Joshua Citarella - Doomscroll: Catherine Liu: "Traumatized"
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Joshua Citarella - Doomscroll: Catherine Liu 3 II
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Recent guest, Adolph Reed Jr. is on this week’s episode of Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber.
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My returning guest is Catherine Liu, a professor of film & media studies at UC Irvine. She is the author of a new book: “Traumatized: The New Politics of Public Suffering”.
In today’s episode, Liu draws an analogy between Marx’s concept of “primitive accumulation” and the dawn of social media. Primitive accumulation is the ruthless dispossession of land and resources —often by force, war or genocide— that precedes capitalist society. Once expropriated of their land, peasants and natives are left with no choice but to sell their time and labor in the factories. This enclosure of the commons is a necessary step which then allows for human society to be subjected to competitive market forces.
Curiously, a similar process happened online. In 2012, FaceBook reached its peak saturation rate. It was no longer just a dating app for college students — it had become the organizational tool for community bake sales, mailing lists, church groups and much more. Once our social lives became enclosed, platforms could then subject our personal relationships and mental health to market forces.
Importantly, 2012 marked a macro shift in the incentive structure of big platforms. Meta, Twitter and others, could no longer easily seek to acquire new users. (Almost every person who was likely to adopt the service had already joined.) Instead, they began to extract more engagement, longer screen times and lucrative ad views from their existing user base. It’s no coincidence that every cultural and political event since that time has been unprecedentedly divisive and polarizing; 2016, 2020, 2024 and soon 2028. Platforms built a wall around our social commons and now the markets are grinding us for all we’re worth.
Later on, we discuss Oprah Winfrey’s role in cultivating the cable generations’ rampant market for trauma memoirs. If you don’t already know, Oprah is a multi-billionaire -- In 2009, she attended an international conference called “The Good Club” along with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, George Soros, Mike Bloomberg, David Rockefeller and basically every other character in a Boomer conspiracy meme. They gathered to discuss a number of pertinent issues for the post-2008 the era including “...the economic crisis and global health issues such as overpopulation…”. If that all sounds like the rantings of a paranoid schizo, you can read the quote in its full context in The Guardian and find more coverage in the The New York Times. Seriously, this trauma stuff is oligarch nonsense.
“Traumatized” is an intellectual history of mental suffering. Beginning with its unexpected origins in early industrial society, Liu traces a lineage up to today’s experience of social media. Liberal ideology now centers trauma and "lived experience" a source of legitimacy for a failing neoliberal order. The emotional distress of elites works to mask the material suffering of the public.
Watch this episode for free on YouTube or Spotify:
Catherine Liu: Culture Wars, Victimhood and Social Media | Doomscroll
On this week’s hour long private episode, we dive deeper into the psychology of today’s online platforms, mental health and the DSM 5. Later, we explore the legacy of the New Left and the original spark of the culture wars:
Doomscroll: Catherine Liu 3 II
Get the book: “Traumatized: The New Politics of Public Suffering” is available now.
Explore these related episodes:
You can now watch Doomscroll videos ad-free on Patreon.
Watch this episode (ad-supported). on YouTube or Spotify.
Recent guest, Adolph Reed Jr. is on this week’s episode of Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber.
Become a paid subscriber to unlock 40+ bonus episodes today.
***
My returning guest is Catherine Liu, a professor of film & media studies at UC Irvine. She is the author of a new book: “Traumatized: The New Politics of Public Suffering”.
In today’s episode, Liu draws an analogy between Marx’s concept of “primitive accumulation” and the dawn of social media. Primitive accumulation is the ruthless dispossession of land and resources —often by force, war or genocide— that precedes capitalist society. Once expropriated of their land, peasants and natives are left with no choice but to sell their time and labor in the factories. This enclosure of the commons is a necessary step which then allows for human society to be subjected to competitive market forces.
Curiously, a similar process happened online. In 2012, FaceBook reached its peak saturation rate. It was no longer just a dating app for college students — it had become the organizational tool for community bake sales, mailing lists, church groups and much more. Once our social lives became enclosed, platforms could then subject our personal relationships and mental health to market forces.
Importantly, 2012 marked a macro shift in the incentive structure of big platforms. Meta, Twitter and others, could no longer easily seek to acquire new users. (Almost every person who was likely to adopt the service had already joined.) Instead, they began to extract more engagement, longer screen times and lucrative ad views from their existing user base. It’s no coincidence that every cultural and political event since that time has been unprecedentedly divisive and polarizing; 2016, 2020, 2024 and soon 2028. Platforms built a wall around our social commons and now the markets are grinding us for all we’re worth.
Later on, we discuss Oprah Winfrey’s role in cultivating the cable generations’ rampant market for trauma memoirs. If you don’t already know, Oprah is a multi-billionaire -- In 2009, she attended an international conference called “The Good Club” along with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, George Soros, Mike Bloomberg, David Rockefeller and basically every other character in a Boomer conspiracy meme. They gathered to discuss a number of pertinent issues for the post-2008 the era including “...the economic crisis and global health issues such as overpopulation…”. If that all sounds like the rantings of a paranoid schizo, you can read the quote in its full context in The Guardian and find more coverage in the The New York Times. Seriously, this trauma stuff is oligarch nonsense.
“Traumatized” is an intellectual history of mental suffering. Beginning with its unexpected origins in early industrial society, Liu traces a lineage up to today’s experience of social media. Liberal ideology now centers trauma and "lived experience" a source of legitimacy for a failing neoliberal order. The emotional distress of elites works to mask the material suffering of the public.
Watch this episode for free on YouTube or Spotify:
Catherine Liu: Culture Wars, Victimhood and Social Media | Doomscroll
On this week’s hour long private episode, we dive deeper into the psychology of today’s online platforms, mental health and the DSM 5. Later, we explore the legacy of the New Left and the original spark of the culture wars:
Doomscroll: Catherine Liu 3 II
Get the book: “Traumatized: The New Politics of Public Suffering” is available now.
Explore these related episodes:
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