Join James Lindsay for a uniquely deep look into the totalitarian mindset and the strange fantasies of Communism and Nazism.
The post Totalitarianism and Fantasies of the Sinless Man appeared first on New Discourses.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Russian Philosopher Svetlana Mesyats was placed under house arrest and the offices and homes of several other employees of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences were searched. What is going on there, and why? In the following guest post, Elizaveta Shcherbakova (Humboldt University of Berlin), who used to work at the Institute of…
At the heart of the Communist project is "seizing the means of production." But what does this really mean?
The post What Seizing the Means of Production Really Means appeared first on New Discourses.
Russian Philosopher Svetlana Mesyats is under house arrest and the offices and homes of several other employees of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences were searched, according to social media postings from a pro-Russian government account and other media sources. Meduza reports: 10 researchers were taken to the Investigative Committee of Russia and interrogated until…
Today's links A fascist paradigm: The change that changed everything. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Openstreetmap x Isle of Wight; Found grocery lists; Mayor wants to pray away potholes; Designing a D120; "Too Like the Lightning." Upcoming appearances: Barcelona, Berlin, Hay-on-Wye, London, NYC, Edinburgh. Recent appearances: Where I've been. Latest books: You keep…
A federal court judge ruled today that Texas State University must reinstate philosopher Idris Robinson, whom the university fired from his assistant professorship over a talk he gave about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Robinson had sued the university in March. A press release from Texas State Employees Union CWA Local 6186 states: U.S. District Court Judge Alan Albright granted a…
Christy Mag Uidhir will be giving up his position as professor of philosophy at the University of Houston. Readers may recall that the administration at the University of Houston had adopted the “indoctrination narrative”, a pretext for violating the academic freedom of professors to teach what and how they judge they ought to. Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Daniel P.…
Last month it was reported that Idris Robinson, a tenure-track assistant professor of philosophy at Texas State University, is suing several university officials for violating his constitutional rights after they told him he would have his contract terminated in May, because of complaints about a talk he gave last year on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. See this post for details. Now, an effort…
Today's links Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff's "Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed": A rocket exploding in a human face, forever. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Is sugar poison? More watch-part motorcycles; "Something New"; "Seeds"; Bulldozer fight; Facebook tonsils; Against transparency. Upcoming appearances: San Francisco, London, Berlin, NYC, Barcelona,…
Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary since 2010, suffered a humiliating defeat (April 12th) after a record turnout of roughly 77.8 percent. His challenger, the center-right candidate Péter Magyar and his Tisza party, won 136 of 199 seats in Hungary’s parliament, or…
Robert Hunziker
Neither impeachment nor the 25th Amendment offers remedies for removing a mad president leading the nation to disaster.
The post The Magic Bullet Delusion appeared first on Truthdig.
How Hungarians ousted their strongman is a critical case study in the unglamorous but essential work of democracy defense.
The post The Playbook That Defeated Viktor Orbán appeared first on Truthdig.
Today's links Austerity creates fascism: We can't afford to not afford nice things. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: The Server of Amontillado; Flapper's Dictionary; Mastercard v rec.humor.funny; Philippines electoral data breach; A front page from the Trump presidency; Spike Lee x Bernie Sanders; France v password hashing; Algorithms as Central European folk-dances;…
Martin Peterson, currently professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, will be moving to Southern Methodist University (SMU). Professor Peterson works in ethics, particularly normative ethics, engineering ethics, and the ethics of technology. His latest book is Ethics in the Gray Area: A Gradualist Theory of Right and Wrong. You can learn more about his work here and here. Readers may recall…
The trial of Jonathan Caravello, a lecturer in philosophy at California State University Channel Islands, begins today. The trial concerns his actions at a protest during a Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid of a cannabis farm near the university. (See this earlier post.) HuffPost reports: When a tear gas canister landed near his feet, Caravello threw it away from the crowd,…
Fascism is a progressive ideology. It would be most appropriate to say that it is progressive by reactionary means, in fact.
The post Fascism Is Progressive appeared first on New Discourses.
Idris Robinson, a tenure-track assistant professor of philosophy at Texas State University, is suing several university officials for violating his constitutional rights after they told him he would have his contract terminated in May, because of complaints about a talk he gave last year “on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict off-campus in another state where a fight broke out,” reports The…
The friend-enemy distinction is the underlying organizational principle of the Marxist Left, radical Islam, and the Fascist Reactionary Left.
The post Forced “Friendship” Under the Friend-Enemy Distinction appeared first on New Discourses.
When we face the question of what makes us who we are, different people have different answers. Some see ourselves as receptacles of tradition. Others see us as a self to be discovered in the world. Still others see us as blank slates who can become whatever we can dream.
The post Who Are We, and What Does That Mean About Politics? appeared first on New Discourses.
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What actually stops a would-be dictator? Political science research points to a single factor above all others: whether enough people can see the threat for what it is.
That's the central argument from Zack Beauchamp, who researched democratic resilience at Penn's Perry World House. — Read the rest
The post The one thing that actually stops would-be dictators appeared first on Boing Boing.
Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of War, earlier this week ordered Anthropic, the company that makes Claude artificial intelligence products, to allow the Department of War unrestricted use of Claude. Anthropic is resisting, saying that certain restrictions on Claude’s use are necessary to protect “democratic values”. Below is an excerpt from a statement by Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, about…
With measures borrowed from history’s totalitarian regimes, political leaders in Florida are taking unprecedented steps to indoctrinate students and prevent them from learning about the world in ways that may lead them to question the leaders’ ideology. The State University System of Florida’s Board of Governors recently developed a newly revised edition of a textbook and syllabus for…
Bishop Barber says you can't undermine authoritarianism from DC down—it has to come from state-based movements doing micro-organizing at the county level.
The post The Rev. William Barber II: Fighting Autocrats Starts at the Grassroots appeared first on RNS.
An obscure 19th-century Russian novel about love and class and a 21st-century gay hockey romance might seem worlds apart. But both Heated Rivalry and Molotov offer the same thing: small parables of tenderness and bravery in overwhelming times.
At their most modest, happy-ending romance stories like Heated Rivalry soothe troubled minds amid social turmoil. At their most radical, they…
Iraq’s Oscar submission explores U.N. sanctions through the eyes of a child.
The post Let Them Eat Cake appeared first on Truthdig.
The issue renews concerns over Trump’s expansion of presidential power.
The post Trump Doubles Down on Calling for the Feds To Take Over State Elections appeared first on Truthdig.
For some reason, Renu Khator, the longtime president of the University of Houston and chancellor of the University of Houston System, has felt the need to remind her faculty that “our responsibility is to give [students] the ability to form their own opinions, not force a particular one on them. Our guiding principle is to teach them, not indoctrinate them.” In the wake of this reminder,…
the story of the rebellious child shows us how we can face painful texts, our own problems, and the challenges beyond
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