scholarly journals “I always place my bet on Red”: Comrade Detective and the Spectre of Communism

Author(s):  
Debayudh Chatterjee

The paper analyses the buddy cop TV show Comrade Detective in the light of Jacques Derrida’s Spectres of Marx (1994) to demonstrate how it launches a satiric critique of the American state and diplomatic machinery in the aftermath of the fall of the Second Bloc. I argue that this visual text, released in 2017, addresses three contemporary global concerns—the dominance of the USA in a unipolar world, the neoliberal celebration of consumerism, and finally, the rise of right-wing religious fanaticism—through a satiric recreation of the bygone regime of communist Romania of the 1980s.

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 072551362110059
Author(s):  
Tamir Bar-On

In this paper, I argue that the Alt-Right needs to be taken seriously by the liberal establishment, the general public, and leftist cultural elites for five main reasons: 1) its ‘right-wing Gramscianism’ borrows from the French New Right ( Nouvelle Droite – ND) and the French and pan-European Identitarian movement. This means that it is engaged in the continuation of a larger Euro-American metapolitical struggle to change hearts and minds on issues related to white nationalism, anti-Semitism, and racialism; 2) it is indebted to the metapolitical evolution of sectors of the violent neo-Nazi and earlier white nationalist movements in the USA; 3) this metapolitical orientation uses the mass media, the internet, and social media in general to reach and influence the masses of Americans; 4) the ‘cultural war’ means that the Alt-Right’s spokesman Richard Spencer, French ND leader Alain de Benoist, and other intellectuals see themselves as a type of Leninist vanguard on the radical right, which borrows from left-wing authors such as Antonio Gramsci and their positions in order to win the metapolitical struggle against ‘dominant’ liberal and left-wing political and cultural elites; and 5) this ‘cultural war’ is intellectually and philosophically sophisticated because it understands the crucial role of culture in destabilizing liberal society and makes use of important philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Schmitt, Julius Evola and others in order to give credence to its revolutionary, racialist, and anti-liberal ideals.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Amalia E. Maulana ◽  
Lexi Z. Hikmah

Subject area Social Marketing, Entertainment Education Program. Study level/applicability Postgraduate program. Master in Strategic Marketing and Master in Business Administration. Case overview In the midst of the many TV shows that do not provide enlightenment, Kick Andy TV Show appeared to provide answers to the public unrest. In the spirit of “Watch with Heart” Kick Andy serves Entertainment-Education and Social rarely glimpsed by the television station. Success of Kick Andy TV Show made this brand doing brand extension such as Kick Andy Foundation, Kick Andy Magazine, Kick Andy Enterprise and others. Challenge for this program is to maintain the right balance between social, entertainment and education. Expected learning outcomes This Case Study illustrates that Kick Andy TV Show filled the value gap that viewers experienced from existing TV show. This show is similar to the offer of Oprah Winfrey Show in the USA. Student is expected to understand social marketing primarily related to entertainment-education TV show. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes.


2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiana Gregoriou

The Dexter TV show, much like the literary series it is closely adapted from, features detective hero Dexter Morgan who, though a blood-spatter analyst and killer hunter, is also a serial killer himself. Unlike other killers featured in fiction though, his murderous actions are specifically code-driven; he only pursues dangerous criminals who escape the law. It is because the show encourages readers to empathise with this somewhat unusual detective that the show attracted not only academic attention from television analysts, philosophers, psychologists, linguists and cultural studies specialists, but significant opposition from such groups as the US Parents Television Council as well. Regardless of whose ideologies it is that the show implies exactly, this article turns to direct viewer-derived data instead, in the form of selected internet forum messages over the first 5 episodes of the fifth series of the show (screened in the USA in the autumn of 2010). The critical linguistic analysis of this data uncovers the ways in which real viewers actually respond to serial killer-related ideologies with respect, for instance, to attitudes toward extreme crime and victim typology in US society. Through a discussion of specific message board strings from Showtime’s online Dexter forum, the article not only accounts for evidence with respect to the show’s implied ideologies, but more particularly investigates viewer reactions to them also.


Author(s):  
Martin Kronauer

The comment takes a critical look at the article “Global Capitalism in a State of Emergency” written by the editorial board and published in PROKLA 185. It appreciates the analytical and political intensions of the article but questions the appropriateness of the term “state of emergency” to characterize global capitalism in its current conditions. It also deplores the lack of consequences of the analysis for the most pressing issue of the rise of right-wing groups and governments in Europe and the USA. In this respect, the comment suggests two topics which urgently deserve the attention of the Left. The first one concerns the reasons for the rise of the Right. The comment argues against the assumption of striking parallels to the rise of fascism in the 1920 and 1930s, proposes an alternative view (the undermining of institutionalized social reciprocity in decades of prevailing neoliberalism), and draws some conclusions. The second topic concerns the overrepresentation of workers among the supporters of right-wing parties. Here the comment calls upon the Left to embark on policies which aim at the regeneration of working-class consciousness and not to go for compromises with nationalism and xenophobia.


Author(s):  
Jacek Zieliński

The necessity of the single migration- and terrorism-related legal policy development within the European Union is undisputed. It may turn out, however, that measures taken would not bring any improvement unless the priorities within such values as equality, respect for diversity, free movement of persons, solidarity and citizens’ security are previously established, sometimes – with a new content. The Author takes the position that the values considered now to be the core of the EU existence and its key achievement can underpin its disintegration. The escalation of migration stimulates centrifugal destructive movements reflected in the increasing impact of the renationalisation philosophy of thinking about Europe on the Community solidarity, fossilisation of social moods and expectations, growing popularity of right-wing parties. All these, in consequence, foster the fossilisation and restrictiveness of law. It is related in part to the fear of globalisation and in part to the excessive regulations at the macro level, therefore to the breach of self-identification security that is getting more and more apparent nowadays. From that perspective, the separation of the contradictions that have arisen between the basic EU values as regards providing single legal policy in the migration area seems to be cognitively valuable. Another issue is to answer the question how this wave of refugees has escalated and whose interest is currently in the destabilisation of Europe. The question is all the more important that the refugees are not heading towards other culturally closer Islamic countries or the USA but the pillar-states of the EU. Vienotas ar migrāciju un terorismu saistītas tiesiskās politikas nepieciešamība Eiropas Savienībā ir neapstrīdama. Tomēr var izrādīties, ka veiktie pasākumi neradīs nekādu uzlabojumu, ja vien kā prioritātes netiks izvirzītas tādas vērtības kā vienlīdzība, cieņa pret dažādību, personu brīva pārvietošanās, solidaritāte un iedzīvotāju drošība, kas jau ir paredzētas, dažreiz – ar jaunu saturu. Autors pauž nostāju, ka vērtības, kas šobrīd ir ES pastāvēšanas kodols un tās galvenais sasniegums, var veicināt tās sabrukumu. Migrācijas eskalācija stimulē destruktīvas centrbēdzes kustības, kas atspoguļojas pieaugošā ietekmē uz renacionalizācijas filozofiju, domājot par Eiropas Kopienas solidaritāti, sociālo noskaņu un vēlmju fosilizāciju, labējo partiju pieaugošo popularitāti. Tas viss var veicināt likuma fosilizāciju un modifikāciju, turklāt tas daļēji ir saistīts ar bailēm no globalizācijas un ar pārmērīgajiem noteikumiem makrolīmenī, līdz ar to pārkāpjot pašidentifikācijas drošību. No šī viedokļa raugoties, pretrunu, kas radušās starp galvenajām ES pamatvērtībām un attiecībā uz vienotu tiesisku politiku migrācijas jomā, nodalīšana ir neapstrīdami nepieciešama. Vēl viens jautājums, kas prasa atbildi, ir: kādēļ šis bēgļu vilnis ir eskalējies un kā interesēs pašlaik notiek destabilizācija Eiropā? Un kāpēc bēgļi nedodas uz citām kultūras ziņā tuvākām islāma valstīm vai ASV, bet gan tieši uz Eiropu?


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maciej Karwowski ◽  
Marta Kowal ◽  
Agata Groyecka ◽  
Michal Bialek ◽  
Izabela Lebuda ◽  
...  

Drawing upon the Parasite Model of Democratization across two preregistered experiments conducted in the USA and Poland (total N = 1,237), we examined the psychological and political consequences of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. By manipulating saliency of COVID-19, we found that activating thinking about coronavirus may elevate Americans' and Poles' anxiety and indirectly promote their social conservatism all the way to support for more conservative presidential candidates. The pattern obtained was consistent in both countries, and it suggests that the pandemic may result in a shift in political views.


2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Radkiewicz

Abstract The terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ cannot describe two extremes of a single ideological dimension. Instead, a bi-dimensional model including socio-cultural and socio-economic facets of leftism/rightism is postulated. Several studies conducted in the USA and Western Europe show a relative coherence of left-wing and right-wing orientation regarding both dimensions, whereas very diverse patterns can be found in the countries of Eastern Europe. In Poland cultural and economic leftism-rightism seem to be clearly negatively related. The general hypothesis in this paper claims that such ideological inconsistency is a product of coherence at the level of preferences for values, i.e. covariance within individualistic (Openness to change and Self-enhancement) as well as within collectivist values (Conservation and Self-transcendence). Based on a survey study (N = 750) conducted on a representative sample of Poles, it was shown that preferences for values made up two distinct dimensions: Openness to change vs Conservation, and Self-enhancement vs Self-transcendence. They are positively related but have fundamentally different relationships with political self-identification and ideology.


2021 ◽  
pp. 209-227
Author(s):  
Stephen Jones

This chapter focuses on realist criminology, a phenomenon that appeared under different names in Britain and the USA during the 1980s. Just as with the re-emergence of interactionism and the development of the ‘new criminologies’ in the 1960s, realist criminology owes much to the political background of the day: what is sometimes referred to as the ‘Reagan–Thatcher Decade’, with right-wing governments in both countries. In such a climate, it is hardly surprising that little interest was shown in considerations of why people commit crimes, but great interest was shown in doing something about it. Out of this, two ‘realisms’ have emerged: a ‘Right Realism’ and a ‘Left Realism’.


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