Progressive movements redressing uncertainty’s unequal distribution share speculation’s means but not its ends

Evidence

The counter-speculations I have so far described represent an approach to investing in the here and now, which is nursed in the speculative mode of our financialized times. Trained in a technological environment where contingent ambiguity is a natural ally when confronting uncertainty, K-poppers experimented with the tactical multivalence of the speculative imagination. Yet their attacks were not sudden bolts from the blue. They were made possible not only through the uncertain rituals rehearsed through speculative technologies; they followed in the footsteps of global movements that have thrown themselves in the midst of financialized capitalism’s speculative politics—from France’s Gilets Jaunes to BLM’s own earlier waves of protest. Like the right-wing populism I discussed in chapter 5, counter-speculations endorse uncertainty as a condition of possibility, but unlike Tea Partiers, Brexiteers, and neopopulist groups, they also lay a claim on redressing the unequal distribution of uncertainty’s consequences. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 308

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precisely distinguishes counter-speculations from right-wing populism: both endorse uncertainty as enabling, but only progressives target the unequal distribution of its consequences.
• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the reader’s core project of distinguishing speculative betting from merely seeking security — this is where the left’s version of the move gets specified.
• XREF: connects to: Contemporary political movements emerge from speculation rather than rational calculation — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 553