Saturday 18 November 2023

From this week’s news on: politics & democracy, and international affairs [Note: Content Warning - links to reports on bigotry/hate, violence/abuse/war. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

From this week’s news on politics & democracy, and international affairs (note: I may continue to add links for a few days, possibly up to a week, after these are published): 

 

  • “Sudan’s Collapse and the Demise of Peacemaking”   Hold Your Fire!   “In this episode of Hold Your Fire!, Richard is joined by Crisis Group experts Alan Boswell and Shewit Woldemichael to talk about the latest developments in Sudan’s civil war, where fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has been raging for almost seven months. They talk about the recent advances by the RSF in Darfur, where the Sudanese army has been largely routed, and what the recent gains mean for the war’s trajectory. They talk about the RSF’s motives in fighting and what its leader _ hopes to gain from the war. They discuss the army’s weakness and increasing reliance on Islamist forces formerly associated with long-serving ruler _. They also examine the dearth of serious diplomacy aimed at ending the war. For more analysis on the war in Sudan, check out our Sudan page. Hosted on Acast. See http://acast.com/privacy for more information.”   Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/hold-your-fire/id1530411354?i=1000634408217    but   Sudan’s Sovereign Council Chairperson “holds talks with Ethiopian PM and African Union chief”   https://sudantribune.com/article279421/  






 


  • “Australia needs to resource a merchant fleet”   https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/australia-needs-resource-merchant-fleet   “Virtually all Australia’s trade moves by sea, yet relies almost exclusively on foreign flagged and foreign owned vessels.”   This is one of those battles that would never have been needed if so many people hadn’t just given up and gone along with neoliberalism - or even if they had kept just a modicum of common sense!   




and finally, from Teri Kanefield:

  • “Can Democracy Work in America? Part I: “There are no Yankees here!””   https://terikanefield.com/can-democracy-work-in-america-part-1-there-are-no-yankees-here/   “Democracy requires an educated population able to analyse the implications of government policies. It requires voters to look beyond their own interests and consider the interests of society as a whole. It requires people who are aware of the appeal of a demagogue and can withstand that appeal.   This cannot happen if people do not have accurate information. ... Because authoritarianism is based on lies and democracy is based on truth, the way to destroy democracy is to obliterate truth. Here’s the problem: Authoritarianism has a lot of appeal. Democracy has a lot that people find either distasteful or unacceptable.”   
  • “Can Democracy Work in America? Part III: An MSNBC / CNN Conspiracy Theory and the Perils of Legal Punditry”   https://terikanefield.com/can-democracy-work-in-america-part-iii-an-msnbc-cnn-conspiracy-theory-and-the-perils-of-legal-punditry/   “Here is the problem: If an investigation is leakproof, and if it takes at least a year to reach the stage where prosecutors are interviewing people who are hostile and likely to leak, what will the producers of cable news shows do during all that time? How will they hold their audience? How will they provide entertainment?”   If it gets in to the next election cycle, the results/process could be stopped/undone by the next administration, so there is actually a time limit (in the USA, at any rate)   
  • “Can Democracy Work in America? Part 4: Get the Fighters Fighting”   https://terikanefield.com/can-democracy-work-in-america-part-4-get-the-fighters-fighting/   After an explanation of algorithms on social media which is aimed at “getting the fighters fighting”, the author discusses the authoritarian-nonauthoritarian continuum and cynicism - including the cynicism about corruption that drove the US insurrectionists a few years ago    
  • “Part 5: The Misinformation-Outrage Cycle”   https://terikanefield.com/misinformationoutagecycle/    “Unless something changes, people in partisan information ecosystems will continue to spring from one misinformation-panic cycle to another. This will cause them to descend into cynicism, activate authoritarian impulses, and drive people away from politics who can’t stomach all of the yelling.”   This is probably the most clearly related to the US system of all the parts of this series, but the principles still apply more widely (and shown by the quote), and it is worth a read and a think.  
  • Part 6 - conclusion appears to have not been published ...


Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

  • this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

  • there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  • I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk.



 

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