A culture of truth denial is wilting US democracy and Britain is following fast

The Rush Limbaugh Show, the ultra-rightwing talkshow platform, was syndicated as the scourge of the liberal elite – anti-immigrant, anti-tax, anti-feminist, anti-LGBT, anti climate change and later denying Covid vaccines – and always rejecting the evidence that smoking caused cancer. No need any longer for countervailing views. A lifelong smoker, Limbaugh died in 2021 of the very… Read More A culture of truth denial is wilting US democracy and Britain is following fast

10th April 202310th April 2023 Dilip

Trump is one of the most successful criminals in American history

‘Lies have always been regarded as necessary and justifiable tools not only of the politician’s or the demagogue’s but also of the statesman’s trade. Why is that so? And what does it mean for the nature and the dignity of the political realm, on one side, and for the nature and the dignity of truth… Read More Trump is one of the most successful criminals in American history

9th April 20239th April 2023 Dilip

A Miracle in Shanthinadu

Chandan Gowda A young Sajjan horse trader, who had bought a couple of fine stallions at a horse fair and was taking them to sell at another fair in a neighbouring state, had been waylaid at night by Suguna horse vigilantes. They had demanded money to let him pass. When the horse trader refused saying… Read More A Miracle in Shanthinadu

9th April 2023 Dilip

Rectifying the past

Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present, controls the past: George Orwell, in Nineteen Eighty four The will cannot will backwards… That time does not run backward, that is his wrath; ‘that which was’ is the name of the stone he cannot move. And so he moves stones out of wrath… Read More Rectifying the past

7th April 202317th June 2023 Dilip

Justice Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire

by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski IN LATE JUNE 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of… Read More Justice Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire

7th April 2023 Dilip

Robert Urquhart: Capital accumulation as eternal recurrence: theology of the bad infinity

The uneasy cohabitation of science and theology in neoclassical economics is an indication of its ideological character If the lion had consciousness, his rage at the antelope he wants to eat would be ideology: Theodor Adorno; Negative Dialectics. Extract: Neoclassical economics — most notably in the model of general equilibrium — gives an exhaustive quantitative… Read More Robert Urquhart: Capital accumulation as eternal recurrence: theology of the bad infinity

3rd April 2023 Dilip

Progressives and reactionaries

Fronesis 76-77 (2022) Eurozine Review Reconsidering the authoritarian personality: Are progressives really on the right side of history? Can Reich’s theory of sexuality explain today’s far-right? And is the manosphere more than a reactionary self-help forum? From a progressive point of view, it can seem incomprehensible why someone would seek the opposite of an equal… Read More Progressives and reactionaries

3rd April 20233rd April 2023 Dilip

Pakistan’s political crisis: Where is the country headed?

Haroon Janjua in Islamabad The conflict between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his predecessor Imran Khan seems to be escalating in Pakistan amid the worst economic crisis in decades. For weeks, police have been clashing with the supporters of Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, as the former cricket star fights a dozen of legal cases. Khan was ousted by a vote of… Read More Pakistan’s political crisis: Where is the country headed?

1st April 20231st April 2023 Dilip

A poisonous dictatorship has been built in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab spring

Sihem Bensedrine I was relieved when Hervé, a young man from Ivory Coast who occasionally helps me around the house, finally called. It had been four agonising days of radio silence. Since his landlady had evicted him, he had been wandering the streets of Raoued, a suburb of Tunis, trying to avoid the marauding gangs.… Read More A poisonous dictatorship has been built in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab spring

31st March 202331st March 2023 Dilip

Why the ‘Mother of Democracy’ brooks no criticism

Bharat Bhushan The belligerence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s MPs against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is not letting Parliament function. This is unprecedented, and especially galling because Parliament needs to pass the Budget in this session, irrespective of whether Gandhi apologises for comments made in the United Kingdom on the erosion of democracy in India. Forget his… Read More Why the ‘Mother of Democracy’ brooks no criticism

24th March 2023 Dilip

After the truth-shower

Philosophy, history, literature, current affairs, and other stuff. Posted by Dilip Simeon

Tag: ideology