Geert Potjewijd wordt per 1 augustus van dit jaar de nieuwe bestuursvoorzitter van de Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP). De voormalig advocaat van onder meer TikTok volgt daarmee Aleid Wolfsen op, die na twee termijnen vertrekt bij AP. Hij heeft de functie tien jaar gehad. De AP is de […]
Liefhebbers van de ‘superkwark’ skyr kunnen zomaar eens voor lege schappen komen te staan. Leveranciers kunnen de vraag, die wordt aangejaagd door filmpjes op Instagram en Tiktok, nauwelijks aan. Supermarkten worstelen met de beschikbaarheid.
Calamitous US ‘secretary of war’ Pete Hegseth has launched a Pentagon investigation into a US senator for supposedly disclosing classified information. However, the information had already been made public by Hegseth himself under oath. Hegseth said he ordered the investigation into Senator Mark Kelly after Kelly discussed massive US munitions expenditure against Iran during a TV interview. But Hegseth had already disclosed the information in April during sworn testimony to the UN. Hegseth accuses Kelly of being a tell-tale Following his equally hopeless master’s example, Hegseth took to social media to deride Kelly, accusing him of “blabbing” about a classified briefing. “Captain” Mark Kelly strikes again. Now he’s blabbing on TV (falsely & dumbly) about a *CLASSIFIED* Pentagon briefing he received. Did he violate his oath…again? @DeptofWar legal counsel will review. https://t.co/mPBZHxZqpr — Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) May 10, 2026 Kelly, a former military officer, responded promptly with a restrained but ruthless put-down including a clip of Hegseth’s testimony. We had this conversation in a public hearing a week ago and you said it would take “years” to replenish some of these stockpiles. That’s not classified, it’s a quote from you. This war is coming at a serious cost and you and the president still haven’t explained to the American… https://t.co/q3wX9AjRzO pic.twitter.com/5q7Gg81Xtg — Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) May 11, 2026 Pickled beef Hegseth has been repeatedly accused of habitual heavy drinking and even being drunk in public, so maybe he just forgot. But he has had it in for Kelly for months, including ordering an investigation into Kelly in November 2025 for “serious allegations of misconduct”. Hegseth has also tried to remove or reduce Kelly’s military pension for highlighting Hegseth’s failures. The move was blocked, at least temporarily, by judges as an attack on Kelly’s free speech rights. Record of contempt (and more drinking) Hegseth’s woeful record is not limited to his disastrous war on Iran at the orders of Donald Trump (and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu). He is a fan of torture with white-supremacist tattoos. He has accused serving US troops injured in an Iranian drone attack of lying about the lack of protection provided for them. He quoted fake bible verses during a speech to US troops and told them that their job is to bring about the Second Coming. He gloated about the “fun” of the US’ unprovoked and illegal sinking of an unarmed ship in international waters and Iranian ships. And, of course, there’s (alleged) drinking. This has been posited as the reason for Hegseth’s bizarre, self-humiliating rant against US media for making him and his underlings look like “the bad guys”. When he was a Fox News host, he was accused of repeated drunken behaviour. He has even been accused of embarrassing his kids in a drunken rant on camera at the White House ‘egg roll’. @therecount We’re this one —> #petehegseth #easter #easteregg #whitehouse #military #signal #groupchat #cringe #cringey #cringetok #kidsoftiktok #funnykids #fyp #news #politics #political #politicalnews #politicaltiktok ♬ original sound – therecount The world is being wrecked by incompetent, petulant people of questionable mental capacity, and not even their own side is safe from them. Featured image via the Canary By Skwawkbox From Canary via This RSS Feed.
cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/51940381 This in an opinion piece by Yuliia Bond, a refugee from Ukraine who has been living in Caerphilly, Wales, since 2022. … After more than a century of Labour dominance, the political landscape of Wales has fundamentally changed [the Labour Party lost heavily in the recent elections to the Senedd, the Welsh Parliament , while the right-wing Reform Party party surged]. … This was not only a normal democratic swing. It was also the result of a much deeper emotional and informational transformation that has been building quietly across society for years and social media played a massive role in accelerating it. And maybe some people will think I’m exaggerating this. I genuinely hope I am. But coming from Ukraine probably makes me much more sensitive to changes in public language, disinformation and emotional radicalisation than the average person here. People from my part of the world do not really assume democratic stability is permanent anymore. … In the 2024 general election, Reform UK won 20.3% in Caerphilly. One year later, in the 2025 Caerphilly Senedd by-election, Reform jumped to 36%. That is a 15.7 percentage point increase in barely over a year. Then during the 2026 Senedd election campaign, final constituency models for Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni projected Reform around 31-35% of the vote, directly competing with Plaid while Labour collapsed dramatically in former Valleys strongholds. That is not “just a protest vote” anymore. That is a structural political realignment. And it did not happen in a vacuum. … Modern political conflict increasingly operates through information warfare People in the UK often still imagine “disinformation” as something abstract. Something foreign. Something extreme. Something only relevant during wars. But one thing Ukraine understood very quickly is that modern conflicts are fought not only on physical battlefields, but also inside digital information spaces. Russia weaponised disinformation for years before tanks crossed borders. Emotional narratives spread faster than factual corrections. Algorithms rewarded outrage. False stories repeated until they emotionally felt true. Trust slowly eroded. Society polarised. … Ukraine realised very quickly that defending democracy was not only the responsibility of soldiers. So society mobilised. Not only the military. Ordinary people. Researchers. Teachers. Journalists. Volunteers. Students. Community organisers. Online investigators. Digital activists. Ukraine created a Digital Army, but beyond cyber operations there was also something much deeper: a society-wide understanding that information itself had become strategically important. People tracked propaganda. Reported manipulation.Countered false narratives. Protected vulnerable communities. Strengthened digital literacy.Built civic resilience. … Because many people here still underestimate the danger. … Modern propaganda looks far more ordinary … Facebook comments … TikTok clips … Emotionally manipulative headlines … Rage-bait videos … Out-of-context crime stories … “Someone I know said…” … And over time, those narratives emotionally reshape political reality itself. Can’t get housing? Migrants. Public services struggling? Migrants. Crime? Migrants. Economic insecurity? Migrants. National decline? Migrants. … And this is why social media matters so much. Because algorithms are not designed to reward truth. They reward emotional engagement. Fear spreads faster than nuance. Anger spreads faster than statistics.Outrage spreads faster than context. A person can now live in an area with relatively little migration, yet consume hours of emotionally charged immigration content every single week online. … Social media no longer only shapes opinions – it increasingly shapes identity … This is not only about Reform voters And this is important to say clearly. I do not think every Reform voter is racist. That explanation is intellectually lazy and emotionally convenient. Many people are genuinely struggling. Communities genuinely feel abandoned. Public services are under pressure. People are exhausted financially and emotionally. Many towns across Wales genuinely do feel forgotten. The anger itself is often real. But modern populism is extremely effective at redirecting that anger toward emotionally convenient targets. That is the real danger. Because instead of discussing housing policy, austerity, economic inequality, underinvestment, collapse of local journalism, long-term industrial decline, or failures of governance, society becomes emotionally organised around permanent blame. And once politics becomes psychologically based on outrage and identity rather than problem-solving, democratic culture itself starts weakening. … Wales still has a choice But this situation is not hopeless. And the answer is not censorship. Nor is it dismissing everyone who voted Reform as evil. That usually makes polarisation worse. What Wales urgently needs now is democratic resilience. … What should actually happen now? 𝟭. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶-𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽𝘀 … 𝟮. 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 … 𝟯. 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗵 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺 … 𝟰. 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 … 𝟱. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 … 𝟲. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 – 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 “𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲” … … Because societies do not suddenly become divided overnight. Usually they become divided by one emotionally manipulative headline, one algorithm, one rumour and one dehumanising narrative at a time, until eventually people stop seeing each other as neighbours at all. … Web Archive link
cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/51940381 This in an opinion piece by Yuliia Bond, a refugee from Ukraine who has been living in Caerphilly, Wales, since 2022. … After more than a century of Labour dominance, the political landscape of Wales has fundamentally changed [the Labour Party lost heavily in the recent elections to the Senedd, the Welsh Parliament , while the right-wing Reform Party party surged]. … This was not only a normal democratic swing. It was also the result of a much deeper emotional and informational transformation that has been building quietly across society for years and social media played a massive role in accelerating it. And maybe some people will think I’m exaggerating this. I genuinely hope I am. But coming from Ukraine probably makes me much more sensitive to changes in public language, disinformation and emotional radicalisation than the average person here. People from my part of the world do not really assume democratic stability is permanent anymore. … In the 2024 general election, Reform UK won 20.3% in Caerphilly. One year later, in the 2025 Caerphilly Senedd by-election, Reform jumped to 36%. That is a 15.7 percentage point increase in barely over a year. Then during the 2026 Senedd election campaign, final constituency models for Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni projected Reform around 31-35% of the vote, directly competing with Plaid while Labour collapsed dramatically in former Valleys strongholds. That is not “just a protest vote” anymore. That is a structural political realignment. And it did not happen in a vacuum. … Modern political conflict increasingly operates through information warfare People in the UK often still imagine “disinformation” as something abstract. Something foreign. Something extreme. Something only relevant during wars. But one thing Ukraine understood very quickly is that modern conflicts are fought not only on physical battlefields, but also inside digital information spaces. Russia weaponised disinformation for years before tanks crossed borders. Emotional narratives spread faster than factual corrections. Algorithms rewarded outrage. False stories repeated until they emotionally felt true. Trust slowly eroded. Society polarised. … Ukraine realised very quickly that defending democracy was not only the responsibility of soldiers. So society mobilised. Not only the military. Ordinary people. Researchers. Teachers. Journalists. Volunteers. Students. Community organisers. Online investigators. Digital activists. Ukraine created a Digital Army, but beyond cyber operations there was also something much deeper: a society-wide understanding that information itself had become strategically important. People tracked propaganda. Reported manipulation.Countered false narratives. Protected vulnerable communities. Strengthened digital literacy.Built civic resilience. … Because many people here still underestimate the danger. … Modern propaganda looks far more ordinary … Facebook comments … TikTok clips … Emotionally manipulative headlines … Rage-bait videos … Out-of-context crime stories … “Someone I know said…” … And over time, those narratives emotionally reshape political reality itself. Can’t get housing? Migrants. Public services struggling? Migrants. Crime? Migrants. Economic insecurity? Migrants. National decline? Migrants. … And this is why social media matters so much. Because algorithms are not designed to reward truth. They reward emotional engagement. Fear spreads faster than nuance. Anger spreads faster than statistics.Outrage spreads faster than context. A person can now live in an area with relatively little migration, yet consume hours of emotionally charged immigration content every single week online. … Social media no longer only shapes opinions – it increasingly shapes identity … This is not only about Reform voters And this is important to say clearly. I do not think every Reform voter is racist. That explanation is intellectually lazy and emotionally convenient. Many people are genuinely struggling. Communities genuinely feel abandoned. Public services are under pressure. People are exhausted financially and emotionally. Many towns across Wales genuinely do feel forgotten. The anger itself is often real. But modern populism is extremely effective at redirecting that anger toward emotionally convenient targets. That is the real danger. Because instead of discussing housing policy, austerity, economic inequality, underinvestment, collapse of local journalism, long-term industrial decline, or failures of governance, society becomes emotionally organised around permanent blame. And once politics becomes psychologically based on outrage and identity rather than problem-solving, democratic culture itself starts weakening. … Wales still has a choice But this situation is not hopeless. And the answer is not censorship. Nor is it dismissing everyone who voted Reform as evil. That usually makes polarisation worse. What Wales urgently needs now is democratic resilience. … What should actually happen now? 𝟭. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶-𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽𝘀 … 𝟮. 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 … 𝟯. 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗵 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺 … 𝟰. 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 … 𝟱. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 … 𝟲. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 – 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 “𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲” … … Because societies do not suddenly become divided overnight. Usually they become divided by one emotionally manipulative headline, one algorithm, one rumour and one dehumanising narrative at a time, until eventually people stop seeing each other as neighbours at all. … Web Archive link
This in an opinion piece by Yuliia Bond, a refugee from Ukraine who has been living in Caerphilly, Wales, since 2022. … After more than a century of Labour dominance, the political landscape of Wales has fundamentally changed [the Labour Party lost heavily in the recent elections to the Senedd, the Welsh Parliament , while the right-wing Reform Party party surged]. … This was not only a normal democratic swing. It was also the result of a much deeper emotional and informational transformation that has been building quietly across society for years and social media played a massive role in accelerating it. And maybe some people will think I’m exaggerating this. I genuinely hope I am. But coming from Ukraine probably makes me much more sensitive to changes in public language, disinformation and emotional radicalisation than the average person here. People from my part of the world do not really assume democratic stability is permanent anymore. … In the 2024 general election, Reform UK won 20.3% in Caerphilly. One year later, in the 2025 Caerphilly Senedd by-election, Reform jumped to 36%. That is a 15.7 percentage point increase in barely over a year. Then during the 2026 Senedd election campaign, final constituency models for Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni projected Reform around 31-35% of the vote, directly competing with Plaid while Labour collapsed dramatically in former Valleys strongholds. That is not “just a protest vote” anymore. That is a structural political realignment. And it did not happen in a vacuum. … Modern political conflict increasingly operates through information warfare People in the UK often still imagine “disinformation” as something abstract. Something foreign. Something extreme. Something only relevant during wars. But one thing Ukraine understood very quickly is that modern conflicts are fought not only on physical battlefields, but also inside digital information spaces. Russia weaponised disinformation for years before tanks crossed borders. Emotional narratives spread faster than factual corrections. Algorithms rewarded outrage. False stories repeated until they emotionally felt true. Trust slowly eroded. Society polarised. … Ukraine realised very quickly that defending democracy was not only the responsibility of soldiers. So society mobilised. Not only the military. Ordinary people. Researchers. Teachers. Journalists. Volunteers. Students. Community organisers. Online investigators. Digital activists. Ukraine created a Digital Army, but beyond cyber operations there was also something much deeper: a society-wide understanding that information itself had become strategically important. People tracked propaganda. Reported manipulation.Countered false narratives. Protected vulnerable communities. Strengthened digital literacy.Built civic resilience. … Because many people here still underestimate the danger. … Modern propaganda looks far more ordinary … Facebook comments … TikTok clips … Emotionally manipulative headlines … Rage-bait videos … Out-of-context crime stories … “Someone I know said…” … And over time, those narratives emotionally reshape political reality itself. Can’t get housing? Migrants. Public services struggling? Migrants. Crime? Migrants. Economic insecurity? Migrants. National decline? Migrants. … And this is why social media matters so much. Because algorithms are not designed to reward truth. They reward emotional engagement. Fear spreads faster than nuance. Anger spreads faster than statistics.Outrage spreads faster than context. A person can now live in an area with relatively little migration, yet consume hours of emotionally charged immigration content every single week online. … Social media no longer only shapes opinions – it increasingly shapes identity … This is not only about Reform voters And this is important to say clearly. I do not think every Reform voter is racist. That explanation is intellectually lazy and emotionally convenient. Many people are genuinely struggling. Communities genuinely feel abandoned. Public services are under pressure. People are exhausted financially and emotionally. Many towns across Wales genuinely do feel forgotten. The anger itself is often real. But modern populism is extremely effective at redirecting that anger toward emotionally convenient targets. That is the real danger. Because instead of discussing housing policy, austerity, economic inequality, underinvestment, collapse of local journalism, long-term industrial decline, or failures of governance, society becomes emotionally organised around permanent blame. And once politics becomes psychologically based on outrage and identity rather than problem-solving, democratic culture itself starts weakening. … Wales still has a choice But this situation is not hopeless. And the answer is not censorship. Nor is it dismissing everyone who voted Reform as evil. That usually makes polarisation worse. What Wales urgently needs now is democratic resilience. … What should actually happen now? 𝟭. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶-𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽𝘀 … 𝟮. 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 … 𝟯. 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗵 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺 … 𝟰. 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 … 𝟱. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 … 𝟲. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 – 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 “𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲” … … Because societies do not suddenly become divided overnight. Usually they become divided by one emotionally manipulative headline, one algorithm, one rumour and one dehumanising narrative at a time, until eventually people stop seeing each other as neighbours at all. … Web Archive link
This wasn’t just an election. It was a verdict. The dust has perfectly settled on last week’s local elections, and what a glorious, blood-soaked carnival of neoliberal failure it was. Labour eviscerated The Labour Party, under the watchful, slightly constipated gaze of Keir Starmer, has been eviscerated. More than 1,400 councillors are gone and control of dozens of councils evaporated like the morning mist over a fracked countryside. In the north, heartlands that once beat with the red pulse of organised labour turned to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in numbers that should terrify every suit in Westminster. The Greens picked up hundreds of seats too, because when your government offers nothing but warm words and cold cuts to the working class, people will grasp at any alternative. I won’t pretend the Greens are the pure saviours of the left, though their gains are a bright spot. But at least they are offering something closer to genuine alternatives in places like Lewisham and Hackney. All branding, no kick So, let’s start with the man at the top. Keir Starmer, the once-great socialist hope who turned out to be the political equivalent of decaffeinated coffee – all of the branding but none of the kick. The red wall was supposed to be rebuilt, brick by brick, with hope and public investment. Instead, we’ve had two years of Starmerism, which is no more than a beige ideology that blends Tory austerity with a smug human rights lawyer’s lecture on fiscal responsibility. Labour were hammered because NHS waiting lists are still a national disgrace. The housing crisis is worsening and wages stagnate while fat cat energy bosses laugh all the way to their offshore accounts. And don’t get me started on the deeply flawed migration policy that somehow manages to be both inhumane enough to alienate the left and ineffective enough to hand Reform UK a stick to poke them with. And what of Keir Starmer’s response to the epic battering? He “took responsibility” in that trademarked way of his – the one where he sounds like a headmaster explaining why the school trip was cancelled due to fiscal restraints. More managerial piffle There has been no resignation. No leadership contest, yet. Just more of the same managerial piffle about delivering change, as if the electorate didn’t notice that his idea of change is rebranding the same old capitulation to markets, donors, and focus groups. The man ran on a platform of not being the Tories, and then governed like their ever-so-slightly more competent cousin who still sends Christmas cards to the CBI. Here was a party that purged its left-wing with the ruthless efficiency of a Stalinist show trial, only to discover that, without actual socialism, they had nothing to offer the people who clean their offices, drive their Ubers, and staff their hospitals. The purge of the Corbynites was supposed to make Labour electable. Turns out it made them forgettable. Working-class voters didn’t abandon Labour because it was too left-wing; they abandoned Labour because it abandoned them. Peacocking Farage Meanwhile, in comes Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, strutting like a peacock that’s just discovered TikTok. Farage’s merry band of racist populists gained over 1,400 seats themselves, snatching councils from Labour in places like Barnsley, Bradford, and Sunderland. Be in no doubt, Reform is not the answer. They’re the question, asked in the most obnoxious accent possible. Their politics is a toxic cocktail of anti-immigrant scapegoating, culture-war drivel, and promises to cut taxes for the rich while magically fixing public services. Farage offers the political version of those miracle weight-loss pills. Swallow this, blame the foreigners and the tofu-eating wokesters, and everything will be fine. It won’t work. It never does. Rage channelled into nativism Not all Reform voters in these elections were secret fascists cackling over a pint. Many were angry, decent people watching their communities crumble under decades of neglect – first New Labour’s warmongering and PFI scams, then Tory austerity, then Starmer’s continuation of the same failed ideological vandalism. Reform channels that rage into nativism because it’s easier than admitting the real enemy is a capitalist system. Isn’t it funny how they continuously rail against “elites” while their financial backers include the same hedge-fund types and offshore interests who’ve been hoovering up wealth for generations? Perhaps you’re not supposed to notice? To Reform voters, just in case you stumble upon this. Your anger is entirely valid, but your diagnosis is absolutely wrong. Blaming the brown person down the road won’t nationalise the railways, build council houses or bring down energy bills. The new Reform councillors will now have to do the unglamorous work of fixing potholes and arguing over bin collections – tasks that don’t lend themselves to viral rants about “the blob”. Seriously, I cannot wait for the first Reform-run council to discover that stopping the boats doesn’t magically repair the roof of the local leisure centre. A brutal mirror The local election results are a brutal mirror. Starmer’s Labour looked into it and saw a party that had become indistinguishable from the establishment it once opposed. Reform looked and saw an opportunity to surf the wave of discontent without offering structural change. Both are symptoms of the same disease – a broken economic system that concentrates power and wealth while preaching meritocracy and resilience to those left behind. Featured image via the Canary By Rachael Swindon From Canary via This RSS Feed.
Lihat kiriman asli pada platform media sosial terkait.
cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/49020 In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Norway for the fourth time since the beginning of the Russia-NATO proxy war in his country. The two governments signed a joint declaration on defense and security cooperation, which confirmed that Ukrainian drones will be produced in Norway. This did not raise any eyebrows despite the direct connection to the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran: Ukraine has signed defense agreements with Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar for the provision of drones. Even CNN noted that “Zelensky demonstrated how the war in Iran and the war in Ukraine interconnect.” CNN advised Washington to not view “the two campaigns as separate.” This puts—or should put—Rødt, Norway’s main radical left party, in an awkward position. Although the Red Party is against the war on Iran, it enthusiastically supports Norwegian weapon shipments to the Zelenskyy regime. This self-described anti-Imperialist party raised no objections to the joint declaration. Rødt says that it supports Ukrainians’ right to self-determination. But has the party considered the Ukraine-U.S. Mineral Resources Agreement? This pact established the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund (URIF), jointly managed by the U.S. and Ukraine on a 50-50 basis. Article 6.5 states that future U.S. military support, “in any form (including the donation of weapons systems, ammunition, technology or training),” will be counted as “capital contribution” to the fund based on “assessed value of such military assistance”; which means “assessed” by the U.S. given its leverage. Thus the U.S. share of the fund increases even without money being spent. The joint management ensures tax-free preferential access to American companies, and the Kiev regime has thus potentially set the stage for the largest value transfer to American companies in modern times. The joint management also provides the U.S. with de facto control of investment choices and dividends. In other words, Ukraine is subject to predatory U.S. economic control. Not surprisingly, the URIF’s first investment supported a drone manufacturer, satisfying imperialist needs. The agreement has been compared to the Treaty of Versailles. The difference, of course, is that the Versailles treaty was imposed on Germany by its “enemies,” while the Mineral Resources Agreement was gladly accepted by Kiev. Not that long ago, Ukraine and its Western backers would not tolerate any talk of a peace agreement or negotiations, but today the situation is completely reversed, with Trump dictating a ceasefire. The issues that caused irritation yesterday are accepted now, and the proxy war has thus further strengthened Ukraine’s status as a vassal of imperialism. The decisive military and economic support from imperialism has not made Ukraine more independent, but, on the contrary, it is now more dependent than ever. Self-determination is a mere charade in this scenario. Rødt’s members should be aware that a NATO-led victory in Ukraine will strengthen the very powers which supported Israel during the genocide of Gaza. A pro-imperialist Ukrainian victory, a Russian victory, or a peace deal brokered by the major powers will only perpetuate the division of the Ukrainian working class along pro-Western and pro-Russian lines. Real Ukrainian self-determination, both political and economic, can only be achieved by a unified working class which appeals to the Russian working class while ruthlessly opposing the Russian invasion and Western imperialism, including its Ukrainian agents, with a socialist perspective. But a socialist perspective is exactly what Rødt lacks when it supports a regime which promises to transform Ukraine into a “big Israel.” As we wrote previously, Rødt has radical rhetoric but pro-NATO policies. The political decomposition of Rødt is a direct result of a lack of political education and discussion within the party. The leadership has shifted the focus away from building a grassroots movement for radical change — instead it aims to win concessions within the framework of the bourgeois state. The party has no socialist perspective or a soviet strategy due the predominance of Maoist and social democratic ideas. The goal of dismantling the bourgeois state and replacing it with a workers’ state based on proletarian institutions and self-organization is completely alien to Rødt. By giving support to the minority government of the Labour Party under Jonas Gahr Støre, Rødt has integrated itself into the bourgeois state. It is natural that this domestic integration also affects Rødt’s international politics as well. The party’s rightward trajectory has caused tensions with the Red Youth. In an internal note, the latter point out, A challenge as Rødt grows is that the party becomes dependent on paid party officials and full-time politicians. In these groups, distinct class interests emerge inside the party. Those who live off the movement develop an objective self-interest in maintaining party support through high voter numbers, which is naturally most easily secured by keeping the party’s policies palatable. In other words, Rødt has developed a layer of bureaucrats whose livelihood is dependent on Rødt’s increasingly social democratic orientation. As Matías Maiello and Emilio Albamonte remark: “The labor bureaucracy has been (and is) the vanguard for ‘organizing’ bourgeois hegemony within proletarian organizations. This objective is pursued through both ideological and coercive means, in different combinations depending on the situation.” Since Rødt’s leadership is unable to convince anyone, let alone the Red Youth, ideologically, it is increasingly deploying coercive means. Leading members of Rødt have publicly contemplated severing ties with the youth, and in March, the Red Youth published a sarcastic TikTok video, exposing the media’s double standards. An improvised device had exploded outside the U.S. embassy, with no one hurt. The Red Youth pointed out that this led to widespread condemnation, while the media response to the U.S.-Israeli bombing of a girls’ school in Minab in Iran, which killed 120 children, was muted. This video led to outrage across the political spectrum, and Rødt leaders joined with far-right figures to denounce their own youth. Recently, before the Red Youth congress, a proposal to dismantle the Norwegian army and replace it with popular militias organized by the labor movement got major pushback by leading members of Rødt. Red Youth nonetheless adopted a similar resolution — a demand that strikes at the heart of the bourgeois state. For Rødt’s leadership, eager to be seen as a responsible mainstream party that respects bourgeois norms, this is unacceptable. Rødt is following in the footsteps of other supposedly radical left parties in Europe, such as Syriza in Greece or Podemos in Spain. And this is happening at the time when the whole capitalist and imperialist world system is in a deadly crisis. But there are revolutionary socialist tendencies fighting for an anticapitalist alternative based on the principle of working-class independence. A radical reorientation is needed. The goal is to fight for the self-organization of the working class, and create proletarian institutions totally independent of the state, rather than adapting to the bourgeoisie’s rule. A left-wing party is not an end in itself, and the metric of its usefulness under current circumstances is its ability to organize a pole of revolutionary opposition and to revive the proletariat as a hegemonic subject, both on the national and international level. The post Norway’s Red Youth in Troubled Waters appeared first on Left Voice. From Left Voice via This RSS Feed.
By Caitlin Johnstone – May 11, 2026 In a fawning softball 60 Minutes interviewreleased Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the importance of winning “the propaganda war” on social media. This comes as Israel moves to quadruple its propaganda budget to $730 million a year. Major Garrett (which apparently is a real name belonging to a real guy who works for 60 Minutes) told the CBS audience that “Netanyahu attributes the reputational harm to Israel almost entirely to social media, which he calls the eighth front of the war.” “This is yours, right?” asked Netanyahu, picking up Garrett’s phone. “You’re not immune either. Because you can penetrate this machine, you can penetrate this little instrument, and you can say about Major Garrett anything you want. And I can paint you as a monster. And if I say it often enough, enough people will believe it.” According to a Pew survey published last month, 60% of U.S. adults viewed Israel unfavorably, up nearly 20 points in four years. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the rise of social media is a major reason for this decline. https://t.co/QP4ESNtjGq pic.twitter.com/miCEwFYLX3 — 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) May 10, 2026 “We have seen the deterioration of the support for Israel in the United States almost — I would say, it correlates almost 100 percent with the geometric rise of social media,” said Netanyahu, adding, “We have several countries that basically manipulated social media. And they do it in a clever way. And that’s something that has hurt us badly.” “Israel is besieged on the media front, on the propaganda front, and we’ve not done well on the propaganda war,” the prime minister lamented. Netanyahu has been repeatedly stressing the need for more aggressive propaganda manipulation as public opinion of Israel plummets worldwide. Earlier this year he told The Economist that “I’d like to do everything I can to fight the propaganda war waged against us,” complaining that “we’ve been using cavalry against f-35s, because they’ve flooded the social networks with the fake bots and many other things.” Despite having the entire western political-media class bending over backwards to protect Israel’s image, Netanyahu consistently frames his country’s struggle for narrative control as a brave little David figure standing up against the colossal Goliath of anti-Zionist social media users. Last year the Israeli leader claimed that Israel is losing the propaganda war because “there are vast forces arrayed against us,” denouncing “the algorithms of the social network that are driving a lot of everything else.” In a meeting with American social media influencers last year, the prime minister spoke of how vital the forced sale of TikTok has been for Israeli information interests, and said that Elon Musk could help facilitate Israeli PR on the X platform as well. “We have to fight back. How do we fight back? Our influencers,” Netanyahu said. “We have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefields in which we’re engaged, and the most important ones are on social media.” Of course, the possibility of Israel improving its public image by simply murdering fewer people and doing fewer evil things is never even considered. Its is taken as a given that shoving pro-Israel messaging down everyone’s throat is the only way to sway public opinion in a positive direction. The Western Media War: How Larry Ellison Runs Propaganda for ‘Israel’ It is under this framing that Israel has again massively increased its propaganda budget for the year, after having massively increased it from what it was the year before. The Jerusalem Post reports the following: “Israel is betting nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars that it can talk its way out of a reputation crisis. “Lawmakers in Jerusalem approved a 2026 national budget last month that includes roughly $730 million for public diplomacy — the broad category known in Hebrew as hasbara — more than four times the $150 million they allocated the year before. That earlier sum was itself about 20 times what Israel had spent on such efforts before the war in Gaza broke out in 2023. “The unprecedented expenditure comes as survey after survey shows declining support for Israel in the United States, its most important ally. A Pew Research Center poll released earlier this month found 60% of Americans now view Israel unfavorably, up seven points in a single year, with only 37% viewing it favorably.” If you saw a guy spending 730 million dollars on media operations to manipulate people into thinking he is not an asshole, what could you reasonably conclude about that guy’s personality? https://t.co/giH4e1vYUY — Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) May 5, 2026 So you know how you’re already seeing an insane amount of pro-Israel propaganda and running into aggressive Zionist trolls online? You can expect that to get a whole lot worse. Narrative manipulation has served Israel well over the years, but there’s a limit to how much propaganda can accomplish. If I walked up to you and spat in your face, there’s no amount of verbiage I could throw at you to convince you I’m actually a nice person. There’s only so much carnage people can watch on their phones before you can no longer convince them it’s not what it looks like. The propaganda has already hit a point of diminishing returns, and soon it’s going to start having a reverse effect. People are going to start hating Israel for all the evil things it’s been doing, and then hating it even more for all its in-your-face perception management operations to manipulate their thoughts and feelings. At some point the hasbarists are themselves going to inadvertently become anti-Zionist propaganda agents, just because they make Israel look so creepy with the way they’re always trying to stick their rapey fingers into everyone’s mind. The truth can only be concealed and distorted for so long. (Caitlin’s Newsletter) From Orinoco Tribune via This RSS Feed.