Status Updates From The Apocalypse and the End ...

"Rather than thinking in terms of the "radicalization of Islam," Roy argues that the disappearance of viable leftist challengers to the status quo has led to the "Islamicization of radicalism.""

'The quest to make the world safe for capital—if not necessarily for people—has born bitter fruit in the form of staggering inequality, environmental degradation, and falling developmental indexes.'

'Faced with forces beyond one's control—or even comprehension—conspiracy theories offer a (false) sense of reassurance that someone is in charge of this mess.'

'The delusional is quickly becoming the twenty-first century's dominant political mode. The material world is no longer determinative or even malleable, as was the case with twentieth-century fascists who believed they could bend reality in accordance to their will. It is irrelevant.'

'"Fascism sees its salvation in giving these masses not their right, but instead a chance to express themselves," Walter Benjamin observed in 1936. That is to say, spectacle is part and parcel of the aestheticization of politics whose chief "virtue" is offering the masses a sense of excitement and purpose while preserving the underlying power structures that oppress them.'