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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: “Racketology and the Development of Competition.”
In this reply to Mac Parker’s “Economic Limits of Racketology,” Jack Barrett argues Horkheimer offers an expanded concept of competition + a preemptive critique of Baran & Sweezy’s theory of monopoly!
ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Co...

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · 10d

open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...

Translation: Adorno & Horkheimer's 1939 Discussion on "The Temporal Core of Truth. Experience & Utopia in Dialectical Theory." (Ed. Gretel Adorno)

From the early discussion protocols for Dialectic of Enlightenment

open.substack.com

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · 8d

Adorno & Horkheimer taught me it was okay to be annoying

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · 7d

rereading Bordiga’s stuff on how communism liberates human beings, animals, rivers, solar radiation, electrons, etc from the stupid & stupefying compulsions of capital accumulation & making the airhorn noise by myself at 3AM

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · 17d

HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU: You find yourself wondering: why can’t I find any two hour long podcast episode about Kanafani’s literary works as condition/consequence of his conception of resistance culture? YOUR SEARCH IS OVER

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · 17d

New Recording—Pod EP 3: Ghassan Kanafani: Realism Against Reality, with Sebastian Kokesch & yours truly. On the necessary connection between aesthetic autonomy & revolutionary political commitment in some of Ghassan Kanafani's best-known literary works!
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...

Episode 3: Ghassan Kanafani: Realism Against Reality | crittheoryworkgroup

www.patreon.com

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Verso Books @versobooks.bsky.social · 18d

On this day in 1940, Walter Benjamin took his own life in the town of Portbou, after being denied entry by Spanish officials.

“If the killing of Lorca was Fascism’s first crime against literature, Benjamin’s death was undoubtedly the second.” - The Listener

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 21d

it’s not too late to sign up for the last meeting of the session (eventbrite.com/e/views-from...), & thanks to everyone who’s already contributed to the PCRF fundraiser—as of today we’re 87% of the way to meeting our goal! Help us to 100% if you can! pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/p...

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24d

We'll be starting up in 20 minutes

Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Sep 13

Thanks to everyone who came out for the conclusion to Rabea Eghbariah’s “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept”—join us next Sat., 9/20 @ noon EST as Anatarah bin AlKaf opens our discussion of “Resisting Erasure” (2025) by Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox, & Rafeef Ziadah!

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Sep 13

New CTWG Fall '25 Recording: Ghassan Kanafani's On Zionist Literature II (8/30), presented by Sebastian Kokesch. Reading Ch. 5-8 in the context of Kanafani's trajectory as author/critic & that of the Palestinian liberation struggle around the '67 Naksa
www.patreon.com/posts/138830...

Ghassan Kanafani's On Zionist Literature II (8/30), Presented by Sebastian Kokesch | crittheoryworkgroup

www.patreon.com

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Sep 13

it’s not too late to sign up for the last 2 meetings of the session (via the Eventbrite in the link below), & thanks to everyone who’s already contributed to our fundraiser through PCRF—as of today we’re 72% of the way to meeting our goal!

link: ctwgwebsite.github.io/news/announc...

Update + Summer/Fall 2025 Reading Group Announcement | CTWG

A website for collective self-clarification without consolation

ctwgwebsite.github.io

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Sep 13

Thanks to everyone who came out for the conclusion to Rabea Eghbariah’s “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept”—join us next Sat., 9/20 @ noon EST as Anatarah bin AlKaf opens our discussion of “Resisting Erasure” (2025) by Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox, & Rafeef Ziadah!

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Sep 12

Theodor Adorno 🤝 Felix Dzerzhinsky

Sharing a birthday

James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Sep 11

happy 9/11—Theodor W. Adorno’s Birthday—to those who celebrate, here’s my translation from a while back of Horkheimer’s 1938 birthday letter to Adorno on dialogue and dialectics! open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...

Translation: Horkheimer's Birthday Letter to Adorno (9/11/1938)

On dialectics and dialogue

open.substack.com

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Sep 11

happy 9/11—Theodor W. Adorno’s Birthday—to those who celebrate, here’s my translation from a while back of Horkheimer’s 1938 birthday letter to Adorno on dialogue and dialectics! open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...

Translation: Horkheimer's Birthday Letter to Adorno (9/11/1938)

On dialectics and dialogue

open.substack.com

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Sep 9

We’re going to finish Eghbariah’s article by reading g the history of settler colonialism through the concept of the Nakba & the concept of the Nakba through the history of settler colonialism, within & beyond the framework of international law! Better see your ass there!

Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Sep 9

Thanks to everyone who came out for the discussion of Sections I-II of “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept” by Rabea Eghbariah—see you this Saturday, 9/13, @ noon EST for our discussion of section III & the conclusion with J.E. Morain. See you there!

A picture depicting the progressive theft of Palestinian land

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Sep 9

Thanks to everyone who came out for the discussion of Sections I-II of “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept” by Rabea Eghbariah—see you this Saturday, 9/13, @ noon EST for our discussion of section III & the conclusion with J.E. Morain. See you there!

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Sep 6

see you all in just over 20 minutes! Discussing, alongside Eghbariah, Darwish’s “In Jerusalem,” as we work through the role of law & language in the occupation of Palestine.

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Sep 6

We're starting in 30 minutes

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · Sep 4

Our podcast of the week reframes the Frankfurt School’s later turn toward abstract cultural critique not as a depoliticized retreat, but as a strategic pivot born from concrete political defeat.

With @jamescrane.bsky.social et al. on @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social

buff.ly/vymFkap

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Sep 3

don’t remember if i posted here or not but here’s a snippet from Adorno’s letter to Horkheimer in the middle of their worst fight (1935) where A goes “By the way I LOVED Dämmerung if you even still care…” lol

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Sep 1

Thanks to everyone who came out for the second study of Kanafani’s “On Zionist Literature”! Next up: two meetings on “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept” by Rabea Eghbariah—Sections I & II presented by Esther Planas Balduz & Morgan Lily this Saturday, 9/6, @ noon EST. See you there!

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Aug 31

FACT: the CTWG is run by a secretive group of canines and felines which dictate our overall policy by using our editorial boards' subjective aims for ends beyond their ken.

James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Aug 29

the council has convened to decide your fate (CTWG editorial meeting)

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Aug 29

the council has convened to decide your fate (CTWG editorial meeting)

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Aug 30

30 minutes until we start our 2nd discussion on Kanafani's On Zionist Literature! See you there!

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Aug 28

short entry today: translations of 4 reviews Otto Fenichel writes for the ISR’s ZfS in 33/34, with a note on the problems & commitments he shared with Adorno & Horkheimer despite all seeming to agree so rarely on what, exactly, their common Freudo-Marxist orthodoxy involved! 🔗⬇️

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