Category: AR Theory
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Notes on Media Ecology, Disinformation & Propaganda, Pt. II: Research/Concepts
Understanding Contemporary Media Ecology, Disinformation & Propaganda Some authors who completed meta-analyses (Abu Arqoub et al. 2020, Li and Tang 2012, Zheng et al. 2016, Wasike 2017) have criticized the fact that most of the research on disinformation (and “fake news”) and in media and communication studies is atheoretical. It’s therefore necessary to use some…
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Notes on Media Ecology, Disinformation & Propaganda, Pt. I: How Not to Study Propaganda
Without pretending that disinformation and propaganda were in any sense less dangerous, destructive or widespread in the past, pre-Internet era, their sheer proliferation in the 21st century has been rather overwhelming. Among other things, we’ve seen genocides in Myanmar and Tigray being celebrated and intensified through social media, far right murder plots organized through forums,…
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Best Resources for Understanding The Capitalist System
Karl Marx wrote in 1848: Modern bourgeois society with its relations of production, of exchange, and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by…
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Postcolonial Racism(s) & the Mainstreaming of Far Right Ideology
Originally written: 10.02.2022. The ideology and actions of the far right are often portrayed as an anomaly that is the very antithesis of liberal democracy or general nationalist conceptions: in many countries the authorities, political actors and the media claim that these ‘extremists’ have nothing to do with ‘us’, with ‘our’ values, with ‘good’ patriotism…
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Totalitarian Violence & Policing: From Counter-Insurgency to “Terror Capitalism”
Originally written: 11.02.2022. In the early hours of November 9, 2020, Austrian police raided the house of Salzburg University scholar Farid Hafez, pointing their guns at him and his family. Their warrant accused him of “terrorist” allegiances, wanting to “destroy Israel” and “establish a worldwide califate”, and supporting the toppling of Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah…
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The Authoritarian Mindset: How to Stop Worrying and Love the Cop in Your Head
Originally written: 26.07.2021. Let me clarify one thing: I don’t think that power, violence and social relations of domination/oppression/etc can or should be analyzed at the level of psychology, or “mindset”. It’s obviously systems of social relations that structure the everyday violence and oppression people face. Nonetheless, worldviews, beliefs, dogmas, and ideology all are part…
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(Inter)Nationalism, National Liberation & The Global Border/Nation-State Regime
Initially written: 23.11.2021 (last modification: 17.10.2023) In this post, I want to address a series of interrelated and overlapping topics that are a crucial part of the modern world system. On the one hand, the global border regime is one brutal aspect of the general(ized) system of nation-states – that is, of modern states in…