Subjects Archives: Media

  • Safe spaces for colonial apologists

    The recent controversies about Oxford Professor Nigel Biggar’s “Ethics and Empire” project and UK Universities Minister Jo Johnson’s attack on “safe space culture” have both been defended on freedom of speech grounds. However, they are better understood as retrenching colonial thinking in universities.

  • Jason W Moore at BInghamton University in July 2017

    Illusions of world-ecology

    Every airport bookstore features books with titles like 10 Ways to Retire Rich, 150 Places You Must Visit Before You Die, or 8 Easy Steps to a Flatter Tummy, with the numbers in very large type on their covers. They are the publishing ­equivalent of junk food, quickie books written to match titles that were invented by the marketing department to generate impulse purchases. The authors and publisher of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things must have had such books in mind when they chose its title and designed its cover.

  • The gender divide: tracking women’s state prison growth

    The story of women’s prison growth has been obscured by overly broad discussions of the “total” prison population for too long. This report sheds more light on women in the era of mass incarceration by tracking prison population trends since 1978 for all 50 states.

  • “Just Do It” This is the slogan of Nike Inc., the multinational athletic apparel and shoe manufacturer, that we all recognize by its name, campaign, and “swoosh” logo.

    Advertising at the edge of the apocalypse

    In this article I wish to make a simple claim: 20th century advertising is the most powerful and sustained system of propaganda in human history and its cumulative cultural effects, unless quickly checked, will be responsible for destroying the world as we know it. As it achieves this it will be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of non-western peoples and will prevent the peoples of the world from achieving true happiness.

  • A demonstrator waves a huge Iranian flag during a pro-government rally

    Think Tank-Addicted media turn to regime change enthusiasts for Iran protest commentary

    Since the outbreak of mass demonstrations and unrest in Iran last week, U.S. media have mostly busied themselves with the question of not if we should “do something,” but what, exactly, that something should be. As usual, it’s simply taken for granted the United States has a divine right to intervene in the affairs of Iran, under the vague blanket of “human rights” and “democracy promotion.”

  • Last Jedi

    The Last Jedi is centrist slop masquerading as radical sci-fi

    The Last Jedi, the eighth episode of the legendary Star Wars series, has been out for less than 10 days but already boasts well over $650 million in revenue from the box office.

  • An Amazon Echo is displayed at CES 2017 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on January 5th, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo: David Becker/Getty Images)

    Is casual surveillance the future of capitalism?

    When e-commerce monolith Amazon introduced the Key in October, it was the latest in a series of innovations aimed at making our lives more user-friendly. Available exclusively to subscribers of Amazon Prime, the Key system—which consists of a programmable smart lock for the front door of one’s house, and a high-definition camera mounted nearby to record the activity of those who come and go—allowed users to have “Amazon packages securely delivered just inside your front door,” as opposed to having those purchases left on a front porch or in a mailroom.

  • Amsterdam's Red Light District

    The new Mafia capitalism

    MISHA GLENNY’S new series McMafia was launched on BBC TV on New Year’s Day. It is an appropriate if depressing opener for the new year.

  • Social leaders of the Bajo Atrato Choacano and Urabá of Antioquia denounced the persecutions, threats and selective murders they are exposed to in a press conference in Bogotá last December 14.

    “Social leaders are murdered because of fights over women”, said Colombia’s Defense Minister

    Just a week ago, Colombian social leaders denouncing the murder of another one showed up to the press conference with masks covering their faces in order to avoid risking to lose their own lives—such is the danger of defending human rights in Colombia.

  • US-based socialist Tithi Bhattacharya responds to questions from rs21 on her new book about social reproduction theory.

    Capitalism’s life source: the domestic and social basis for exploitation

    Social reproduction theory (SRT) sounds quite intimidating, but the (rather grandiose) anthology of big words masks a relatively simple question: if capitalist production is fundamentally the production of commodities, and it is workers who produce such commodities, who ‘produces’ the worker?

  • Utopia © NottsExMiner | Flickr

    Concrete utopia

    Where is Utopia today? Is this question relevant? One might argue that the term utopia is incongruous with the politics of our time, to say the least. Not only does the term ‘utopia’ indicate no place, when it found a place, it was mistreated and mutilated. What would be the place for utopian thinking in a world that is desperate to solve the accrued problems that it has created for itself? Would utopian thinking distract us from the real tribulations besetting the world?

  • Protesters in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday. The nationwide demonstrations were the most extensive show of defiance in years.

    Poll finds growing demand for reform in Russia

    According to a survey by the Russian Academy of Sciences, 51% of Russians believe the country needs “significant reform” over “stability.” Though a small majority, that’s the first time “reform” has won out since before 2003, perhaps indicative of a changing political mood locally. Per the polling, the younger generation is the most pro-reform, with 62% in favor.

  • Protest photo (Photo Credit: Amy Osika)

    Debt comes for us all

    “DON’T LET YOUR CHILDREN GO INTO CRIPPLING DEBT LIKE I HAVE!” I shout, as I and a group of students with SENS-UAW make our way to a major intersection just off Union Square. We wave signs, hoist our banner and merge into the crowd. We are protesting the new GOP tax bill, which will affect the lives of current, previous, and prospective students in critical and long-lasting ways.

  • Rolling Rebellion demonstration in Seattle to defend Net Neutrality • Photo by Backbone Campaign

    Net neutrality and the socialist moment

    In recent months, one of the United States’ most important debates has revolved around the broad concept of Net Neutrality (NN). Without delving into the technicalities, the concept of NN is that internet service providers (ISPs) cannot privilege or restrict internet data. Basically, once you’ve purchased your internet package with the requisite bandwidth parameters, your ISP cannot make your access to a certain site easier or harder, faster or slower.

  • David Harvey

    FreshEd #100: A Marxist critique of higher education

    To celebrate the 100th episode of FreshEd, I’ve saved an interview with a very special guest.

  • Car shopping

    The mall in the car

    “Marketplace is not meant to be an in-vehicle digital billboard,” Santiago Chamorro, GM vice president of global connected customer experience [ROFL!], says to Automotive News.

  • Tump and Putin

    The Anti-Empire Report #153

    “He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did.” – President Trump re Vladimir Putin after their meeting in Vietnam.

  • 'Don't block my net' protesters

    Net neutrality repeal is only part of Trump’s surrender to corporate media

    The FCC is under attack—and so too is the First Amendment. As the primary regulator of how media and information gets to our nation’s citizens, the Federal Communications Commission has a critical role to play in protecting the open Internet, free speech, and free press in our democracy.

  • The American savings crisis, explained

    The American savings crisis, explained

    When you lay all that out, Americans’ terrible saving rate stops looking like such a mystery. In fact, it looks downright rational.

  • Berkeley 'Free Speech' week

    Limits on free speech

    Judith Butler asks what happens when free speech clashes with other basic values.