Ben Burgis is a Jacobin columnist, an adjunct philosophy professor at Rutgers University, and the host of the YouTube show and podcast Give Them An Argument. He’s the author of several books, most recently Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters.
Apologists for Israel’s bombing spree of schools and hospitals in Gaza say Hamas is using the civilians there as “human shields.” But that justification makes no sense even if we accept the premise — in a hostage situation, you don’t just kill the hostage.
Capitalism’s proponents often defend it by pointing to the virtues of markets. But capitalism isn’t defined by the presence of markets — it’s defined by capitalists’ domination of workers.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is not a hateful slogan or a call for violence — it’s a call for democracy and equal rights for all.
Capitalism’s defenders often claim that it protects “negative freedom” — an individual’s freedom from others interfering with their choices. But Marxist philosopher G. A. Cohen showed that capitalism systematically denies people just this kind of freedom.
Pro-Palestine congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is being smeared as pro-terrorism in a massive new ad by the Democratic Majority for Israel. But the pro-Israel group’s lies are transparent — and polls show that Democratic voters are more on Tlaib’s side.
Medical schools in the United States used to acquire corpses for research from literal grave robbers. They don’t anymore — but in most US states, your corpse may still end up on a medical slab without your consent if no one will pick up the tab to bury you.
Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street movies rank among the most iconic horror films. They say more than you’d think about the decades when they were made, starting with the cultural anxieties of the Reagan era.
In 1982, then-Senator Joe Biden met with Israel’s leader amid its bloody invasion of Lebanon. Biden expressed support for the campaign, and even speculated the US would be similarly justified in bombing Canadian cities in retaliation for militant attacks.
From the New York State Legislature to the halls of Congress, democratic socialist elected officials have been taking a brave stand against the bloodshed in Gaza — and calling for an immediate cease-fire.
Joe Biden just landed in Israel. There’s no individual on the planet better positioned to stop Israel’s assault on civilians in Gaza, push for a cease-fire, and lay the groundwork for a just and lasting peace. But Biden won’t.
While mainstream politicians are supporting Israeli violence against civilians in Gaza, some in the media have focused on denouncing the left-wing group Democratic Socialists of America — and in doing so, they’ve played fast and loose with the facts.
As Israel launches a brutal assault on Gaza with US aid, it’s important for Americans to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians — and to avoid lazy thinking that treats them as a single collective entity thinking and acting in lockstep.
Democratic socialist politicians like Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib are right about the violence in Israel and Palestine: we should both be mourning civilian deaths and calling for an end to the Israeli occupation.
California governor Gavin Newsom, who has been dubbed the “leader of liberal America,” has snubbed labor repeatedly in recent weeks — eliminating union jobs by allowing self-driving buses and vetoing a bill to extend unemployment to striking workers.
Manhattan Institute fellow Allison Schrager argues in a nationally syndicated opinion piece that unions can best serve their members by focusing on insurance schemes and cooperating to find boss-friendly solutions. That’s nonsense.
Last night’s Republican presidential debate made a mockery of the idea that the GOP is anything other than the party of the boss.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman was one of the loudest cheerleaders for the war in Iraq. His condemnation of Putin’s “war of choice” in Ukraine — a horrific act of aggression, like Bush’s war — could be a word-for-word rebuke of what he wrote then.
Karl Marx was an analytically rigorous theoretician. But his 1853 article “The Duchess of Sutherland and Slavery” is a good reminder that he was also motivated by white-hot outrage about injustice.
The political right is a diverse intellectual tradition and world-making project. But there’s one thing that unites every variant of right-wing ideology: the belief that society will improve if we give up on the dream of a world where people are equal.
Reactions to Oliver Anthony’s viral hit, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” have played out along drearily predictable culture-war lines. But Billy Bragg’s response, “Rich Men Earning North of a Million,” instructing Anthony to “join a union, brother,” perfectly cuts through the noise.