China to punish internet users for ‘liking’ posts in crackdown after zero-Covid protests

By Laura He Internet users in China will soon be held liable for liking posts deemed illegal or harmful, sparking fears that the world’s second largest economy plans to control social media like never before. China’s internet watchdog is stepping up its regulation of cyberspace as authorities intensify their crackdown on online dissent amid growing public anger against the country’s… Read More China to punish internet users for ‘liking’ posts in crackdown after zero-Covid protests

Dilip

‘The Kashmir Files’ Has Fascist Features: Israeli Filmmaker doubles down. ‘Someone has to speak up’

NB: Here’s my post on the same theme some months ago. DS Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, whose critical remarks on ‘The Kashmir Files’ movie at a film festival have raised a storm, has stood by them and said “someone has to speak up”. Mr Lapid, the head of the international jury at the International Film… Read More ‘The Kashmir Files’ Has Fascist Features: Israeli Filmmaker doubles down. ‘Someone has to speak up’

Dilip

At last, a Kardashian has spoken: those Balenciaga bears should never have worn bondage gear

“We strongly condemn child abuse; it was never our intent to include it in our narrative.” Please just take a moment to note how – even in the face of a full-spectrum paedo panic – Balenciaga cannot bring itself to relinquish some pretentious wank about “our narrative”. “It was never our intent to include child… Read More At last, a Kardashian has spoken: those Balenciaga bears should never have worn bondage gear

Dilip

China protests: authorities call for crackdown on ‘hostile forces’

NB: The Chinese Communist Party considers protesting citizens to be ‘hostile forces’! The only hostile force in China today is your totalitarian tyranny comrades, and it looks like the Chinse people have had enough of it. And as some of their posters are asking: by foreign forces do you mean Marx and Engels? By the… Read More China protests: authorities call for crackdown on ‘hostile forces’

Dilip

P. Sainath: ‘The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom’

NB: A recent article headed The Right is Writing Now, celebrates unsung warriors, and (if the report is correct) criticises the ‘Left’ for ignoring them. It is unfortunate that history has become a battleground and that aristocratic warfare seems to be the sole focus of those historians who choose to identify themselves as ‘Right’. (Judging… Read More P. Sainath: ‘The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom’

Dilip

The Guardian view on Modi’s India: the danger of exporting Hindu chauvinism

Editorial When the US state department recently told a court that the Saudi Arabian crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, should have immunity in a lawsuit over the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, it portrayed its argument as a legal and not moral position. By way of evidence, it pointed to a rogues’ gallery of foreign leaders… Read More The Guardian view on Modi’s India: the danger of exporting Hindu chauvinism

Dilip

Newly discovered manuscripts may offer fresh understanding of Hegel

Sara Tor A biographer researching the German philosopher Hegel has uncovered a massive treasure trove of previously undocumented lectures that could change perceptions regarding one of the leading figures of modern western philosophy. More than 4,000 pages of notes on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s lectures were found by Klaus Vieweg in the library of the archdiocese of Munich and… Read More Newly discovered manuscripts may offer fresh understanding of Hegel

Dilip

The Disappearing Present: Reflections on Ideology: Webinar on October 16, 2020

Webinar Link: https://youtu.be/m16ytCnXfBg About the Lecture: Ours is an age of ideology. Ideology is a means of submerging everyday existence into a dream-like waiting room. Ideologically-sustained life is a relentless deferral of presence on behalf of a hoped-for glorious future. Our gaze is prompted backward and forward, the future being the domain wherein the past may be… Read More The Disappearing Present: Reflections on Ideology: Webinar on October 16, 2020

Dilip