Fórum Pirátské strany

Neoliberalism can reduce well‐being by promoting a sense of social disconnection, competition, and loneliness

Neoliberalism has become the dominant ideology in many parts of the world. Yet there is little empirical research on its psychological impact. On the basis of a social identity approach to health, we hypothesize that, by increasing competition and by reducing people’s sense of connection to others, neoliberalism can increase loneliness and compromise our well‐being. Study 1 (N = 246) shows that the more neoliberal people perceive society to be, the worse their well‐being, and that this relationship is mediated via loneliness. In two experiments, we showed that exposure to neoliberal ideology increases loneliness (Study 2, N = 204) and, through this, decreases well‐being (Study 3, N = 173). In Study 4 (N = 303), we found that exposure to neoliberal ideology increased loneliness and decreased well‐being by reducing people’s sense of connection to others and by increasing perceptions of being in competition with others. In Study 4, the effect of neoliberalism on well‐being was evident for liberals only. We discuss the potential impact of neoliberalism on different social groups in society.

Becker, J.C., Hartwich, L. and Haslam, S.A. (2021), Neoliberalism can reduce well‐being by promoting a sense of social disconnection, competition, and loneliness. Br J Soc Psychol. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12438

Why B’Tselem is calling Israel an apartheid regime, from the river to the sea

One of Israel's top human rights groups recognizes the occupation cannot be viewed in isolation from the goal of Jewish supremacy inside the Green Line.

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This is precisely what B’Tselem, one of Israel’s oldest human rights organizations, is doing today: the NGO is declaring its position that, between the river and the sea, there exists a single, Israeli, apartheid regime that strives to entrench, deepen, and make irreversible Jewish supremacy in every corner of the land.

The word “apartheid” has very severe connotations, and the historical memory it conjures is bone-chilling. As a member of B’Tselem’s board, I can say that we held many difficult discussions leading up to the decision to publish this statement. Establishing that the State of Israel maintains an apartheid regime on both sides of the Green Line was not easy for any of us — not only as members of a human rights group, but first and foremost as Israeli citizens.

It is important to remember, however, that “apartheid” is not simply a derogatory term that leftists throw around whenever they get angry at the current reality. Rather, it is a description of a regime with clear characteristics: one whose organizing principle is to promote and perpetuate the superiority of one group over another. As we enter 2021, this is precisely the reality we face in Israel-Palestine.

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It is true that Israeli apartheid lacks some of the more “visual” elements of the kind practiced in South Africa. But apartheid is not simply about separate benches for people of different skin color; rather, it is the division of human beings living under the same regime into rigid hierarchies, and the distribution of public resources and the granting — or denial — of rights according those hierarchies. Israel may not have Jews-only benches, but it does have Jews-only roads in places like Hebron.

This organizing logic has created a reality in which Israeli Jews enjoy a contiguous space and freedom of movement on both sides of the Green Line — with the exception of the open-air prison created for the Palestinians in Gaza. The same logic traps Palestinians inside the sub-categories of Areas A, B, and C in the West Bank; East Jerusalem; Gaza; and so-called “Israel proper.” Each of these designations comes with a set of unique restrictions imposed by Israel. Thus, unlike an Israeli Jew, a Palestinian resident of the West Bank cannot cross the Green Line without a special permit, and even their freedom of movement inside the West Bank is constrained.

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Orly Noy
January 12, 2021
+972 Magazine

A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid

January 12, 2021
B'Tselem

I Never Expected to See It Here. Democracy is under attack, and we need to protect it.

As I sat in my Capitol Hill office two weeks ago, watching a violent mob storm the symbol and seat of our democracy, I was reminded of my distant past. As a child, I saw my birth country of Somalia descend from relative stability into civil war, overnight. The spaces where people felt most secure—their homes and workplaces—suddenly became battlegrounds, torn by gunfights and bombings. Violent targeting of political leaders—once unheard-of—became commonplace.

I never expected to experience a direct assault on democracy in the United States, one of the oldest, most prosperous democracies in the world.

But if there is any lesson we can draw from the past four years, it is that it can happen here. If we are to address the root causes of this insurrection, we have to understand, deep within ourselves, that we are human beings like other human beings on this planet, with the same flaws and the same ambitions and the same fragilities. There is nothing magical about our democracy that will rise up and save us. Building the democratic processes we cherish today took hard and dedicated work, and protecting them will take the hard and dedicated work of people who love this country.

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America in its early days was not a full democracy by any stretch of the imagination. The institution of chattel slavery remained a bedrock of our society, and much of our economy. The violent, forced seizure of Native American land was a cornerstone of the American ideal of “manifest destiny,” codified into policy through laws like the Indian Removal Act.

It took a literal civil war to quash a violent white-supremacist insurrection, and then to extend basic rights to the formerly enslaved.

Even then, it would take decades of organizing to guarantee women the right to vote—and later basic reproductive freedom. It would take a labor movement to outlaw child labor, institute the 40-hour work week, establish a minimum wage, and create the weekend. And it would take a civil-rights movement, a century after the Civil War, to end legal segregation and establish basic protections for Black people in this country.

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At every point in our history, revolutionary change has been met with counterrevolution. The Reconstruction amendments were followed by decades of domestic political terrorism. The civil-rights acts of the 1960s were followed by the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the “southern strategy,” mass incarceration, and deep cuts to the social safety net. The rich got richer, the military-industrial complex became more powerful, and unchecked corporate cash placed an ever-increasing stranglehold on our politics.

Donald Trump was not elected in a vacuum. Inequality, endless wars, and the corruption of unaccountable elites are all common precursors to either violent revolutions or dramatic expansions of democracy.

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We also cannot fall into the trap of making policies guided by fear, and therefore treating the symptoms of our illness without addressing the root causes. We must act on our disgust at the double standards employed against white protesters and Black ones, and against Muslims and non-Muslims. But at the same time, we must resist the very human desire for revenge—to simply see the tools that have oppressed Black and brown people employed more broadly. The answer is not a larger security structure or an omnipresent police state, but a system of justice that respects everyone’s rights and essential dignity.

If I learned anything as a survivor of civil conflict, it is that political violence does not go away on its own. Violent clashes and threats to our democracy are bound to repeat if we do not address the structural inequities underlying them. The next Trump will be more competent, and more clever. The work to prevent the next catastrophes, which we should all be able to see coming, starts now.

Ilhan Omar
January 21, 2021
The Atlantic

Top Brazil judge annuls Lula convictions, opening door to 2022 run

A Supreme Court judge on Monday annulled the criminal convictions against Brazil's former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, restoring his political rights ahead of next year's presidential election.

The decision scrambles forecasts for the 2022 race, potentially paving the way for a showdown between President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right populist, and Lula, easily his most formidable opponent on the left.

Lula, as he is known throughout Brazil, governed Latin America's largest economy between 2003 and 2011. He was convicted over graft allegations in 2018 and released in late 2019.

In a surprise decision, Justice Edson Fachin ruled on Monday that a court in the southern city of Curitiba did not have the authority to try Lula on corruption charges and that he must be retried in federal courts in the capital, Brasilia.

The decision means Lula would be eligible to run for president next year should he wish to challenge Bolsonaro, said the local newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.

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March 8, 2021
France24