Episode 136: Fighting for Humanity in the Digital Space (with guest Gavin Mueller)

Co-hosts Andrew Kliman and Gabriel Donnelly speak to guest Gavin Mueller, an assistant professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. Mueller researches the politics of digital culture and much of our talk centers on his article “Digital Proudhonism.” The article is a pointed critique of much popular thinking around the internet. Techno-utopian thinking, which imagines that technical advances will solve socioeconomic ills, pervades even the most seemingly thorough critique of the internet.

The hosts discuss the crises of the internet that need to be fully confronted, such as the spread of post-truth distortions and the prevalence of online right-wing propaganda. Most people are willing to acknowledge that the internet has problems, but techno-utopian beliefs still underlie the critiques of popular writers and thinkers like Cory Doctorow. The discussion highlights the need for a materialist, and humanist, critique.

Plus current-events segment: The co-hosts discuss the Trump and Bukele double act in the Oval Office that flagrantly ignored a Supreme Court decision. More crucially, it was a proud display of the Trumpist intention to continue imprisoning, without due process, political enemies.

Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Gabriel Donnelly and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI.

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