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Conspiracy Culture
Naomi Klein
Conspiracy. Conspiracy culture. Conspiracy theories. Just hearing those words can make some people cringe and others embrace them. Conspiracy theories are as old as the hills. But today, thanks to social media algorithms that push users toward ever more emotional, fact-adverse content, it’s never been easier for wild implausible ideas and hate to go viral. […]
Class Struggle from Roman Times to Today
Michael Parenti
A constant throughout history from Ancient Rome to today is the rich and powerful seek ever more wealth and control. If a popular leader innovates reforms that help the poor they come under sustained attack or worse they are killed. Go back to Caesar in Rome. The standard view is he was a power-hungry tyrant […]
Palestine: Memory, Inequality & Power
Edward Said
The 1993 Oslo Accords between Israelis and Palestinians. You might recall the scene. Arafat, Rabin and Clinton at the White House beaming away and shaking hands. It was a euphoric moment. Peace and stability were at long last at hand. Did that happen? Take a look at a map. Oslo enabled greater Israeli control and […]
Iran: The Struggle for Democracy
Nader Hashemi
Zhou Enlai of China once said, “One of the delightful things about Americans is that they have absolutely no historical memory.” Perhaps the former Chinese premier was being too harsh, but then again maybe he wasn’t. Take the case of Iran. Some people remember the 1979 hostage crisis when Iranians stormed the U.S. Embassy in […]
The Other September 11: Chile, 1973
Peter Kornbluh
September 11 is now engraved on the consciousness of Americans. Yet for the South American country of Chile, the date has a different and much more tragic significance. It was on that day in 1973 that the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a CIA-backed military coup. Augusto Pinochet seized power. In the […]
Africa: From Neocolonialism to Independence
Vijay Prashad
Almost every country in Africa was colonized by Europe. Today, while nominally sovereign many of these countries are in the clutches of the big international banks. The old colonial masters Britain and France still have a foothold in Africa but the U.S. has been pushing them aside, moving in to capture resources and markets. Washington […]
You Can Save the Planet
Bernie Sanders
The crises facing humankind are, to use a much overused but accurate word – unprecedented. Plutocratic power in the hands of the few is a disaster for democracy and our ecosphere. The ruling class is driven by its voracious lust for domination and money. It’s an old American story. Over a century ago Theodore Roosevelt […]
Interconnectedness
Vandana Shiva
The corporate takeover of food with its toxic chemical inputs poses serious health and environmental problems. Corporate agriculture, The New York Times states unequivocally “is causing irreparable harm to the planet.” It is “ravaging the air, soil and water, destroying wildlife habitats and spurring climate chaos. The system, a vast web of industries and processes […]
Arms Race = Suicide Race
Koohan Paik-Mander
The “Oppenheimer” movie and the Ukraine war have brought much-needed attention to the possibility of terminal war. The arms race will end the human race. To call nukes weapons of mass destruction comes nowhere near describing the level of devastation that their use would result in. To be clear, these are weapons of annihilation that […]
Environmental Law & the Defense of Nature
Mary Wood
As ecosystems collapse and the climate emergency intensifies, the government often uses its authority to allow the very harm that it is supposed to prevent. Sound crazy? It is. The granting of permits is a battleground where corporations, with their oodles of money to buy influence, have the upper hand over nature. In the face […]
Naming Names: The Hollywood Blacklist
Victor Navasky
The anti-Communist hysteria rampant in the U.S. in the 1940s and 1950s is often called the McCarthy period. But the red-baiting and persecution started even before McCarthy was elected to the Senate in 1946. The notorious House Un-American Activities Committee led the crusade to ferret out alleged Communists in the U.S. They struck gold when […]
Censorship, Free Speech & the Media
Noam Chomsky
States want to dominate the narrative with their version of events. There are two basic models. One follows Aldous Huxley, the other George Orwell. The latter is best known for 1984. Big Brother is brutal. He wields a big stick while Huxley uses a much softer carrot. Censorship is self-imposed because the journalist knows the […]

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