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Democracy

The East-Side Gallery, CNN and Fairytales

Similar to the narrative of the “victor”, where it is claimed that the reunification of Germany was due to the USA and not to Gorbachev, CNN is trying to equate the creation of the East Side Gallery in Berlin to…

The Struggle To Vote, From the Suffragettes To Today

One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote in the United States. The women’s suffrage movement took decades of organizing to achieve success, from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, to mass civil disobedience and protest leading up…

Why people vote for politicians they know are liars

Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol for The Conversation Britain recently elected a prime minister who unlawfully shut down parliament to escape democratic scrutiny and who tells blatant falsehoods whenever it suits him. Boris Johnson casually denies the presence of media…

Five Lessons for Journalism in the Age of Rage– & Where Lies Travel Faster Than Truth

By Karin Pettersson The news-media industry has long lamented how the digital revolution has broken its business models. Today, a majority of digital advertising money goes to Facebook and Google, and media companies are struggling to reinvent themselves through digital…

Quo vadis East Side Gallery?

Despite its enormous popularity, the East Side Gallery has been neglected, left to decay, and hacked into pieces, parts sold off and the rest declared a dead museum piece. This work of art and the symbol it represents for the…

Dangers and questions of the Zuckerberg era

This year the Worldwide Web is thirty years old. For the first time since 1435, a citizen from Brazil could exchange their views and information with another in Finland. The Internet, the communications infrastructure for the Web is a little…

If Voting Is So Important, Why Aren’t Fair, Open, Verifiable Elections Important?

By David Swanson It’s impossible in U.S. society not to frequently encounter the demand to vote, no matter what, no matter for whom, as a basic civic duty. Voting is supremely important, we’re told, a right, a responsibility, a moral…

Why ‘the will of the people’ is a myth in British democracy

British people are fundamentally disempowered by our political system. Other countries show that there’s another way. By George Monbiot for The Guardian They promised sovereignty, but at first it was unclear which variety of sovereignty they meant. Were the politicians…

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson prorogation of Parliament unlawful. Unanimous Supreme Court judgement

The UK Supreme Court 11 justices have delivered a unanimous and damning judgement on Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue Parliament for five weeks, according to him in order to prepare the next Queen’s speech (something the judges say it only…

Boris Johnson to seek UK general election – but purging his party of rebels changes the rules of the game

Matthew Cole, University of Birmingham for The Conversation Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, has confirmed that he will call a vote on holding a general election if MPs legislate to block a no-deal Brexit. His pledge came after he…

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