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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

New on our site: "Beneath Class and Consciousness," an essay from X. Rivera Maya and Richard Hunsinger. The authors provide a critique of the theory of the party in Phil A. Neel's work and defend an alternative conception of the party. ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2026/Pa...

Image: La città che sale by Umberto Boccioni (1911), an Italian Futurist painting of men in a city street struggling to restrain horses

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

EP28: in this episode, we discuss Pietro Daniel Omodeo’s Political Epistemology. We examine Omodeo’s enlarged conception of ideology, what political epistemology even is, and how action, understood as the unity of praxis and poiesis mediates history. buff.ly/KTS4I95

An American artist's (mistaken) drawing of how the Digesting Duck may have worked. See the Wikipedia page on this.

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Critics & theorists! We invite you to our discussion of “Excavations,” Vol. 2 of our Margin Notes: A Journal of Critical Theory, on Sept 19 (time TBD). This event will be held on Zoom and recorded for our Patreon. It will feature a brief presentation + Q&A. buff.ly/VeXcPPU

Margin Notes: A Journal of Critical Theory. Volume Two: Excavations by the Critical Theory Working Group.

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

For EP27 we are joined by @germainequeer.bsky.social to discuss her forthcoming piece 'Charaktermasken: Value, Relation and Performance in Marx's Critique of Political Economy.' The Q: how can we rethink the relation between personification & reification? buff.ly/SPWZrH4

Nora choose this image. I suck at description. — Anatarah

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

1920 "Self-Criticism" essay serves as an appendix to Morain's text. Finally, the volume's editorial introduction explains its thematic through-line: excavation. "Better science than graverobbing, but better graverobbing than idle piety." End/🧵

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

J. E. Morain has contributed the essay "Lukács in Context," which, as the title suggests, stages a painstaking reconstruction of the political world surrounding Georg Lukács in the years following the Hungarian Revolution of 1919. A translation of Lukács's... 8/🧵

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The fragments written collectively by CTWG, entitled "Shards of Spirits," serve as the volume's centerpiece. These short essays discuss diverse thinkers from world history, from the Akkadian priestess Enheduanna and Confucius, to Iraqi polymath Al-Jahiz and Machiavelli. 7/🧵

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

HJ Krahl's fragmentary text "Ontology and Eros" is translated and introduced by JE Morain. The schematic essay investigates the intertwinement of sexuality and metaphysics in the history of western philosophy and religion, while Morain's intro uncovers its political subtext. 6/🧵

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

but the introduction was penned by CTWG's resident biologist, Anatarah bin Al-Kaf. A brief biographical sketch of Schaxel's fascinating life is complemented by an analysis of his core argument in the text and the particularities of his conceptual vocabulary. 5/🧵

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The TRs of Horkheimer and Adorno's texts on dialectical logic were the product of a longterm translation project by JE Morain and James Crane that referenced Horkheimer's collected works, variants from Horkheimer's archive, and the existing French translations of some..3/🧵

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

MARGIN NOTES 2 IS OUT! Featuring original contributions from J. E. Morain and CTWG alongside translations of texts by Georg Lukács, Hans-Jürgen Krahl, Julius Schaxel, Max Horkheimer, and Theodor Adorno—all appearing here in English for the first time! ctwgwebsite.github.io/projects/3_p... 👇🧵

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

It's the Countdown: For Margin Notes vol. 2, James Crane has collected and translated a series of texts by Horkheimer and Adorno related to the former’s unrealised project to write a book on dialectical logic.

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

MN vol 2 "Excavations" will be with you very soon. Watch this space! 👀 👀

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

New episode of the Critique of the Podcast Form. Episode 26: MUG Moment (ft. Ben L.) In it, important questions will be asked, most prominently, what the hell is neo-Kautskyism? www.patreon.com/crittheorywo...

A screenshot of a Bill Maher episode, where he talks about MUG

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Soon! Here is an excerpt from our editorial for Margin Notes Vol 2, titled "Excavations": "A volume of gravedigging, on the hope that the dead still breathe and yearn to be reborn to the surface through the shovels of digger-midwives."

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Coming very soon: "Fragments for A Dialectical Logic" with the second volume of 2 of Margin Notes!

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

EP 25: Cisification of the Bourgeoisie www.patreon.com/crittheorywo...

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Today we commemorate the victims of the Strage di Bologna, a grotesque act of neofascist violence committed against the citizens of Bologna on this date in 1980.

Photo of Stazione di Bologna Centrale shortly after the bombing.

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

EP23: Schelling’s Early Philosophy of Nature. Crane, Anatarah, & J.E. tackle Schelling’s programmatic intros to the 1790s Naturphilosophie, concepts like force & organism, & ask: what does the project have to offer critical theory of nature & natural science today? www.patreon.com/crittheorywo...

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

in volume two of our journal Margin Notes, estimated to release some time next month. In this fragmentary essay, Krahl ironically analyzes the relationship between sexuality and metaphysics in classical Greek philosophy and its legacy 2/2. The link to our website is in our bio!

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Happy Pride Month! Today we remember Hans-Jürgen Krahl, the openly gay critical theorist and leader of the New Left student movement in Germany who tragically died in 1970 at just 27 by a car accident. A translation of his text "Ontology and Eros" will appear [...] 1/2

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

EP20: Inside the Manesar Labor Movement Mac & Re are joined by Shreya from the Center for Struggling Trade Unions (CSTU) to discuss the recent wave of workers strikes & history of mobilization in North India, raising questions for labor organizing today! www.patreon.com/posts/episod...

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

ANNOUNCEMENT: On WEDNESDAY (5/20) at 7:30 PM Eastern US Time we will be hosting a meeting in our Discord server to present and discuss a newly translated text by Georg Lukács. Please visit our Patreon for the (free) invite link to the Discord and additional info www.patreon.com/posts/158506...

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

By popular demand, J. E. and Crane unite in a two-part episode to, uh... review? critique? lampoon? Gabriel Rockhill's book *Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism* www.patreon.com/posts/156140...

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

EP15: Wokeness Must Be Defended JE, Cam and Re interrogate Foucault's mid 1970s lectures at the Collège de France, Society Must be Defended. They discuss Foucault's method, his genealogy from Race Wars to Racism, modern conspiratorial thinking, & more! www.patreon.com/posts/154711...

Foucault said WHAT!?

"...I am racist..."

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

POD EP 15: THEORETICAL PLAYERS’ BALL. J.E. & Anatarah talk play, games, and more via Johan Huizinga’s “Homo Ludens,” a touchstone for game studies, & take the work to task by posing the problem of games as ideology! Listen here to gain elite ball knowledge! www.patreon.com/posts/153570...

I think this is a painting of two people playing backgammon

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

NEW: Critique of the Podcast Form, Episode 14: Discussing the Discorsi www.patreon.com/posts/152308...

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

NEW FROM CRITIQUE OF THE PODCAST FORM: The culture industry is at it again! Their new weapon: anime. Their strategy? The media mix.

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

NEW: Pt 2 of "Reflections on the Right and its Violence" by J. E. Morain The second half of this essay gets into more detail about Trump, ICE, so-called accelerationism, religion, and youth terrorism. ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Re...

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

NEW: Part I of "Reflections on the Right and its Violence" by J. E. Morain This essay on reactionary violence seeks to show the basic unity behind conservative acts of social murder, neo-nazi terror attacks, and everything in between. ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Re...

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

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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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

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 · 13/09/2025

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 · 09/09/2025

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 · 01/09/2025

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 · 16/08/2025

CTWG Fall 25: Views from Palestine Saturdays @ noon EST, 8/23-9/27 Palestinian Critical Theory past & present: - Kanafani’s On Zionist Literature (1967) - Eghbariah’s Nakba as a Legal Concept (2024) - Resisting Erasure by Hanieh, Knox, & Ziadah (2025) schedule & sign up 🔗 ⬇️

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

NEW: Re Tejus works toward synthesizing a critical theory of class in "Class and Rackets, Part I - Conditions." Part II is soon to follow! ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Ra...

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

Thanks for joining our discussion with Esther Planas Balduz on ego-formation & bourgeois revolution, & the early Frankfurt critique of late Freud! Join us next Sat, 5/3, for the last of CTWG Spring ‘25—on the “Egoism”-essay as critical model with James/Crane!

Portraits of Marx and Freud superimposed over a still from the film Ten Days That Shook the World (1927)

Companion texts to "Egoism & Freedom Movements" (1936):

-'Remark' & Fragments on the Terror (1936)
- Lecture: Function of Speech in Modernity (Oct '36)
-Select Letters: Method & Style of "Egoism" ('36-'38)

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

thanks for joining our discussion with J.E. Morain on the scope & limits of Wittfogel’s histomat geography of production! no meeting next week—join us 4/26 for Horkheimer’s (Frommian!) social psychology of revolutionaries & rebels with Esther!

Poster for the 4/26 meeting: The Polymorphous Psyche of Bourgeois Society: "Egoism and Freedom Movements" by Max Horkheimer

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Thanks all who made it out for our discussion of the Hessen-Grossmann thesis & prospects for critical-theoretical history of science with Anatarah Bin AlKaf! Join us next week (4/12) for Wittfogel’s early writings (~1929-32) on historical materialism & nature with J.E. Morain!

Historical Materialism and Nature

Texts by Karl August Wittfogel

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Thanks everyone for coming out to our convo with Mac Parker on the problem of the monopoly-capital paradigm grounding racket theory! Join us next week for a convo with Anatarah Bin AlKaf on the Hessen-Grossmann thesis & critical-theoretical historiography of science!

The Social and Economic Roots of Newton's Principia By Professor B. Hessen

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Critics & theorists! We're excited to announce open & free registration for the post-release meeting for the first volume of the CTWG's E-Journal, "Margin Notes: Volume 1, Kernels of Early Critical Theory" - Friday, January 31st from 2PM-4PM EST! (Eventbrite link in comments)

Flyer for aforementioned post-release meeting

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

NEW ON THE CTWG SITE MARGIN NOTES: A JOURNAL OF CRITICAL THEORY V1: KERNELS OF EARLY CRITICAL THEORY Critical Theory is only right in a wrong world. Link: ctwgwebsite.github.io/projects/1_p...

Margin Notes: A Journal of Critical Theory
Volume One Out Now
Read at CTWG.website.io

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