“We have to have a working-class-centered politics if we are going to succeed,” she said, “and also if we are going to stave off the scourge of authoritarianism, which provide political siren calls to allure people into finding scapegoats to blame for rising economic inequality, both domestically and globally.” ...
But the river has been overdrawn for more than a century. As demand continues to grow, rising temperatures and lower precipitation caused by the climate crisis are taking an increasingly larger share of declining supplies, a trend only expected to worsen as the world warms. ...
Every institution faces the same fundamental paradox. Institutions foster cooperation by rewarding good behaviour and punishing rule-breakers. Yet they themselves depend on cooperative members to function. We haven’t solved the cooperation problem – we’ve simply moved it back one step. So why do institutions work at all? ...
What’s been quite remarkable to me is that on an international level, Israel has continued to enjoy unprecedented diplomatic, financial, and military cover despite carrying out a live streamed genocide. This is not because I ever had any hope or faith that the international community would protect Palestinians from such ...
There’s a lesson here that bears attention today, at the apparent twilight of the same modern world, when the fundamental problem we face involves the degree to which the truth must now compete with such a vast multiplicity of falsehoods that discovering truth itself becomes unviable. ...
Climate change is throwing a snag in one of the most important considerations during the home-buying process—location. With catastrophic wildfires, hurricanes and sea-level rise climbing, experts are urging prospective homebuyers to take regional climate risks into account before settling down somewhere with a 30-year ...
Maintaining exploitation, Mattei argues, requires specific policies — namely austerity, through which the state disciplines workers by imposing material insecurity. The formation of mainstream economics, she shows, was inextricably bound up with its ability to legitimate austerity by cloaking capitalist interests behind ...
The project involves robots, one of the world’s largest research aquariums, and droves of world-renowned scientists. The scale is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. ...
The problem isn’t only the loud extremists. It’s the centrist ecosystem that has made itself indispensable by presenting drift as stability. Centrism in Britain is less a set of principles than a style: a preference for triangulation over truth, ‘responsibility’ over morality, ‘electability’ over leadership. It ...
Between 2013 and 2023, the number of ships entering waters north of the 60th parallel increased by 37%, according to the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum made up of the eight countries with territory in the Arctic. In that same period, the total distance traversed by ships in the Arctic increased 111%.
But I’ve come to wonder whether the only thing worse than arguing on the internet is not arguing on the internet. Something happened over time, and I think it coincided with the rise of Donald Trump and the emergence of Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok as the social media platforms of choice. A lot of people just stopped ...
As we saw in Caracas, the Trump administration is deliberately blurring the line between the army and police, between home and abroad. The president is governing domestically with the same force that he rules America’s empire as commander-in-chief overseas. The result is a nation that is fast descending to a dark, paranoid and ...
All this is partly a language problem. Silicon Valley’s corporations are constantly recruiting us to embrace their goals and their language. Corporate capitalists teach us to be more like them, to value efficiency and profitability and forget about values that might matter more in the end. We lack the language that would let ...
In the latter half of 2025, a phrase began circulating widely on Chinese social media: “The Kill Line” (杀线). It is not a slogan invented by policymakers or academics, nor a meme meant purely for ridicule. It is a sharp, unsettling, and revealing metaphor used by ordinary Chinese commentators to describe how American ...
In embracing ultranationalist and ultrareligious rhetoric, they consider it a response to a globalised world in which distinct cultural communities and congregational religious life disappear. However, first and foremost they see in community a response to liberalism and its ‘extreme individualism’. In the activists’ ...
'Working-Class-Centered Politics' Is Key to Defeating 'Scourge of Authoritarianism': AOC in Munich | Common Dreams ( www.commondreams.org )
“We have to have a working-class-centered politics if we are going to succeed,” she said, “and also if we are going to stave off the scourge of authoritarianism, which provide political siren calls to allure people into finding scapegoats to blame for rising economic inequality, both domestically and globally.” ...
Western US states fail to negotiate crucial Colorado River deal: ‘Mother nature isn’t going to bail us out’ ( www.theguardian.com )
But the river has been overdrawn for more than a century. As demand continues to grow, rising temperatures and lower precipitation caused by the climate crisis are taking an increasingly larger share of declining supplies, a trend only expected to worsen as the world warms. ...
Institutions are how we scale up cooperation among millions | Aeon Essays ( aeon.co )
Every institution faces the same fundamental paradox. Institutions foster cooperation by rewarding good behaviour and punishing rule-breakers. Yet they themselves depend on cooperative members to function. We haven’t solved the cooperation problem – we’ve simply moved it back one step. So why do institutions work at all? ...
There Is Still No Ceasefire in Sight for the People of Gaza ( jacobin.com )
What’s been quite remarkable to me is that on an international level, Israel has continued to enjoy unprecedented diplomatic, financial, and military cover despite carrying out a live streamed genocide. This is not because I ever had any hope or faith that the international community would protect Palestinians from such ...
The Myths and Realities of Global Migration ( www.foreignaffairs.com )
The Ur-“Conspiracy”: History of a Pseudoconcept by Barrett Brown ( www.theparisreview.org )
There’s a lesson here that bears attention today, at the apparent twilight of the same modern world, when the fundamental problem we face involves the degree to which the truth must now compete with such a vast multiplicity of falsehoods that discovering truth itself becomes unviable. ...
As Helene Survivors Wait for State Help, Some Victims of Earlier Hurricanes Are Still Out of Their Homes ( www.propublica.org )
Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say ( www.theguardian.com )
Choosing the Right Home Is Tough. Climate Change Is Making It Harder. ( insideclimatenews.org )
Climate change is throwing a snag in one of the most important considerations during the home-buying process—location. With catastrophic wildfires, hurricanes and sea-level rise climbing, experts are urging prospective homebuyers to take regional climate risks into account before settling down somewhere with a 30-year ...
Why 1.5°C failed and setting a new limit would make things worse ( www.newscientist.com )
Under Capitalism, Democracy Stops at the Economy ( jacobin.com )
Maintaining exploitation, Mattei argues, requires specific policies — namely austerity, through which the state disciplines workers by imposing material insecurity. The formation of mainstream economics, she shows, was inextricably bound up with its ability to legitimate austerity by cloaking capitalist interests behind ...
Three-year heatwave bleached half the planet's coral reefs: study ( www.france24.com )
The two previous global bleaching events, in 1998 and 2010, had lasted one year. ...
Inside the historic effort to keep the Great Barrier Reef alive ( grist.org )
The project involves robots, one of the world’s largest research aquariums, and droves of world-renowned scientists. The scale is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. ...
Jude Wanga | The centre shrinks ( www.lrb.co.uk )
The problem isn’t only the loud extremists. It’s the centrist ecosystem that has made itself indispensable by presenting drift as stability. Centrism in Britain is less a set of principles than a style: a preference for triangulation over truth, ‘responsibility’ over morality, ‘electability’ over leadership. It ...
In the Arctic, the major climate threat of black carbon is overshadowed by geopolitical tensions ( apnews.com )
Between 2013 and 2023, the number of ships entering waters north of the 60th parallel increased by 37%, according to the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum made up of the eight countries with territory in the Arctic. In that same period, the total distance traversed by ships in the Arctic increased 111%.
Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn ( www.theguardian.com )
How Big Tech Killed Online Debate ( www.currentaffairs.org )
But I’ve come to wonder whether the only thing worse than arguing on the internet is not arguing on the internet. Something happened over time, and I think it coincided with the rise of Donald Trump and the emergence of Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok as the social media platforms of choice. A lot of people just stopped ...
Nearly half of homeowners want to relocate because of climate-related concerns ( www.independent.co.uk )
A rising number of American homeowners are ready relocate this year due to extreme weather events and other climate-related concerns. ...
Predictive History (sociology)
cross-posted from: ...
Predictive History (economics)
cross-posted from: ...
Militarised police have taken America to a new level of brutality ( www.newstatesman.com )
As we saw in Caracas, the Trump administration is deliberately blurring the line between the army and police, between home and abroad. The president is governing domestically with the same force that he rules America’s empire as commander-in-chief overseas. The result is a nation that is fast descending to a dark, paranoid and ...
What technology takes from us – and how to take it back ( www.theguardian.com )
All this is partly a language problem. Silicon Valley’s corporations are constantly recruiting us to embrace their goals and their language. Corporate capitalists teach us to be more like them, to value efficiency and profitability and forget about values that might matter more in the end. We lack the language that would let ...
The Kill Line: What America looks like on Chinese social media ( jscaff.medium.com )
In the latter half of 2025, a phrase began circulating widely on Chinese social media: “The Kill Line” (杀线). It is not a slogan invented by policymakers or academics, nor a meme meant purely for ridicule. It is a sharp, unsettling, and revealing metaphor used by ordinary Chinese commentators to describe how American ...
The Future is an Empty Room | Jacob Geller - Youtube (Invidious link) ( inv.nadeko.net )
But the wind blew through me like I was a hologram. If you say I am a mystic, then fine: I’m a mystic. The trees are not trees, anyway ...
The yearnings that take young Europeans into the far Right | Aeon Essays ( aeon.co )
In embracing ultranationalist and ultrareligious rhetoric, they consider it a response to a globalised world in which distinct cultural communities and congregational religious life disappear. However, first and foremost they see in community a response to liberalism and its ‘extreme individualism’. In the activists’ ...