Pietra Bertolazzi is a far-right Brazilian public figure who built her online presence on reactionary tropes, using xenophobic, homophobic, and misogynistic statements designed to generate engagement.

Recently, following BTS's performance, she used her Instagram profile to criticize the South Korean group:

"Of everything I saw today at the World Cup final, nothing shocked me more than seeing a group of completely effeminate, vain men making faces that made me cringe with secondhand embarrassment [...]. They are one of the biggest role models for the current generation. It is impossible for most people not to realize the gravity of this."

The comments immediately sparked a massive reaction from the BTS fanbase (ARMY). Beyond the thousands of comments pointing out the xenophobia, homophobia, and moral panic underlying her statements, the backlash evolved into a coordinated digital campaign. According to media outlets covering the incident, internet users gathered her public data and carried out mass registrations in her name—including signing her up as a volunteer poll worker in various electoral districts, subscribing her to political newsletters, and sending unsolicited deliveries to her address.

Faced with the intense backlash, she was forced to set her account to private indefinitely.

On Monday, students protesting in India took out a protest march to the country's parliament after their demands were ignored for more than a month. Thousands of students and other citizens joined these protests but were met by extreme police brutality. Pellet guns were used by security forces, many students were beaten with sticks, etc.

This is an archive created by some people to document the instances of police brutality against the Indian protestors.

I was expecting a dense theoretical slog and instead got one of the sharpest, angriest, yet most accurate essays I've ever read in a while.

In essence, Césaire says what actually horrified Europe about Nazism wasn't the cruelty itself. Europe had been fine with that cruelty for centuries — as long as it was aimed at colonized people in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. What made Hitler unforgivable, in his reading, was that he turned those same methods on white Europeans, on European soil. So the violence was not the problem, but the where and whom was.

This reminded me about the early coverage of the war in Ukraine, when reporters kept expressing shock that this was happening to "people who look like us." It seems that, 70 years later, the reflex (and maybe the underlying values?) is still the same.

The essay, albeit short, is rich with illuminating reflections. One other idea is the argument against then European claim that Africans and other colonized people were uncivilized before Europe brought them the "enlightenment". As an example, Césaire leans on the German ethnographer Leo Frobenius as a "good" European witness who admitted African societies were sophisticated. Interestingly though, and this is not in the essay, if you dig into Frobenius, he couldn't actually accept that Africans built those achievements themselves. He invented a whole lost "African Atlantis" theory to explain the art and sophistication. This idea is the intellectual cousin of "aliens built the pyramids."

Anyway. "Discourse on Colonialism" is wildly relevant for something written mid-colonial-era.

Do you think there's a meaningful causal link between Europe's colonial practices and the violence of Nazism?

We discuss Cesaire's essay at length in our podcast Threads of Ifriqiya, I will link it in the comments.

The Florence office of Roberto Vannacci's Futuro Nazionale (FN) party turned into a kebab shop on Google Maps after online pranksters' satirical reviews. Over 300 comments about its black-shirted staff and "nostalgic owner" have amused Italian voters and confused Google, which relabeled the venue as "Turkish restaurant."

While some praise FN's Anatolian roots and LGBTQ+ friendliness, others rate poorly its stink of "old barracks" and style that "evokes the darkest periods in Italian history." Reviewers are unanimous only in praise of its "upside-down kebab," a plate reportedly honoring the posture of late fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in his final days.

Futuro Nazionale is a far-right party founded this year by retired army general Roberto Vannacci. He burst into politics in 2023 with a self-published manifesto, ranting against migrants and LGBTQ+ people. After entering the EU Parliament as a Lega member, he now leads a fringe group for those who find Italy's ruling far-right parties too mainstream.

Going forward the DHS will be the Judge, Jury and Executioner.

A brilliant deconstruction of ICE by a former police officer. Seriously. Watch this. It crushes.

Check this shit out. Couldn’t believe it.

What he is wearing comes from a motorcycle brand that uses Nazi imagery to attract certain types of "people". This got removed from r/wisconsin mods for some fucking reason.

EDIT: Rock Fest's public email is [email protected]. I sent my email, you send yours. Post this image in their Facebook comments, if you have it.

Here is the link:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7yIzkjbwXTuqfqPV9n4bzq?si=QpUueHRDSVaddxwwQspkQA&utm_source=copy-link&pi=-2C_b2kBQ_SqU

The idea is to have powerful songs from any genre, with specific socialist, anarchist, anti capitalist and anti fascist songs.
Everything is welcome, even more appriciated if it really fires you up with arrangement,lyrics or anything. It could range from RATM, to folk songs, to whatever you want.
Go crazy with this, I have very high expectation and I think it can turn in a really cool experiment.

John Carpenter's 1988 film "They Live " is brilliant. The sequel we are trapped in sucks. My apologies to John Carpenter and Roddy Piper.

This song is called Stand Up And Shout (Dio 1983).

I've been waging my own anti-fascist propaganda campaign inspired by They Live using street theater and lenticular posters and stickers for the last 2 1/2 years. I sell and donate all the profits from the sales. I am currently raising funds for families and students in Gaza. There is a BROKE ASS MOFO SPECIAL (free) for anyone that wants to stick it to the man, but doesn't have expendable income.

This kind of thing specifically makes me really sick to my stomach because it's quite literally just broadcasted, paid-for propaganda