Benjamin Marshall responds to those on the left who have dismissed the mass rebellion in France as undisciplined chaos.
Le coût du chaos : cela devient effrayant… et tout est de la faute de Trump
traduction française du billet de blog "The cost of chaos: This is getting scary" de Paul Krugman
Alex Colston on Twitter / X
People are complaining about no good leftist analysis on the riots in France. Don’t do that. Read these instead.https://t.co/fkdOrmiygOhttps://t.co/QQZHYl0Fcahttps://t.co/H9atg8mrNA— Alex Colston (@re_colston) October 18, 2026
France: Thousands of protesters wrongly punished under draconian laws in pre and post COVID-19 crackdown
Three years after Emmanuel Macron made an election pledge to protect the right to peaceful assembly, peaceful protest faces an unprecedented attack
Book and Journals Publisher – 2025 - Lawrence Wishart
Lawrence Wishart have been publishing critical left ideas on politics and culture since 1936. Through books, journals and events, we foster a space where people can think together, challenge political ‘common sense’ and explore new possibilities.
How a Papal Ban Reshaped the French Right – The Journal of Politics Blog
Political extremism is often attributed to voter anger and broader structural socioeconomic conditions. From this perspective, efforts to counter extremist movements may appear futile, since such groups are seen as deeply embedded in the contexts from which they arise. But is this necessarily the case? To address this question, we examine the Papal condemnation of an influential far-right movement in interwar France.
Substack Data | Chaotic Era
A newsletter about politics, media, and online influence in Democracy’s chaotic era. Written by Kyle Tharp.
Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences
POLITICS AFTER THE END OF THE END OF HISTORYWhat happens when politics is everywhere, yet nothing seems to change? From the abandoned dance floors of Thatcher’s London to the mass mobilizations of Black Lives Matter, Anton Jäger traces how public life has become infused with protest, spectacle, and moral urgency — while the old infrastructure of parties, unions, and civic solidarity has been hollowed out.Hyperpolitics revisits the illusions of the “end of history” and dissects the strange energies that replaced them: viral outrage, endless culture wars, and the digital rush of causes that flare and vanish overnight. Jäger shows how the promises of post–Cold War liberalism gave way to a restless, unsteady public sphere where private passions overflow into politics but rarely build enduring power.Ranging from Guy Debord and Wolfgang Tillmans to Houellebecq’s disenchanted fictions, Hyperpolitics makes sense of a world in which collective action remains fragmented and the social fabric thinner than ever. For anyone trying to grasp why our age feels so charged yet so inconsequential, this book offers a vital map through the new contradictions of our hyperpolitical moment.
French ministers send mixed messages as school student anger rises and new protests loom
Hundreds of secondary schools across France have been hit by protests and blockades as students protest against crumbling buildings, poorly equipped classrooms, overcrowded classes and a lack of tea…
The AI/Fascism Nexus
The AI/Fascism Nexus By Alex Oops, we did it again. I can't say that I'm terribly surprised, as Harris ran a center right campaign and tossed a mighty chunk...
Dylan Riley & Robert Brenner, The Long Downturn and Its Political Res…
archived 3 Dec 2025 14:47:22 UTC
Jonathan Stray (@jonathanstray180913)
Thank you for this. As someone who's been involved in bridge-building for a while (and peace building, which is what this is called internationally) I have some thoughts. The main thing I want to get across is this: it's important to understand what the goals of bridge-building are and aren't. For example, the goal is not to promote progressive politics. That's the job of progressives. The goal is to have a functioning democracy where conflicts are resolved without violence or destruction. There are many ways to support this this, as the Burgesses have documented (see https://www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/53-roles-that-make-democracy-work) I think you are right that the Trump administration presents a clear danger to our democracy. I also think that this message has been shouted from the rooftops for years, and it did not prevent him from winning a fair election. I don't see why shouting it louder will be successful now. And I do think the left has some responsibility for this situation, which will have to be acknowledged before anyone on the right will be willing to collaborate across political difference. Minimally, I think many of the responses to Trump's polarizing actions were themselves polarizing when they didn't have to be -- an own goal. In my view, this happened because most people are not trained to think about conflict the way that professional peace builders are. The problem, as I see it, is that Trump can get away with dismantling democracy because far too many people are so angry that they support him. If this analysis is correct, the the winning strategy -- winning in the sense of democracy-preserving, not progressive-politics-advancing -- is for "us" to unite with "them" to against authoritarianism and corruption. This strategy is sometimes called "repolarization." The goal is to change the axis of conflict, not to remove or suppress conflict. This view has been explicitly expressed by, among others, political scientist Jennifer McCoy, whom I recently interviewed (https://www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/repolarize-to-depolarize) For more on this strategy, from the progressive viewpoint, see also: Shikha Dalmia’s keynote at the recent “Liberalism for the 21st Century” conference Liberals Need Moral Clarity, Not Moral Purity, in Their Struggle Against Authoritarianism https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/liberals-need-moral-clarity-not-moral john a. powell's paper discussing how bridging and racial justice activism relate Overcoming Toxic Polarization: Lessons in Effective Bridging https://lawandinequality.org/article/overcoming-toxic-polarization/ Thanks for writing, and thanks for reading.
Becoming Alive, Autonomous, and Explosive • Ill Will
Interview with the Invisible Committee on "Survival Manual" and the ongoing uprising in France.
Charlie Kirk, Ezra Klein, and the Cost of Civility-Theater Liberalism
“Talking across divides” is laudable—until it becomes a license to launder antidemocratic and dehumanizing ideas.
