
The ABCs of Jacobin - magda_wang
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/the-abcs-of-jacobin-socialist-magazine.php/
======
Dowwie
While I think it is important to consider arguments across the entire
political spectrum, reading Jacobin takes effort. It promotes a fictional
world view where a command and control society makes purely altruistic,
utilitarian decisions to maximize economic and social equality. Good and evil
are too quickly ascribed to actors without consideration of attribution error.
There is too much black and white thinking..

~~~
peisistratos
> a command and control society

If peacetime USA 2018 is not an industrialized command and control society, I
don't know what is. The difference is all is geared towards the heirs who
expropriate surplus labor time, instead of those of us who work and create
wealth.

~~~
uxp100
> If peacetime USA 2018 is not an industrialized command and control society,
> I don't know what is.

I don't know if you're developing some difference between command economy and
command society, but since you're talking about surplus labor I don't think
so. The term command economy was developed to refer to soviet style socialist
economy in the early days. Public ownership plus government allocation and
production quotas.

It seems like a weird self own for a presumed leftist to say, "Oh yeah,
capitalism is so bad we basically already have communism."

~~~
icebraining
Some on the left consider both the US and the USSR to be capitalist (the term
used for the latter is often "state capitalism"), not communist.

~~~
uxp100
That's true, though I think mainly because of things that changed as the
decades went along, but people were calling the USSR economy a "command"
economy since nearly the beginning.

~~~
icebraining
No, critics of the Bolsheviks, such as anarchists and left-wing communists,
were warning against that since the revolution, and just a little time after
people from other countries were doing the same, such as Emma Goldman in her
article titled "There Is No Communism in Russia" from 1935.

~~~
uxp100
I see. I was thinking of Goldman's earlier writings that more about the NEP,
but I see that "There Is No Communism in Russia" has the distinction between
nationalization and a true "public" ownership. (And it is true that most
anarchist writing I've really just skimmed or read many years ago)

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abvdasker
The quality and depth of the writing in Jacobin's stories is what keeps me
coming back. They go very in-depth in each story and aren't afraid to use a
diction that's probably a bit more academic than the average American is
comfortable with. Each piece is exactly as long as it needs to be, and they
don't dumb down the content or try to soften their ideological views the way
most mainstream publications do.

I especially love that the subject matter is political but not reactionary,
taking a longer view of social and economic issues rather than just producing
articles focused solely on the outrage of the week. Only the writing in The
New Yorker is better.

~~~
zozbot123
> I especially love that the subject matter is political but not reactionary

And for those who _do_ like reactionary subject matter, there is a nice
alternative publication - which is of course named _Jacobite_
[https://jacobitemag.com/](https://jacobitemag.com/)

~~~
ahartmetz
You don't deserve the downvotes. There is too little intellectual conservatism
- it's good to read about it even if you don't agree. Progressive vs. stupid
is not a productive discussion for society.

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fancyfish
The graphic design of Jacobin is what always stands out to me. There is sort
of a retro playful feel to the cover art and images inside. And a mix of
different typefaces from article to article. Not to mention the articles
themselves are printed on a variety of paper types within a single issue, from
glossy and thin to thicker with a fold-out.

One of the few print magazines where I enjoy physically flipping through the
pages.

[https://coverjunkie.com/cover-categories/best-of-the-
rest/ja...](https://coverjunkie.com/cover-categories/best-of-the-
rest/jacobin-3/)

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yellowbuilding
Jacobin is one sharp publication. Baskar runs a tight ship, and somehow the
books are even in order! Who would have thought?

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Ar-Curunir
This article gives me the feeling that the folks who run Jacobin have a
"holier-than-thou" attitude towards the rest of the left. I get the feeling
that they look down upon more idealistic leftists, and think of themselves as
pragmatic and grounded, a quality they deem that the rest of the left lacks.

Might be the way the article is written (it seems to try hard to portray
Jacobson's success as a demonstration of capitalism's successes), but there
definitely seems to be an underlying kernel of truth. Turns me off of Jacobin
even more.

~~~
tuxxy
A large portion of the radical left feels this way about Jacobin. I enjoy some
of their articles, but it doesn't come without critique.

Famously, a post-leftist, anarchist organization called "Crimethinc" published
an essay called "Your Politics Are Boring As Fuck"[0] which addressed some of
the problems with the attitudes of "Jacobin Leftists". I really like this
quote:

> The truth is, your politics are boring to them because they really are
> irrelevant. They know that your antiquated styles of protest — your marches,
> hand held signs, and gatherings — are now powerless to effect real change
> because they have become such a predictable part of the status quo. They
> know that your post-Marxist jargon is off-putting because it really is a
> language of mere academic dispute, not a weapon capable of undermining
> systems of control. They know that your infighting, your splinter groups and
> endless quarrels over ephemeral theories can never effect any real change in
> the world they experience from day to day. They know that no matter who is
> in office, what laws are on the books, what “ism”s the intellectuals march
> under, the content of their lives will remain the same. They — we — know
> that our boredom is proof that these “politics” are not the key to any real
> transformation of life. For our lives are boring enough already!

0\. [https://crimethinc.com/2000/09/11/your-politics-are-
boring-a...](https://crimethinc.com/2000/09/11/your-politics-are-boring-as-
fuck)

~~~
rustyboy
While I agree with Crimethinc and that quote, I can't seem to get into their
writing anymore. Most of their writing comes across as defeatist or
exhausting, but it's understandable because they've been promoting leftist
ideals for decades now while the world slides into more and more
authoritarianism.

~~~
tuxxy
Perhaps so, but I see the writing as more of a "The status quo will continue
until we take action."

I think there is something to be said about defeatism in this regard. Things
absolutely will not change until there is action. Crimethinc is simply stating
the obvious -- there is no action.

Lately, The Invisible Committee's books have kept me very enthusiastic. If you
haven't read those yet (specifically, "Now" and "The Coming Insurrection")
you've been missing out.

For anyone else who is not a radical leftist, there are some interesting takes
on how technology has affected human interaction. I see it as an interesting
read for many people in tech.

~~~
rustyboy
I havn't read the books, thanks for the recommendations i'll check them out.

Crimethinc/AdBusters has seem to be more about fostering counter culture
rather than interesting leftist thought not to say one's more important than
the other, but seeing even the most radical members of our party still
consumed by selfies and starbucks makes me really dissapointed. Crimethinc
taught me to about Buy Nothing Day, how to make my own soap, and go
vegan/local.

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barking
I googled Jacobin and on the results noticed a tweet from the Jacobin account

 _Angela Merkel has resigned as CDU leader. Her failed promises of "prosperity
for all" are leading to the disintegration of the traditional mass parties._

Reads bit sacred scripturey to me, as in Marx tells us in chapter X verse XX

I wonder if they address one another as comrade?

~~~
geofft
And? I'm not sure what point you're trying to make / what you're trying to
communicate.

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ghostcluster
To name your magazine after the frenzied murderous excess of the French
Revolution reminds me of how rabidly violent the far left is. And when we have
so many examples of radical collectivism leading to mass suffering (much of
humanity's gains in the last 40 years can be traced to China's rejection of it
in the late 1970s), and an intellectual foundation based on patently false
dogma like Marx's 'labor theory of value'.. I wish the left would adopt some
new role models and theory based on reality

~~~
Ar-Curunir
If you'd bother to read the linked article or to do a moment's research, you
would have learned that the magazine is not named after the French Jacobins:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin_(magazine)#Title_and_l...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin_\(magazine\)#Title_and_logo)

~~~
orhmeh09
I think it’s a bit disingenuous to attack that presumption, given that the
magazine sells posters of guillotines. They definitely play on it.
[https://jacobinmag.com/store/product/1](https://jacobinmag.com/store/product/1)

~~~
rauhl
> … the magazine sells posters of guillotines.

Sounds like glorifying political mass-murder to me. That seems in _profoundly_
poor taste.

Every person who died under the blade of one of those guillotines was a human
being, with hopes & fears, good & evil in his soul. The great number of them
weren’t murderers, rapists or thieves: they were just people who had the
unfortunate bad luck to be born into the wrong caste.

~~~
icebraining
Eh, it's more making fun of the people who get in a frenzy over the name.
Maybe still in poor taste, but not really glorifying the deaths. In fact, many
of the guillotined were Jacobins themselves.

