Opinions and Assholes

The Hot Take Economy vs. Capitalist Hegemony

Morning Comrades.

Some of you may remember the time when this substack started 5 years ago when it regularly had a bi-weekly section called Hot Shots - a predecessor to the omnipresent reality of today’s content manufacturing in shapes of “takes”.

Granted, genuinely, with a capitol G, these past days have warranted a landfilled sized collection of “takes” and whilst I was putting together a list of events I felt like I needed to organise, a question occurred and one that needs addressing before we continue.

Why?

What are the points of all these opinions, thoughts and “takes”?

Personally, it’s a mixed bag. I am naturally curious and I believe a lot of people genuinely are and I get satisfaction out of being able to try and get answers to the many questions that arise. Additionally, I predominately write for myself and to be entirely honest it quietens the deafening noise in my head. I struggle to function effectively in my day-to-day responsibilities when the noise is too loud and more specifically if it is unorganised, or feels unorganised. All reproductive work that needs to happen, doesn’t. As it is, my laundry still needs to get hung and the kitchen needs cleaning. More importantly to the point, I don’t understand this writing to be a product per se to be consumed as so much of the information “take” industry especially in form of videos and podcasts does . On the other hand, I truthfully cannot shake the feeling of responsibility I put on myself with having created this space and the 40K people taking time out of their days to read this. It creates an contradictory relationship to be sure. To utilise another information economy buzzword.

Coming back to answering the question of why, being curious, becoming informed and not entertained about the world is generally speaking a net positive. The world that we live in is greatly shaped by individuals that do not have our best interest at heart and knowing what they’re are up to serves us well to, at the very least, prepare for their fuckening that most definitely knock on your door at some point, or at least provide the illusion of preparedness for ones own sake of security, irrespective if that’s real or not.

Knowing what is going as we engage here what is happening in Syria and why, in Romania, South Korea, Sudan and Palestine sharpens your mind to understand the reality we are facing. I know, much like everyone else here, my day-to-day is ubiquitous and demands not only most of my time but also energy. As I am writing this I am on the phone to food suppliers, school, partners and co-workers and still, that kitchen remains uncleaned. This oversaturation of “shit-to-do-lists” can and should be interpreted as part of the alienation process within the capitalist reality they constructed, because not only is a hungry dog obedient, an uninformed and isolated dog even more so.

The point then of figuring out what is what and why that what is, remains to sharpen ones relationship to reality, even if it is “just” the one in front of our shit-to-do lists, because it is absolutely certain that, for as long as the western empire remains in charge of our material reality, whatever happens on the proxy of our empire, it will eventually happen here. That is not meant to be a threat, but a simple fact. Sure, it is insanely overwhelming and a Herculean task to view the entire world as interconnected but whether or not we want that to be true or false, remains irrelevant to the fact. Consequentially, it is out balance. Understanding to recognise patterns on a grander scale other than ones day-to-day has to lead to appropriate actions, at home, in the home and in ones mind. That, at the core, is how you can challenge the indoctrinated morality at the base of all your actions and it is never about the destruction of morality but a critical assessment and readjustment thereof. With that, that begins to answer the why, why all these hot takes, hot shots, opinions and ideas.

In an ideal world, of course.

An additional reality is that a monetary and ideological economy has emerged over the last 25 years with the advent of the internet 2.0, or user generated content in place of the library style internet in its original form and whether or not that was intentional is for another day. The fact remains. Presenting opinions both in the traditional media and the internet has become a massive capitalist economy and as with all aspects of capitalism in the 21st Century it not only serves to generate profit but also cultural hegemony. There is a reason to bang on about Gramsci so often. This substack is also a part of that.

When I use this space and your time to write about anything there not only exists an ideological bias and intent but I am also generating an income from it- and to be clear, for the later I wish that wasn’t the case but hell, good luck surviving in today’s world on a chef’s salary.

I am rambling a little and there are plenty of reasons for it: As far as Global Events that will affect everyone in one way or another, the past week or so has been unprecedented. I made a list this morning of what I wanted to write about, and as soon as put one event down, two others popped up, and a lot of these are happening within the now seemingly normalised context of the Western Hegemon understanding their own increasing decline in access to power and responding to it in the classic ruling class fashion of bullying their way around the world. It is vitally important to understand the following points within that context. The power that the US and through its Western Proxies permeated in its heyday from 1945-75 is not even a fraction of it today.

Initially, I obviously felt compelled to write about Syria, about the assassination in NYC, the failed coup in South Korea and then obviously the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and then Sudan, Congo, Pakistan, the fuckery in Georgia and Romania, the collapse of governments in France and Germany and, and and. No, none of this “is insane” and the positively weak roll over to simplify all of these events of the last week as “yo that shit is crazy” is exactly what the existing power structure wants. To not see the connections, to not see the patterns, to react on the daily with emojis on fucking facebook. There isn’t enough space left today to deal with all of the above in detail and I certain that I am missing a few but figure it out, not to pose and bully online about who the most principled motherfucker of the day is, another term being made pointless by 15 year internet trolls and CIA bootlickers, but to understand the why’s and how’s.

Also, to appease the creeping feeling of responsibility within myself, a few concluding words.

Syria: One does not have to be a fan of the Assad family to be extremely weary and concerned about a Turkish / US led exAl-Qaeda/ISIS overthrow of their government that, for the time being genuinely only helps Israel re-shape reality in the Middle and guarantees the US access to Syrian oil whilst simultaneously putting a massive nail in the coffin of Palestinian liberation. Genuinely, I don’t think I will ever know enough to really dig into this history to feel comfortable to write with authority on it and for the time being, my concern is with the workers, there and everywhere.

New York Assassinations: Fuck yeah - I’ll get into this on Wednesday.

Georgia/Romania: The EU in its role as the US proxy on this continent has been tying to throw a colour revolution in the former to turn it and its people into a second Ukraine to fuck with Putin whilst throwing shade via tiktok in the later to discount an election result that didn’t work with their plans.

Sudan and Congo remain the biggest humanitarian failures and direct results of our colonialism of our time and within the same context and with the same energy committed to the Palestinian cause, our attention, energy and privileges have to be devoted here.

Germany/France: whatever. fuck them and their bourgeois fascist war-mongering governments, but for what it is worth, both of them imploded on their hubris to make fascism chic again.

Obviously, there is more and I don’t intend to portray any of these in an off-the cuff-manner. They deserve attention and a desire of understanding. I found important to contextualise the origin and potential pitfalls of opinions, a lot of opinions that are all to often subject to ideological abuse before we get into them. The world is deeper and infinitely more complex than a number of IG slides and podcast bros, which, I know, we all know, given the alienating reality of existence had to be said, even just for myself, to align importance, steadfastness and clarity.

Reflection and alignment are vital tools for our liberation and I appreciate you coming along for mine today. It was needed.

Yours, warmly,

V.