Bhaskar Sunkara is Fed Up with the Bloodless Wonks

Miles Kampf-Lassin

Three years ago, Jacobin founder and In These Times Senior Editor Bhaskar Sunkara was a frustrated 20-year-old, fed up with what he calls, “the bloodless, wonkery of Beltway liberals.” The economy was clearly in crisis, along with the US system of government. Big questions needed to be asked and yet most media outlets were still pumping out guff about “recovery.” As he puts it in this interview with Laura Flanders of GRITtv, “We’ve been sold an ideology that’s based on the golden age of capitalism; based on the welfare state. We were told that if we work hard, if we keep our heads down, then we would be given at the very least a stable nine-to-five job, at the very least enough for a home, enough for a car, enough to raise a family. Workers for the last few decades have been finding out that that’s a lie. The question is what happens then?”

For a limited time:

Donate $20 or more to In These Times and we'll send you a copy of Let This Radicalize You.

In this new book, longtime organizers and movement educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes examine the political lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath, including the convergence of mass protest and mass formations of mutual aid. Let This Radicalize You answers the urgent question: What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing?

We've partnered with the publisher, Haymarket Books, and 100% of your donation will go towards supporting In These Times.

Miles Kampf-Lassin, a graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School in Deliberative Democracy and Globalization, is a Web Editor at In These Times. Follow him on Twitter @MilesKLassin

Get 10 issues for $19.95

Subscribe to the print magazine.