Library
Filter
View
1,101-1,200 of 4,571
“The power of Fannie Lou Hamer compels you!”
What is it that makes so many boys grow up to believe that sex is theirs for the taking?
In response to past essays I’ve written on identity politics, I’ve been asked to provide a deeper analysis of how identity politics function outside the liberal politics I have so far focused on. For the most part–likely owing to the divisiveness so present in this country–my...
How can liberals and progressives learn to feel differently about identity?
The Sustainable Food Trust’s Future of UK Farming conference at Fir Farm this April will feature a pilgrimage from the source of the River Dickler to Hill Barn, hosted by Guy Hayward and Will Parsons of the British Pilgrimage Trust (BPT). Ahead of the conference I decided to j
If we want a future worthy of the name we need a different form of revolution.
What you are going to read in the next couple of minutes is a disavowal of a word that has been used to literally tar and belittle people from a continent we now refer to as Africa. This word I’m alluding to is “black”, a word that was never, ever ours and a label foisted...
Metamodern mindfulness offers a new way of thinking about the ideological conflicts of the past.
Daniel Quinn is an observer of the failure of modern civilization and an advocate of a return to tribal values. He explores this in his book Beyond Civilization: Humanity Next Great Adventure.
Have you ever been told when you’re stressed to stop worrying and just relax? That it’s all in your head? It would be nice if it were that simple. But it’s not.
Being a member of an oppressed group is not a guarantee of wisdom or correctness.
(The following is an excerpt from King’s book “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community” — Part 5 of chapter 5 titled “Where Do We Go”) There is only one general proposal that I would like to examine here, because it deals with the abolition of poverty within this nation...
President Trump’s nomination of Gina Haspel to head the CIA has stirred objections from many quarters. After 9/11, Haspel ran an illegal black site in Thailand where a man was tortured, and she later wrote a memo calling for the destruction of proof of such “enhanced...
What’s next? That is the big question facing this country after the election of Trump. And many people have been sharing their thoughts on that over social and traditional media, over dinner conversations, at the office and on the bus with complete strangers. And, as...
The Right deploys privilege politics to avoid class politics, obscuring where the real power lies in our society.
Careful analysis reveals a number of excellent arguments for the implementation of a Universal Basic Income
This topic has been around for a while, but lately it seems like there are actual attempts at dialogue happening, and so I want to contribute to that.
When my mom was dying of cancer, I occasionally got messages from well-meaning people who wanted to offer what they thought was valuable information about how mom could cure her cancer. Eat raw food, take more vitamin C, stop drinking milk – all of those suggestions and more...
While a White Nationalist claims that doing non-white things is tainting the race, the social justice activist claims that doing non-white things is theft. The end result is the same: a pure, untainted, culturally-distinct white race. White Nationalism and Woke Nationalism...
The social network has done more for bolstering the modern Indigenous rights agenda than perhaps any other platform of our time.
Collective action to right wrongs or help the suffering under neoliberal ideology is wrong, unfeasible, or some combination of the two.
This article is Part 3 in The Abs-Tract Organization’s series on Jordan B. Peterson, following from The Detraction of Jordan Peterson: Constructive Criticism to a Public Intellectual (A Critique), which was a follow-up to
Asad Haider ends the first part of his essay on the problems of liberal identity politics with a powerful accusation: “Fredrik deBoer asks, ‘Does it matter to Resnikoff that the most acid critiques of identity politics I know of have come from writers of color?’ It is a...
“Bernard? Oh yeah, he’s great. He was always the principles guy.”
I didn’t pay much attention to Jordan Peterson when I first heard about him. The standard line on Peterson among liberals and leftists was that he is yet another right-wing hero of young, white men, but less extreme than those on the full-fledged alt-right. While this may be...
Nonrepresentative Democracy at the Dark Heart of Globalization
The Canadian clinical psychologist and university professor has become hugely popular for his 'anti-PC' views and is beloved of many on the alt-right. He's appealing for a number of reasons, most of them connected to the left-wing people he opposes
Abstraction comes in countless forms, but beware the vicious variety, which corrupts our thinking. A ‘vicious abstraction’ is a misrepresentation of an abstraction. You’d be amazed how far little white lies can go. Suffice it to say empires can be built on them. But suppose...
About half a decade ago, Jordan Peterson was a psychology professor at the University of Toronto and clinical psychologist with little international fame and even less infamy. A talented teacher and skilled speaker, he conveyed expertise within his domain and gave prestigious...
A specter is haunting North America — the specter of postmodernism. Or at least, that’s what Jordan Peterson would have you believe. Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, has entered into an unholy alliance with all the powers of the alt-right to...
Whether it’s assault rifles, racial justice, immigration or fossil fuels, the country is rocked by conflicting narratives and rising passions. In a recent national poll, 70 percent of Americans say the political divide is at least as big as during the Vietnam War.
We need to learn, or re-learn, how to build comradeship and solidarity instead of doing capital’s work for it by condemning and abusing each other. This doesn’t mean, of course, that we must always agree – on the contrary, we must create conditions where disagreement can take...
During the past 35 years I have used prisons and prison mental hospitals as "laboratories" in which to investigate the causes and prevention of the various forms of violence and the relationships between these forms and to what I will call (with a nod to William James) "the...
What is this world we’ve created for our youth? 7,000 dead to gun violence since 2012?! What is that? The weight that we are leaving for our youth is unbearable to bear witness to, but if we don’t… what kind of world will we have created?
During the four days I spent in West Virginia, I was repeatedly thanked for coming to support teachers from out of state, though mostly people seemed a bit surprised that I cared. Perhaps it was because I arrived at the exact moment that most of the national media was leaving...
Political and ideological differences prevent us from seeing that our hopes and frustrations are interconnected.
Researchers found unlikely heroes in keeping the world from authoritarianism  - magic mushrooms. Scientists from the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London showed that psilocybin, the active compound in psychedelic mushrooms, makes people less likely to embrace...
(at least, the part that's already happened)
Around the world, women are searching for a feminine power they can affirm with self-confidence. This search is particularly delicate in sexuality, given the long history of violence and abuse continuing to this day. Yet, here’s exactly where the true revolution needs to take...
We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness. —Albert Schweitzer Loneliness is a political issue—at least, it should be. Loneliness and isolation are killing us. Lest you think this is metaphoric, the statistics are chilling. In a study funded by the...
A few years ago, Maria Popova wrote an article on how to criticize with kindness, based on the work of philosopher Daniel Dennett.
How does the Brain Respond to Love?Love has an intoxicating effect on us and understanding this mysterious effect from a scientific perspective may help us navigate relationships with a little more clarity. Meditation, self-awareness and good communication skills are...
What causes depression and anxiety? I have been a practicing psychologist and psychoanalyst for almost 40 years and have seen hundreds of patients suffering from both. In my experience, some factors are obvious. People who suffer from depression and anxiety have experienced...
In 2015, I took a swing at assessing the shape and state of our global challenges. Looking back, that essay is still well worth a read, but it is high time for an update. While many things have changed in the world in t
Are your emotional and psychological needs being fulfilled?
A Review of David Gilbert's 'Looking at the U.S. White Working Class Historically'
Lately, I've been interested in exploring how we can apply this strategy to combatting white supremacy and other harmful, extremist and violent ideologies. Obviously, the goal would not be to show them how following us will help them create a white ethnostate; it would be to...
This is the introduction to Eric Bower's book, Meet Me In Hard-to-Love Places. To build successful relationships, it is essential to address the pain and emotional wounds that you carry from past relationships, particularly from your childhood relationships with
For all our supporters who haven't heard yet, last month we decided to make a major change to how Films For Action operates.
Policy initiatives promoting healthy emotional development in children
In the American police state, police have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later.
There was indeed a foreigner responsible for the election of Donald J. Trump in 2016. This is not an “allegation” or a supposition or any kind of “conspiracy theory;” it is a confirmed fact, backed up by reams and reams of documented evidence. The culpable foreigner was not...
What is the true purpose of government? Critics would rightly say it's to control and dominate because that's the nature of every government we've known. Every government since the days of feudalism has been corrupted in some form, "captured" in other words, by monied, elite...
It’s time to bridge the polarities and embrace the paradoxes around gender.
Depression is the modern plague, there is no question to that. I have been experienced it along with anxiety for 4,5 years. Worst fucking 50 months of my life. Best fucking 50 months of my life. If you are also struggling with it, don’t worry and relax, just read. This is...
We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.” ~ Dakota proverb If you are supportive of institutions over individuals, then you better not read this. If you disregard The Native American Rule of Seven Generations, then maybe this article is not for you. If the phrase...
Good question. We can only speak from our experience from doing this work for many years, which is that men and women have different challenges and experiences of the world. We are all impacted by society (what some call ‘patriarchal culture’) but we are wounded in different...
Not one person in this world has been able to escape the clutches of being hurt in life. I never really understood the truth of that statement until I spent two years sojourning from state to state. It was in my time of tribulation and witnessing a see a sea of humanity...
"That pollution is bad for our health will come as a surprise to no one. That pollution kills at least 9 million people every year might."
The most common question asked on this side of the Atlantic is: “Why can’t they see what these weapons are doing to their country?”
The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says “State” instead of “Country” (the Framers knew the difference – see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia’s vote.  Founders...
Despite almost universal scientific consensus that climate change poses a growing threat, President Donald Trump’s recent infrastructure plan makes no mention of the need to build resilience to rising global temperatures. Instead, it actually seeks to weaken environmental...
In his address to the National Prayer Breakfast on the morning of Feb. 8, President Donald Trump emphasized the centrality of faith in American life. After describing the country as a “nation of believers,” Trump reminded his audience that American currency
South Africa, a former apartheid state, has been vocal in its support for the Palestinian cause against the over 50-year-old Israeli occupation.
There’s been much talk and publicity recently over the plight of women subjected to all kinds of domineering, humiliating and abusive behaviour from men. This situation needs healing for sure, for both women and men, and to do this we need to inquire deep within the problem.
It’s really hard to talk about guns and gun violence, primarily due to the fact that the NRA has spent an insane amount of money brainwashing American citizens with catchy bumper-sticker type slogans that sound logical, but fall apart upon careful examination.
Editor’s note: This article includes references to graphic sexual content that may be inappropriate for some readers.
Intrepid reporter Greg Palast has pursued the Republican war on voters that the mainstream corporate media is afraid to touch. Now, Palast has just updated his DVD, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election with new footage revealing how Trump and...
America, can we talk? Let’s just cut the shit for once and actually talk about what’s going on without blustering and pretending we’re actually doing a good job at adulting as a country right now. We’re not. We’re really screwing this whole society thing up, and we have to do...
When police officers are sued for corruption or brutality — and when, as more frequently happens, the case is settled — it is almost always the city that employs them that picks up the tab for the damages awarded. This may be changing, with the focus now on events in Baltimore.
What can we do to create a culture where none of our children grow up to become killers?
"If we pass on kindness to others in immediate circumference, we can accomplish infinitely more than we can by chanting political slogans in cordoned areas and marching in restricted protest zones."
History tells us “whiteness” has always been a construct used to exclude certain groups from equal rights
"Millions of Americans will lose access to life-saving programs because the GOP gave $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to the rich."
After a year of working with people newly mobilized by the 2016 election, one organizing lesson feels particularly clear: People need to feel part of a community that is making change in order to stay engaged for the long haul. This realization may not be surprising, but it...
The first pathetic pieces of wreckage from North Korean fishing boats known as “ghost ships” to be found this year are washing up on the coast of northern Japan. These are the storm-battered remains of fragile wooden boats with unreliable engines in which North Korean...
If more of us could embrace “live and let live,” if we were willing to give every geographic area an opportunity to create its own utopia, Americans might be thrilled to reengage with politics. And as a country, a million local experiments would greatly improve our decision...
The need for students to learn about racism in American society existed long before I began teaching a course called “White Racism” at Florida Gulf Coast University earlier this year.
Depending on where you start on this journey it can take many many years to unlearn what we are conditioned to believe by our toxic culture.
Many of us have heard the arguments for discarding the faulty logic behind "white pride" but what about "whiteness" itself?
In 1999, Dee Hock, founder of Visa, quipped, “It’s far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism.” But 18 years later, pessimism can feel like the new realism.
We are living in a time of turmoil for the Earth. Species extinction, deforestation, climate change, rising sea levels, and many other problems face the planet we call home.
What comes to many people’s minds when they think of homeschooling? Granola-eating Hippies Christian missionaries Anarchists General weirdos
It’s been a roller coaster year for Sammy Rangel, the executive director of Life After Hate — a non-profit organization that encourages people to leave violent extremist groups by offering them support and a community of other “formers.” From losing its government...
This story is the second in Truthout's "Visions of 2018" series, in which activist leaders answer the question: "What would you like to see created, built, imagined or begun this year?" Each piece will focus on a bold idea for transformation, to give us fuel as the year moves...
Questioning the pro-digital consensus
The wealthy have taken everything from us, and continue to find ways to take even more. It is never enough for them. And, year after year, their political puppets in both capitalist parties ensure that their rivers and avenues of unfathomable, flowing wealth never dry up or...
A fascinating insight into what perpetuates patriarchy in our society, and how we can change it.
A major internal contradiction with capitalism is that it needs workers to also be consumers. While owners (and the system in general) constantly seek to drive down wages, they also seek to continue selling their products and services. The problem is that when workers have...
Neoliberalism is a mature stage of capitalism - a reciprocal process of concentrated wealth taking control of the public agenda via government. Capitalist economists like Milton Friedman were instrumental in paving the way for neoliberalism. The idea gained prominence in...
The problem with Donald Trump is not that he is imbecilic and inept—it is that he has surrendered total power to the oligarchic and military elites. They get what they want. They do what they want. Although the president is a one-man wrecking crew aimed at democratic norms...
“So many people are frightened by the wonder of their own presence. They are dying to tie themselves into a system, a role, or to an image, or to a predetermined identity that other people have actually settled on for them.”
Think of your most noticeable feature. Maybe it’s your radiant smile, or your long, piano-playing fingers. Maybe it’s your stellar jump shot, or the way you recite Shakespearean sonnets at the drop of a hat. Or maybe it’s your penchant for scientific knowledge. But whatever...
DETROIT—The abolition of net neutrality and the use of algorithms by Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter to divert readers and viewers from progressive, left-wing and anti-war sites, along with demonizing as foreign agents the journa
A significant question facing progressives today is whether the use of the term "white privilege" helps or hurts building the kind of solidarity needed to promote racial justice and reverse runaway inequality.
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.
Matt Bruenig presents a devastating challenge to those who call themselves libertarians, and explains why they have no choice but to deny climate change and other environmental problems.
It might not have been as black, brown or working class as many might have liked. But criticizing it from the sidelines doesn’t help anyone
Share this: