Encounter #9 — Capitalist Hyperrealism, Transformative Education, and Sinema & 'The Squad'

In this episode, the conversation begins with a few brief forays into topics relating to the ongoing wildfires near Sedona, AZ (where Rory is located); the soulless hyperreality of Las Vegas; and the corporatization of Arizona State University specifically and higher education generally. From there, Jack and Rory turn their attention to pedagogy, including their mutual disdain for the practice of lecturing and a consideration of transformative education theory. Next, Jack raises the issue of Kyrsten Sinema, one of Arizona’s U.S. Senators and currently the nation’s foremost defender of the filibuster. Jack is perplexed by the incoherence of Sinema’s pro-filibuster argument in her recent editorial in The Washington Post, and Rory suggests that such incoherence is to be expected because Sinema is simply acting in bad faith here. Naturally, the discussion then turns toward the failures and corruption of the Democratic Party, including most disappointingly for Rory the so-called ‘Squad’ of mostly young and ostensibly progressive congresspeople like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who duplicitously failed to unite as a bloc behind the #ForceTheVote movement. Finally, the pair touch on the topic of the Biden Administration’s recent guidance regarding “domestic violent extremists,” and that guidance’s designation of environmental activists and anti-capitalist anarchists (both of which, in their nonviolent forms, are categories that apply to Rory) as terrorists.