Tara McMullin

@taramcmullin

Writer, podcaster, and producer baffled by the absurdity of neoliberal capitalism. Autistic feminist. Aspiring independent scholar. Amateur baker. Host of the What Works podcast and author of a book of the same name.

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The need for romantic love is thus imagined as so deeply entrenched in the structures of feminine subjectivity that women desire nothing so much as to be safely ensconced in the institutions, marriage and family, that will secure it. As de Beauvoir describes the woman in search of love and marriage, “she chooses to want her enslavement so ardently... See more

Down with Love: Feminist Critique and the New Ideologies of Work

Emotions @ Work

Science Fiction and

I’ve been mainlining Le Guin’s non-fiction writing. It strikes me reading this passage again that she’s bumping up against Harry Frankfurt’s definition of “bullshit.” To paraphrase, that bullshit doesn’t concern itself with the truth—it’s objective is outside the realm of information. I don’t think fiction is bullshit, obviously. But now I’m curious about the qualities of fiction as they relate to the qualities of bullshit.

In fact, most of the economic innovations of the last thirty years make more sense politically than economically. Eliminating guaranteed life employment for precarious contracts doesn’t re- ally create a more effective workforce, but it is extraordinarily effective in destroying unions and otherwise depoliticizing labor. The same can be said of... See more

David Graeber • A practical utopians guide to the coming collapse – David Graeber

Economics

challenges-15-00029-v2

The article critiques prevailing paradigms of digital literacy, proposing a consciousness model rooted in media ecology to address the structural biases of digital communication technologies that hinder sustainability efforts.

Link

Media & Culture

Because you are human beings you are going to meet failure. You are going to meet disappointment, injustice, betrayal, and irreparable loss. You will find you’re weak where you thought yourself strong. You’ll work for possessions and then find they possess you. You will find yourself — as I know you already have — in dark places, alone, and afraid.... See more

Ursula K. Le Guin — A Left-Handed Commencement Address

Success (In Moderation)

Revolutions are thus planetary phenomena. But there is more. What they really do is transform basic assumptions about what politics is ultimately about. In the wake of a revolution, ideas that had been considered veritably lunatic fringe quickly become the accepted currency of debate.

David Graeber • A practical utopians guide to the coming collapse – David Graeber

Philosophy

That's why we have intermediaries, and why disintermediation always leads to some degree of re-intermediation. There's a lot of explicit and implicit knowledge and specialized skill required to connect buyers and sellers, creators and audiences, and other sides of two-sided markets. Some producers can do some of this stuff for themselves, and a... See more

Cory Doctorow • Pluralistic: Middlemen Without Enshittification; The Bezzle Excerpt

content as capital and Media & Culture

Definitions

Robin Sloan robinsloan.com

Labor Under Capitalism

Three strategies to prevent young adult mental health troubles

Ashley Mowreader insidehighered.com

Higher Ed Under Capitalism