Ep. 27: On Jon Rafman, Police Brutality & the Left, and an interview with Joshua Citarella

Pamela, Sophia and Laurie discuss the call to cancel artist, Jon Rafman, and the revenge campaign led by the @surviving_the_artworld instagram account and break down the anti-sex and anti-art impulses of the culture industry. Pamela & Sophia sit down with Platypus members, Ethan Kaimana (U. Penn) and Will Lushbaugh (San Francisco State), two organizers behind the recent panel, "Police Brutality and the Left," with speakers Andrea Pritchett (Berkeley Copwatch), Conrad Cartmell (Democratic Socialists of America), Larry Holmes (Workers World Party) and Gerald Smith (a former member of the Black Panther Party and the Spartacist League and current member of the Oscar Grant committee). We listen to clips from the panel recording and give our impression of the conversation. In the last segment Pamela & Sophia talk with Joshua Citarella, an artist and cultural thinker whose books, Politigram & the Post-left (2018) and his most recent book, 20 Interviews (2020) offer an in-depth survey of young political spaces online, including interviews with Zoomers that provide and insight into the trajectory of their political education. We sit down with Joshua to discuss what motivates his work and his critique of the millennial generation. Links: (1) Police Brutality and the Left, a panel discussion by the Platypus Affiliated Society https://youtu.be/jwf1_df6FiA In the wake of the killing of George Floyd by police, against the backdrop of the covid shutdown, protests have erupted in every state across America raising the issue of police brutality. The relationship of the Left to these protests, however, has been unclear. Following disappointment with the Bernie Sanders campaign and the nomination of Joe Biden, the Left has sought to politicize the protests and police brutality in different ways. How can the Left address police brutality today? How has it sought to do so in the past? What is the role of the Left in the current moment? (2) Joshua Citarella Find 20 Interviews: https://www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella - https://newmodels.io/proprietary/irony-politics-gen-z-2019-citarella - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joshua-citarella/id1513817688?i=1000486940573