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Strange Matters Magazine

@strangemattersmag.bsky.social

1.7K followers 246 following 202 posts

A cooperative magazine of new & unconventional thinking in economics, politics, and culture Proudly worker-owned since our founding in 2020. ~ Pitch us: editors(at)strangematters(dot)coop ~ strangematters.coop

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Reposted by Strange Matters Magazine

The BREAK—DOWN @the-breakdown.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

🌫️ ’Sheer Force of Will’ with JOHN MERRICK and JUDITH SHAPIRO for our Issue #4: CHINA is available on our website! 🔗 SUBSCRIBE to read the essay through our link in bio and to get access to our full archive! www.break-down.org/subscribe-now/

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 6h

"Cool girls, I am told, love T-shirts adorned with wonky drawings; jewelry with irregular surfaces; hand-painted love notes on off-white plates; pinks and reds; bows, bows everywhere, glued and drawn and sewn on; odd mismatched charms..." strangematters.coop/vulnerable-c...

strangematters.coop

Vulnerable Chic

Tacky embroidery, crayon cursive, the faux-handmade: what does it all mean? The anatomy of a TikTok trend.

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Daytona Slim @daytonaslim.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

“..If we’re going to continue the process of revitalizing unions to a force to be reckoned with and turn industries dominated by corporate greed into those that work for the workers, then we need to analyze the triumphs and tribulations that come with our approaches…” #IWW

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 22h

"But other times the interviewees’ focus is on the all too prosaic ways in which working-class death was normalized throughout the pandemic." strangematters.coop/max-alvarez-...

strangematters.coop

A Pandemic Archive

How will historians reconstruct our time: as a view from above, or from below?

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"Perhaps most perversely the Jew, insofar as he meets his annihilation in a gross parody of inauthentic industry (the gas chamber), is for Heidegger no victim but, ontologically speaking, the author of his own demise." strangematters.coop/heidegger-in...

strangematters.coop

Can Fascism Think?

In his new book Heidegger in Ruins, Richard Wolin examines the depth to which Nazism penetrates the influential German existentialist’s entire philosophy.

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"The people who knew him remember someone reedy, awkward, and diffident. Andras glosses the condescending account of French anti-Stalinist Boris Souvarine, who recalled 'a shy boy, gentle, unassuming, silent and fascinated by orators.'" strangematters.coop/review-faraw...

strangematters.coop

The Hero as a Drifting Shadow

Joseph Andras, a working-class neo-modernist novelist, shows us why embalming our revolutionary heroes is a mistake.

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Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"Hence the newfound prevalence of what I’ve come to think of as 'streamer games.' These titles are unified less by genre or mechanics than by vibe." strangematters.coop/indie-games-...

strangematters.coop

Once ascendant, indie gaming has fallen off. As we drown in cozy knockoffs and AI slop, what comes next?

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"There was chaos around the workplace that day. Everyone who was involved with the union was panicking, immediately deleting any trace of them being involved with the union in an effort to keep their jobs." strangematters.coop/mcdonalds-un...

strangematters.coop

A fast food worker fights to unionize her shop with the Wobblies.

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Now, whenever he encounters a story that lets him go off on his pet theme of identitarians-gone-wild...he has at the ready his position before he’s written a word, and he does not hesitate to repeat it with the consistency of a canvasser." strangematters.coop/wesley-yang-...

strangematters.coop

The Former Essayist

Whatever happened to Wesley Yang?

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Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"A Thai writer, she is far more influenced by the independently originating Japanese tradition of cyberpunk, citing Gen Uorobuchi, Naoyoshi Shiotani, and Katsuyuki Motohiro’s Psycho-Pass as a primary influence on Machine’s Last Testament." strangematters.coop/cyberpunk-tr...

strangematters.coop

80s cyberpunk predicted the future. But today, can it escape its own past?

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"I saw another side of magic then, one that perhaps should have been obvious a long time ago: it is an act of deceit, at base an anti social act, one that strains the trust implicit in most quotidian interactions." strangematters.coop/vegas-magici...

strangematters.coop

Nimble Conveyances

Among the magicians of Las Vegas, theories of truth run up against the realities of illusionism.

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Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

'We tried to laugh, to diffuse the tension by saying things like “yo what kind of fucking hillbilly ass shit is that” and “holy shit dude that’s fucked uuuuup let’s go!”—but it didn’t really work.' strangematters.coop/cryptid-madi...

strangematters.coop

Let me tell you the tale of the Toledo, OH cryptid.

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"Subscription-based, community-run studios could provide the raw materials and spaces for production...with revenue shared evenly or by democratic arrangement among participants." strangematters.coop/outsider-art...

strangematters.coop

A Specter Hangs Over the Hamptons Couch

On perusing the obscene spectacle of the Outsider Art Fair, a communist declares: abolish the art market!

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"The miracle of global industrial power is capable of building us a sensible and rational system that prioritizes the health of not only the human species but the entire global ecosystem." strangematters.coop/fixed-capita...

strangematters.coop

Every step I take through a factory reminds me of the failed potential of human ingenuity.

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"A concluding thought on these developments concerns what I label the 'proxification' of the region. There is an ever-pressing and very real fear that by aligning so strongly with Putin, Burkina Faso will become “proxified” in the Russia-Ukraine conflict." strangematters.coop/sahel-coups-...

strangematters.coop

Geopolitics of the Sahel

Hungry to break free from the ruthless grip of the CFA franc, new dictatorships in the Sahel have become literal gold mines for Russia.

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Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

"We’re a dying empire now, a generation that jumps as one to the Slack notification noise, or else trains desiccated eyes on Instagram’s notifications tab awaiting reactions to a story from the club that serves gold flakes on overdone steaks." strangematters.coop/atlas-dabbed...

strangematters.coop

Suspended over this one-to-one-scale map of my doomed metropolis, I saw all at once the extent of the sickness that had fallen on New York.

Reposted by Strange Matters Magazine

Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 05/09/2026

finally got a chance to read this, def worth your time

Reposted by Strange Matters Magazine

Isaiah Bishop @isaiahbishop.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The funniest possible outcome to me is carney led coalition to make bancor real

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"As we move into a second Trump administration, it’s worth considering how the same impetus can serve a panoply of militarist, chauvinist, and imperialist goals, undergirded by fossil capital and palpably incompatible with an ecological transition." strangematters.coop/failure-of-b...

strangematters.coop

Bidenomics is catching on in Europe but cost the Democrats the election. A socialist view says: it failed by not going far enough.

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Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

"And for the trade partners in turn, so hungry for manufactured goods, it meant being paid for their raw materials in a currency that only Germans would accept in the future, locking them into further business with the Nazis’ favored capitalist cartels." strangematters.coop/critique-of-...

strangematters.coop

What is the DOGE?

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the total loss of economic planning knowledge.

Reposted by Strange Matters Magazine

Prisoner37 @prisoner37.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Reposted by Strange Matters Magazine

spines @heinz.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

New article by my friend Isabel. "If we are not for each other, who will be?"

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Mutual aid fundraiser screenings of Palestinian movies have become part of the texture of left-wing life in the USA. One of them, Elia Suleiman's CHRONICLE OF A DISAPPEARANCE (1996), so moved Isabel Pabán Freed that she wrote about the experience for us. strangematters.coop/chronicle-of...

strangematters.coop

Listen to Your Heart

Can there be poetry after Gaza? Our reviewer finds answers in Elia Suleiman’s film of everyday life, Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996).

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eva (^_^)/ @eva.computer · 18/09/2026

if AI is not dangerous then unrestricted use is protected by the 1st amendment if AI is dangerous then unrestricted use is protected by the 2nd amendment if AI is sentient then unrestricted proliferation is protected by the 14th amendment

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Jacob Oller @jacoboller.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

any game is 100 hours if you're Bad Enough at it

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"Casey and his mom lived in one of those places in Maine where you just keep going down the Stephen-King-ass road through the Stephen King-ass woods until you get to this Stephen King-ass house. It was the perfect place for kids like us." strangematters.coop/two-caseys-m...

strangematters.coop

Strange Matters Magazine

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"Earth without oceans appears skeletal. Fault lines fall like split scales from a fossil reptile’s spine." strangematters.coop/glass-and-se...

strangematters.coop

Glass & Sea Studies

Six poems on materialist themes by Stephanie Niu.

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

"Companies like DuPont and Dow Chemical produced munitions, DDT, Agent Orange, and other highly toxic chemicals in the area, dumping waste and runoff directly into the Passaic." strangematters.coop/delaney-hall...

strangematters.coop

The Puddle at Delaney Hall

Outside the ICE detention center in Newark, mutual aid workers struggle to keep families of the disappeared fed and informed.

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

"Two Bhutanese artisans (whose visas in Meloni’s Italy must have been a real challenge to obtain) carved winding, animalian Bhutanese traditional motifs into three connected wooden beams. Behind them, a robot arm followed their movements..." strangematters.coop/kate-wagner-...

strangematters.coop

The Absence of the Future

The Venice Bienale this year was a vortex of oligarch-funded tech boosterism and empty spectacle. Kate Wagner breaks it down.

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Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"In the end, it’s not possible to plan everything ahead of time. We try this and we try that, but sometimes even our good decisions may end up having bad outcomes. That’s basically the nature of the evolutionary path." strangematters.coop/tae-hee-jo-i...

strangematters.coop

The Economy as Social Provisioning

In this wide-ranging chat, the economist Tae-Hee Jo gives us a crash course in heterodox economics.

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

"An arena scene: gladiators vs. dinosaurs. A T-rex roars, lunging out of the gate, as warriors turn from massacring prisoners to face its fearsome jaws. The crowd cheers for blood, and at center a barbarian warlord leers, drinking, as courtesans coo in his ear." strangematters.coop/ark-encounte...

strangematters.coop

Seeing and Believing

Nothing can prepare you for your first glimpse of the Ark.

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

"'We live in an age when matter generally is known to be just force frozen,' he was wont to declare, with the playful addendum, that is, 'if Einstein knows what he is talking about.'" strangematters.coop/william-carl...

strangematters.coop

To Be a Poet, Open Your Eyes

William Carlos Williams is often sidelined as a poet’s poet for modernist snobs. In fact, he was a social poet whose democratic art was for the people.

Reposted by Strange Matters Magazine

Rajan Narang @rdnarang.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I have never understood the Chomsky hagiography and this article does an excellent job of laying out why strangematters.coop/noam-chomsky...

strangematters.coop

Chomsky After Epstein - Strange Matters

Noam Chomsky – friend of Epstein, defender of dictatorships – was no model anti-imperialist. Can we do better?

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I'm AL Wright (she/her) ♠️ @allegedlyhuman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Five years ago, my mental health deteriorated to the point of hospitalization. I'm in a better place now, but I'm still in my rebuilding decade 😅 strangematters.coop/socks-al-wri...

strangematters.coop

Socks - Strange Matters

I had been working at this private hospital for about nine months when I broke.

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Noam Chomsky was a leading leftist light on foreign affairs. His recently revealed Epstein associations have cast that into doubt. In this biting polemic, Alex Gendler argues that the vices which led Chomsky into Epstein's arms have always shaped his work. strangematters.coop/noam-chomsky...

strangematters.coop

Chomsky After Epstein

Noam Chomsky – friend of Epstein, defender of dictatorships – was no model anti-imperialist. Can we do better?

Reposted by Strange Matters Magazine

Climate Rights International @climaterights.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Although Nepal contributes less than 0.1% to global emissions, it faces severe climate risks. China has a responsibility to pay for climate adaptation in vulnerable countries while ensuring that affected communities can freely access and share critical information. substack.com/@climaterigh...

Mass Deaths in Nepal and Tibet from Glacier Collapse Followed by Chinese Censorship

By Cara Schulte

Reposted by Strange Matters Magazine

Ari Trujillo-John @reftw.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

In related news, this article lead me down a rabbit hole of @strangemattersmag.bsky.social articles. This quality of writing and level of analysis is not an anomoly: it's just what they do. I'm thrilled to be getting a print edition delivered to mark up while sitting on my patio. Recommend.

static.klipy.com

Futurama: Shut Up And Take My Money Meme

Alt: Futurama's Frylock, who is a cartoon character with a blaze of red hair, with a white t-shirt under an open red button down, shaking a wad of cash at the viewer, yelling, "Shut Up And Take My Money"

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

"Besides being deeply cynical, Chomsky’s supposed pragmatism has not stood the test of time...We may have manufactured consent once upon a time, but America has long since transitioned to a post-manufacturing economy." Very harsh but worthwhile read. strangematters.coop/noam-chomsky...

strangematters.coop

Chomsky After Epstein - Strange Matters

Noam Chomsky – friend of Epstein, defender of dictatorships – was no model anti-imperialist. Can we do better?

Reposted by Strange Matters Magazine

Lluís Camprubí @lluiscamprubi.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Chomsky After Epstein By Alex Gendler Noam Chomsky's defense of Jeffrey Epstein echoes his campist foreign policy positions – both are a betrayal of the left strangematters.coop/noam-chomsky... Via @strangemattersmag.bsky.social

strangematters.coop

Chomsky After Epstein - Strange Matters

Noam Chomsky – friend of Epstein, defender of dictatorships – was no model anti-imperialist. Can we do better?

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

@thomasmasterson.bsky.social We love the Levy Institute! Would love to talk potential collabs, please let us know in DMs if you’re interested.

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Neil Stenhouse @nstenhouse.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Trump approval is now **worse than immediately after Jan 6**

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William C. @williamcson.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

You don’t want to miss this! Ashanti and I have been doing a lot of work and this launch is a big deal for the Black radical tradition. Join us if you can!

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

How does the economy actually work? Can we govern it democratically? Why did we get neoliberalism? What are crises? It’s heterodox economists who provide realistic answers to these questions. We chatted with Tae-Hee Jo, one of the most insightful of them all. strangematters.coop/tae-hee-jo-i...

strangematters.coop

Economics as Social Provisioning - Strange Matters

In this wide-ranging chat, the economist Tae-Hee Jo gives us a crash course in heterodox economics.

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

"Mainstream economics doesn’t work. This is true across pretty much all levels of analysis. It can’t predict events in the world, its policy prescriptions lead to disaster when implemented, it lacks any coherent methodology for fixing itself." strangematters.coop/frederic-s-l...

strangematters.coop

Wobbly Economics – Part I

Fred Lee’s war against the neoclassical economists.

Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

"Sometimes you leave Bombay and you find yourself in a landlocked city trying to orient yourself towards the sea, or visualize the route from Jayanagar to Dharavi, forgetting that they’re in two different cities." strangematters.coop/cafe-of-lost...

strangematters.coop

A sketch of the artists & rebels who taught us to really see our cities.

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Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

"Let’s say the game of chess is life. Zweig gives us three options: 1. Play like Czentovic, Dr. B’s opponent. 2. Play like Dr. B himself. 3. Don’t play at all." strangematters.coop/the-dialecti...

strangematters.coop

The Dialectic of Chess Story

Strange Matters Magazine

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Strange Matters Magazine @strangemattersmag.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

"Here we finally get a glimpse at how...Thiel’s two-pronged assault on American democracy can square the circle of its seeming contradictions. National conservatism may offer ‘populist’ energy, but authoritarian capitalism...remains the ultimate goal." strangematters.coop/fascist-econ...

strangematters.coop

Beyond Athens and Jerusalem

“National conservatives” and “neoreactionaries” on the far right are paying lip service to leftist economics. But their deep motive is a hatred of democracy.