Ben Tarnoff

Tonight, I’ll be talking about ANTI-FASCIST ECONOMICS with Lina Khan, Chair of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, at Columbia Law School. Lina was kind enough to offer an advance blurb for my new book! 🔗 Register to watch live online at the link below.

Fugazi released The Argument twenty five years ago today. youtu.be/yFyzhyBA7To?...

If you missed my livestream with Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff yesterday, the VOD is now available for your viewing pleasure! youtu.be/VWjXr5nOvzM

Will Davies

New from me: two cheers for audio content, which feels weirdly lacking from the 'literacy crisis'/'screens' freak-out substack.com/home/post/p-...

“The innovation of intellectual monopoly capitalism is that capitalists don’t always need to incur the costs of ownership in order to enjoy its benefits. They can boss people around without taking responsibility for them.” —Ben Tarnoff

🚨 ALERT 🚨: All of Stuart Hall's notebooks have been digitized and are freely available to browse and read??? stuarthalldigital.bham.ac.uk/archival_mat...

I have a piece in the latest @nybooks.com on two of the best books about tech published in recent years www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Very excited for this. The discourse needs Max!

The Pope reminds me of a version of Catholicism I knew growing up as a young man attending anti-war and anti-death penalty protests, where I met elderly Catholics who shared their version of faith with me. I learned that Catholicism was about love and mercy for the weak, the condemned, and the poor.

Oct 7: Join "Muskism" coauthor @quinnslobodian.com & "Against Tech Oligarchy" coauthors @js-tan.bsky.social & Clarissa Redwine to discuss the structural forces shaping tech power, and what we can learn from the tech worker movement, with D&S's @aihathing.bsky.social. datasociety.net/news-events/...

This Monday, September 21st, I'll be talking to @js-tan.bsky.social and Clarissa Redwine at Harvard Bookstore about their new book Against Tech Oligarchy. They've written the first sustained analysis of the tech worker movement and it's a very important book www.harvard.com/event/tan-re...

I took the bait and blogged on pacing, frontiers, AI, "the left" bentarnoff.substack.com/p/on-the-pac...

Hello New York residents, please consider coming to my Brooklyn Book Festival event on September 27th at 1pm with Kim Phillips-Fein, Derrick Palmer, and Sam Adler-Bell brooklynbookfestival.org/event/the-an...

This is essential reading, particularly on how Musk’s wealth has been built on state contracts and why his aim is “not to eliminate the government but to vassalise it” (from @quinnslobodian.com and @bentarnoff.com).

Breaking down (a lil bit) the connection between radical politics and subcultures geesemag.com/articles/wha...

I strongly recommend “Muskism” for context on why a little weird White boy from South Africa who begged to move to an intellectually rich city grew up to hate academia.

The next Democratic administration should take money from AI and put it into biotech

🚨BAY AREA: I’ll be coming to San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland next weeks for a series of events on my book EXTRACTION — and on the intersections of climate, energy, mining, geopolitics, and the supply chains of global capitalism. Come through! www.theariofrancos.com/upcoming-eve...

Late in 2024, hundreds of tech workers at the New York Times waged the first ever official strike in their sector. Roughly a dozen worker leaders reflect on the strike and their campaign, and distill its lessons for their shop and their sector more broadly longhaulmag.com/first-tech-w...

I'm honored to endorse "Against Tech Oligarchy" by Clarissa Redwine and JS Tan out soon from @haymarketbooks.org An instant addition to rank & file canon, the book combines the authors' deep shop floor experience with careful empirical work on labor struggle in the world's dominant industry

DSA-aligned Democrats are now the most pro-free-trade voting bloc in the United States, in an incredible turn of events www.theargumentmag.com/p/who-suppor...

An 8 employee hedge fund that was up hundreds of percent and used aggressive leverage is asking investors for more cash to meet margin calls. The tropes in this particular bull market couldn’t get any lazier. www.ft.com/content/2803...

Was Barack Obama the ultimate yuppie? That answer and more in my Q&A in the @nytimes.com today.

The authors of MUSKISM, Quinn Slobidian and Ben Tarnoff are our guests this week, tune in tomorrow! (You won't believe who we talk about on this episode) #ai #datmpodcast #books #author #booktok #future #mars #muskism #wokemindvirus @multitudeshows.com @adambecker.bsky.social

New poll: Americans believe the U.S. should arrest Benjamin Netanyahu by a +22 margin Total: 49-27 Black: 53-13 Hispanic: 52-15 Ages 18-29: 58-17 Harris voters: 74-10 Independents: 55-20 23% of Trump voters agree as well Economist/YouGov:

Today, @gabrielwinant.bsky.social explains why a clear picture of how age mediates class would reveal not gerontocracy, but capitalism and the fractionated class system it produces.

This week's episode of @dreamingagainstthemachine.com, with guests @bentarnoff.com and @quinnslobodian.com, drops TOMORROW! Check it out wherever you get your podcasts!

“Zero died because of DOGE," Elon Musk said in his interview with the Economist. This claim is utter nonsense and has been widely debunked. But Musk tried to back this up with additional dissembling that's just as bad. We took it on here: newrepublic.com/article/2135...

I’ve been reading Muskism. I know I’m annoying with this BUT every evil person isn’t dumb. and every evil person being dumb on X isn’t merely dumb. It’s very much worth your time to parse why Musk uses this rhetoric the way that he does.

"Bracingly original. . . .Slobodian’s book offers an illuminating history to our current bewildering moment."—Jennifer Szalai, New York Times Hayek's Bastards by @quinnslobodian.com is out now in #paperback! Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

This week on “Galaxy Brain,” Charlie Warzel talks with the “Muskism” authors Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff about what fuels the world’s richest man:

Grateful for @mrkocnnll.bsky.social's eloquent meditation on Muskism in the latest @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

i’m reading the new @quinnslobodian.com on Musk and the book makes a very persuasive case that Musk’s upbringing in apartheid south africa are at the core of his ideology

highly recommend Muskism by @quinnslobodian.com & @bentarnoff.com. even if you know the details, the urgency/analysis illuminates. dark ending & extremely well-written. minor takeaway: musk seeks to impose on the world a warped reality defined by racism, misogyny, sf tv/film, & games.

We relied on @bentarnoff.com's great new book with @quinnslobodian.com for this piece. We try to offer a real theory on what Musk really means in decrying "suicidal empathy." We argue that his gutting of USAID (also justified by denigrating "empathy") is a test run for much worse to come:

Spoke to @gregsargent.bsky.social about Musk's cyborg anti-humanitarianism and why he dislikes the concept of empathy so much newrepublic.com/article/2119...

EP21: A Critical Theory of Christianity? Julian & I talk Horkheimer’s 1940s close engagement with Neo-Thomism & church history given his anti-fascist 30s polemics & neo-con 60s retreat, asking: what might a critical theory of religion look like today? www.patreon.com/crittheorywo...