Paper Work: Immigration, Islamophobia and Bureaucracy w/ Josef Burton
Josef enters the Zone to talk about his experience working in the U.S. State Department and discuss the quiet violence work of diplomats, administrators and functionaries.
For more from Josef Burton:
– Follow him on Bluesky and Twitter
– Listen to his appearance on QAA discussing Iranian Monarchists
– Read his 2023 essay ‘Impolite Society’ in The Baffler
Image: A photo of the exterior of the Writers’ Building in Kolkata, originally built as an office for junior clerks in the East India Company and which served as the effective seat of British power on the Indian subcontinent.
Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel
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THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Crack-up
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
This week, we’ve got excerpts from two essays recently published in Foreign Affairs for you, which are striking in their candour about ‘the current situation’ and surprising in their proposed routes out. Capping it off, we briefly dwell on Mark Carney’s recent remarks about the ongoing US-Canada trade war.
Comments (15)
This has probably been pointed out many times before but i just realised that the american attitude towards gun violence of "Well that's acceptable because that's the price of freedom" is completely revered when it comes to the possibility of terrorism; "we have to surveil everyone in case they had a violent thought towards america once"
I'm fairly certain we're all the sickos pressed up against the window asking to be told more. Well, at least those of us that cheered at seeing the length of this episode.
The listener, the political fetishist
About 2:15 or so, Josef says (metaphorically) the Muslim ban was like a switch on the wall and Blinken just switched it off instead of removing it, that is so fucking Dem. I hate them so much. The purpose of the system is what it does, and the two party system has always (ie as long as I’ve been alive, lol) functioned to swing government to the right and keep it there. The reason no one with any power has done anything at all to stop Trump is because they all think it’s their turn next, and the longer they let him cook the better off their “reforms” will look.
Really excellent interview guest, would love to have him back in the future.
Around 31:30, your interest in ‘the way immigrant and Muslim kind of collapse into each other’—my first thought was the way Nazis basically smashed Jews, communists, Bolsheviks, ‘useless eaters,’ etc. together. They had different arguments, but the divisive rhetoric was easily switched for whatever suited their needs at any given time.
“Not me! I’ve read Edward Said.” I lost it 😂
Excellent episode, can't wait to make all my 20-something DC friends listen to it
Please do an episode on violence against nature
Josef dropped a lot of book recommendations in this one. Between that, your recent episode on Necropolitics, and some of the older episodes on Agamben and Benjamin, have you ever thought of compiling a master reading-list from the show?
Wow, this one hit deep, and close to home for me. Where Josef went the Turkish Persian route, I went to the Western Sahel, and so didn't have the language preference points to get in and ended up a contractor. It's amazing to hear all the threads coming together across episodes, car bombs, Ackerman, COIN, Mbembe. and now the banality of violence through imperial bureaucracy and knowledge production.
Taqiyya is the most revealing part of ideological islamophobia. Either the Muslim conforms with the islamophobe's view of them as being fanatical terrorists, or they're lying about it by pretending to not conform with it. The only place an ideology that believes that kind of thing can lead is genocide.
I had gone to a panel from survivors of the Tree of Life shooting, and it was disappointing to hear if any Muslim communities sent any support. The answer was quick though that at the very least the Pittsburgh Muslim community came out to give support and how both of them are trying to limit if not stop islamaphobia and antisemitism within the city.
Almost 3hr Blood Work? You spoil us
I miss that Scott Adams guy