Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas; hence of the relationships which make the one class the ruling one, therefore, the ideas of its dominance. — Karl Marx and Frederich Engels , The German Ideology

“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

The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class , What They Do with Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More

Let’s not forget that state and social movements relation are governed by the political economy of a given period and how confident – and far – could the state go in repression and beyond the daily oppression. We should also differentiate between security states where regimes use all necessary means to survive and the advanced capitalist states where maintaining the status quo means rotation of governments, which have significant resources at their disposal, powerful media and interest groups that marginalise and vilify dissent. That also apply globally where international capital, international institutions and organisations and states work together to support or divert and co-opt this or that social movement when it suits their interests.  ‘ How elites are crushing dissent ’ in Britain or France should be read differently from how regimes in Egypt, Iran or Russia exercise repression. After all, the title of the article does not apply to Britain, Germany, or even to France, where ...

 Meyhane bar culture under threat