Modern labour hazards: India’s female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI

Women in rural communities describe trauma of moderating violent and pornographic content for global tech companies… content moderation belongs in the category of dangerous work, comparable to any lethal industry: Milagros Miceli, sociologist Anuj Behal On the veranda of her family’s home, with her laptop balanced on a mud slab built into the wall, Monsumi… Read More Modern labour hazards: India’s female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI

Fascist Aesthetics Has Come Back Matching Fascist Politics

Fascist movements have always understood aesthetics as pedagogy—as a way of training people to feel power before they are allowed to think about it. It would be easy to dismiss (Trump) as a narcissistic clown. That would be a mistake. He is a demagogue who despises democracy, targets people of color, revels in violence, and… Read More Fascist Aesthetics Has Come Back Matching Fascist Politics

What happens to accidental heroes when the headlines fade? ‘You get your award and then there’s nothing’

After traumatic events we look for reminders of humanity’s good, and flashes of courage from ordinary people become symbols of hope. But it can be hard to wear the hero’s crown Aston Brown The smell of burning flesh and pulverised concrete is seared into the psyche of Anneke Weemaes-Sutcliffe. On 22 March 2016, the Australian… Read More What happens to accidental heroes when the headlines fade? ‘You get your award and then there’s nothing’

Seeing Cuttack

Abinash Dash Choudhury Cuttack first came to me as a palimpsest of stories in which the personal, the historical, and the mythological mingled without clear distinction. From my father, I learnt that it was the city where my paternal grandfather spent his final days in penury, shuttling between his workplace in the Old Secretariat and… Read More Seeing Cuttack

How Hindi Cinema is Preparing India for Violence

Once humiliation is naturalised as a civilisational condition, violence no longer appears as aggression but as rectification. Anubhav Singh Cinema has never merely reflected political life; it has functioned as one of its most efficient laboratories. From its earliest mass forms, cinema has been a technology for organising affect, disciplining perception, and training populations to… Read More How Hindi Cinema is Preparing India for Violence

Venezuela: Private Wounds, Loud Audiences

Carlos Padrón Venezuelan psychoanalyst As Venezuelans, we share embodied knowledge formed by living through violence, terror, collapse, authoritarianism, migration, fear, absurdity, trauma, and survival. But we also share a layered archive of extraordinary stories: the struggles and resilience of our people; our complex and fascinating history; our literature, art, and music; our relentless and often… Read More Venezuela: Private Wounds, Loud Audiences