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The Battleground

@battlegroundeu.bsky.social

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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.

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Nov 22

We founded The Battleground in Brussels on Armistice Day 2018, as Europe marked 100 years since the end of the First World War.

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Homepage

Europe and Beyond

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Apr 10

thebattleground.eu/2025/04/09/s...

Sonic Warfare

Anti-Corruption Protest in Serbia

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Apr 10

"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

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Apr 10

“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...

The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Apr 10

"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...

Cult of Personality

The Nigel Farage Party

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Apr 7

"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...

Marine's Bad Day

The Le Pen Conviction Frenzy

thebattleground.eu

The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Apr 7

"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...

A Populist for Progressives

Jesse Welles Finds New Life in Folk Songs

thebattleground.eu

The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Apr 7

“I eventually developed an aesthetic out of that for my own work which is the guiding aesthetic for the photos that we publish”
#Photography #StreetPolitics #TheBattleground
Watch the full video here 📸 www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSa8...
@jschalit.bsky.social

The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Apr 3

"Labour is set to unleash a new level of hellish welfare cuts. And the most vulnerable people in the country are up against it."

"This system degrades more than it raises anyone up, but Labour wants to make it even worse."
@jtwhitenoise.bsky.social
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/31/w...

Warfare Not Welfare

Starmer’s War on the Poor

thebattleground.eu

The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 31

thebattleground.eu/2025/03/28/d...

Daddy's Back

Liberalism Without Liberals

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 31

"It’s hard to know which is more alarming: the explicit assumption that the collective father figure is always going to be pale, male, and stale, or the fixation on corporal abuse of children by the people who profess to be the defenders par excellence of children and childhood."

The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 27

"Anti-imperialism used to be a good political name. If it has not become yet another victim of the post-truth era, the truth of post-democracy seems likely to follow."
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/21/t...

The Russian Shadow

Trump and the Far Right

thebattleground.eu

The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 21

It’s about solidarity. The message of Jeanne Carstensen’s Greek Tragedy is that when governance falters, rescue will depend on holding on to what we have in common. Gary Isaac Wolf, on the best new book about the refugee crisis.

thebattleground.eu/2025/03/20/w...

When Governance Falters

A Greek Tragedy: One Day, a Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis, by Jeanne Carstensen

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 20

The more people speak out, the more likely they’ll become targets. Charlie Bertsch, on Giorgia Meloni’s lawsuit against Placebo’s Brian Molko, and mounting pressures on freedom of speech in Italy.
@cbertsch.bsky.social
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/19/s...

Silencing the Opposition

Giorgia Meloni vs. Placebo

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 19

The post-liberal era that Trump has ushered in isn’t simply the final deterioration of democratic government. According to Ari Paul, it’s a rejection of the democratic ideal as a whole.

thebattleground.eu/2025/03/18/a...

American Democracy is Dead

The History of a Crisis

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 19

Germany’s decision to dispense with its debt brake is a sobering reminder of the costs that militarisation brings and, according to Josh Foster, why its political effects must be reigned in.

thebattleground.eu/2025/03/14/b...

Borrowing Against War

Debt Brake Militarisation

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 17

"Like Jack Torrance, Iman is a man possessed. And like Jack Torrance, his possession eventually turns him against his family."

"It’s a deeply upsetting tale, with disturbing implications for a world in which freedom is under attack around the world."
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/12/f...

Father Knows Best

The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof

thebattleground.eu

The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 14

Massive Attack didn’t just change music — they exposed Britain’s blind spots. "Listening to Massive Attack today is a great way to remember that translational labour." Maybe if we’d been paying attention, we wouldn’t be where we are now.
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/19/p...

Postcolonial Heavy Lifting

The Massive Attack Legacy

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 14

Angela Davis in The Black Power Mixtape on violence: “That was a different time,” but was it? Her words remind us that the state has always crushed resistance, from Black Panthers to today’s Gaza protests.
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/12/l...

Learning From the Black Panthers

The Black Power Mixtape, Directed by Göran Hugo Olsson

thebattleground.eu

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 13

“America is in a fraught condition.” John Foster argues that Trumpism is a form of fascism, but not in the traditional sense. Unlike Mussolini and Hitler, Trump’s crisis is manufactured. But can we afford to downplay the rise of such fear-based politics?
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/21/i...

In Fascism’s Shadow

The Trump Effect

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 13

Nazism should have killed eugenics. Instead, it’s quietly returning - this time named natalism. Behind talk of saving civilisation is the same obsession with controlling who gets to be born. The far right is back in the business of "fixing" humanity. #FarRight
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/07/p...

Perfection Means Death

The Return of Eugenics

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 12

5Pillars claims to represent British Muslims, but when you platform far-right extremists like Griffin and Collett, the lines blur. Is this a defence of free speech or something darker? #5Pillars #FarRight #FreeSpeech
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/24/n...

News for British Muslims

5Pillars and the Far Right

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 12

The US may be a declining hegemon, but the old days of Great Power politics are back. Josh White, on Keir Starmer’s attempt to lead on Ukraine, and remilitarise the UK.
thebattleground.eu/2025/03/10/s...

Starmer's War

The Ukraine Gamble

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 12

"Print the legend." Tony Wilson's words in 24 Hour Party People make us question: how far should we trust the stories we hear, especially when they’re told so well? Do we crave the myth more than the truth? #24HourPartyPeople #Film #ManchesterScene #FactVsFiction
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/26/d...

Drugs Will Tear Us Apart

24 Hour Party People, Directed by Michael Winterbottom

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 10

At a time when surveillance has never been more exhaustive, producing records like Natalie Berdizes’ Street Life may turn out to be the best way of doing politics. Charlie Bertsch, on the art of disguising protestors, not protests.

@cbertsch.bsky.social

thebattleground.eu/2025/02/05/p...

Protest in Code

Natalie Beridze’s Street Life

thebattleground.eu

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The Battleground @battlegroundeu.bsky.social · Mar 10

Technocracy has failed. Without something new, the parties that pursued it will soon follow. John Foster on the German election, and why the new government will usher in the far right.
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/28/n...

New Politics Needed

Germany After the Election

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