43. Understanding Lebanon w/ Ayman Makarem

Lebanon is once again on the front line of Israel's regional war, and a lot of leftist coverage, where there is any, flattens a hundred years of colonial history into campist slogans. In this episode I sit down with Ayman Makarem of Politically Depressed on YouTube— Lebanese, Druze, queer, and anti-authoritarian leftist — to slow down and build a picture of a nation where easy explanations go to die.

In Part One we talk about how growing up Druze shaped Ayman's comfort with ambiguity, the class dimensions of queerness in Beirut, and about a virulently homophobic Christian militia few Western listeners have heard of. We talk about Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, and the difference between geopolitical abstraction and lived, local knowledge.

Part two, where we get into the Lebanese entity, the Zionist entity, and Hezbollah, is available now for Patreon subscribers, and will post here in a few weeks.

SOURCES

Israel's Long War on Lebanon: A Joint History of the Zionist and Lebanese Entities
Israel's Long War on Lebanon (video essay)
Lebanon timeline link
Ayman Makarem on Patreon
Ayman Makarem on Bluesky

SOCIALS

Bluesky matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram @matthew_remski
YouTube @antifascistdad
TikTok [@antifascistdad]
Patreon antifascistdadpodcast
Order Antifascist Dad

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