Liam Conway

Episode 10: Working Through the Past with Ernst Bloch | Critical Theory Working Group Get more from Critical Theory Working Group on Patreon

POD EP10: Esther & Sebastian discuss Bloch’s 1932 fragment Nonsychronism & the Obligation to its Dialectics, a text that “takes its place inappropriately” (Benjamin)—on revolutions past, reaction present, & utopias future!
patreon.com/posts/episod...

This administration is cooked. Literally no one is scared of them.

For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We join its institutions, we praised its principles, we benefited from its predictability. And because of that, we could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection. We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically, and we knew that international law applied with varied rigor, depending on the identity of the accused or the victim. This fiction was useful, and American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods, open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security, and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.

If nothing else, pretty amazing Canadian PM Carney said the quiet part out loud today: international law has never been real and the ‘rules’ of the international order have never applied to the US and its allies.

This may indeed be the actual death of neoliberalism.

globalnews.ca/news/1162087...

Photograph from 1911 taken by Herbert Ponting whilst with Scott's Antarctic Expedition The monochrome photo is taken from within a cave. The walls of the cave are made of ice. The cave entrance is in the mid distance with two figures standing looking out towards a distant ship. Between them and the ship there is first a 'beach' of ice before the sea itself. The ship could be up to 800 metres away What makes the photo so special is that where the figures are at the cave entrance there is a band of very white snow and ice (contrasting with the comparatively dark inside of the cave) that creates a stark framework in which the men and the ship are captured. It is made even more dramatic by the fact that the cave entrance is at least 30 metres high and is in the shape of a distorted elipse with the tail sloping off to the right at the top of the elipse The photo being in monochrome in a largely white environment makes the photographers skill all the more laudable

This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition,

The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance

Iconic imo

David Lynch died a year ago.
I miss his artistry but I really miss him making me laugh.

Alan Rickman died 10 years ago.
Here’s Jason Isaacs on getting acting advice from him about how to react whilst watching a Quidditch match:

Wes Streeting, part of a govt that won't confirm it'd uphold an ICC arrest warrant, won't meet its obligations under the genocide convention, & won't condemn what the US has done in Venezuela, says he's concerned about the disintegration of the rules based international system

Excellent thread

Specifically, a protest song about how the sons of the rich were able to avoid fighting, like fighting-age Donald Trump who got four deferments for being in college and another for bone spurs.

fwiw it’s been about six weeks since Trump pardoned the former president of Honduras who had been convicted of trafficking drugs into the US

Luke Tryl @LukeTryl • 3h X There has also been a shift in how Britons think the UK is divided, for the 1st time since tracking in 2022 Britons are more likely to say that the biggest divide is between immigrants and those born in the UK rather than divides between rich and poor, that remains a close second

The fun part here is that people who don’t like migrants largely believe this because they’re constantly screamed at about menacing immigrants from every TV, radio and news stand, and the whole reason that’s done is to discourage people from noticing who it is that gets most of the money, and how.

Imagine living in Britain,where pretty much every major institution has been culpable in a historic sexual abuse scandal, and believing its the foreign cultures that are a danger to women and girls

YouTube video by Fall of Civilizations 20. Persia - An Empire in Ashes

Episode 20 is now available with video!

With maps, reenactments and beautiful aerial footage, find out how the world of Achaemenid Persian empire rose, flourished and finally fell.

We must protect our borders to defend our democracies. Here's how This is our strong message to our friends in Europe. Unless responsible governments reflect their citizens’ concerns, populists will win, say British PM Keir Starmer and Danish PM Mette Frederiksen

This could have been written by David Goodhart, ten years ago. Depressing and predictable with stock phrases about "legitimate expectations". Shorter: "unless we implement the policies of the populist right, the populist right will win." A human-rights lawyer ....

Ooohh Donald!

*new translation*

THE BOOK OF ABOLITIONS
by Karl Korsch

www.endnotes.org.uk/palabre/the-...

Melanie Phillips on her cousin Trevor’s show

Everyone involved knows Mel is a virulently racist fascist lunatic with horrendous views on the use of massive, murderous violence against civilians. But there she still is on Sky News, because her crackpottery is well within acceptable opinion, for our political/media class.

Hey everyone, here's the news, if you aren't a high earner, entrepreneur or a "skilled frontline worker" (whatever the fuck that means) the "Labour" Party says you aren't contributing, you're a taker!

Workers' Inquiry: A Genealogy - Viewpoint Magazine In 1880, La Revue socialiste asked an aging Karl Marx to draft a questionnaire to be circulated among the French working class. Called “A Workers' Inquiry,” it was a list of exactly 101 detailed quest...

Sad to hear about the passing of Asad Haider, I was fortunate enough to meet him at HM Conference 2013 when Viewpoint ran a session on Workers Inquiry, which was excellent. Viewpoint continued to publish some amazing work with Asad as an editor. RIP

viewpointmag.com/2013/09/27/w...

Forgot to plug this one since I was sick

The last HQ of the British Batallion in the Ebro front before their withdrawl on 21 Sept 1938. Shared with comanders of Yiddish speaking Botwin company. Accents of London, Liverpool and Glasgow with those of Warsaw, Lwów and Krakow. Thanks to @TerraEnlla for showing me. Just outside Corbera d'Ebre.

"We would have punished these guys if it hadn't taken us 4 decades to get round to it" is just a fantastic summary of police accountability in Britain

In 2025, rebel nuns were sent to nun prison for a crime they didn't commit. These nuns promptly escaped from a care home to the Austrian underground.
Now, they survive as nuns of fortune. If you’ve a problem, if no one else can help & if you can find them, maybe you can hire The N-Team.

Just cancel your Netflix subscription and stop buying avocados. You'll be fine

It is IMO not possible to operate any kind of meaningful democracy when your national press is a joke and a travesty, but your mileage on that may vary. I think it’s incontestable that it is impossible to govern well and effectively, while being in hock to these pantomime clowns.

I get people might not like them or think they won't work but to act like this has never happened before is both odd and infuriating.

I find it strange how pundits and reporters talk of wealth taxes or even basic increases in high earnings tax like it's never happened before or impossible. Post second world war through to the 1980s tax rates were far higher on high earnings than now.

VERY funny that Labour are being pointlessly cruel and haemorrhaging support from their base and yet none of what they're offering is ever going to be enough for the people whose approval they're seeking, WHO could have predicted it

Shabana Mahmood hits out at Tommy Robinson’s backing of Labour’s migration policy Shabana Mahmood has said she finds it “deeply offensive” when MPs quote Tommy Robinson at her in the Commons, after the far-right activist backed the government’s sweeping asylum reforms. Asked about ...

Remarkably simple solution. If you don't want the backing of the far-right for your immigration policy, or to have people point out that you have their backing, don't base your immigration policy on the far-right's rhetoric and ideology.

www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/shab...