A theory of fascism. Source: How To Stop Fascism (2021) 1/ It's the product of social and ideological disintegration, triggered by a fear of freedom ....
2/ Though fear of freedom is everywhere, it's particularly strong in groups with a material interest in Un freedom ... #HowtoStopFascism
3/ It's not just a capitalist defence mechanism - its function is to reverse historical progress. Today's fascism - primarily ethnonationalist - is far more explicitly anti-modern than before ...
4/ Co-creation was there in the 20th century movements but is far more salient now, because of networks: the movement becomes a reward structure ...
5/ There's no explicit fascist economic model; rather it must radicalise any existing form of capitalism toward war for Schmittian reasons ....
6/ Agent theory is facile: it's a product of decay and is the self defence organism of class society. When it fails it's logic is self-annihilation. More here ...amazon.co.uk/How-Stop-Fasci…
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UK bond yield opens at 4.9% There is no “bond market crisis” - however, the high and rising yield on UK debt is the result of a long-term loss of confidence after the Truss fiasco and the poor fundamentals left by the Tories and Brexit 1/…🧵
2/ … what’s happening throws Reeves’ budget into a new light. She rightly did a “belt and braces” on fiscal credibility, raising NI to plug the massive gaps left by Hunt - but the bond markets still do not see a growth story. Why? …
3/ ...because key elements of Labour policy are at the design stage: industrial strategy, green energy, workforce... whilel growth is flatlining… and because we have a doom loop built into our policy architecture…
Every stunt Russia has pulled since the US election feels to me like a pre-programmed sequence: the cable cutting, the MRBM attack; destabilisation of Romania, Moldova and now Transnistria 1/ ... hard to know the purpose without intel...
2/ ... at baseline it creates uncertainty, shakes the tree, shows a range of options for escalation... but I keep coming back to Orban's taunt against Zelensky - "this is the most dangerous point of the conflict" - ie a warning of "escalate to de-escalate"...
3/ That was surely an echo of His Master's Voice... while Western governments are refusing to attribute RU blatant attacks. Why? Could be an agreed strategem; could be fear of domestic destabilisation. Either way, Finland has put a stop to that...
What a day! Assad fled. Saydnaya liberated. Russian power in the Middle East evaporating. Yes there's a vacuum, yes there are competing forces but Syrians now have a chance to shape their own future free of Russian/Iranian imperialism ... and Britain's response matters 1/ 🧵
2/ There is every chance that Syria fragments into three or four chaotic states. That's a function of the "multipolar world" the Putin/Xi acolytes on the far left are so fond of. Multipolarity = chaos is the theme of 2023-4. And Trump saying "stay out of it" is delusional...
3/ The P5 powers could - if Russia/China want to show an ounce of responsibility - work with Turkey, Israel and Lebanon to stabilise the situation. Because if Syria as a state falls apart - its currency, treasury and central bank evaporate - that will be a case study in chaos...
Labour's defence industrial strategy framework is meaty: it learns the lessons from dirigist countries and marks a break from DSIS2021 - some highlights: 1/ The trade unions are at the table - and so are regional employment objectives... unions will be on the sector council ... 🧵
2/ It is frank about what is wrong.
3/ It contains a - ahem - reminder to the fiscal authorities that not spending money on defence is a false economy ...
Jeremy and his merry bunch echoing Putin's talking points - so let's take them one by one: 🧵1/ it is Russia who has escalated. Firing ATACMs and Storm Shadows is both Ukraine's right; both have been used before and changing the targeting is incremental. Yet they make no criticism of Putin firing the IRBM. Why? ...
2/ There is no threat of "all out escalation" between NATO and Russia. NATO is not fighting Russia. Nor did NATO supply the missiles fired at Russia: Britain and USA and France did. This is not a semantic difference. NATO is a defensive alliance ...
3/ " The risk of a nuclear attack cannot be ruled out." Attack by whom? If there's a risk of Russia nuking Ukraine surely JC and the sectarians should protest this. Maybe write to a Russian newspaper? It is Putin's strategy to stoke nuclear fears and they are amplifying that...
Trump's apparent victory has 5 big implications for the UK: 🧵
1️⃣ It can happen here. He will back Farage, the Musk propaganda machine will crank up against Labour; the Tories will remould themselves into Trump-lite Islamophobes ...
2️⃣ The UK needs to become the European leader of NATO, and all European countries need to hike spending on defence and democratic resilience. America is a permanently unreliable ally in this century
3️⃣ Misogyny will enter mainstream politics - and the whole anti-woke cocktail will be normalised by the BBC and alt media - that's proved successful in America. We need to stand up for women's rights across the board