As time lifts the fog of war, the systemic breakdown of global institutions and governments becomes unmistakably apparent. The world failed to stop the genocide in Gaza not because it lacked awareness or warning. It faltered because the “rules-based” international order (aka Western order) is structurally and morally bankrupt, paralyzed by complicity, cowardice and double standards. The war exposed international humanitarian law as a selective tool of the West—applied swiftly to some, but suspended when it inconveniences the powerful.  Governments that traditionally postured as champions of human rights have prioritized strategic alignments over universal legal and humanitarian obligations. More

Long ago, the British Marxist Stuart Hall wrote an enduring article on the triumphs of the British conservatives during Margaret Thatcher’s rule. He did so under the marvelous title “The Great Moving Right Show.” Among the virtues of Hall’s analysis of Thatcherism was his appreciation of the extent to which the rightward movement involved more than just conservatives. As the Thatcher forces hardened in reactionary positions, much of the Labour Party scurried to occupy the ground being abandoned in the center-right of British politics. The whole political spectrum moved right. The very limits of political imagination narrowed. More

Three months have passed since the hunger and labor strike ended at Delaney Hall, and while cameras and protestors have dwindled on Doremus Avenue, conditions at the for-profit immigration detention facility have only further deteriorated. More

Americans are an odd lot. An increasingly accurate manifestation of the askew priorities, misplaced passions, and political impotence of the general public, particularly what constitutes something called, the “progressive left,” is the tantrum-like expressions of outrage that have come to dominate social discourse. Setting aside important concerns about the algorithmic power of villainous companies, such as Meta, X, and Tik Tok, to manipulate the attention of its millions of users, social media does provide some indication of what consumes people; what compels them to post, like, share, and comment as opposed to what elicits the sound of cyber crickets. More