Tag: critical commentary

Lynn Parramore: The perverted dreams of western modernity and capitalism may be exhausting themselves

Do you, inhabitant of the marvelous and menacing late-modern world, detect something missing – some kind of vitality, meaning, connectedness, love, beauty, or wonder? If so, you’ve likely searched for a story to explain it….  Critics of the disenchantment narrative have long noticed that if you look closely at western modernity, this ostensibly secular and… Read More Lynn Parramore: The perverted dreams of western modernity and capitalism may be exhausting themselves

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Mukul Kesavan – Right not rabid: Respectable conservatism in the time of Trump

In these majoritarian times, some conservative pundits, embarrassed by the feral Right and keen to seem ideologically respectable, have found an all-purpose rhetorical manoeuvre which goes like this. Progressives are to blame for the enthronement of racist, communalist and majoritarian political parties because it is the left’s ‘wokeness’, its elitist disdain for the anxieties of… Read More Mukul Kesavan – Right not rabid: Respectable conservatism in the time of Trump

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Robert B Reich : Beware going 'back to normal' thoughts – normal gave us Trump

Life is going to return to normal,” Joe Biden promised on Thursday in a Thanksgiving address to the nation. He was talking about life after Covid-19, but you could be forgiven if you thought he was also making a promise about life after Trump. It is almost impossible to separate the two. To the extent voters gave… Read More Robert B Reich : Beware going 'back to normal' thoughts – normal gave us Trump

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SHEKHAR GUPTA: Shambles over farmers’ protest shows Modi-Shah BJP needs a Punjab tutorial

How well does the BJP understand the politics of Punjab? The answer will be, I am afraid, very poorly. Definitely the Modi-Shah BJP does not understand Punjab, Punjabis, their politics, or even more specifically, the Sikhs. Or, they wouldn’t have dug themselves into such a hole (pun intended) over their handling of the Punjab farmers’… Read More SHEKHAR GUPTA: Shambles over farmers’ protest shows Modi-Shah BJP needs a Punjab tutorial

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Amanda Marcotte: Trump's lasting legacy: The right's open embrace of terrorism / Epidemiologist warns of “contagion” of violent speech coming “from the White House” / Damon Linker: America is buckling

Amanda Marcotte: Trump leaves a lasting legacy: The right’s open embrace of terrorism   In any sensible society, Kyle Rittenhouse would be shunned across the political spectrum. The 17-year-old Illinois resident stands accused of shooting three people, killing two of them, during an August Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Whatever the specific facts of that incident, the… Read More Amanda Marcotte: Trump's lasting legacy: The right's open embrace of terrorism / Epidemiologist warns of “contagion” of violent speech coming “from the White House” / Damon Linker: America is buckling

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Pratap Bhanu Mehta: SC was never perfect, but the signs are that it is slipping into judicial barbarism

In political science literature there is a familiar term — democratic barbarism. Democratic barbarism is often sustained by a judicial barbarism. The term “barbarism” has several components. The first is the overwhelming appearance of arbitrariness in judicial decision-making. The application of law becomes so dependent on the arbitrary whims of individual judges that the rule… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta: SC was never perfect, but the signs are that it is slipping into judicial barbarism

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George Monbiot: The US was lucky to get Trump, Biden may pave the way for a more competent autocrat / Zeynep Tufekci: America’s Next Authoritarian Will Be More Competent

Neoliberalism has been neatly described… as the disenchantment of politics by economics. It sees politics as an ineffective or illegitimate means of social improvement. Decision-making should be transferred to “the market”, a euphemism for the power of money. Through buying and selling, we establish a natural hierarchy of winners and losers. Any attempt to interfere… Read More George Monbiot: The US was lucky to get Trump, Biden may pave the way for a more competent autocrat / Zeynep Tufekci: America’s Next Authoritarian Will Be More Competent

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Ben Ehrenreich: How Do You Know When Society Is About to Fall Apart? Meet the scholars who study civilizational collapse

When I first spoke with Joseph Tainter in early May, he and I and nearly everyone else had reason to be worried. A few days earlier, the official tally of Covid-19 infections in the United States had climbed above one million, unemployment claims had topped 30 million and the United Nations had warned that the… Read More Ben Ehrenreich: How Do You Know When Society Is About to Fall Apart? Meet the scholars who study civilizational collapse

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