Give Them An Argument

Marxist Twitter has been fighting about Vivek Chibber lately. Ben Burgis takes the opportunity to address the immediate controversy but also the much broader value of Chibber's work.Read the Jacobin Chibber interview on the origins of capitalism that everyone is freaking out about:https://jacobin.com/2025/12/colonialism-transition-feudalism-capitalism-history-economyRead Ben's essay "Taking the Red Pill: William Clare Roberts vs. Vivek Chibber on the Class Matrix":https://benburgis.substack.com/p/taking-the-red-pill-william-clareFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from occasional patron-exclusive content to access to the GTAA Discord to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

Ben Burgis talks about why he doesn't buy Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò's defense of identity politics in Táíwò's book "Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else)."Check out the book:https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1867-elite-captureRead Ben's review:https://damagemag.com/2025/06/11/uncaptured-identity-politics-is-no-substitute-for-a-politics-of-class/Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from occasional patron-exclusive content to access to the GTAA Discord to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

Are service workers part of the "productive" part of the working class? And what does that mean? How about public sector employees--if they're not productive workers, does that mean that their interests don't align with productive workers and socialists shouldn't support the welfare state after all?Ben Burgis talks about what the Trotskyist leader and Marxist economist Ernest Mandel gets right and wrong in his introduction to Capital Vol. 2.Read Ben's essay:benburgis.substack.com/p/are-service-workers-and-public-sectorWatch the Erik Olin Wright "Understanding Class" lecture:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmiiSSMZPnERead his review of Jodi Dean's book:https://unherd.com/2025/05/the-21st-century-belongs-to-marx/Read Dean's response to Ben:https://www.sublationmag.com/post/analogies-and-tendencies-a-response-to-ben-burgisRead Ben's response to Dean's response:https://www.sublationmag.com/post/service-workers-aren-t-servants-a-response-to-jodi-deanFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from occasional patron-exclusive content to access to the GTAA Discord to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

Many-time GTAA guest Ana Kasparian went on Bill Maher's podcast Club Random. Ben Burgis watches the part where they argue about Gaza and breaks it down.Read Ben's article "The “Human Shields” Defense of Bombing Gaza’s Civilians Is Morally Bankrupt":https://jacobin.com/2023/11/human-shields-bombing-gaza-palestine-israel-defense-forces-morally-bankruptFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from occasional patron-exclusive content to access to the GTAA Discord to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com

Nick Fuentes is comically vile.So, why is it so hard to exile him to whatever dark corner of the discourse he deserves to go back to?One problem is that, when the whole landscape is soaking in ethnic essentialism, it's hard to draw the line at one particular version.Read Ben's essay:https://benburgis.substack.com/p/fuentes-is-a-symptomLink for Andy's show:https://www.facebook.com/events/s/meat-for-tea-presents-le-cirqu/1201459995272451/Link for the Tallywacker one:https://brendanboogie.substack.com/p/tallywacker-the-band-live-in-laFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgisFollow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_ShowBecome a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from occasional patron-exclusive content to access to the GTAA Discord to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:patreon.com/benburgisRead the weekly philosophy Substack:benburgis.substack.com