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Critical Thought

The way things are said

The way things are said

What is the difference between a dialect and a language? In this thought-provoking piece, Christopher Hütmannsberger reflects on the politics of language and nationalism, and explores how linguistic hierarchies reflect colonial and nationalist power relations.

The limits to organising: Or, the depths of late fascism

The limits to organising: Or, the depths of late fascism

No amount of sustained organising is going to remove the need to engage in conflict. Conflict not in order to change minds, but to protect ourselves against those whose minds are firmly made up.

A stone with white paint saying 'thug life'.

Sympathy for the folk devil: Notes on thuggery

Just as the bogeyman of colonial India – the Thug – was both racialised and criminalised, so too have Black Lives Matter activists and those mobilised by the far-right, been drawn in to false equivalence by elite politicians.

Autonomy, Anarchy, and Plastic Surgery

Autonomy, Anarchy, and Plastic Surgery

R.L Elson analyses the decisions, impacts, and outcomes of having cosmetic surgeries and procedures through the concepts of feminism, anarchy, and choice.

The colonial breach and the colonial bind

The colonial breach and the colonial bind

Siraj Izhar explores the colonial imagination that drives the genocide in Gaza, and what underlies our difficulties of confronting it.

A man's finger points to a ballot box, whilst a hand attempts to cast their ballot.

Don't let the wolf in the door: Electoral politics and fascism

Sam Button considers the dilemmas that Western liberal politicians face once fascists have had their brief terms in office.

Those days

Those days

Writing from Vienna, Christopher Hütmannsberger grapples with the current state of confusion in the German-speaking Left around the genocide currently unfolding in Gaza, and argues that this is a litmus test for understanding how people respond to oppression.