#dictatorship

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quoted The Mission by Tim Weiner

Tim Weiner: The Mission (AudiobookFormat, Mariner Books)

The CIA had been at the heart of almost every American attempt to overthrow foreign governments for more than fifty years, supporting uprisings, subverting rulers, stealing elections. But rarely had its officers conducted covert operations that catapulted the leader of a nation to power. In the cold war, the station chief in the Congo had installed the tyrant Gen. Joseph Mobutu, a coup in Iran had put the imperious Shah on the Peacock Throne, counterinsurgency in the Philippines kept the kleptocrat Ferdinand Marcos secure. These three had reigned for decades, backed by American intelligence, diplomacy, and weapons. The United States supported their brutal and corrupt regimes as bulwarks of anticommunism and American power in Africa and the Middle East and Asia. They brought stability, until they fell.

— The Mission by 

#USA #CIA #TimWeiner #dictatorship #overthrow #fascism

started reading History and Politics of Star Wars by Chris Kempshall

Chris Kempshall: History and Politics of Star Wars No rating

I've decided to start this book, after watching the recent excellent video on the #StarWars Series #Andor by #transwoman youtuber Jessie Gender (www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjMsPsaVyr8), which cites this study multiple times. I also feel that this could be an interesting tengential approach to the issue of #autoritarism and #fascism, as it appears that George Lucas' political messages (because, yes, Star Wars has always been political and well, woke) is based more on a popular idea of what #dictatorship and #imperialism are based more than on pure historical and political science theory. This is like looking at something from the embossed traces it left on the ground. It might also help me choose my next readings on these topics, while making for a really agreable reading, as I'm now quite exhausted and not in the state to digest more complexe analysis.

Today in Labor History October 24, 1947: Walt Disney testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming many of his own employees as communists, including Herbert Sorrell, David Hilberman and William Pomerance, because of their activism as union organizers. In 1993, the New York Times wrote that Disney had been passing secrets to the FBI from 1940 until his death in 1966. In return, J. Edgar Hoover let Disney film in FBI headquarters in Washington and made Disney a "full Special Agent in Charge Contact."

In 1971, Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart published “How to Read Donald Duck,” a book-length essay critiquing Disney comics as capitalist propaganda for U.S. corporate and cultural imperialism. It became a bestseller throughout Latin America and is still considered a seminal work in cultural studies. It was first published in Valparaiso, Chile when Allende was in power. Pinochet banned it and conducted public book …

Image of a pissed off Mickey Mouse marching, with an AFL button and a sign that reads: Disney Unfair

This has been pretty obvious for some time now, and it's been totally crazy for me how people have not been talking about it.

But finally he just out and out said it, so now people seem to take it seriously. Let's hope this doesn't just go away with the news cycle. We have to keep reminding people that if Trump wins this one time, the most powerful country in the world will be a fascistic theocratic dictatorship forever!

All top four posts on r/all Hot are about Trump saying that if he wins you won't have to vote ever again

Big Caesars and Little Caesars
How they rise and how they fall - from Julius Caesar to Boris Johnson

Who said that dictatorship was dead? The world today is full of Strong Men and their imitators. Caesarism is alive and well. Yet in modern times it's become a strangely neglected subject. Ferdinand Mount opens up a fascinating exploration of how and why Caesars seize power and why they fall.

@bookstodon