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Narratives Matter in Critical Times https://thebattleground.eu/ > thebattleground.substack.com The Battleground is a non-profit media to counter false narratives and propaganda that are eroding trust in politics and the media.
The Battleground is proud to announce the publication of Josh White's Tories Are Dead: 2024 UK Election Diary. Reviewers, get in touch. Battleground eBooks are distributed worldwide by London's Faber Factory.
📍 thebattleground.eu/book/tories-are-dead/
Europe must decide whether to support America’s war with Iran or pursue a more independent foreign policy. The choice will not be easy. But neither is the alternative...
👇Continue reading at thebattleground.eu
Not in our name. Anti-Iran war protest, Torino.
In Torino, the antiwar protests have been nonstop.
Particularly since October 7th, and Israel's invasion of Gaza. This demonstration was the first against the war in Iran.
Battleground Editor-in-Chief Joel Schalit, with nine new photos for The Battleground.
🔴thebattleground.eu/photo/
They just want it dead.
Neither country has a plan or an expectation of what comes next. This is hardly surprising.
For decades, the United States and Israel have clamoured for Iran’s destruction and have never given a second thought to...
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The American Jewish establishment’s rush to defend the attack on Iran isn’t just pro-Israel. It’s an endorsement of the Christian Zionist belief that Jews are a junior partner in the Evangelical imperial project...
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Your embassy will not hide the occupation. Ha’Aliya Street, Tel Aviv.
Battleground Playlist #92
This week’s playlist compiles like-minded international artists taking apart Israel’s nationalist-in-chief. Equal parts corny and cool, their disaffection is profound.
Explore The Battleground playlists: open.spotify.com/user/1117544...
Giorgia Meloni has discovered that the most useful period of Italian history is not the Fascist era but the Years of Lead (1968-1988).
John Foster, on how Italy’s far-right premier is using memories of the terrorism-plagued period to justify strengthening the state and repressing civil liberties...
It isn’t an easy record. Italo-Spanish duo NosoKoma’s Tarantos 20_24 explores the outer limits of music, inspiring listeners to ask not only what they are listening to but also what they are listening for. Tarantos 20_24 demands a lot of listeners...
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As political organisations weaken, individuals seek immediate recognition; as recognition becomes the currency of participation, organisations struggle to maintain discipline; as discipline declines, bargaining power evaporates...
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The Trump Administration is expanding its network of immigrant detention centres, a move best described as the beginning of a new concentration camp system. No one can operate under any illusion that this is normal democratic behaviour...
📍Continue reading at thebattleground.eu.
In Ronald Lauder and Antisemitism, William Noah Glucroft explores how Holocaust memory is being folded into contemporary geopolitics.
At the centre is Ronald Lauder — president of the World Jewish Congress — whose approach blurs the line between remembrance and political strategy.
As much of Europe shifts right, Spain is choosing a different path.
In The Spanish Exception, Nathan Akehurst explores how Pedro Sánchez has positioned Spain as a rare social democratic outlier.
Photo courtesy of Joel Schalit.
Democracy doesn’t usually collapse overnight.
It’s hollowed out — court by court, rule by rule, ballot by ballot.
This is what a slow-motion coup looks like.
Read Ari Paul’s latest words.
Photo courtesy of Chad Davis.
Explore the photo series at thebattleground.eu
Across several European cities, left-wing protests are reshaping debates around Kurdish autonomy and regional geopolitics.Supporters frame the YPG/YPJ as defenders of equality, women’s rights, and democratic self governance in the face of regional power struggles.
Photograph by Joel Schalit.
Referencing voices like Viet Thanh Nguyen, Charlie Bertsch revisits Wenders’ own earlier words: “Every film is political. Most political of all are those that pretend not to be.”
Photo courtesy of Joel Schalit.
In Ruthless Cosmopolitan, Ari Paul argues that today’s right weaponises “antisemitism” — not to protect Jews, but to sanitise exclusionary politics.
From the European Commission’s Holocaust events to MAGA theatrics.
Photograph courtesy of Gage Skidmore. Published under a Creative Commons license.
Continue reading at thebattleground.eu
Leave it to Donald Trump to betray Syria’s Kurds. The alliance was always an awkward one. An anticapitalist partisan group, committed to democratic confederalism and gender equality, the People’s Protection Units...
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There will never be another Noam Chomsky. Amongst left-wing intellectuals, he has no visible peers. Chomsky’s stature is a product of time and place, and of his ability to comment intelligently on nearly everything in real time...
Continue reading at thebattleground.eu
What’s Left From This Week?
From democratic backsliding to media power
struggles, this week’s articles examine the
structures shaping political life beyond
surface narratives.
Explore the full archive at our website:
thebattleground.eu
https://thebattleground.eu/2026/02/13/radical-in-rhetoric-moderate-in-politics/
Continue reading at thebattleground.eu
Noam Chomsky
Narratives matter in critical times.
How radical was Noam Chomsky, really?
In Manufacturing Consent, co-written with Edward S. Herman, he taught generations to question media power. But did his critique go far enough — or did it ultimately reassure the very system it exposed?
Read John Foster’s latest words at thebattleground.eu
Four decades ago, the Wapping Dispute radically transformed the British newspaper industry, significantly weakening the power of its unions. Without his East London plant, Rupert Murdoch might not have become the global giant of right-wing media in the 1990s.
Continue reading at thebattleground.eu
https://thebattleground.eu/2026/02/11/outliving-rock/
Continue reading at thebattleground.eu
Continue reading at thebattleground.eu
Narratives matter in critical times.
After more than three decades, Mogwai haven’t frozen themselves in time.
Instead of chasing trends—or replaying the past—they adapted: blurring the line between albums and soundtracks, foreground and background, loud and quiet.
Continue reading at thebattleground.eu
Americans are wondering if they'll have a free and fair midterm election cycle. If we’ve learned anything about the Trump Administration, it’s that we have to believe its threats and take these matters seriously, no matter how far-fetched they sound.
Continue reading at thebattleground.eu
https://thebattleground.eu/2026/02/10/mourn-the-journalists-not-the-journalism/
by William Noah Glucroft
The Battleground
Narratives matter in critical times.
When The Washington Post slashes its global coverage, it’s easy to turn Jeff Bezos into the villain of the story.
But this piece argues the crisis runs deeper. American media has long filtered the world through a Washington lens — shrinking complex global realities into US-centred narratives.
"While Serbian protestors are not marching or holding vigils for anyone other than themselves, their example should inspire people around the world who are trying to figure out how to mount resistance to authoritarian regimes in our high-tech era."
@cbertsch.bsky.social
“We're on autopilot. We're all very close personally as well as professionally...I literally just have to check in with the team every week and see what they are planning on doing.”
#TheBattleground
@jschalit.bsky.social
Check out the full video on YouTube 👉 www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSa8...
"Lowe built his reputation hyping Muslim rape gangs and promoting the mass deportation of migrants."
In this episode of Left To Burn, @jtwhitenoise.bsky.social dissects the split. The crisis could determine the future of the UK right.
thebattleground.eu/podcast/cult...
"Too few analyses affirm that Le Pen had to bow to the law, which she clearly and massively broke, whereas Donald Trump did not. Progressives need to do more to promote and legitimise the rule of law."
thebattleground.eu/2025/04/04/m...
"Although the past may inspire us in our struggle to move forward, as the example of Bob Dylan clearly does for Jesse Welles, making real progress requires that we stop believing in the magic of repetition."
@cbertsch.bsky.social
thebattleground.eu/2025/04/02/a...
