If you have a narrative about the Sydney siege, here are some facts you need to account for: The siege was carried out by a Muslim man who was a self-styled cleric and who had recently proclaimed his conversion from Shia to Sunni (an especially big deal in the current context in the Middle East) […]
21 Jan
Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic. A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, […]
11 Oct
Comments Off on GUEST POST: Psy, ‘Gangnam Style’ and the politics of satire
Sometimes, just sometimes, a foreign pop music phenomenon breaks through the barriers erected around the English-language markets that dominate global music profit-making. Without doubt the grating dance-pop of South Korean hit “Gangnam Style” represents one of these moments. Complete with a novelty dance, the song’s music video has gone viral on YouTube and the track […]
08 May
Today, I’ll be reviewing George Megalogenis’ book, The Australian Moment, for you*. It is notable for two things. Firstly, it is hymn to Australia’s class war from above reform era of the 1980s and 90s — but tinged also with regret that since about 1993 the political class has lost the will to fight the good […]
08 May
Today, I’ll be reviewing George Megalogenis’ book, The Australian Moment, for you*. It is notable for two things. Firstly, it is hymn to Australia’s class war from above reform era of the 1980s and 90s — but tinged also with regret that since about 1993 the political class has lost the will to fight the good […]
27 Apr
Comments Off on Breivik update: A thoroughly modern fascist media strategy
My piece from Overland Journal’s website earlier this week. I also spoke to the L.A. Times on this topic last weekend. Based on his own criteria, the response of Western political and media establishments to Anders Breivik’s murder of 77 people last July has played out much better than he could have hoped. I have […]
20 Apr
With Anders Breivik’s trial underway, Left Flank will be analysing the politics both here and at the Overland website. Below we reprint the first of two parts of an abridged extract from the e-book that Guy Rundle, Elizabeth Humphrys and I edited last year, On Utøya: Anders Breivik, Right Terror, Racism and Europe. The chapter […]
08 Apr
Welcome to the first post of the new Left Flank. We’ve moved from Blogger to WordPress, hosted at the lovely http://nuttify.com/ As you can see we’re still working on porting all the old comments from Disqus to the new platform. Time to change your RSS feed or subscribe by email (see the sidebar on the […]
01 Oct
Comments Off on Premature celebration? The Bolt verdict & the Left’s missing critique of the state
In this blog post I want to argue that the Bolt verdict is a problematic “victory” against the right-wing pundit and the Right more generally. Without wanting to diminish abhorrent and manifestly racist character of Bolt’s attack on “fair-skinned” Aboriginal people, I think that any celebration of the result by the Left is premature and […]
20 Sep
Comments Off on Limits of liberal critique: Murdoch, the media & the Manne Quarterly Essay
Not so omnipotent anymore Cross-posted from Overland Journal‘s blog and ABC’s The Drum. The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its […]
18 Dec
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