The Empire Kills Its Poets
Tupac Shakur’s life cannot be understood without understanding the United States as a racial-capitalist empire.
The rest of the blog
Tupac Shakur’s life cannot be understood without understanding the United States as a racial-capitalist empire.
The fascist right can’t decide if the country is bursting at the seams or facing demographic collapse. One minute it’s “no more room”, the next it’s “have more babies”. Strip away the rhetoric, and the truth is clear: this isn’t about numbers. It’s about race and it always has been.
Kneecap aren’t the danger. The danger is a British media machine that still treats Irish defiance as terrorism and harks for empire. What the Daily Mail fears isn’t incitement but memory, and that the wrong people might start singing their history out loud
A slick salesman of decline, Farage offers Lincolnshire nothing but cuts dressed as efficiency. This isn’t a grassroots revolution. it’s a racket, and you will foot the bill.
Reform UK is rising not because it has answers, but because Labour no longer asks the questions, and in the silence, rage finds its voice.
Diana became a mirror for a country no longer sure of itself, her image absorbing the griefs of a declining empire and turning them into daytime TV.
Twenty-two years ago, millions marched against the invasion of Iraq. I was one of them. We were right; the war was wrong. And yet it happened anyway. That was the moment I realised: marching doesn’t cut through when empire’s at stake.
The UK government’s attack on dissent and protest rights echoes a long history of state suppression, revealing a deep fear of the power of a mobilised working class.
The realm of the spectacle is a treacherous landscape, where commodities distort truth and opinions manipulate desires. The United Kingdom’s decision to wage war in Iraq stands as a chilling testament to this phenomenon. In this post, we will explore how words and images were craftily deployed to create a mirage of deception and illusion, justifying the invasion. We will delve into the roles played by key figures like Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell, as well as the influence of the neoconservative agenda, in shaping this narrative. In the end, the consequences of this sinister dance between truth and spectacle emerge from the shadows, providing a harrowing reminder of the dangers of succumbing to the allure of falsehoods and manipulation.
As we approach the anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, there has been a surge in retrospective articles examining the conflict and its aftermath. These introspective pieces provide an opportunity for us to reevaluate the decisions that led to the war, its far-reaching consequences, and the lessons we can glean from this turbulent period in history. By engaging in such reflection, we can better understand the complexities of war and work towards preventing similar catastrophes in the future.
The Iraq War was not just a regrettable event but a calamitous blunder that continues to reverberate to this day. In scrutinising the reasons behind the conflict and its lingering effects, I’ve delved into three recent articles covering the legacy of the Iraq war, two in Foreign Affairs and one from The Atlantic. These articles detail the ideological and strategic forces that drove the US and UK towards invasion, leading to catastrophic outcomes that were both unforeseen and brutal. The war’s impact gave rise to widespread displacement, which in turn became a breeding ground for violent extremist groups. The dire consequences of misguided military interventions serve as a harsh reminder that war always comes at a great cost, and that those in power must take heed of the lessons of history.