Status Updates From The Rise and Fall of the Am...

in the 1930s, capitalism was critiqued not for being immoral, but irrational. a lot of the things that happened then (automation, lower wages and buying power) resulted in a shrinking middle class, who would theoretically see who the true enemy was and would join the communist revolution, as described in Das Kapital.

During the Great Depression: "'To the writers and artists of my generation,' wrote Edmund Wilson, 'who had grown up in the Big Business era and had always resented its barbarism, its crowding-out of everything they cared about, these years were not depressing but stimulating. One couldn't help being exhilarated at the sudden unexpected collapse of that stupid gigantic fraud."

just finished chapter 1, "the left as a theoretical problem." we've established that the left is nebulous and hard to categorize, which is fair.
the fact that the left isn't really an ever-present ideological faction but a collection of outcast reactionaries makes me think of the modern day, as the opposition includes Rep anti-Trumpers, queers, intellectuals, anarchists, etc. who don't share a collective vision

A bit dull with flashes of brilliance. Issues of division on immigration, capitalism and race stem back to Americas founding.