Category Archives: tyranny

“Solidarity with the People in the Streets of Portland”

Posted on July 20, 2020 by

On Thursday, both Trump and his advisor Stephen Miller announced that they will begin deploying armed officers from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the streets of cities that have seen large-scale protests—specifically, cities governed by Democrats.  Trump stated he would “be looking at Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland, and Chicago.”

Posted in anarchism, disobedience, emergency, In The News, justice, resistance, rights, tyranny

“From Antifa to Mothers in Helmets, Diverse Elements Fuel Portland Protests”

Posted on July 20, 2020 by

‘While President Trump on Sunday described the unrest in Portland as a national threat involving “anarchists and agitators,” the protests have featured a wide array of demonstrators, many now galvanized by federal officers exemplifying the militarized enforcement that protesters have long denounced. Gatherings over the weekend grew to upward of 1,000 people — the largest crowds in weeks.’

Posted in anarchism, disobedience, In The News, resistance, tyranny

Murtaza Hussain: “The Far-Right Revolution Was Waiting for an Opportunity. Now, It’s Here.”

Posted on July 14, 2020 by

“Mutated through new information technologies and drawing strength from feelings of economic and demographic dislocation, fascist and sectarian ideologies have found a home in the hearts of members of a new generation of Americans. Whether most people have connected the dots or not, a violent struggle is already playing out. Over the past few years, a steady drumbeat of massacres have been carried out by extremists associated with the new far-right.”

Posted in disobedience, freedom, Nota Bene, revolution, terror, tyranny, violence

Kristian Williams: ‘“Full Spectrum Resistance”: a field manual for insurgencies’

Posted on June 27, 2020 by

“Aric McBay’s massive, two-volume, handbook for political action, covers the fundamentals of social change, offering advice on organization, strategy, tactics, security, communication (internal and external), and so on — all illustrated with historical case studies.”

Posted in agonism, anarchism, Blog, disobedience, freedom, governance, justice, power, revolt, revolution, rights, tyranny, violence

“Reading the History of Slavery: 3 Experts Offer Book Recommendations”

Posted on June 16, 2020 by

On the ways the history of slavery informs our present.

Posted in Blog, freedom, justice, revolt, revolution, rights, tyranny

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Robin Wright: “Give Me Liberty or Give Me COVID-19: A History”

Posted on April 27, 2020 by

“Yet the rhetoric and rage displayed in recent protests is not new. Protestors are drawing on a broader conservative discourse centered on the Constitution and American Revolution. Across a diverse cohort of right-wing, libertarian, militia, pro-gun, and white nationalist movements, the Constitution functions as a key symbol in the struggle to advance white exclusionary claims to the U.S. nation. These groups position contemporary grievances as a continuation of the founding fathers’ struggle against tyranny. Speakers at rallies and online commenters herald the coming of the Second American Revolution, inciting patriots to remain armed and ready for combat.”

Posted in freedom, Nota Bene, power, revolution, tyranny, violence

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William Dalrymple: Review of “The Buried” by Peter Hessler – Life, death and revolution in Egypt

Posted on December 22, 2019 by

‘In this scheme, the fall of Mubarak, the chaos of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the restoration of authoritarian rule under Sisi also follow rhythms familiar to Egyptian history. Hessler sees a mirror in the story of the pharoah Akhenaten – a failed revolutionary whose attempt to introduce monotheism was crushed in “what was possibly the first military coup in human history” by his general Horemheb, and whose tyranny was consolidated by Horemheb’s successor Ramesses II.’

Posted in Blog, governance, power, revolution, tragic politics, tyranny

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Bernard E. Harcourt: “The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went to War Against Its Own Citizens”

Posted on December 10, 2019 by

“The Counterrevolution is a penetrating and disturbing account of the rise of counterinsurgency, first as a military strategy but increasingly as a way of ruling ordinary Americans. Harcourt shows how counterinsurgency’s principles–bulk intelligence collection, ruthless targeting of minorities, pacifying propaganda–have taken hold domestically despite the absence of any radical uprising. This counterrevolution against phantom enemies, he argues, is the tyranny of our age.”

Posted in Blog, governance, revolution, tyranny

Alex von Tunzelmann: “The Evil Repercussions of the American Revolution”

Posted on December 3, 2019 by

A review of TO BEGIN THE WORLD OVER AGAIN: How the American Revolution Devastated the Globe (2019) by Matthew Lockwood.  “He finds it at the root of a long list of ills, including increasing authoritarianism within Britain itself and the wider British Empire, the failure of Irish, Indian and Peruvian movements against imperialism, the Russian conquest of Crimea, the establishment of penal colonies in Australia and the growth of the global opium trade.”

Posted in Blog, defeat, hubris, melancholy, terror, tragic politics, tyranny

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James L. Gelvin: “Turkish attack on Syria endangers a remarkable democratic experiment by the Kurds”

Posted on October 15, 2019 by

‘The key to understanding the Rojava project, as those involved often refer to it, is the notion of “confederalism.” In this form of government, local units – in this case, Kurdistan’s “autonomous regions” – come together in a federation yet retain a great deal of autonomy.’

Posted in autonomy, defeat, founding, gender, governance, Nota Bene, tyranny

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