Tag: critical theory

U.S. leaders knew we didn’t have to drop atomic bombs on Japan to win the war. We did it anyway (2020)

NB: As the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approaches (August 6 and 9, 1945); readers might like to read this article by two accomplished scholars of twentieth century history. DS ‘the overwhelming historical evidence from American and Japanese archives indicates that Japan would have surrendered that August, even if atomic… Read More U.S. leaders knew we didn’t have to drop atomic bombs on Japan to win the war. We did it anyway (2020)

Dilip

MI6’s Man in Damascus: Jonathan Powell, Inter-Mediate, and the Al-Qaeda-Linked Gov’t in Syria

NB: An ISIS leader has become a friend of Britain and the non-violent activist group Palestine Action has been declared a terrorist group. Such are the geopolitics of the British Labour Party By Kit Klarenberg / The Cradle On 19 July, the Mail on Sunday revealed that Inter-Mediate, a shadowy firm founded by Jonathan Powell, now National Security advisor… Read More MI6’s Man in Damascus: Jonathan Powell, Inter-Mediate, and the Al-Qaeda-Linked Gov’t in Syria

Dilip

Science could enable a fascist future. Especially if we don’t learn from the past

Ambika Kamath and Melina Packer Science is in crisis. Funding infrastructures for both basic and applied research are being systematically decimated, while in places of great power, science’s influence on decision making is waning. Long-term and far-reaching studies are being shuttered, and thousands of scientists’ livelihoods are uncertain, to say nothing of the incalculable casualties resulting from the abrupt removal of… Read More Science could enable a fascist future. Especially if we don’t learn from the past

Dilip

Dhankhar’s resignation and BJP’s outsider syndrome

After Jagdeep Dhankhar’s high-profile exit, outsiders are likely to be kept away from sensitive assignments. Internal gate-keeping and stricter vetting of new entrants could be enforced. Bharat Bhushan The sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar as Vice President of India, on July 21, will trigger ripples across the political system. It will impact the fate of other… Read More Dhankhar’s resignation and BJP’s outsider syndrome

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Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: If Gaza’s corpses can vanish from our conscience, what else are we becoming blind to?

NB: This is what needs to be said repeatedly, because so many people have shut their eyes to the most brutal campaign of mass extermination since the American punishment of Vietnam, which left some 4 million dead over a decade. The rate of murder in Gaza would please the operators of the death camps run… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: If Gaza’s corpses can vanish from our conscience, what else are we becoming blind to?

Dilip

Israel’s Genocide Is Big Business – and the Face of the Future

Israel effectively serves as the world’s largest business incubator – not just by nurturing start-up companies. Rather, it offers global corporations the chance to test and refine new weapons, data collection and automation processes in the occupied territories. These developments are associated with mass oppression, control, surveillance, incarceration, ethnic cleansing – and now genocide. In… Read More Israel’s Genocide Is Big Business – and the Face of the Future

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Scapegoating the Algorithm

America’s epistemic challenges run deeper than social media. (NB: It’s not just an American problem) Dan Williams Many people sense that the United States is undergoing an epistemic crisis, a breakdown in the country’s collective capacity to agree on basic facts, distinguish truth from falsehood, and adhere to norms of rational debate.  “The Yellow Press,” by… Read More Scapegoating the Algorithm

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India’s leadership aspiration of Global South suffers a credibility gap

The Global South is also well aware of the burgeoning India-Israel ties — India is the largest purchaser of Israeli arms, and its current rulers want to emulate Israel in more ways than one. While India walked a tightrope, China asserted its leadership. If India continues to avoid taking a stand on contentious issues by sidestepping them, its opportunistic… Read More India’s leadership aspiration of Global South suffers a credibility gap

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Global inequality is the World Bank’s elephant in the room

The World Bank says it can fight poverty through technical solutions. But poverty is inherently political Alf Gunvald Nilsen The future of work and the future of poverty are closely bound up with each other. Global value chains, those webs of firms criss-crossing the world that collectively bring products to market, have driven economic growth… Read More Global inequality is the World Bank’s elephant in the room

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