Duck and dodge, wheel and deal, lies, lies and precious few facts or statistics. In the second of his Battle Dispatches covering the US elections, George Blecher explains how lying – or what he calls ‘evasive rhetoric’ – has become the campaign’s central issue on both sides.
The assumption that self-loathing is the root of homophobia ignores the fact that heterosexuals are more than capable of anti-gay damage, and is a convenient absolution for straight people. Alex Macpherson criticizes media fascination with the supposed homosexuality of Omar Mateen.
In his recent book Black Earth, the historian Timothy Snyder analyses the Holocaust in terms of the destruction of the state. This allows him to compare the roles of the Nazi and Soviet regimes in causing the Holocaust, despite their different ideologies and intentions. In interview with the Slovenian journal Razpotja, Snyder explains this argument and its implications for contemporary conflicts in Europe and beyond.
For 5 weeks Radio Bullets will broadcast “Postcards from Kyiv”, a programme produced by Cecilia Ferrara as part of the “Beyond conflict stories” project coordinated by Eurozine. To listen to the programme tune in to www.radiobullets.com
It’s about to get rough and with all still to play for, in the first of his US election ‘Battle Dispatches’, George Blecher challenges Hillary to come out fighting.
One issue alone came to dominate the debate – and in the end to determine the result – in the recent UK referendum: migration, not the economy, stupid, won the day for those in favour of exiting the EU. The climate of fear and xenophobic loathing fostered by newspaper front pages is likely to set the tone for future discussions of the subject.
The situation in Ukraine is complicated. Between war, nationalism and rapprochement with the West, women are changing society.
It is fair to say that what is called globalization used to be built on the unexamined premise that the whole planet will end up modernizing toward some convergent omega point called the Globe. This is no longer the case – observes Bruno Latour in a lecture given in May 2016 at Humboldt University, Berlin.
The debate about migration in political and media discourse is dominated by issues of economics and culture, while only the ethical approach reveals the question of power, writes Phillip Cole. The left must on one hand understand anxieties people have about immigration, but on the other show courage in contesting beliefs based on untruths.
The recent US presidential primaries may have appeared to be a cross between a circus and a caricature of a reality show, but don’t be misled, says George Blecher, the real show has yet to take place. The campaign between the two most unpopular candidates ever to stand for President will be brutal and the result will leave swathes of Americans disenchanted with the democracy of which they were once so proud.
It’s high time we rejected worn-out explanations that declare the PiS electoral victory of 2015 to be rooted in the undemocratic legacy of the communist regime, argues Pawel Marczewski. The source of scepticism concerning the EU, and the very idea of liberal democracy, is to be found elsewhere.
Authors writing about the Anthropocene and the Chernobyl disaster alike tend to slip into millennial scales and metaphysics. Historian Kate Brown suggests getting down to the particulars: the dates, facts and fate of people most directly confronted with the new radioactive reality.
During the early hours of 18 July 1936, General Francisco Franco declared a state of war and his opposition to the Second Spanish Republic. In undermining the Republican government’s ability to keep order, the ensuing coup d’état precipitated unprecedented open violence. Thus began the Spanish Civil War.
Europe has abandoned norms of equality and social solidarity in favour of market freedoms, writes Michael Rustin. A founding editor of Soundings (UK), Rustin considers the damage, disruption and antagonism caused by the neoliberal doctrines that dominate life in the European Union, and whether such trends are reversible following the outcome of the UK referendum.
Current usage of the word “populist” in the German and European media is beginning to obscure the alarming rise of xenophobia and authoritarian tendencies across the continent. In the face of which, Claus Leggewie argues that it’s high time for rhetorical anti-fascism to take a practical turn. This means meeting an urgent need for democratic participation to be extended beyond (but never used against) political parties and parliaments.
In an exchange dealing with critical issues of both sustainable media strategy and privacy, Matthias Streitz, managing editor of Spiegel Online in Germany, argues that ad-blockers merely aggravate the current crisis in which the media finds itself; while Richard Tynan, technologist for Privacy International, insists that people have a right to protect themselves and their data.