Saying Jason Richard Hunter is Jason Richard Hunter is trivial.
Saying Jason Richard Hunter is the Inspectah Deck, the Rebel INS, Rollie Fingers, Fifth Brother, Ayatollah, Manifesto, Charliehorse is informative.
What’s LEFT in BloNo 2022?
With the demise of the Bloomington-Normal chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA BloNo), many on the Left are wondering what Leftists organizations exist and how to join them. You can read this article on the chapter’s dissolution, now updated with a new conclusion.
As DSA BloNo hemorrhaged active membership, the trend was for autonomous groups to form in its absence.
Afro-Socialists & Socialists of Color Caucus continues to exist. They are a space for people of color to organize autonomously. They continue to focus on base building by performing events and outreach to the community: swim lessons, COVID-19 vaccine clinics, fine art events, etc. Their email address is afrosocblono@gmail.com.
The Bloomington-Normal Tenant’s Union is an organization created to provide resources to tenant’s and defend tenant’s rights, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are a vehicle for renting class solidarity and empowerment in the BloNo IL area.
The best way to contact the BN Tenant’s Union is by clicking on their Link Tree: MORE BN TENANT UNION INFO!
BloNo is home to its very own chapter of the Communist Party USA. During the flooding that occurred last summer, Summer 2021, their members volunteered helping many people whose basements had flooded get the problem fixed (the BN Tenant’s Union was also involved in this effort). Furthermore, the CP continues outreach to the community by holding monthly family picnics during warmer weather.
The best way to get involved with the CP is the following:
Phone: 309-822-5680
Email: Bloomington-Normal@cpusa.org
Facebook.com/BloNoCPUSA
Twitter.com/BloNoCPUSA
Folks can sign up at cpusa.org/join
The BloNo Socialist Feminists group aims to educate the Bloomington-Normal community on issues that affect marginalized genders and building solidarity through awareness, advocacy, and empowerment. Their past work includes outreach to the community through public events, addressing food insecurity, and public education.
The BloNo Socialist Feminists is a group that grew out of DSA BloNo’s Socialists-Feminist Working Group. Like Afro-Soc, they are completely autonomous from DSA.
Currently, their Facebook page is the best way to contact them.
The Central Illinois solidarity-Research Collective (CIRC) is dedicated to helping organizations & individuals request information from public bodies. CIRC is intended to be a resource for all Leftists across Central Illinois and is not limited just to the Bloomington-Normal area. This research is important to guarantee transparent & accountable government. Every person has a right to access most government records. CIRC specializes in requesting police records and helping individuals file complaints again local law enforcement. CIRC is also involved in lobbying legislation and educating the people on changes to various laws and statutes. CIRC is an all-volunteer organization.
CIRC grew out of DSA Blono’s Solidarity Research Working Group. Like Afro-Soc and BloNo Socialist Feminists, CIRC is completely autonomous from DSA.
Those looking to get involved in CIRC should fill out this contact form and someone will be in touch with them. No previous experience doing research is required. Individuals can also email the organization at cisolidarityresearch@gmail.com. GET INVOLVED IN CIRC!
If you’d like your organization added to this list, please send an email to zgetco@gmail.com with your org’s name, contact info, a short description of the group, and any active projects the org is engaged in.
150 SUBSCRIBERS! Q & A
Happy New Year 2022 Strange Thinkers! Subscribers!
Thanks to all my supporters for getting the channel to 150+ subscribers. Here’s a Q&A just for YOU!
Book Recommendations:
Laozi. Tao Teh Ching 1. Translated by John C. H. Wu, Shambhala, 2003. Buy here!
Wang, Bi. The Classic of the Way and Virtue: a New Translation of the “Tao-Te Ching” of Laozi as Interpreted by Wang Bi, translated by Richard John Lynn, by Lao Zi, Columbia University Press, 1999. Buy here!
Laozi. Tao: A New Way of Thinking: A Translation of the Tao tê Ching with an Introduction and Commentaries, translated by Chung-Yuan Chang, Singing Dragon, London, 2014. Buy here!
Laozi. Tao Te Ching a Bilingual Edition. Edited by Wang Bi. Translated by Dim Cheuk Lau, The Chinese University Press, 2001. Buy here!
Zhuang, Zhou. The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries. Translated by Brook Ziporyn, Hackett, 2009. Buy here!
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None. Buy here!
Heidegger, Martin. Being & Time. Buy Here!
Ol’ Dirty Bastard . “Brooklyn Zoo.” Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, The RZA | True Master. Buy Here!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
hume’s guillotine – short
David Hume’s Guillotine discovered the is/ought distinction in moral philosophy.
“In every system of morality, which I have hitherto met with, I have always remarked, that the author proceeds for some time in the ordinary way of reasoning, and establishes the being of a God, or makes observations concerning human affairs; when of a sudden I am surprised to find, that instead of the usual copulations of propositions, is, and is not, I meet with no proposition that is not connected with an ought, or an ought not. This change is imperceptible; but is, however, of the last consequence. For as this ought, or ought not, expresses some new relation or affirmation, it’s necessary that it should be observed and explained; and at the same time that a reason should be given, for what seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a deduction from others, which are entirely different from it. But as authors do not commonly use this precaution, I shall presume to recommend it to the readers; and am persuaded, that this small attention would subvert all the vulgar systems of morality, and let us see, that the distinction of vice and virtue is not founded merely on the relations of objects, nor is perceived by reason.”
David Hume
Citations:
Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature. Book III, Part I, Section I. 1739.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
You NEED these books in your life!
Happy Holidays strange thinkers! Don’t forget! ALL HOLIDAYS MATTER!!! So Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Merry Festivus, Happy Kwanzaa, Get your Saturnalia on, or however your holy days self-identify. Here are books you need in your life!
Aristotle. Complete Works Part 1. Translated by Jonathan Barnes, Princeton Univ. Press, 1995. Buy here!
Aristotle. Complete Works Part 2. Translated by Jonathan Barnes, Princeton Univ. Press, 1995. Buy here!
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan(New York: Vintage Books, 2009), 20-21. Buy here!
Michel Foucault, Power: (The Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. 3), trans. R. Hurley, ed. J. Faubion (New York: The New Press, 2015). Buy here!
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: an Introduction. Translated by Robert J. Hurley, Vintage, 1990. Buy here!
Foucault, Michel. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977, edited by Colin Gordon, by Michel Foucault, Longman, 1980, pp. 109–133. Buy here!
Foucault, Michel. “Society Must Be Defended”: Lectures at the collège De France, 1975-76. Translated by David Macey, Picador, 2003. Buy here!
Pull Yourself Together: A True Story of Alternate Realities, Spiritual Healing, and Dimensional Wholeness. Buy here!
Deleuze, Gilles. Difference and Repetition. Translated by Paul Patton, Columbia University Press, 1994. Buy here!
Federici, Silvia. Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. Autonomedia, 2014. Buy here!
Farmer, Philip Jose. Riders of the Purple Wage. Buy here!
Laozi. Tao Teh Ching 1. Translated by John C. H. Wu, Shambhala, 2003. Buy here!
Wang, Bi. The Classic of the Way and Virtue: a New Translation of the “Tao-Te Ching” of Laozi as Interpreted by Wang Bi, translated by Richard John Lynn, by Lao Zi, Columbia University Press, 1999. Buy here!
Laozi. Tao: A New Way of Thinking: A Translation of the Tao tê Ching with an Introduction and Commentaries, translated by Chung-Yuan Chang, Singing Dragon, London, 2014. Buy here!
Laozi. Tao Te Ching a Bilingual Edition. Edited by Wang Bi. Translated by Dim Cheuk Lau, The Chinese University Press, 2001. Buy here!
Zhuang, Zhou. The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries. Translated by Brook Ziporyn, Hackett, 2009. Buy here!
Popper, Karl Raimund. Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. Routledge, 2002. Buy here!
The Ecology of Attention by Yves Citton. Buy here!
Einstein, Albert. Relativity, the Special and the General Theory: A Popular Exposition by Albert Einstein. Translated by Robert W. Lawson, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1961. Buy here!
Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature, Barnes & Noble, New York, NY, 2005. Buy here!
Schulman, Sarah. Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility and the Duty of Repair. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017. Buy here!
Deleuze, Gilles. Nietzsche and Philosophy. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson, Columbia University Press, 1986. Buy here!
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs, translated by Walter Kaufmann, Vintage Books, New York, 1974. Buy here!
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None. Translated by Walter Kaufman, The Viking Press, 1966. Buy here!
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, translated by Walter Arnold Kaufmann, Vintage Books, New York, 1989. Buy here!
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ. Translated by Reginald John Hollingdale, Penguin Books, 2003. Buy here!
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic. Hackett Pub. Co, 2009. Buy here!
Singal, Jesse. The Quick Fix Why Fad Psychology Can’t Cure Our Social Ills, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2021. Buy here!
Plato Complete Works Buy here!
Taibbi, Matt. Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another: With a New Post-Election Preface. OR Books, 2021. Buy here!
Ol’ Dirty Bastard . “‘Cuttin’ Headz’ (Featuring RZA).” Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, The RZA. Buy Here!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
how to redeem the world | nietzsche
“What alone can our teaching be? – That no one gives a human his qualities: not God, not society, not his parents or ancestors, not he himself (-the nonsensical idea here last rejected, was propounded, as ‘intelligible freedom’, by Kant, and perhaps also by Plato before him). No one is accountable for existing at all, or for being constituted as he is, or for living in the circumstances and surroundings in which he lives. The fatality of his nature cannot be disentangled from the fatality of all that which has been and will be. He is not the result of a special design, a will, a purpose; he is not the subject of an attempt to attain an ‘ideal of man’ or an ‘ideal of happiness’ or an ‘ideal of morality’ – it is absurd to want to hand over his nature to some purpose or other. We invented the concept ‘purpose’: in reality purpose is lacking…. But nothing exists apart from the whole! – That no one is any longer made accountable, that the kind of being manifested cannot be traced back to a causa prima, that the world is a unity neither in sensorium nor as ‘spirit’, this alone is the great liberation – thus alone is the innocence of becoming restored…. The concept ‘God’ has hitherto been the greatest objection to existence…. We deny God; in denying God, we deny accountability: only by doing that do we redeem the world.”
Twilight of the Idols by Friedrick Nietzsche.
We are a participant in the Amazon Associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com.
Afro-Soc Caucus Condemns Abusive Behavior From DSA BloNo
For the second time in two months, the Afro-Soc Caucus of BloNo DSA is publically calling out alleged abusive behavior by BloNo DSA members, including the few remaining leaders of the Executive Committee.1
The Caucus alleges, “The slander and character assassination of targeted members of color represents numerous violations of our Community Agreements and Chapter Bylaws, including our Harassment & Grievance policy… the harassment, the smear campaigns, and the move to reduce our members of color has been persistent. Members of color who have spoken out against this abuse and bullying have simply been made targets themselves for defending any victims. Additionally, we have witnessed members of the Chapter’s Executive Committee participate in and support wild conspiracy theories that undermine our election.”
As reported previously, the Caucus released a statement on October 17th, 2021 condemning the alleged widespread abuse of power and anti-democratic strategies of DSA BloNo’s leadership. All four Harassment Grievance Officers (HGOs), including Afro-Soc co-chair Sonny Garcia, resigned from their positions in the chapter with some leaving the organization entirely.
According to this new statement, the alleged abuse has only gotten worse.
The October statement was passed by a majority vote (5-1) at a meeting, including co-chair Ann Simmons. At least two other Afro-Soc members (including co-chair Sonny Garcia) who did not get a chance to vote have stated they did not support the statement and did not believe it would have passed the full Caucus membership of 25. No other member who did not vote has come forward with their opposition, that I am aware of. This new statement passed 7-4 seemingly falsifying this argument.
There is an election for new Exec members (Co-Chair, Secretary, Public Relations Officer, and Treasurer) and HGOs next Saturday, December, 18, 2021. So far, all candidates running have not been in leadership prior and most are running unopposed.
