-esteem," "well-being," and "mental health," the only productive value of which is the generation of corporate consultants, conference panelists, and mind cops. In this interview, she explains how 'trauma discourse' reifies status quo politics.   Find Ashley on Twitter (@AshleyAFrawley) and her book here: https://amzn.to/3grRLex

The Pill Pod is off this week for an AFK project, so please enjoy this unlock from the exclusive patron vault, which sorta serves as an intro to Derrida, who's been hot on the pod lately. It's pretty old so our production requires some forgiveness. Cheers nerds!

We continue reading Simone DeBeauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity, and try to sus out its particular ethical dilemmas.

The full episode and many more are available at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Not to be called a n00b, Foucault slaps back at Derrida (eventually) with "My Body, This Paper, This Fire" defending his Madness and Civilization from Derrida's critique (see Pill Pod 42). Foucault claims Derrida can't read Latin properly, and more substantively, that Derrida includes subsumes madness under the dreaming philosopher, while Descartes juridically separates them so as to exclude madness from meditation.   Listen to this and all exclusive episodes over at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Victor interviews Mouthy Infidel from the Mouthy Infidel YouTube channel, which features debates, debunks and arguments from a left perspective. This ranging discussion covers online debate culture, Mouthy's debate prep, some policy questions and proposals, and language games.   You can find @MouthyInfidel on Twitter or on Youtube.

The Year is 1963 and our Versus Series continues with Fight Night Round 2, in which a young challenger, Jacques 'Derridevil' Derrida, comes at Dr. Archaeology himself, Michel Foucault, accusing him of committing the cardinal cosmological sin: METAPHYSICS.   After a sound pounding through the first few pages, Derridevil lands a crippling blow, that Foucault's reading of Descartes was "naive," enough for Foucault to freeze him out for the next 20 years.   Tune in next week for Foucault's long-awaited defense from 15 years later...

Today we have a heady one for ya. This is some in-the-weeds political theory, where Ben, Matt, and Victor consider libertarianism via professional sophist, Jason Brennan. Are there good libertarian arguments? Or are they exclusively hasty consequentialist defenses of one sublime object: the market? Find out in our review of Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know. To stay on what Ben's up to follow @BenBurgis, or check out Give them an Argument on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/BenBurgisGTAA

Welcome to Round 1 of our new series, which covers theorists' takedowns of other theorists. This episode features an exciting 1977 bout between the young iconoclast, Jean Baudrillard and the king of the French academy, Michel Foucault, as found in the provocatively titled: Forget Foucault. Can a well-timed tag team with Deleuze save Foucault? Or will Baudrillard be forever condemned to circle in the Disneyland teacups alone? Get access to this episode and all the other exclusives up on www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Mike Watson of the Acid Left (@_leftaesthetics) joins Matt (@mattpolprof) and Pills (@plasticpills) to talk about Acid Communism, Adorno, and The Memeing of Mark Fisher, Mike's new book (due out September 2021).   As always, all the extra content is still at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

The Pill Pod is joined by Meaghan, a real life cognitive scientist and VR researcher, to answer our ignorant questions about brains, behaviour, and perception while we try to deduce whether or not Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology holds up in virtual reality.   Visit www.patreon.com/plasticpills for this and the rest of our exclusive episodes.

The Pill Pod takes on two definitive philosophers opposed to the fantasies of uploading consciousnesses into machines: John Searle and Hubert Dreyfus. Apologies in advance but we gotta burst your 20-year-old-cousin-who-retweets-Elon-Musk's techno-utopian bubble in a Chinese room.   If you've gone through the public feed there's more exclusive audio and video content on www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Matt and Victor are joined by Meagan Day (@meaganmday) to discuss Michael Brooks' ambitious proposal for cosmopolitan socialism, its relation to particularity and difference, and what it could mean for the future of the left. Find Meagan's article Unions are Essential for Eliminating Racism here www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/multiracial-solidarity-unions If you've finished the public feed, all of our exclusive episodes and bonus video are up at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Matt (@mattpolprof) and Victor (@victorbruzzone) are joined by cartoonist J. Andrew World (@rightaboutnow2) to talk Marvel, DC, and artists' intellectual property. World is perhaps best known 'round these parts as the cover artist for Michael Brooks' Against the Web, and you can find him inking on YouTube (www.youtube.com/jandrewworld) or on Substack: rightaboutnow2.substack.com

We read Simone DeBeauvoir's defense of Existentialism as an ethic that is not hyper-individualistic, nihilistic or absurdist.

Get all our episodes for free, ad-free, at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Here's the homework: https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/ambiguity/

So we had some different interpretations as to whether Can't Get You Out of My Head is art, history, documentary, art-history, history-documentary or art-documentary. In any case, it's one of the more interesting media artefacts of the year.   Listen to this episode and our other bonus content on Patreon, at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Matt tricks the Pill Pod into reading analytic philosophy: "Personal Identity" by Derek Parfit (1971), who challenges intellectualist ideas of selfhood with thought experiments about splitting brains and sending your consciousness to Mars. Are you your soul, your memories, or nothing at all? Follow @PodPill and check out www.patreon.com/plasticpills to dose up on exclusive episodes and video content.  

We'll be back on Friday with our regularly scheduled program, and here's a clip of this week's exclusive content up at www.patreon.com/plasticpills