31 agosto, 2020
por Felipe Sahagún
Sin comentarios
31 agosto, 2020
por Felipe Sahagún
Sin comentarios
People Betrayed by Paul Preston review – a magisterial study of Spain’s turbulent past
From Primo de Rivera to General Franco …
a lively account of corruption, political incompetence and social division in modern Spain
By Helen Graham (The Guardian, April 2, 2020)
Paul Preston is Britain’s foremost historian of contemporary Spain. A People Betrayed is a magisterial study of its turbulent past, seen through the optic of those apparently ineradicable twins: corruption and political incompetence. Preston’s central argument is that these phenomena undermined the possibility of political and social cohesion in Spain when the country emerged into the 20th century as an urbanising and industrialising society.
While corruption and political incompetence were, and are, prevalent in Spain, they are scarcely unique to it. Yet there has been a pronounced tendency among British authors to write with condescension about Spain’s “troubles”. Preston himself has never done so, and has never engaged in the mythologising of “untroubled” Britain that accompanies it. The fact that he wrote A People Betrayed in the shadow of Brexit, with its home-grown pathology of lies, corruption and eye-popping incompetence, means there is much in his acute analysis of another country’s ills to illuminate our own present malaise.
The book’s dual valency – past and present – is a helpful bonus, though not a surprising one. For the corruption Preston investigates in Spain, especially its tentacular embeddedness, comes with the territory of modern states and societies. Their ever greater complexity creates new opportunities for dishonesty and manipulation, notably now at the opaque interface between government and private and corporate interest. Reading Preston on the state as milch cow for the privileged in 19th- and early 20th-century Spain has a depressing present-day ring to it. (Even though for some decades we have lived with the neoliberal paradox that rightwingers are happy to milk the state but now do so while lambasting it as “expensive”, restrictive and a bad thing all round.)
Related
The long history of corruption in Spanish politics (The New Statesman) – by Nicholas Fearn
‘A People Betrayed’ Review: Robbery Under Law (WSJ) – by Tunku Varadarajan
31 agosto, 2020
por Felipe Sahagún
Sin comentarios
31 agosto, 2020
por Felipe Sahagún
Sin comentarios
The Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment 2020 investigates US–China great-power competition, US alliances and partnerships, the implications for Asia of the end of the INF Treaty, the breakdown in Japan–South Korea relations, the diplomatic deadlock on the Korean Peninsula and the role of regional and extra-regional middle powers like Australia, Indonesia and European actors.
31 agosto, 2020
por Felipe Sahagún
Sin comentarios
Reuters vi Haaretz
REUTERS-
A bipartisan pair of U.S. congressmen last Tuesday introduced a resolution condemning the fringe movement and calling on law enforcement to block criminal activity by its adherents
QAnon followers espouse an intertwined series of beliefs, based on anonymous web postings from “Q,” who claims to have insider knowledge of the Trump administration.
A core tenet of the conspiracy theory is that U.S. President Donald Trump is secretly fighting a cabal of child-sex predators that includes prominent Democrats, Hollywood elites and “deep state” allies.
QAnon, which borrows some elements from the bogus “pizzagate” theory about a pedophile ring run out of a Washington restaurant, has become a “big tent” conspiracy theory encompassing misinformation about topics ranging from alien landings to vaccine safety.
Followers of QAnon say a so-called Great Awakening is coming to bring salvation.
HOW HAS IT SPREAD ONLINE?
The ‘Q’ posts, which started in 2017 on the message board 4chan, are now posted on 8kun, a rebranded version of the shuttered web board 8chan. QAnon has been amplified on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, the video streaming service of Alphabet Inc’s Google.
Media investigations have shown that social media recommendation algorithms can drive people who show an interest in conspiracy theories towards more material.
A report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) found that the number of users engaging in discussion of QAnon on Twitter and Facebook have surged this year, with membership of QAnon groups on Facebook growing 120 percent in March.
Researchers say that Russian government-supported organizations are playing a small but increasing role amplifying the conspiracy theories.
QAnon backers helped to organize real-life protests against child trafficking in August and were involved in a pro-police demonstration in Portland, Oregon.
QAnon also looks poised to gain a toehold in the U.S. House of Representatives, with at least one Republican candidate who espouses its beliefs on track to win in the November elections.
Project Syndicate@ProSynThere is no easy solution to the problem posed by #conspiracy theories; yet according to @Helmut_Anheier and @andrearoemmele of @thehertieschool, much more could be done. bit.ly/3hkTGPl
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QAnon is conspiratorial, dangerous, and growing
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The Evangelicals Who Are Taking On QAnon
30 agosto, 2020
por Felipe Sahagún
Sin comentarios
SEAN MACKAOUI v @elmundoes
Jorge Benítez (El Mundo, 29 de agosto de 2020)
Damos un paseo por Instagram. Hay estrellas de la NBA lanzando mensajes de denuncia contra el racismo. Hay algún cantante pop que despotrica contra las vacunas del coronavirus. Se ve también mucha gente guapa. Guapa de verdad. Tanta, que encontramos cirujanos plásticos que alertan de las «expectativas» generadas por los filtros usados en las fotos. En las esquinas más oscuras del paseo se pueden contratar los servicios de una prostituta, comprar un gramo de cocaína o un colágeno que hace milagros. Por poder, se puede hasta adoptar a un niño monísimo. Continue leyendo →