Savage Minds

Catherine Liu, Professor of Film and Media Studies at UC Irvine, discusses her forthcoming book, Traumatized: The New Politics of Suffering (Verso, 2026), wherein she elucidates the emergence of trauma culture, tracing it back to psychoanalysis and the reification of mental health in post-war America. Analysing the fetishisation and recognition of feelings, Liu historicises the explosion of psychoanalysis in the United States in the 1950s and the rise of New Left in the 1960s, which advanced “the personal is political,” an idea quickly adopted by second-wave feminists. Observing how the discourse of trauma has permeated all areas of society, such that feelings have been prioritised over knowledge and “centering feelings” has replaced scientific inquiry, Liu critiques how the professional managerial class thrives on rebranding, promoting credentials, and creating new identities, all in order to advance the collapse of the separation between work and leisure. Noting how workers have fought for years to maintain a separation of work from leisure time, Liu muses on the invasive, destructive force of the Silicon Valley New Left and professional middle-class feminists who have driven the insistence of a non-differentiated space where “we are always at work”, therefore our private lives are expected to be “on display through our performance virtue.” She examines the dynamics of how anti-normativity and transgression function within the writings of Michel Foucault, since they invariably strengthen normativity. Nonetheless, Liu vituperates the bastardisation of these valences under the scope of identity politics, which forces the merging of one’s personal life, politics, and intellectual practices. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation and Research Professor at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, historicises the way “famine” in the postcolonial era was an extremely emotional word for which, fifty years ago, there were no appropriate structures nor any objective scientific metric for understanding where or when famine was occurring. By 1984-1985, however, the neoliberal governments of Thatcher and Reagan became deeply embarrassed by the famine in Ethiopia, de Waal narrates. From this embarrassment, an industry of refining the metrics of understanding what counted as famine, and what did not, was born, and from this, the IPC, or Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, was developed as the standardised UN system used to classify the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition in a specific area. De Waal discusses how the international aid system has been shackled into into viewing famine in a very apolitical way, refusing to exam the structural causes driving famine largely because international NGOs steered away from criticising governments in order to maintain cooperation for their relief work and that Western publics give assistance to victims of natural disasters as part of the “white saviour” theatre which depends upon eliding the political causes. Declaiming the importance of photography in chronicling the history of famine—from the Warsaw Ghetto, to the famine in Ethiopia (1983-1985), and Gaza—de Waal observes the dual role of these photos: first, that the perpetrator of famine was not only absent from the frame, but was often the person taking the photo; and second, that because the perpetrator was rarely within the frame, the subjects of these photos were often blamed as the true perpetrators of famine, such that Jews attempting to preserve a “veneer of normality” in the Warsaw Ghetto or Palestinians in Gaza who are more portly, were ultimatley inculpated as the cause of the famine. Considering the merits of Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET), he notes that it lacks the key element of examining the policies and intention of those doing the starvation. De Waal underscores that “to starve” does not just refer to the experience of people starving, but it also means the act of starving people, as he goes on to describe how the East India Company, through onerous taxation from 1769 to 1770, created a famine in Bihar and Bengal, ultimately killing one-third of the population. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Celine-Marie Pascale, professor emerita of sociology at American University, discusses her book Living on the Edge (2021), wherein she details her research into the struggling communities across the United States—from Appalachia to the Standing Rock and Wind River reservations to Oakland, California—who face the hardships of stagnant wages and rising costs of living. Analysing the experiences of people emanating from communities that deal with systemic, entrenched levels of poverty, Pascale uncovers the “social organisation of power relations that keep people submerged in poverty, that actually make poverty profitable,” calls out the “American dream” as much more of a myth than a reality, similar to the adjacent myth of “class mobility.” Considering how “capitalism depends upon a large, poorly paid workforce,” Pascale observes that in order to maintain the workforce without rebellion, these myths are turned against the workers and the poor, essentially telling workers that if they are struggling to put food on the table or take care of their families, that the fault lies with the worker and not with the system, not with capitalism. Historicising the lack of class consciousness in the United States, she notes how workers are cannibalised by capitalism while advanced capitalism, Pascale contends, “cannibalises itself.” Pascale critiques the federal measure of poverty, narrating how such standardisation for the cost of living is “untethered from reality” since it makes no distinction for food or rent costs in areas where food is imported (eg, Alaska and Hawaii) or where rent is extremely high (eg, San Francisco and New York). Covering her work on the violence against Native American women, Pascale assesses the high rates of violence and sex trafficking networks which fuel “man camps”—temporary housing facilities for a large workforce, typically in isolated areas where men are recruited to work on resource extraction or construction projects (eg, oil, gas or mining)—that have a documented correlation with increased rates of sexual assault, violence, and sex trafficking. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Heather Brunskell-Evans, philosopher of politics, author, and academic, speaks about her experience of having protested against the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, whereby she held a placard upon which she wrote “I oppose genocide” and “I support Palestine Action.” After holding up her sign, within seconds, Brunskell-Evans was arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 and was swiftly detained. Describing being held in solitary confinement overnight and detailing her treatment in detention, to include being enclosed in a caged area, Brunskell-Evans observes the juxtaposition of two types of police partisanship where, the Pride fluffy arm bands that adorned some of these officers symbolise the wider police support of gender ideology and its concommitant endangerment to women’s safety, on the one hand, and on the other, the police force’s disregard for civil liberties and the freedom of expression to protest a genocide. Criticising the gender-critical feminist movement which has remained tighly affixed to Zionism and Islamophobia, Bruskell-Evans vituperates the “intellectual paucity” and “lack of ethics” at the heart of western feminism that denies the many incidents of sexual violence recorded by international and national NGOs, documenting decades of rape and sexual assault perpetrated by the Israeli forces against Palestinian men and women. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

David Abdulah, a Trinidad and Tobago trade unionist, economist and politician and the current leader of the Movement for Social Justice, speaks about the vigil for peace in Woodford Square, Port of Spain, which is one of many popular efforts by the citizens of his country to ask that the United States government stop its strikes on vessels from the region. Analysing how the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has been supportive of the US actions over the past two months, where vessels have been destroyed and people killed (the death toll from these campaigns now rests at 70), Abdulah notes how the people of his country oppose military deployment, war, and regime change. Recalling the history of US interventionism in Latin America and the Caribbean, Abdulah underscores how this operation by the United States is simply a refashioned WMD, where, instead of alleged weapons of mass destruction, the US government has simply utilised the “drug war” narrative, while contending that the boats it has destroyed have allegedly been the vessels of drug trafficking operations. Noting how the US has absolutely no right to lecture anyone on the “drug trade,” Abdulah recalls how, during the Reagan administration in the 1980s, the US government authorised the transport and sale of cocaine from Latin America to support and finance its efforts to destabilise governments in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Even if these boats were those of drug traffickers, Abdulah insists upon the rejection of the Monroe Doctrine while underscoring the moral principles of peace, while also observing that due process is being completely obliterated and that the US is engaging in extrajudicial killings with zero regard for the law. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Omer Bartov, an Israeli-American scholar and Dean’s Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University, reviews the definition of genocide as established within the Genocide Convention of 1948 as he analyses the trajectory of events in Gaza from 7 October 2023 to the Spring 2024 when the IDF moved into Rafah and proceeded systematically destroy Gaza with the goal of making it unhinhabitable for its population. Noting that the Knesset used 7 October as an opportunity to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip, he observes that Israel’s actions proved unsuccessful since there was no place to push the Palestinians. This is the moment, Bartov observes, when the situation devolved into genocide, resembling many other genocides throughout the 20th century, which began as ethnic cleansing but ended up as the mass killing of populations. Declaring that by July 2025, a consensus had been formed among the majority of genocide scholars and experts in international law, he expresses astonishment at the fact that legacy media have still not begun to employ the term “genocide” to describe what is now an agreed fact by international experts. Historicising how ethnic cleansing often turns into genocide, Bartov offers examples from the Germans’ ethnic cleansing turned genocide of the Herero in what is present-day Namibia, the Armenian genocide by Türkiye, where vast numbers of Armenians were pushed into the Syrian desert and perished, to the coextensive labour and extermination camps of the Nazis during World War II. Addressing the reality that many Israelis and Jews, when they hear the word “genocide,” they think of the Holocaust, Bartov criticises this mentality since the Holocaust has become a central theme within Israeli national identity since the 1980s. He contends that Israelis view the Holocaust as “not only something that happened in the past, it is something that can happen any moment. That we are always under existential threat…And that threat is represented by the Palestinians.” Bartov explains that this genocide is, in part, a reaction to fear within the core of Israeli identity that has resulted in Israel’s mass murder of Palestinians, largely because Israelis view Palestinians as their existential threat. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Haim Bresheeth, filmmaker and historian, discusses the growing trend in Britain and the West to curtail free speech concerning criticisms of Israel and Zionism as he details his arrest in London for protesting against the genocide in Gaza. Declaring that the freedom of expression, ostensibly guaranteed in Western democracies, no longer exists, Bresheeth observes how criticism of Gaza is being silenced through changes in the laws regarding the demonstrations and reporting on the current genocide perpetuated by Israel. He notes the irony in how today it is perfectly acceptable for Israel to commit genocide, killing tens of thousands of children, but it is not acceptable to criticise the crime of genocide as such criticism has been criminalised. Declaiming that there is “nothing Jewish” about genocide, settler colonialism, or killing children, he notes the paradox of how Israel has weaponised the Holocaust and Jewish identity to support its current genocide while besmirching anyone who disagrees with claims of “antisemitism.” Historicising Europe’s role in genocides and colonialism for centuries, Bresheeth compares this genocide to that of the Nazis and considers the role of the 300,000 Israeli citizens who have been drafted in order to carry out this genocide and the social psychosis that enables them to do so. Considering the role Islamophobia plays in the genocide of Palestinians, he discusses the historical importance of the convivencia, when Muslims and Jews co-existed in harmony in Andalusia. Bresheeth observes how Europeans would never have had their Renaissance without the rich cultural, artistic, and scientific heritage of Arabo-Muslim societies which preserved and translated Western literature and scientific texts due to the widespread burning of these texts by Western churches. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, joins Heather Brunskell-Evans and Julian Vigo to discuss her mission as United Nations Special Rapporteur and the consequences, changing dimensions, and the greater challenges of her role. Responding to the criticism she has received for her views on gender ideology, on the one hand, and criticisms by feminists who view women in hijab as less deserving of human rights protections, Alsalem relates how occupation and colonialism impacts this demographic quite differently as she notes how both the degradation of women in hijab and women who “identify as men” are similarly rendered invisible through the very ideologies that pretend to speak for them. Alsalem tackles the divisive issue of the alleged rapes claimed by the Israeli government and legacy media on 7 October 2023 and the incoherence of Western feminism that parrots the debunked reports while simultaneously egging on a genocide. Analysing the report by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC), Alsalem underscores how the mandate for this report was not investigative noting that a later investigation, undertaken by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry in June 2024, issued a report that clearly states that it “has not been able to independently verify such allegations, due to a lack of access to victims, witnesses and crime sites and the obstruction of its investigations by the Israeli authorities.” Alsalem details how the lie that Israel spun regarding the alleged rapes of Israeli women on 7 October has been completely debunked by an independent body, while noting that the widespread evidence documenting Israel’s pattern of sexual violence towards Palestinian men and women has been completely ignored by Western media and governments.We are reader-supported. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Amit Singh, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) at the University of Coimbra, discusses Hindutva, a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India, as well as the dangers it poses to religious minorities today. Covering Narendra Modi’s trajectory from Gujarat’s Chief Minister from 2001 to 2014 to the Indian head of state, Singh explains how the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and other far-right Hindutva groups have created conflicts between Hindus and Muslims in order to destabilise communal balance, Singh describes how India’s colonial past has been polarised by far-right Hindu nationalist groups who have aimed at Christian, Muslim and other Indian minority religious groups in order to create division within India on a social level, while Modi and other BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) cohorts have enacted draconian legislation which is aimed at maintaining the Hindutva majority status with the political and bureaucratic plateaus while conterminously creating conflicts throughout the country. Covering the recent history of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the only Indian territory with a Muslim majority, Singh contends that the application of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which divides Kashmir into regions while artificially populating the area with Hindus, is all part of a greater plan by the BJP to further sow sectarian divides politically which nourish the growing social divide between religious minorities and Hindus, while completely abandoning the forty-second Amendment of the Indian Constitution (1976) whereby the Preamble to the Constitution asserts that India is a secular nation. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Ori Goldberg, an independent analyst and specialist in Middle Eastern Studies, analyses the profound militarisation within his country, Israel, that involves the “desensitivisation as to the very existence of Palestinians as human beings” such that Israelis themselves know nothing about Palestinians, resulting in the only permissible history of Israel being that of the Jewish narrative. Covering the deeply ideological and historical “zero-sum game” whereby Israelis are uniquely allowed access to the narrative of victimisation, Goldberg explains the refusal of Israelis to see the humanity of Palestinians, remarking, “If they are acknowledged as full-fledged humans, then there is something wrong with us, there is something that undermines our right to live here.” Observing how the desensitisation of Israelis to Palestinians functions, Goldberg claims that Israelis do not possess the language to describe Palestinians “except as a threat” in the second order; however, Israeli’s first order of understanding the Palestinian is that of “nothingness” where Palestinian deaths “don’t even register.” Assessing the greatest weakness of Israel—that it does not register the reality of Palestinians—Goldberg describes how a member of Knesset stated that the only health risk facing Gazans is “obesity,” noting, “That is not how you want to talk about a people who actively, consciously want to vanquish—it’s how you talk about a people whose existence seems like a fantasy to you to begin with.” The fact that Israel attacks at will and kills indiscriminately, Goldberg asserts, is not significant in terms of its strategic power. To the contrary, Goldberg suggests that Israel’s main weakness, despite its aggression, is that it has alienated even its closest allies while also coming very close to being a failed state. Suggesting that Israel can only be saved through a “strategic implosion” that will ultimately shape its “response and its willingness to accept externally imposed positions,” Goldberg confirms that the light on the horizon is that vast majority of the world’s population no longer cares about Israelis’ feelings or their sense of victimhood, noting that Israel can blame itself for the position in which it has created for itself. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe