I guess I just do not think it is historically correct that vulgar Foucaultian relativism, even in its worst forms, actually had anything at all to do with enabling what is happening. - ThreadSky

ebrandom.bsky.social • 19 hours ago

I guess I just do not think it is historically correct that vulgar Foucaultian relativism, even in its worst forms, actually had anything at all to do with enabling what is happening.

Reposted from Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC

Habermas was right, says @nilsgilman.bsky.social. The totalising critique of enlightenment liberalism by post-modern epistemic radicals made no dent on the actual structures of capitalist power -- but they sure paved the way for Bannon and the the rise of the alt right.

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roterote.bsky.social•18 hours ago

The article is hot garbage. Bannon says openly he is a Right Gramscian. All his views on political change come from Gramsci’s ideas on cultural and political hegemony.

The author of the piece clearly doesn’t know that at all and is just left dunking.

jboothhistory.bsky.social•19 hours ago

just truly the dumbest kind of idealism. As if nothing important has happened in the last 50 years but academic philosophy

ebrandom.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Gilman is not dumb! I have appreciated his writing in the past. But I have also heard this kind of argument (as he says, Habermas, etc) in the past, and I just don't buy it.

jboothhistory.bsky.social•19 hours ago

yeah i just think it's a very myopic view – in some ways both the right and some on the left want to make the university the core of all social change and they're both wrong

ebrandom.bsky.social•18 hours ago

For sure! There is sometimes a shared unwillingness to see the institutions as they are --

annenortonnow.bsky.social•12 hours ago

Rubbish. And very pretentious rubbish at that.

johnkeeshan.bsky.social•16 hours ago

I'm confused by this terminology. Are the French the baddies, now?

Would someone not so smart please deconstruct this for me?

brooklynkid53bskys.bsky.social•15 hours ago

I dont understand clearly what you all ar saying, but it sounds like you are using a lot of academic jargon to argue that academia failed which is kinda meta in a cool ironic way

geoffpolhist.bsky.social•8 hours ago

Recalls thesis that Lysenkoism traceable to ‘proletarian science’ ideas when actual Lysenkoists especially Stalin believed themselves empiricists

palumboliu.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Yeah. We academics have an inflated sense of importance.

ebrandom.bsky.social•18 hours ago

But of course here I am arguing about it, so it's not that I think it's of no importance at all.

jewishreader.bsky.social•19 hours ago

I think you are right. At the very least fascist denial of the concept of truth predates this philosophical movement.

jewishreader.bsky.social•19 hours ago

It's also once again blaming the left for the right.

hongpong.bsky.social•16 hours ago

Alex karp at palantir loves Foucault, that much is clear anyway

evanbernick.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Charitable, frankly. This is a very implausible story that assigns entirely too much causal power to ideas and even on its own terms doesn’t come close to adequately specifying a chain of causation.

ebrandom.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Larger structural features of our social world weakened academic solidarity as these features have weakened lots of other solidarities. But maybe this approach means I fall into Gilman's Marxist category.

ubiquity75.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Once again, it’s the people from the left who have caused the fascist right. Ok.

asthepalacesburn.bsky.social•17 hours ago

I'm not so sure Foucalt was a leftist though.

amyclukey.bsky.social•17 hours ago

It's never the fault of white men.

multiplicityct.bsky.social•17 hours ago

This seems right to me. Both may be symptoms of the same problem, but it’s hard to see one causing the other.

If anything, we *know* that Heidegger can and does underwrite narratives across the political spectrum, including fascist ones. And Bannon is a Heidegger fan.

mm-jj-nn.bsky.social•16 hours ago

Only tangentially related, Trump appointed a guy with a PhD on Heidegger (Duke poli sci dept), Darren Beattie, to a senior State Dept position.

multiplicityct.bsky.social•15 hours ago

Yes, truly a great time to be studying Heidegger and have a grad degree from Duke. :-/

Kind of like when Robert Hanssen was arrested while I was finishing a degree in Russian at his alma mater & applying for national security jobs.

multiplicityct.bsky.social•17 hours ago

Not that I think Heidegger has caused the current global environment either in any meaningful way.

neurotimes.bsky.social•15 hours ago

Hasn’t it been blamed for everything since Bush 2, the lesser?

saraht74.bsky.social•18 hours ago

I think the idea that, prior to Foucault, the average fascist follower would've rejected fact claims not consistent with liberal objective truth is not...historically well grounded. And, more broadly, mistakes the diagnosis for the disease.

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