Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

The debate around the racist riots continues

“There is no alternative, I concluded. The delusion of democracy was a colonial concoction (a world capitalist ruse) that is now exposed for what it is and over and done with - we've hit a wall with pictures of Trump, Modi, Assad, Sisi, Ayatollah Khamenei, Putin, and the rest of them plastered all over it. This is the case unless, like Hannah Arendt, we make a crucial distinction between freedom from tyranny and liberty to choose a different political system. At this point in history, I have therefore concluded, we are far more invested in freedom from tyranny than harbouring any conviction or trust in liberty to choose a legitimate alternative state. I am now convinced we are far better off understanding what has tormented us and despising it than hoping to achieve what we wish and has historically escaped us.”

A must-read book Richard Seymour, 2024 The pseudo-insurrection in Washington, DC, on 6 January 2021, intended to stop a supposed theft of the presidential election and restore Trump to power, was fantasy putschism minted by online disinfotainment: Caesarism for the QAnon “generation. But it was not the last of its kind. In the space of less than a year, an alleged coup attempt by the neo-Nazi Reichsbürger movement in Germany was thwarted, supporters of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in the hope of triggering ‘intervenção militar’ (military intervention), and the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group marched halfway to Moscow to force out the military leadership they blame for betraying the war on Ukraine. In every case, the pseudo-insurrection was justified by conspiracist paranoia. Mass violence in other forms, each motivated by its own fantasies of doom and redemption, has been enabled by national governments. In the Philippines, the line between police m...

One o f the lessons o f the Hitler period is the stupidity of cleverness.  How many were the expert arguments with which Jews dismissed the likelihood  of Hitler's rise, when it was already as clear as daylight. I recall a  conversation with an economist who demonstrated the impossibility of  Germany's militarization from the interests of Bavarian brewers. And in  any case, according to the clever people, fascism was impossible in the  West. Clever people have always made things easy for barbarians, because they are so stupid.  It is the well-informed, farsighted judgments, the prognoses  based on statistics and experience, the observations which begin: "I  happen to be an expert in this field," it is the well-founded, conclusive  statements which are untrue. Hitler was against intellect and humanity. But there is also an intellect  which is against humanity: it is distinguished by well-informed superiority. —Max Horkheimer and Theo...

“We must understand this ‘age of rearmament’ within a geopolitical and geo-economic struggle in global disorder. Decades of economic stagnation make global competition increasingly violent, and zero-sum struggles are on the rise. Each regional bloc tries to maintain its position in the world market at the expense of other countries. This translates into new trade wars and new territorial divisions. And then there is a long list of free trade agreements to secure the supply of raw materials, massive investments in fossil energy infrastructure and migration agreements that reinforce necropolitics. The cannons should not stop us seeing the wood for the trees .” Related Nato's imperialism strategic concept Hypocrisy and savagery End of innocence

“Adolescence was made by liberals, is being watched by liberals and praised by them– and yet, as I’ll argue, its politics are authoritarian .”

Consider your complicity in Gaza genocide this Eid

Viktor Orbán will this week host Benjamin Netanyahu on a five-day visit to Hungary, becoming the first European leader to defy the International Criminal Court arrest warrant on the Israeli premier for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Germany’s expected next chancellor Friedrich Merz said after the general election last month that he would find the “ways and means” to have Netanyahu visit. “I think it is a completely absurd idea that an Israeli prime minister cannot visit the Federal Republic of Germany,” Merz said. Financial Times , 30 March 2025

A liberal view What people get wrong The use of the analogy

The fashion industry as an example

“Marc*: “We believe that there is no material problem … that cannot be solved by more technology. We had a problem of starvation, so we invented the Green Revolution.”  Göran**: “Sixty years after the Green Revolution, around 733 million people were hungry and undernourished in 2023, according to the World Health Organization — an increase of 152 million since 2019.” Marc: “We had a problem of darkness, so we invented electric lighting.”  Göran: “Almost half of sub-Saharan Africans — 600 million — live without electricity.” Marc: “We had a problem of cold, so we invented indoor heating.”  Göran: “There is still a pattern of increased winter mortality in the UK.“ Marc: “We had a problem of isolation, so we invented the Internet.”  Göran: “Social isolation remains a debilitating human condition.” Marc: “We had a problem of pandemics, so we invented vaccines.”  Göran: “Excess mortality as a result of COVID-19 has been found to cor...

We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow. —Lord Palmerston  1784–1865,  British statesman; Prime Minister, 1855–8, 1859–65,  speech, House of Commons, 1 March 1848 In defense of imperialism and murder As in the cold war and the earlier struggles of the 20th century, the world’s democracies do not need to apologise for being ruthless in defence of free societies.” — Gideon Rahman , Financial Times, 27 May 2024

Dania' and Anna's struggle to uncover British complicity in crime In November 2016, “only weeks after the Great Hall attack, Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary at the time, had urged Javid to continue selling arms, a Freedom of Information request would  later show . “During the Arab Spring of 2011, the government allowed the  export of sniper rifles to North African and Middle Eastern states  under the label of ‘crowd control goods’. “In January 2024, newly appointed Foreign Secretary David Cameron was pressed before the Foreign Affairs Committee about whether he had been advised that Israel had breached international humanitarian law. “Cameron, who noted repeatedly that he wasn’t a lawyer, eventually   said : 'The short answer to that is no'.” “On 26 March 2024, by when at least 32,414 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza and Israel had been accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, then-shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, asked...

No one wants to hear what the people of Gaza actually want . The anti-Hamas voices in the West only amplify their suffering when it serves their agenda. They were silent when Gaza was screaming in agony, in mourning, in starvation.  They want to use our voices when we chant against Hamas, but they mute us when we cry out for our murdered families. They never want to hear us demand an end to Israel’s slaughter.”

“The identitarian creed has since been removed from its anti-capitalist roots, Sarkar argues, and used to justify the persistence of inequality and split the working class…  It is ultimately the ruling classes who fix the terms of engagement of the so-called culture war, and use it as a strategy for discouraging dissent.” Splitting games Related What Does the Ruling Class Do When It Rules

“Elon Musk possesses a huge fortune not because he ‘earned’ it but rather because the rules of the game under capitalism permit capitalist investors like him to accumulate vast personal wealth at the expense of the larger working population. Musk has proven to be a particularly lucky and adept contestant in the game. But an appraisal of his personal attributes should in no way obscure this simple fact: outside of the socio-economic order based on private ownership of the productive assets of society and the pursuit of private profit through the exploitation of wage labour, a success of Musk’s type and magnitude is simply inconceivable.” —  Murray E.G. Smith and Tim Hayslip in Thinking Systematics, 2024

From Obama to Trump to Biden and back to Trump, the country has been devastated by US air strikes Related “Made in France” war in Yemen ‘ Houthi Hunting Club. Red Sea 2023-2024’

One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.  —Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, 1932 It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.  —Upton Sinclair It is worthy of remark that a belief constantly inculcated during the early years of life, whilst the brain is impressible, appears to acquire almost the nature of an instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is followed independently of reason.  —Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1871 People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions; and conclusions are not always pleasant. They are a thorn in the spirit. But I consider it a priceless gift and a deep responsibility to think. When we inquire why things are as they are, the answer is, the foundation of society is laid upon a basis of individualism, conquest and exploitation, with a total disregard of the good of the whole. The structure of society built upo...

—Siyavash Shahabi  on  March 26, 2025 Recommended  Liberalism – A Counter-History by Domenico Lesurdo