Listeners questions for Richard Seymour
Added 2025-01-16 08:58:57 +0000 UTCFor the latest episode of Interregnum - PTO's show-within-a-show, Richard Seymour will be responding to more listeners' questions. You may like to ask Richard about the implications of the recently announced ceasefire in Gaza, the upcoming inauguration of Donald Trump and the role of Elon Musk in the administration, or the devastating California wild fires. As always, Richard is happy to respond on any other topic of your choosing. We'll be recording on Tuesday morning so please do try and send your questions as soon as possible.
Thanks as ever for your continued support.
Comments
Does Richard agree with Emmanuel Todd that the West is a civilisation that has "exhausted its moral and social capital"? And what does Richard make of Todd's argument that the West's demise results in large part from its abandonment of religion, especially Protestantism? https://eng.globalaffairs.ru/articles/emmanuel-todd-russias-role/ NOTE: It seems that Todd's "The Defeat of the West" is not going to be translated into English, but a Google translation can be found online (formatting is not great, but it's readable)
Michael Peck
2025-01-19 01:51:45 +0000 UTCWhy not a 21st Century Genocide? Many people "have no words" in response to the horrific levels of inhumane destruction, death, injury and misery Israel has inflicted on the people of Gaza; some, like Prof. John Mearsheimer think “Israel is in deep trouble” and that its reputation is irreparably harmed. Thanks to the smart phone the genocide in Gaza will perhaps be the most visually documented genocide in history. But does this matter? The history of “American carnage” in Korea, South America, Vietnam, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Iraq – to name but a very few interventions – suggests that after a decade or two the events will remain known and of interest to but a few specialists and those close to the action who survived and prefer not to forget. Surely Israel’s crimes will similarly vanish down the West’s memory hole?
Michael Peck
2025-01-19 01:16:22 +0000 UTCWas glad to see Richard write on the Lucy Letby case and the Thirlwall Inquiry this week – can Richard talk a bit about how his views of the case have developed? The left has absolutely not covered itself in glory when it comes to presenting opposition or scepticism towards Letby's prosecution, often scolding those who did. I wonder if Richard would also be able to talk a bit about the ongoing Spycops inquiry. Aside from a small number of dedicated folks covering it – Tom Fowler, Heather Mendick, the Police Spies out of Lives campaign – it feels like it's being ignored by larger left organisations. It's especially worrying given that we know just how much repression and infiltration the British legal system and security state is capable of. It seems that the prominent left institutions (trade unions, parliamentarians) are notably cowed when it comes to opposing repression and miscarriages of justice committed by the British state.
Lawrence Dunn
2025-01-17 12:38:16 +0000 UTCWe are just over 12 months from devolved elections in Scotland and Wales in 2026. Polling (with all its shortcomings) suggests it is not impossible that there will be a Plaid Cymru-led government in Wales alongside an SNP administration in Scotland. (Currently Plaid/Labour/and *Reform* all level in Wales, with added uncertainty from a new PR system and additional MSs) Speculating, what might two nationalist governments mean for the UK Labour Government— and the political terrain for the left in the UK more generally?
Jack Kellam
2025-01-17 07:44:25 +0000 UTCIf Trump ends up forcing Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire deal in Gaza, what can we expect in terms of future pressure on the Zionist entity in pursuit of regional objectives (regarding Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc). What repercussions can we expect from the ceasefire on internal Israeli politics, and on the dynamics of the rising far right globally?
Nisha Bolsey
2025-01-16 22:15:56 +0000 UTCHi I'd really like to ask Richard: What projects, parties or movements around the world are most useful to study at the moment? And what can we learn from them? For instance Morena in Mexico had a big electoral win recently, and Sumar and PSOE are currently in coalition together again in Spain - what can we learn from the few successes the 'left' might be having?
Joe Wilson
2025-01-16 20:52:53 +0000 UTCHow likely do you think it is that Reform could make significant inroads with young voters in the UK, in a similar way to the RN in France?
Jessica Vara
2025-01-16 17:23:43 +0000 UTCA lot of contemporary left politics seems to presuppose that most people do not want to have lives filled with high levels of consumption, much less high levels of conspicuous consumption. And yet most people seem to embrace the equation of high levels of consumption and wealth with flourishing: what kind of car one drives, what kind of clothes and accessories one wears, how large and nice one's home is, where one holidays, what sort of technological gadgets one has, and so on. Especially in the US and China, these are widely shared metrics of success (just look at the most popular social media accounts, to say nothing of popular culture like music, TV, and cinema). And yet pursuit of these ends appears to be inconsistent with facing up to legitimacy crises in (more or less) democratic polities, much less with taking decisive collective action on climate crisis. So, what does Richard have to say about confronting this matrix of popular desires? Or, to put a finer point on it, how does a *mass* left politics fit to address these imminent catastrophes form against the background conception of the good life - what people spend their time pursuing - as a life of wealth and wanton consumption?
Noah Z
2025-01-16 14:19:18 +0000 UTCHow can we find the raw unvarnished truth about China? Free from ideology or propaganda from either side
Peter Fishbeast
2025-01-16 14:09:40 +0000 UTCWhat is Richard’s understanding of the term “westoids”?
Peter Fishbeast
2025-01-16 14:00:04 +0000 UTCThe left seems very fragmented and disjointed lately, though there has been strong unity over the Gaza genocide, what should we focus our energy and efforts on this year? Why are so many leftists reluctant to join or support the Green Party?
Peter Fishbeast
2025-01-16 13:43:03 +0000 UTC
