Author of We Were Never Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite, and professor in the School of Journalism at Stony Brook University, joins Bad Faith to discuss his historical review of the history of "wokeness," why it cyclically emerges and declines over the decades, and the dangers the "symbolic capitalism" class present to the pursuit of economic equality. Though there's much agreement on the pernicious effects of woke identity politics, we debate our different theories of who is responsible for "woke," and assess whether Tuesday's big DSA wins in New York herald the end of the establishment's superficial identity driven "woke" politics.

https://musaalgharbi.com/paperback-edition-we-have-never-been-woke/

https://musaalgharbi.substack.com/p/book-announcement-those-people

"On the Cultural Contradictions of the Antiwoke"

"Putting the 'Culture' in the Culture Wars"

"On the Cultural Contradictions of the Antiwoke"

"Putting the 'Culture' in the Culture Wars"

"On Redistribution"

"How We Lived in NYC"

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Armand Aviram.

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

As an abolitionist professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and member of Zohran Mamdani's transition team advising on community safety, Alex Vitale is the perfect guest to help us understand some concerning choices Mamdani has made with respect to policing since becoming Mayor of New York City. In addition to the mystery of why he kept on billionaire zionist police commissioner Jessica Tisch, Mamdani is now being questioned over his choice to violate his campaign promise not to expand the police force. Earlier this month, Tisch announced that the NYPD would be hiring 580 more officers -- a choice met with rare rebuke from the DSA. Vitale offers his perspective on what might be going on here, and engages with the perennial question: Why has the left abandoned defund?

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Armand Aviram.

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Short-form socialism-explainer Chris Alfonso, aka Jean-Paul Fartre, returns to Bad Faith pod to noodle on the nature of US empire and answer a question recently presented in a conversation between NYT podcaster Ezra Klein & Bernie foreign policy advisor Matt Duss: Is the left's goal a left nationalism or a left internationalism? What does left internationalism mean if raising workers' standards of living is the sine qua non of left advocacy, but doing so sometimes comes at the expense of the global south? But first: The Knicks win, and why JLo's controversial Subway Takes take is right. Also, we weigh in on progressive wins on election day, Graham Platner's origin story, and two recent cop killings that demonstrate why the defund movement should not die.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Armand Aviram.

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).