Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

“Liberalism’s  dogged insistence on nonviolence  and other manifestations of bourgeois respectability further falsely render antifascist self-defense and anti-colonial rebellion indistinguishable from fascist and imperialist belligerence, implicitly (or explicitly) condoning the state and para-state violence that typifies the latter.”

“What Foucault and many intellectuals  at the time  were struggling against  was not only socialism abroad, but also a certain kind of socialism and its legacy in France. More fundamentally,  after 1968, it is the very notion and entire conceptual structure of revolution  that Foucault would reject.” “In May 1975, Michel Foucault took LSD in the desert in southern California. He described it as the most important event of his life, one which would lead him to completely rework his History of Sexuality. His focus now would not be on power relations but on the experiments of subjectivity and the care of the self” The Last Man Takes LSD Michel Foucault Related Foucault and neoliberalism:  “Do Not Ask me Who I am”

A wide-raging conversation with an esteemed historian Photo illustration: Elise Swain/The Intercept

«Il suffit de décréter qu’un terme employé par celui qu’on a condamné d’avance renvoie à une association d’idée antisémite .»

“It is fair to assume that the different fractions of the ruling class in a country sometimes have diverging, even opposing interests. But if the country is the empire that dominates the world, on one point at least the ruling classes will agree: they do not want to see the basis of their power (i.e., the nation-empire) weakened. Those who have power intend, at a minimum, to maintain it, if not consolidate or expand it. So it is reasonable to infer that the conflicting interests between the various fractions manifest themselves in different strategies for ruling the world, in different conceptions of empire. “ Despite all his bombastic proclamations, Trump has not started any wars. Under Biden we are already on the second.” Elective affinities

“My examination of the limitations of the racial binary of black vs. white as an analytical category to address the racialization of migrants in the North African context allows for a more nuanced approach to racial categorizations—one that challenges these simplified binaries without erasing the psychic violence of racial labeling or the historical stigmatization of blackness produced by the legacy of slavery, colonialism, and the project of nation-building. This approach is necessary to challenge the construction of migrants as the ‘racial other’ and to support their human right to mobility and belonging.” Contemporary notions of race in Morocco A photo by Chermiti Mohamed

SAS soldiers claimed to have executed handcuffed detainees in Afghanistan Related Australian elite troops killed Afghan civilians [for practice] How a British raid went wrong Source: thetimes.co.uk

Indiscriminate airstrikes have been a U.S. hallmark from the “banana wars” to the forever wars. Related Legacy of Violence My Lai 1968 Source: britannica.com

Really existing capitalism “The ultimate objective is not only to demolish Hamas and/or exclude Palestinians from their homeland, but to confiscate Gaza's multi-billion-dollar gas resources .” Source: MEE

Similar to the previous propaganda and disinformation by Western propagandists such the one about ‘Islam’, ‘reforming Islam’, etc., Western propagandists have continued to wage another battle of disinformation – the one against the Palestinian resistance. “ Here are the top 10 propaganda points western media were pushing on behalf of their favourite settler-colony”

Massacres in Ardamata From MEE: Fighters from a Rapid Support Forces unit stand on their vehicles during a rally, in Mayo district, south of Khartoum, on 29 June (AP)

A concentration camp Related From a recording of a talk by Finklestein in London in 2005 Beyond Chutzpah – on the misuse of antisemitism and the abuse of history

Why I have not taken part in protests for years. In UK alone hundreds of thousands demonstrated prior to the war on and invasion of Iraq. They were sent/went back home on the same day. They did not stop the British regime from being part of the crime, and the destruction of Iraq that ensued and lasted for years. May times demonstration/protests in support of the Palestinians took part in London. They did not change the British regime’s policy in supporting the Israeli state. In this regard, Mark Fisher’s argument is still valid : radicals in Britain should direct their efforts to mobilise working people around social issues at home and attack the British regime’s socio-economic policies.  A regime change at home is the way forward. We have seen that even with a self-proclaimed socialist like Bernie Sanders , leaders can side with the oppressors and be complicit in crime. Sanders would have not changed American imperialist support of the Israeli state. Social movements in the beginning

Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.  The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.  Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.  Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”  ― Arundhati Roy ,  War Talk

A geopolitical summary and ‘forecasts’ “Rather than transforming the Middle East … the war may leave intact the ‘security architecture’ built by Trump and Biden. Yet the instability of this edifice has been proven. It would only be a matter of time before it buckles once again.” The US and the war on Gaza Illustrasjon: Knut Løvås, knutlvas@gmail.com

A liberal criticism of a social democrat . There is no grounding of Sanders’s general position within the U.S. imperialism. Compare his double standard in his position towards Israel’s war on Gaza and the one in the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine .

Targeted for their stance on Israel. Yet they won.

Impartiality has always been the claim of corporate outlets like the BBC, for example. It is a myth. Morgan’s case is illustrative and reflective of the British regime’s complicity in crimes and its ‘imperialist values’, and the regime’s support of the Israeli state is just one example.

This was three weeks ago. Youssef : … those Palestinians are very dramatic, ‘Ah, Israel is killing us.’ But they never die, they always come back. They’re very difficult people to kill. I know because I’m married to one. I tried many times, couldn’t kill her. Morgan : There’s a dark humour there, and I understand why… / Youssef : Oh, it’s not dark humour: I try to get to her every time but she uses our kids as human shields. I can never take her out. Morgan : Again, I understand the humour, but to be serious, Bassam, about this… Youssef : Okay, I will be serious. I was watching your interview with Ben Shapiro, and I will tell you one thing: I think Ben Shapiro is one of the smartest people who ever walked this earth. He’s very, very smart. I follow him and I believe everything he says. And… his solution was, the solution for this is for “Israel to annex Gaza and to kill as many sons of bitches as possible to make sure this will never happen again”. And anyone who called for a c

Related Intersectional struggles against big tech and Israeli apartheid