A friend recently asked what YouTube videos / websites I was using to inform my views and get news; this prompted me to put together this list of resources for both my views on atheism/scepticism and my political ideas. If you are looking for things to read, listen to or watch to further indoctrinate yourself into my viewpoint then here is my officially approved list of resources:
Podcasts:
- As mentioned in a prior post reading Marx's Capital has been helpful for me in terms of political understanding an I will restate the recommendation here: read it with David Harvey's lectures.
- The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is a great weekly podcast, especially for allowing any of my fellow weak-minded humanities students to keep up with scepticism and developments in scientific thought and technology. Seriously though, understanding science is vitally important for avoiding a coterie of irrational beliefs - anti-GM environmentalists for example, ought to take note of where the scientific consensus is on the issue.
- Atheism-wise, The Atheist Experience can be entertaining; and, The Thinking Atheist is good for a whole variety of social, political and scientific issues surrounding religion and non-belief. Godless Bitches is also excellent - especially for keeping abreast of developments in reproductive rights and other feminist issues from an atheistic standpoint.
Websites:
- Libcom.org - good for news, also has an excellent library of books, articles and pamphlets.
- Reddit is your friend, trust me, - acts as a kind of aggregate news feed as well which does a pretty good job of moving the most important content to the front page - also good for community - if you have a question about a political ideology then there's unfailingly a subreddit to meet that need - r/anarchism, r/cooperatives, r/anarchismpdfs and r/libertariansocialism are good places to start if you're looking for an insight into left-libertarianism.
- http://www.opendemocracy.net/
- Noam Chomsky is probably the best person to articulate and elucidate any number of issues - the main two being US foreign policy and libertarian socialism - http://www.chomsky.info/index.htm is a good website, which aggregates a lot of his essays, books and lectures.
YouTubers:
- The Young Turks is my main source of US political news; they are much better than any mainstream sources (CNN, MSNBC etc) and help to elucidate, to those who haven't worked it out yet, the decisive role of moneyed interests in US politics.
Pamphlets and books:
- The Spirit Level - explains the societal benefits of economic equality.
- Abundance: Why the Future Is Better Than You Think - vital reading for everyone - especially those who have been demoralised by those who try to claim that the world is just getting worse and worse.
- Inefficiency of Capitalism - provides a practical critique of free markets from the perspective of efficiency rather tan morality or political values
- Chavs: The Demonisation Of The Working Class - read it, see what Thatcher did to us, how the media creates stereotypes and never use the "c" word again!
Hope this has been helpful to someone - obviously the list is not exhaustive and I don't endorse everything that emanates from the
I tend to stick to far more mainstream sources myself (like the independent, guardian, bbc, reuters, al jazeera, FT, economist, foreign affairs, foreign policy), partly to avoid the risk of engulfing myself in a web of agreeable media which merely reconfirms my views, and partly because they are respectable sources of information (as long as you know how to read them). That said Chomsky is a source for all occasions.
ReplyDeleteThis was more just to flag up some alternative sources of media for those who are interested - I agree to some extent. While for me or you there may be a danger of getting stuck in a kind of positive reinforcement echo chamber, for a lot of people they won't even know these other viewpoints are out there. And, yes, I use those sources too - Guardian, Al Jazeera etc.
DeleteE.g. I was explaining Libertarian Socialism to someone the other day and they had never heard of the idea that workplaces could be run democratically or any examples of it. The mainstream media rarely articulates such alternatives.
Yeah true. In that case the only thing I would say is that Democracy Now is far better than the Young Turks for American news, not sure if you have come across the channel.
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