Skip to main content

tv

Star Wars’ Evil Empire Can Feel a Little Corny — But Then Came Andor

Sonia Saraiya Vox
Andor actually shows why the Empire is terrifying. We see the Empire’s strategy over and over again: Extract resources. Displace indigenous populations. Partner with corporations for profit. And when all else fails, suppress dissent — increasingly, as the show progresses, by any means necessary.

books

The Novel and the Secret Police

Peter Coviello Boston Review
In Vineland, Thomas Pynchon's dour 1990 novel, the author of Gravity’s Rainbow anticipated a United States where all available definitions of freedom are channeled through security apparatuses understood as the greatest good. Sound familiar?

This Op-Ed Can Get Us Arrested in the Philippines

Menchie Caliboso and Vanessa Acosta FORTHE
police shooting at Filipino demonstrators What if state officials targeted people who shared an Instagram post criticizing the government for criminalizing the poor and not providing mass testing or economic relief?

Guns? Yes. Masks? No. And Gestapo in Portland.

Max Elbaum Organizing Upgrade
Only in the U.S.A. does a large section of the population think owning an assault weapon is a sacred right, but wearing a mask in a pandemic is a restriction on liberty.

Lessons from the FBI’s Secret War on Activism

Michael Steven Smith The Indypendent
The FBI had played its role as the “political police of the national government,” Noam Chomsky wrote and the government maintained to the bitter end that it had a right to undermine an organization just because of its ideas.

Why NSA Surveillance is Worse than You've Ever Imagined

James Bamford Reuters
Despite the volume of revelations, much of the public remains largely unaware of the true extent of the NSA's vast, highly aggressive and legally questionable surveillance activities. Given the vast amount of revelations about NSA abuses, it is somewhat surprising that just slightly more than a majority of Americans seem concerned about government surveillance. Which leads to the question of why?
Subscribe to police state