Nina Power, writer and editor, discusses the collapse of the left-right divide that has characterised the contemporary era of political thought, along with the exhaustion of concepts that have plagued Western discourse. Analysing the “perpetual present” where hyperbole dominates mainstream discussions, such that “Nazi” and “fascist” are lazily involved to such a degree that these terms and their signified have become virtually meaningless, Power notes the political divide today, which is drawn between those who stand on principle and those who do not. In an era where asking certain questions will mark the subject, Power analyses the mechanisms within society today that have vested interests in repressing free speech, such that today approximately thirty people a day are arrested within the UK for their written words and even their thoughts (for praying outside abortion clinics). Power notes the current cultural focus upon semiotic violence that punishes the subject more severely than actual violence, while observing that this “semiotic psychosis” lends more weight to words than to reality and truth, fomenting a “conceptual, abstract terror.” Weighing in on those who have engaged in impassioned speech, such as the online post made by Lucy Connolly in the wake of the Southport killings which led to her imprisonment and an ensuing row over free speech in the UK, Power questions the lack of clemency for those who have been caught up in the legal clash between laws that ostensibly guarantee freedom of expression and opposing laws which denote certain speech as “hate speech.”

Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe