Thread by @CihanTugal

This piece is an important exploration of the links between social density and mobilization.
jacobin.com/2022/12/from-b…
A graduate student (Eylem Taylan) brought this piece up as we discussed a problem on campus in relation to the mobilization #UCstrike #FairUCnow:
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Dwindling friendship ties among undergraduate students render a pro-strike organization among undergrads very difficult. Even the most active of students knows relatively few people.
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I had been thinking about the need for an updated criticism of Putnam for a while, especially in light of @gscheiring's and Larry King's research and theorization:
annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/an…
link.springer.com/article/10.100…
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@AntonJaegermm does a good job of summarizing most of the existing criticisms and updating them. Some of his claims are right on target:
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As I have been also pointing out, the strong individualism of the American right makes the job of fascists very difficult.
newpol.org/the-invasion-o…
newpol.org/issue_post/can…
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However, the essay has a couple of blind spots. Even though it mentions a couple of exceptions to atomization in the current globe (e.g. RSS), it is written as if this is the defining trend and everything else is marginal.
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I have recently criticized such assumptions:
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
And a couple of more articles along these lines are in the works.
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Second, even though the essay brings in @DylanRileyNLR, it doesn’t discuss this sociologist’s fundamental objections to Arendt (and Putnam), which problematize some of the core arguments of this essay itself.
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Third, I do not agree that populism is necessarily a deficient form of politics, which the left resorts to only when normal (class) organization fails or is inevitably restricted. The biggest breakthroughs in revolutionary history are actually class-based populist ones.
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The reason for this is not practical but ontological: There are multiple forms of domination which cannot be reduced to class domination. Class politics is most revolutionary when it addresses as many of them as possible.
marxists.org/reference/arch…
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