By Jonathan M. Feldman, December 3, 2024 On December 2, 2024, persons protesting Israel’s policies in the Middle East were met with three police cars as a testimony to the state’s commitment to silence persons banging drums (and/or chanting slogans). The scene was Stockholm University, outside the window of my office. While the drum-beating potentially…
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, November 23, 2024 Deconstruction that Displaces Reconstruction A colleague recently remarked that various persons in the Left often have no ideas about how to organize society differently or that they lack proposals for solving problems. This issue is just another way of arguing that much of the left is involved in…
Continue readingThe “Rents of Superficiality”: Capitalism and the Left Professional Class
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, November 6, 2024; Updated November 10, 2024 Introduction In the opening post by Masha Gessen we see the confusion of liberal elites. They are unable to understand the difference between (a) exploiting a contradiction and (b) a majoritarian consensus. Masha Gessen, while a generally sophisticated observer, misses the larger nuances. The…
Continue readingThe Failure of Liberal Globalism: Explaining the Democratic Party Implosion
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, October 19, 2024 Photo by the author. Anti-Semitism as a Displacement System for Stupidity In this essay I will address how substance, historical accountability and practical solutions are displaced by superficiality, historical amnesia, and moral posturing in the debate about Left Party anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in Swedish society. The October 2024…
Continue readingThe Clash of Mediocrity: Sweden, Anti-Semitism and the Gaza Crisis
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, October 15, 2024 Discussion between Timbro head PM Nilsson and Mikael Holmström on Swedish Television (SVT), October 15, 2024. The Debate Over How to Waste Even More Resources Today we saw a debate between two champions of Swedish militarism. One is at a right-wing think tank associated with policies hostile to…
Continue readingA New Low in Swedish Television History: The face of Uber-Militarism
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, September 22, 2024; Updated September 23, 2024 Introduction I have studied industrial policy for several decades. So I was rather disappointed to learn what Swedish journalists and most politicians have to say when it comes to Sweden’s present Northvolt crisis. The key factors supporting a coherent industrial policy can include the…
Continue readingSwedish Television, the Green Conversion and the Limits of Business Reporting
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, July 5, 2024, Updated July 6, 2024. “In a democracy you have to face the hard, difficult issues and then go out honestly and say what you think…In the international debate because of the strength of the oil companies and other reasons, the real ecological dangers of fossil fuels are very…
Dear University of Helsinki, I read with great interest about your suspension of exchanges involving Israeli students. I assume that’s in response to the great humanitarian tragedy associated with the Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza. I assume that is because of student protests. Or maybe you are concerned with the United Nations commission that…
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, April 7, 2024; Updated April 8, 2024 Source: SVT, Agenda, April 7, 2024. Today, Swedish Television’s Agenda program had a face off on the role of the EU where Jonas Sjöstedt from the Left Party was opposed by the Christian Democrat’s top EU parliamentary candidate, Alice Teodorescu Måwe. Måwe made these key…
Continue readingAnother Left/Right Debate on Swedish Television that Misses the Point