Adam McKay: Global Warming Is Not Being Treated Like an Emergency
Don’t Look Up director Adam McKay writes in Jacobin about climate change and the institutional blindness and warped incentives that should scare the crap out of all of us.
20401 Article(s) by: Agathe Dorra
Agathe Dorra is a PhD researcher in political aesthetics at King’s College London
Party Down Is Back and Starkly Funny About Our Terrible Times
The first two seasons of Party Down were both honest and affectionate as the series satirized the lives of Hollywood aspirants working dead-end jobs. The show’s long-delayed third season retains that winning formula.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon: France’s Pension Battle Isn’t Over
Yesterday’s protest in parliament and on the streets proved that Emmanuel Macron has no majority to increase the pension age. In a speech reprinted here, France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon argues that popular mobilization must keep going to build pressure for a no-confidence vote.
Britain’s Power Elite Has Defeated Its Challengers by Creating a Political Wasteland
Media pundits claim that British politics is experiencing a “great moderation” with the departures of Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn. What they really mean is that a decrepit model based on food banks and xenophobia no longer faces mainstream opposition.
The Republican Philosophical Tradition Shows Why Free-Market Freedom Is a Farce
Buried for many decades by the dominance of liberal thought, the republican tradition of freedom as nondomination has been excavated in recent years. Democratic socialists should embrace it.
Why QAnon Will Outlive Donald Trump
QAnon has become far bigger than any one political figure attached to it. Q is a new and radically postmodern species of right-wing politics, capable of transcending the boundaries of nation and culture. And it’s not going away anytime soon.
The GOP Pretends to Protect Children — While Literally Promoting Child Labor
Republicans say they want to “protect” kids by stopping them from learning about LGBTQ identity and racism. Yet they are simultaneously rolling back child labor laws to allow children to work in industrial laundries, construction sites, and meatpacking plants.
The Fed Insisted Silicon Valley Bank Posed No Risk to the Financial System
In 2021, the Fed approved a merger application from Silicon Valley Bank with Boston Private Bank and Trust, believing that the newly enlarged institution presented no danger to the financial system. After SVB’s collapse, the Fed is changing its tune.
Farmworkers in Florida Are Protesting Modern-Day Slavery
This week, Florida farmworkers with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are marching to protest horrific working conditions including forced labor. In an interview, a CIW worker describes these conditions and how workers are organizing to change them.
Socialists Are the Real Champions of Personal Responsibility
The Right likes to say it believes in “personal responsibility” while the Left promotes a culture of blaming others for our problems. In reality, socialism is about allowing people to take charge of their own lives — and ending the parasitism of the ultrarich.
Italy’s Right Still Hasn’t Broken Its Ties to Fascism
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni insists her Fratelli d’Italia party has “consigned fascism to the past.” But a study of her party’s vision of Italian history shows a demonization of anti-fascism, not its own Mussolinian ancestors.
The Right-Wing Dark Money Group That May Be Coming to Your State Next
South Carolina’s Freedom Caucus is one of eleven such groups in state legislatures across the country. Funded by right-wing dark money, they’ve shown an obsession with enforcing their own bizarre hang-ups over race and gender.
Rank-and-File Railworkers Are Calling for Public Ownership of the Railroads
Fed up with rail companies putting profits before workers and surrounding communities, the rank-and-file group Railroad Workers United is launching a campaign for railroad nationalization. We spoke with one of their leaders about the proposal.
Democrats in Michigan Are Showing National Democrats How to Actually Wield Power
Democrats usually waste their electoral majorities. So it’s shocking when the party uses its power to actually pass progressive and pro-worker legislation, as it just did in Michigan — including repealing the state’s right-to-work law.
LA’s School District Has $5 Billion in Surplus. It Should Spend It on Students and Teachers.
The Los Angeles Unified School District has billions stored away, which it refuses to spend to solve the worsening crises facing local public schools. While the district’s penny-pinching serves those at the top, students and teachers are paying the price.
Federal Regulators Gave the Green Light to Silicon Valley Bank’s Risky Investments
In the years leading up to Silicon Valley Bank’s recent collapse, federal regulators granted the bank a special exemption from a key rule put in place to prevent banks from engaging in risky investments.
Energy Politics Will Define the Future of Europe
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine transformed the energy politics of Europe: America became Germany’s main importer of liquid natural gas and Putin pivoted east. This new order is likely to generate more conflicts than the one that came before it.
This Isn’t the First Time Conservatives Have Banned Cross-Dressing in America
The recent spree of cross-dressing bans has a precedent in the harassment, imprisonment, and deportation of so-called sexual deviants in the US since the 19th century. Civil rights campaigners defeated reactionaries in the ’60s. They can do the same today.
UAW Rank-and-File Reformer Says There’s “No More Asking ‘Please’”
UAW reform candidates have made sweeping gains in recent leadership elections. In an interview, recently elected rank-and-file worker Daniel Vicente explains how the reform slate is seeking to deliver members a more democratic, militant union.
65 Treats Bad Health Insurance as a Permanent Factor Across Space and Time
While 65 starring Adam Driver isn’t a good movie, it does paint a dystopian portrait of terrible health insurance across the universe that is, unfortunately for us Americans, all too believable.