Contemporary rigorous left wing discussion?

January 6, 2025 4:51 AM

I'm fed up of the rightward drift of much of modern politics, and I'm also fed up of soundbite politics where we all share around memes and snark. Does anyone know where I can find coherent, well-informed, scientifically rigorous left wing discussion these days?

Bonus points for
* Not being mainly or entirely US focused.
* A diversity of backgrounds (whether that's economic, social, cultural, geographical or academic-area-of-focus)
* Practicality, i.e. people concerned not only with academic/philosophical thought but also with how left wing policies can be implemented in the modern hyper-connected global society we currently inhabit.
* Actual ongoing discussion (like a Discord or something), not just a series of articles that people comment under.

Discussions that are limited to some specific policy area are fine!

posted by quacks like a duck to Law & Government (11 answers total)

I have found the work of Heather Cox Richardson to be really helpful Letters From An American If you like her work, there are a number of dialogs with her and other speakers on You Tube that are enjoyable and informative. I was very impressed that she has accurately predicted a couple of failures for the incoming Republican agenda based on her historical knowledge of American politics.
posted by effluvia at 6:29 AM on January 6 [7 favorites]

Hamilton Nolan’s newsletter How Things Work is excellent. The topic of focus is, broadly, the labor movement and unions. He generally espouses the idea that the only way out of our current predicament is to strengthen the power of workers, and he often gives both abstract roadmaps and concrete steps on how to do this.
posted by rodneyaug at 7:13 AM on January 6 [4 favorites]

Econ Lessons is Mark Biernat who is living in Poland but has a residence in Florida
I give this YouTube channel 5 stars

Not what you are asking but, as a woman, I see a lot of what is going on as misogyny and I go to Melanie Hamlett for commentary on that

I have always been interested in communes? I know it pretty much never works out and may very easily turn into a cult-like mess. But I love the idea of "eco villages" and community gardens. Gardening to subvert the powers that are poisoning our food. Etc. In this vein I found an ecovillage in Portland that inspires me (Kailash) and the YouTube channel where I saw this - Kirsten Dirksen - is really wonderful to spotlight subjects of self sufficiency, community, gardening. her bio:
"Videos about simple living, self-sufficiency, unconventional (and unique) homes, backyard gardens (and livestock), alternative transport, DIY, craftsmanship, and philosophies of life."
posted by memoryindustries at 8:33 AM on January 6 [2 favorites]

Heather Cox Richardson is not left-wing - she is aligned with the DNC elite. And being an historian does not give one clairvoyance, despite what she and other #Resistance historians might pretend (sorry, I just really dislike what their public profile has done to the profession - and I'm not alone in this opinion).

Anyway, you might check out your local DSA chapter - my sense is that different chapters can have fairly different vibes/degrees of rigor/diversity. Ezra Klein is not left-wing but he sometimes interviews leftists on his podcast and I've been impressed with how open-minded he is as an interviewer - even though I don't always agree with him, he is skilled at having thoughtful discussion - he's not interested in scoring points, and he listens well. Zeteo is Mehdi Hasan's new venture after he got kicked off MSNBC for daring to criticize Israel. I also think he's good at interviewing people, and there is a fair bit of global news coverage.
posted by coffeecat at 9:54 AM on January 6 [10 favorites]

I believe touching grass is an important part of leftist politics, so my first suggestion would be local bookstores groups and reading groups run by organizations like DSA and PSL.

Assuming you mean online, though, here are some newsletters:
Blood in the Machine
The Tech Bubble
Discourse Blog
Labor Politics
How Things Work
Left Notes
It's really that deep

I think most of where "discussion" is, outside groups like DSA, is unfortunately on social media in response to magazine articles and books.
posted by tofu_crouton at 10:02 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]

If you're open to listening to podcasts, there was a good (IMO) recent previous thread which included a lot of smart left wing podcasts; I recommend checking some of those out! Some podcasts have associated discords or subreddits or other methods for continuing the dialogue.
posted by demonic winged headgear at 10:06 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]

scientifically rigorous left wing discussion

Just a note: this is a loaded term, and I say this as a left-leaning practicing scientist and professor who wishes for more evidence-based practice in basically every sphere of human activity.
posted by lalochezia at 3:25 PM on January 6 [5 favorites]

You might try The Nation magazine, it's a progressive magazine that might meet your criteria. I believe you can subscribe to an online version, though we currently receive ours in the mail.
posted by TimHare at 10:41 PM on January 6

Yeah, this is hard to answer as I don't think there are any obvious places to get everything you are looking for. (And I am also confused by what "scientific" could mean here.) That said, I do think Jacobin does a good job staying on top of the daily news with more insightful commentary. Sidecar is the blog attached to the New Left Review and it can be good. The Verso blog is also good. I feel like a lot of activists read and listen to Jacobin so it's helpful for staying afoot. I think Verso has a similar role in more academic circles. If you aren't aware of The Dig podcast (linked to Jacobin) check that out - I feel like most of my lefty friends and acquaintances are somewhat tuned into it.
posted by spibeldrokkit at 5:01 AM on January 7

I think that Doug Henwood's "Behind the News" is criminally under-discussed. A grounded and informed and realistic viewpoint from the traditional "left" left, i.e. a socialist position rather than liberal position, with guest discussing US and international politics in equal measure.

Also, "Know Your Enemy" is an interesting podcast also from the left-of-liberal space and supposedly has a very active Discord community for Patreon subscribers. Patreon subscription is worth it for pay walled episodes alone, and I can say that from my point of view the entire backlog of episodes is informative and interesting.

"Time to Say Goodbye" is also a left-of-liberal podcast with more non-white voices centered and also an active Discord community. Some people dislike Jay Kaspian Kang's crabbiness and occasional ideological imprecision, but it doesn't bother me.

I don't always agree with Jacobin articles, in the sense that on some local issues I think they sometimes run ill-informed pieces, but it is probably the highest traffic socialist left viewpoint website there is?

Maybe n+1 online?

Bit of a left fielder but Commonweal is a Catholic magazine about topics of general interest and their perspective sits outside of and generally left of US Democratic party politics and discusses things of US and global interest. I find new perspectives and new angles there, but admittedly I don't mind religious perspectives per se. The tone is extremely quiet and non-snark.
posted by kensington314 at 9:36 AM on January 7

I've been reading the English language version of the French newspaper Le Monde recently. A subscription is only a few dollars a month. Quality journalism but not from a US or UK perspective. So when they report on the US it's from a comparatively neutral point of view, which I find quite refreshing.

The commentary (being French) doesn't fit into the usual Conservative-Liberal dichotomy we expect of US-based commentators either, so that's quite interesting too.

Also you get much more world news, and not just from France.
posted by EllaEm at 8:28 PM on January 7 [1 favorite]