Austin Hayden Smidt is a philosopher, political economist, social theorist, and director/producer/actor based in Sydney. He cohosts the podcasts Owls at Dawn and Cinemythology, and produced the feature film adaptation of Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work, and authored the book Sartre, Imagination and Dialectical Reason: Creating Society as a Work of Art.
In Australia, the political, media, and arts establishment is weaponizing accusations of antisemitism to silence critics of Israel’s war on Gaza. It’s tantamount to blackmail, and the goal is to delegitimize solidarity with Palestine.