Seeing Iran appoint new leaders and continue to fight is seeing the more literal kind of necropolitics in action, as a hierarchical system continues to function while replacing the expendable human parts that it lost. The system is of course changed and influenced (and ultimately was built) by humans, but it has become something undying, or at least almost as hard to kill as an idea, and it maintains a terrible inertia in it's destructive tendencies (e.g., "Morality Police" continue to patrol the streets).
Lest anyone think this somehow expresses approval of US actions, the same logic applies here too: what once had a (thin) verneer of democracy, a system which loudly proclaimed to be controlled by "the people" (but which never was nor was ever intended to be) has lost its paint job, exposing the inhuman machinations beneath. Trump is a symptom, not cause, of an institution built on blood and spoils, whose alignment with the Epstein class (and moreover, their institutions) is ever more apparent with each disregarded law and principle.
Stepping back for a moment, this systems/necropolitics perspective is just a perspective, with its own distortions and blind spots. To paraphrase LeGuin, any institution built by humans can also be changed or destroyed by them. But I think it's very useful to put on the systems goggles in this moment, especially when some are fond of preaching about the dangers of "overwhelmingly powerful systems unaccountable to humans which pursue destructive ends" without actually examining the plethora of existing systems that do just that.
P.S. yes, United Healthcare is another good example of this.
P.P.S. yes I bending the meaning of necropolitics here, but the two are related: these systems would not be so free to profit from human death and suffering if they were more vulnerable to the deaths of their constituent parts. Necropolitics of the standard variety is of course present as companies like Raytheon and Lockeed Martin profit from the carnage. The F-15 caught by friendly fire? Just as profitable for Beoing to replace as one downed by the enemy.
Canadians, do you think, like Canadaland's Stephen Marche, that Canadian nationalism is a 1960s - Waffle, I guess - phenomenon?
"I just don't think of that period [post-WWI] as being hyper-nationalistic. I think of nationalism as born in 1965 from Margaret Atwood's brain."
As a historian, I know that left nationalism in the 60s was an important phenomenon, but the notion that some might think that Canadian nationalism was born then hurts my brain.
One of your biggest risk when travelling abroad as a Canadian tourist isn’t what people assume.
Roads and transport is often much more dangerous abroad than it is locally
#tourism
https://www.
AI conferences have rushed to restrict the use of LLMs for writing and reviewing research papers in recent months after being flooded with AI-generated slop (Melissa Heikkilä/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/54e274c5-de86-4b3e-96a9-95a46b5e48a0
Sources: in the EU, US criticism over censorship has been met with disbelief and anger, and some Big Tech lobbyists acknowledge US accusations are overstated (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/37d47387-7e31-484a-8c8a-f01efbeb4151
Sam Altman says OpenAI is amending its DOD contract to ensure AI isn't used for domestic surveillance of US persons, the NSA is excluded from the deal for now (George Hammond/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/653fabd7-03da-467a-b2bf-03f226fe2a29
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Dating apps are pivoting to Asia as swipe-right fatigue hits the West; India, China, and Indonesia ranked among the top five markets by downloads in 2025 (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/6269bc1f-0380-4150-8bad-8ead98ba1b48
London is set to become the first city where both US and Chinese robotaxis operate, as Waymo and Baidu prepare to launch their robotaxis in the city in 2026 (Tim Bradshaw/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/a507f9d0-c0b2-43e3-9e2b-7ea04dbdb8d4
Sources: TelefĂłnica and Liberty Global, co-owners of Virgin Media O2, are set to lead a ~ÂŁ2B acquisition of UK's fourth-largest broadband network, Netomnia (Kieran Smith/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/cb3ffce2-f60e-45a9-8875-4521f461700b