I’m an anthropologist, sometimes I occupy things & such.

I see anarchism as something you do not an identity...

...so don’t call me the anarchist anthropologist

Twitter was David’s public platform and tools for practicing a new language – clear and understandable for everyone, it was a space where he made friends and enemies.

Tweets 7,501 Replies 51,144 Retweets 24,559 Everything 83,204
Mon 13 Jul 2020 11:26

this isn’t quite saying “we’ll kill you if you join a union” but it’s only two or three steps away https://t.co/yg06mPtYel

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Sun 12 Jul 2020 16:52

important statement from XR Brain Trust everyone please do disseminate this one #XR #XRBrainTrust https://t.co/7DclR5I6H0

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Fri 10 Jul 2020 16:59

I’d said Pinker is effectively an apologist for colonial genocide but I didn’t know it was this bad: he pretends people being murdered by ranchers are killing each other to claim they’re violent savages (and thus implicitly, deserve it) https://t.co/Moduhdyk03

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Fri 10 Jul 2020 01:52

this is of course the American dream offered to immigrants: because of the open frontier, only one generation or less of waged labour is required then you move up, & a new generation of immigrants replaces you. “Just accept it. Selling yourself is just a stepping stone.”

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Fri 10 Jul 2020 01:49

sex work seems to stand as a metaphor for proletarian labour (the gas station), so it’s significant – as Nika instantly noted – that only men are shown doing it. Message: if men had accepted the wage system (capitalism), it would have been a temporary condition (for individuals)

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Fri 10 Jul 2020 00:23

“why, the capitalists would have done so for us, since after all, they had control over the means of symbolic production.”

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Fri 10 Jul 2020 00:21

so the implicit message seems to be: “we could have ended racism, overcome homophobia, and achieved women’s equality – well… at least to the degree we have done so now – fifty years earlier if only the left hadn’t insisted on all that anti-capitalist nonsense.”

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Fri 10 Jul 2020 00:17

just saw the miniseries Hollywood & it seemed compelling until I realised “wait they just did a whole series set in 1947 Hollywood which purports to be radical but makes no mention of HUAC, blacklists, or Communism. “Let’s imagine a world where politics was always just identity.”

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Thu 9 Jul 2020 22:24

got to admit I was feeling a little guilty being too harsh on Pinker in the first chapter of my upcoming book … then I read this: https://t.co/sa4aenMKbN

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Thu 9 Jul 2020 01:56

thinking of examples of technologies deployed in games & rituals but nowhere else: like ancient Mesoamerican toys on wheels, even where wheels were never used in transport, or the ancient Greek use of steam power only to open temple doors. Anyone know additional examples?

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 14:28

so what did Thorstein Veblen’s friends call him? “Thor?” Seems a bit grandiose. “Ted”? Did they call him by his middle name, Bunde? Seems unlikely. TB? No that’s a disease. Maybe they just had a totally unrelated name or nickname like Joe or Ace or Lefty?

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:30

but it’s very clear there’a a huge investment in maintaining this illusion when you look at the virulent wolf-pack-like reaction that occurs when you cast doubt on it in any way. Interesting to speculate why, 11/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:29

so the new line was “any resulting improvement isn’t because the poor self-organised to stop those policies, it’s because of the policies themselves! Capitalism is making everyone rich!” Even then they had to largely cook the books be able to make the case 10/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:28

this is course implied the poor, and all the organisations they’d created in the global south, were stupid & didn’t know what was good for them (but Warren Buffet did) – but in fact, those movements were successful in blocking new trade agreements, structural adjustment halted 9/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:26

back in 2000, when that was the instant response to Global Justice Movement e.g. from The Economist: “free trade policies are great for the poor, if the activists stop structural adjustment that’s literally killing the poor it’ll cause everyone to become even poorer.” 8/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:23

even then, things are basically only getting better in 1 country, China, w an enormous population, & most of that positive change was in a single decade. That was BEFORE covid-19 started causing actual starvation & let’s not even talk about the coming effects of climate change 7/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:20

in fact, as .@jasonhickel elaborately demonstrated, the World Bank came under huge pressure to change the poverty line to something that could look like things were improving; if you choose almost any other number, things are clearly getting worse 6/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:18

but these guys were so insane they actually edited my wikipedia page to say that I was caught admitting bias on this issue, despite the fact they were the ones guilty of presuming their conclusions since they had no idea & didn’t asked what the basis of my skepticism was 5/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:17

in fact, I’d been working with anti-poverty groups in the global south for over 20 years, had lived in one very poor country for years, if the triumphalist narrative contradicted what everyone I knew had been saying, I had every reason to assume there was another narrative 4/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:12

I’d never seen anything like it since I once signed a petition against some guy who was trying to bring back “race science” – or once when I annoyed Jacobin, who use similar wolf-pack tactics borrowed from the right – it was continual & virulent 3/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:10

on a personal note, I might add I’ve got incessant attacks, personal targeting, & abuse when I once asked who was out there countering the triumphalist narrative – by people who said I had fallaciously presumed my conclusions 2/

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Tue 7 Jul 2020 13:06

this is very important. For 10 years now we’ve been fed a lie that “capitalism” is causing massive reductions in global poverty. In fact global poverty has been getting worse. Now COVID is making the debacle precipitous .@jasonhickel https://t.co/vnxV52699D

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Mon 6 Jul 2020 16:58

There are so many countries where practically rye entire left is being purged, jailed, or fleeing for their lives. Some are quite large (India, Turkey…) can’t we just arrange for them to all flee to one smallish European country like Belgium or Slovenia; and then take over?

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Mon 6 Jul 2020 12:26

here’s me somewhat in the guise of Noel Coward (well sipping cognac in pyjamas anyway) reading from the last paragraphs of a long essay on Merina kings as babies, as a way of testing a new microphone https://t.co/xomaPkQfis

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Mon 6 Jul 2020 11:45

Excellent piece by Wail Qasim. One imagines a 1790s Starmer “I totally support Abolutionism! Just obviously not those radical elements who want to abolish slavery entirely. Clearly this kind of extremism only corrupts & harms the Abolitionist movement” https://t.co/KLvvexgUGy

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Mon 6 Jul 2020 11:35

this is starting to get a tiny bit silly. ‘Pirate Enlightenment’ was written in English, appeared in French, and has now been translated into Italian. Which is cool… but it seems until the book with David Wengrow comes out I can’t even think about an English version!

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Mon 6 Jul 2020 10:47

this is what in Bullshit Jobs I defined as “box-ticking” – if there’s a problem & you don’t want to solve it, write a report. Or do a training. Something that just involve words & papers & forms. By no means change your policies. https://t.co/QLxQK4iSoZ

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