Radical Engagements: "Bracing for Impact" by John Michael Greer, Part 1

[@cola3173]

You're on a roll lately man. Long live Varn Vlog

[@500usd4]

Funny that you bring up Michael Hudson in this, I've been keeping up with his work at Geopolitical Economy Report and found his and Radika Desai's work interesting. I am skeptical of how much weight they put into reclaiming of Keynes as part of their justification for their holding out hope for BRICS, not that I'm so terribly pessimistic about those prospects, idk how it's gonna end up. I did find their retreading of the history of Bretton-Woods to be useful tho, I didn't know Keynes lost that fight to the US, I've just heard "Keynesianism" all my life and assumed it was his system in play. Ramblings aside, it's good to hear someone not immediately assuming that multipolarity is automatically gonna bolster the position of socialism in the world- or nominally make that caveat before singing it's praises anyway. Keep up the good work Varn!

[@VarnVlog]

Multipolarity doesn’t automatically mean anything to me-good or bad. I also found Hudson useful at earlier points of my life but I have frustrated on their very narrow focus despite some really innovative thinking.

[@DM-ks1pj]

JMG was always the insightful one in the peak-oil bunch. I disagree with a lot of what he says, but there is clearly some deep thought behind his musings. Orlav has become a Russian hyper nationalist and has some very interesting views about how English grammar is making the west trans (not kidding). Kunstler is an anti-vaxxer RFK type and anti-woke guy now. It's all so strange for anyone who followed this rag-tag group back in the 2000s.

[@curiousfella4076]

I cannot think of a politically significant figure that is more pro-vaxx than RFK Jr. so I'm not sure what you're talking about there.

[@gobblelevclass3nuclearsubm393]

how are the rest of these guys not "insightful"?

[@weirdsolosky]

I’m glad you shed light on this guy. A friend of mine got into paranormal and subversive type podcast. I checked it out and found this guy talking up Trump on some show. The host and many like my pal are uninitiated in politics, and history. So they hear guys like this and start saying very stupid and frustrating things. Greer is lube in the hippy to libertarian pipeline. According to wikipedia Greer says a big influence on him is Edmund Burke. I think he knows exactly what he’s doing going on these ren fair type shows.

[@zainmudassir2964]

Thanks varn

[@gobblelevclass3nuclearsubm393]

are war i sierra leone is not really "chaNge". its "business as usual"

[@nicholasfalasco8539]

Just googled this John fellow. This was written on his wikipedia page; he lectured on "Phallic Religion in the Druid Revival". That's weird. Like really weird. Anyways, he seems like a overcomplex doomsday prepper to me. He is very well read though.

[@VarnVlog]

He is strange. His books took a turn for the right populist and seems to have shifted back to what they were in aughts and early aught teens.

[@beyondaboundary6034]

I followed Greer for years and I often appreciated his wit and erudition. However, he made a lot of claims about peak oil that proved to be wrong. Moreover, while he treated Democrats and Republicans as tweedlee and tweedledum in the Bush era, he became an intellectually dishonest apologist for Trump in 2017-2020, to the point that I lost all respect for him. I am willing to try again, but it is hard to trust someone I have seen blatantly lie and misrepresent the left on multiple occasions.

[@VarnVlog]

I am not always in agreement with somewhat I agree with points in this argument. This is him pivoting back to 2006-2009 writing but preview, lots of over claims

[@VarnVlog]

In fact you will find I also don't entirely agree with the Fisher essay i covered

[@beyondaboundary6034]

​​@@VarnVlog Definitely not making claims about what you agree or disagree with based on who you interview. And to be fair I think JMG can be very insightful, which is why I read his blog for years. I had to stop in the Trump years for reasons I describe in my comment. But I look forward to watching/listening to this interview. Thanks.

[@VarnVlog]

@@beyondaboundary6034 i lost a ton of respect for him in his response to his 2005-2009 writings being overstated