JohntheDuncan

How is death managed in our current age of neoliberal capitalism? This video explores the concept of "necropolitics" as described primarily by the Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe. Firstly, the concept of necropolitics is described in relation to the work of Michel Foucault and his understanding of biopolitics and in relation to Frantz Fanon and his description of the division of space under colonialism. Next, the ways in which necropolitics operate under neoliberal capitalism are described with particular attention to disable liberation and the figure of the "single mother on welfare". This is followed by the racist and neoimperialist ways in which necropolitics are expressed during the global pandemic and finally similar themes are explored in relation to global warming. 

I'm bored of the way that people talk about free speech! It's always positioned as a debate between competing rights or intellectualised debates on when its ok to censor things but it rarely ever seems to talk about how free speech is a material condition, with material impacts and material constraints which can only be overcome by overcoming the current systems of oppression that exist currently within our society.

This video looks to re-balance some of those conversations by talking about how speech, especially speech which is a threat to current systems, is materially suppressed by capitalism and how the free speech debate itself is a way in which the dominant forms of power sustain themselves.

Part 1 talks about how the media isn't a vehicle for free speech but rather a vehicle for uplifting speech which supports capitalism and the state

Part 2 is about how social media companies, as companies, are subject to many of the same constraints as traditional media and

Video Blurb:

Human rights and Marxism have had a pretty contentious relationship over the years with Marxists claiming that human rights are necessarily bourgeoise ideology and therefore anti-Marxist. This video looks at the question of how much Marxists should engage with human rights by looking at three central Marxist criticisms:

1) Marx was explicitly against human rights

2) That human rights necessarily mask the economic class divisions and are therefore bourgeois ideology

3) That human rights are necessarily tools of western imperialism

By engaging with these criticisms, I show how human rights can benefit from critical Marxist perspectives but also how Marxists can benefit from engaging with human rights