William de Berg, THE FATAL CONTRADICTIONS OF IDENTITY POLITICS

William de Berg For much of modern history, tribal and other identities have been subjugated to larger, national allegiances, as in the formation of the major nations of Europe such as Germany and Italy and the creation of new states elsewhere in the world by colonial powers.   But in the past few decades, particularly in the Europe and the United States, a reverse trend has occurred—namely, the encouragement of separate ethnic, racial, religious, and gender identities within nation states.   There are two main reasons for this:  1) a deliberate attempt…

Roger Kimball, Biden Puts The ‘Total’ In Totalitarianism

Roger Kimball  America has come perilously close to the edge of the point of no return… Joe Biden certainly set the punditocracy abuzz with his neo-totalitarian performance piece at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Thursday. The significance of that speech can be broken down into three parts, two of which have already received abundant commentary. The first has to do with the theater of the piece, its optics or stagecraft. As many commentators (myself included) noted, the feel of the event was distinctly, and distinctively, bombastic. The melodramatic red lighting, the presence…

From Dollar Hegemony to Global Warming: Globalization, Glyphosate, and Doctrines of Consent

Colin Todhunter with Denis Rancourt There has been an on-going tectonic shift in the West since the abandonment of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1971. This accelerated when the USSR ended and has resulted in the ‘neoliberal globalization’ we see today. At the same time, there has been an unprecedented campaign to re-engineer social consensus in the West. Part of this strategy, involves getting populations in Western countries to fixate on ‘global warming’, ‘gender equity’ and ‘anti-racism’: by focusing on identity politics and climate change, the devastating effects and injustices brought about by…