Savage Minds

Ramzy Baroud, journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle, discusses being born and raised in Gaza while also covering the greater history of Palestine: from British colonialism, the rise of Zionism and the decision that someone made to mythologise Palestine as “a land with no people,” a historical exchange to rewrite, rename, and reinvent the land of Palestine to belong to someone else, except the land indeed had people. Responding to the claims of those who deny the genocide or who have clung to the rape fictions that were created by the state of Israel in tandem with legacy media, which resorted to racist stereotypes of Arabs “as rapists” in order to seamlessly encourage the public acceptance of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. Baroud notes how the Western focus on “the treatment of women in Palestine” has become a convenient derail to the larger issue of genocide, to which he recounts the story of his sister, a physician who was assassinated by Israel last year and whose life’s work has left a legacy for both Palestinian men and women. Baroud narrates how the legacy of Palestinian women, including his grandmother, have always been at the centre of their society, observing that Western feminists have simply embraced Orientalist language of old while completely forgetting that it is colonialism and military occupation that oppress women. Baroud also relates how many Palestinian women have given birth at checkpoints, as the IDF blocks their access to hospital care, and he asks: Where were these Western feminists who didn’t say a thing while these women were forced to give birth at checkpoints, during a most intimate moment in their lives and under the gaze of IDF soldiers watch? Where were these Western feminists’ voices when the 17.000 women were butchered and raped by the Israeli army? Baroud goes on to narrate Israel’s direct attacks on the storytellers of Palestine—the journalists, historians, and scholars—many of whom have come under legal attacks and various other forms of intimidation while also addressing the hasbara replete within western media representations of Palestine. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Zahi Zalloua, Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature and Director of Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity Studies at Whitman College, discusses the relevance of Edward’s Orientalism in the face of the current genocide in Gaza as he addresses the challenge of our times in “unlearning Zionism in fascist times,” which necessitates an “ontological upheaval.” Zalloua discusses the racial logic at the heart of the Zionist project which is a reproduction of colonialism and European racism which, he argues, not only still has purchase, but which also undergirds the historical horrors of what Europe allowed to happen on its soil, whereby the mass dispossession and subjection of Palestinians became the byproduct of European guilt. Addressing the problems of Western feminists who perpetuate the racist fantasy of the “black rapist” that has plagued feminist communities for decades, noting how, during the height of the MeToo movement, white women were shocked by black women who resisted joining this movement, entirely oblivious to the racist backdrop of Empire and of false rape accusations historically levied against men of colour. Arguing that we need to stop seeing Palestinians merely as victims, as this leads to numerous actors being blamed for their victimhood (eg. Hamas, the extremist politicians in Israel) while eliding the major structure responsible for the situation into which Palestinians were forced in 1948, Zalloua underscores the need to directly address the settler-colonial framework in both its historical inception and current practices. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Thomas Fazi, independent researcher, writer and journalist, discusses the current situation of the war in Ukraine and how the European elite have utilised this conflict to continue waging economic warfare on their own people, which he explains, together with the sanctions imposed, is a tale of self-sabotage. Detailing how Western nations assumed that their sanctions would “cripple the Russian economy,” Fazi elaborates how the precise opposite has occurred: Russia has weathered these sanctions quite steadily because the West and NATO have lost their “blackmail power” to isolate countries. Additionally, Fazi notes the paradox of how Russia’s economy benefited from these sanctions, giving it the drive to focus on its production while western countries were the ones that were harmed most by the blowback of these sanctions, as Europe has driven up poverty rates while industrial nations have been forced to deindustrialise. Analysing the economic devastation that has ravaged Europe as a result, Fazi highlights the collapse of meaning and direction within European culture and society that has cumulatively resulted in significant discontent and anti-immigrant sentiment, while Europe, in supporting the current genocide in Gaza and in having provoked the war in Ukraine, even ensuring its continuation, have fallen into a complete moral vacuum. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

David Miller, sociologist, writer and investigative researcher, discusses how his 2019 lecture on Zionism encourages Islamophobia at the University of Bristol resulted in allegations of antisemitism by students against Miller for which there was an investigation, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism was suddenly adopted by the university, and his comments were found not to be unlawful, after which Miller faced reprisal for his own innocence in the matter, even after his sacking from the university in 2021. Miller discusses the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which he observes is the new antisemitism, as the product of the Zionist regime and has been purposefully designed to “blur the distinction between racism against Jews…and criticism of Israel.” Noting that we are “past the time” for such conflations to be made, Miller rightly indicates how this definition is an ideological construction that exists uniquely to silence criticism of Israel and its many atrocities. Underscoring how the central cultural references in the West that inform our cultural memory focus upon the horrors of the Holocaust, while rarely, if ever, referring to myriad other genocides, Miller considers how these other genocides have not had the advantage of hasbara that has ensured that only one type of genocide is recorded. Miller ponders the founding of Israel and the terrorism of the Haganah and other terror gangs, which paradoxically have admitted to rapes and the throwing of young children into ovens, noting how these details of Israel’s historical origins almost eight decades ago, to include the many pogroms committed against Palestinians, mirror and perfectly recycle Israel’s propaganda about Hamas. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Nick Cleveland-Stout, a Research Associate in the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses his research into Israel’s having hired a conservative-aligned firm, Clock Tower X LLC, led by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, to create websites and content designed to train AI models like ChatGPT with pro-Israel messaging aimed primarily at Gen Z audiences. Discussing how Israel is also paying a cohort of 14-18 social media influencers around $7,000 per post, Cleveland-State observes how none of these influencers are neither registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) nor are they marking their social media posts as being distributed on behalf of Israel. Cleveland-Stout assesses how Parscale, having previously engaged the services of the microtargeting firm Cambridge Analytica, is influencing how AI GPT models like ChatGPT are being trained to frame topics and respond to them on behalf of Israel. Cleveland-Stout considers how Larry Ellison is poised to establish a media dynasty with his recent purchase of CBS News, of which his son David has taken control, while Ellison is planning a bid for CNN’s parent company, as well as Trump having tapped him to purchase TikTok. All this in addition to Ellison having donated $16.6 million in 2017 to Friends of the IDF, which was the largest-ever donation to the organisation. Cleveland-Stout also details his research into how tens of millions of dollars have been flooding American think tanks directly from foreign governments and defence contractors, with the hope of influencing the analysis of these think tanks, which usually are rubber-stamped as “objective analysis” and who are frequently invited onto legacy media programmes to disseminate their research as “experts.” Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Charles Derber, Professor of Sociology at Boston College, discusses his latest book Bonfire: American Sociocide, Broken Relations, and the Quest for Democracy (Routledge, 2025) and why sociocide is a most relevant and pressing societal issue facing our societies, what Derber views as a collective suicide of society by the “we” and the rise of the “me” superceding all social connections. Covering the disappearance of labour unions and their participation in the United States, Derber details the vanishing of vital social spaces, such as family and work, resulting in the breakdown of social relations and a conterminous increase in authoritarianism. Historicising the sociopathy of early American capitalism with the rise of the “robber barons” such as John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie, Derber notes how capitalism skewed society’s dominant values towards the antisocial, leading to the breakdown of society. Derber also notes how, despite the exploitative nature of employment throughout the 19th century, workers could count on a certain measure of continuity. With the rise of neoliberalism and Big Tech in the late twentieth century, Derber details how today’s worker exploitation by far surpasses the exploitation of previous eras, as the employment relationship today is now largely contingent, with workers burning out much more quickly whilst being paid less than survival wages, making the exploitation of the 19th century look almost desirable by comparison. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Gilbert Achcar, Emeritus Professor at SOAS, University of London, discusses his latest book, The Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective (2025), while also analysing the violence and scope of Israel’s response to 7 October 2023, to include the clearly stated genocidal intention by Israeli leaders. Covering how the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) started to flatten Gaza with 1-tonne bombs dropped on urban settings with the end goal of killing tens of thousands of people with no regard for civilian lives, Achcar notes how the Israeli government seized the opportunity of 7 October in order to effect its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Historicising the US-Israel relationship, Achcar chronicles how Israel did not always have a strategic alliance with the United States, but that this alliance grew sharply in the mid-1960s just as the US was losing ground in the Middle East due to the rise of Arab nationalism and Israel’s blow to Egypt and Syria during the Six-Day War. Achcar examines the deterioration of Israel’s image on the international stage from its invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the First Intifada in 1987, the Second Intifada in the 2000s, and 7 October 2023, while he elucidates how the Zionist movement has resorted to the instrumentalisation of the Holocaust and false accusations of antisemitism to deflect criticisms of its genocidal actions. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Joti Brar, chair of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist CPGB-ML), discusses the compassionless media coverage of the genocide in Gaza and the obfuscation of the horrors of the siege in Gaza, much less the fact that contrary to legacy media, the violence has gone on for far longer than two years. Similarly, workers of the world recognise the pervasiveness of similar propaganda within their own trade unions which are often complicit with the bourgeois propaganda of the ruling elite. As a result, workers today, Brar relates, feel powerless in the absence of strong leadership within their unions. Stressing the need for workers to start making demands of their unions and governments, Brar runs through a list of demands upon which we must all insist, from the breaking of links with the pseudo-leftist parties such as the Labour Party in the UK or the Democratic Party in the US, to refusing to allow the state to oversee the running and organisation of unions, and the building up of strike funds. Brar also notes how workers are increasingly disenfranchised and angry as governments promote culture wars and tribalism (eg. climate change, immigration, and gender ideology) in order to pivot workers against each other, while media and politicians collude with each other, promoting one side as wrong, the other as right, leading populations to bypass reason and to identify with the ruling class. Brar also chronicles the root problems of mass migration, a phenomenon primarily caused by wars and the follow-up looting process promoted by Western nations, all while the imperialist class benefits from paying the bare minimum in immigrant wages while driving a wedge between members of the domestic working class and the immigrant working class, creating an anti-migrant fear. Covering the positive influence of her father, Harpal Brar, on her political education, Brar historicises mid-twentieth century Marxist organisation within Britain in which both her father and mother participated. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

Nina Power, writer and editor, discusses the collapse of the left-right divide that has characterised the contemporary era of political thought, along with the exhaustion of concepts that have plagued Western discourse. Analysing the “perpetual present” where hyperbole dominates mainstream discussions, such that “Nazi” and “fascist” are lazily involved to such a degree that these terms and their signified have become virtually meaningless, Power notes the political divide today, which is drawn between those who stand on principle and those who do not. In an era where asking certain questions will mark the subject, Power analyses the mechanisms within society today that have vested interests in repressing free speech, such that today approximately thirty people a day are arrested within the UK for their written words and even their thoughts (for praying outside abortion clinics). Power notes the current cultural focus upon semiotic violence that punishes the subject more severely than actual violence, while observing that this “semiotic psychosis” lends more weight to words than to reality and truth, fomenting a “conceptual, abstract terror.” Weighing in on those who have engaged in impassioned speech, such as the online post made by Lucy Connolly in the wake of the Southport killings which led to her imprisonment and an ensuing row over free speech in the UK, Power questions the lack of clemency for those who have been caught up in the legal clash between laws that ostensibly guarantee freedom of expression and opposing laws which denote certain speech as “hate speech.” Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Charles LeBaron, a former Center for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiologist, discusses his recent book, Greed to Do Good: The Untold Story of CDC's Disastrous War on Opioids: A CDC Physician's Personal Account (Amplify Publishing, 2024). LeBaron discusses the nationwide opioid crisis which has left, over the past two decades, a million Americans dead from opioid overdoses while noting how each year there are now twice as many deaths from overdoses as from breast cancer or colon cancer and more deaths than from automobiles and firearms combined. Noting how the implementation of CDC interventions had the paradoxical effect of “turbocharging the opioid epidemic,” LeBaron carefully analyses what went wrong, the gross improprieties conducted by Big Pharmaceutical companies, and how bad policy led to the opioid crisis in America. A physician who has seen first-hand the impact of opioids on the poor populations he treated in Appalachia and in prison, LeBaron sheds light on the class and status discriminations that are part and parcel of the wrong-minded approach to drug addiction in the United States that has riddled the country’s history. Fundamentally, LeBaron argues for a better and more scientific approach to addressing the crisis while detailing the country’s dysfunctional system in handling the crisis and analysing some working models that might actually improve the situation. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe