Adbusters

Vancouverites: Support Media Democracy!

Show up at the B.C. Court of Appeal on Monday morning in support of Adbusters' lawsuit against Canwest Global

McDonald's can go on CBC Newsworld and tell us how great their Big Macs are, but Adbusters can’t buy airtime to point out that 50% of the calories in a Big Mac come from fat. The automobile manufacturers can buy as much time as they want to tell us how sexy their cars are, but Greenpeace is not allowed on to point out that the personal automobile is one of the primary causes of climate change. Every ad on TV glorifies consumption and tells us we can be happy if we buy things, but a Buy Nothing Day TV spot is not allowed on.

This lack of democracy on the public airwaves is what’s at stake in a legal action that’s going to be fought in the B.C. Supreme Court this Monday. Come to the courtroom and join people who are interested in fighting for the right to walk into their local TV station, put some money on the table and buy some airtime for some message that they believe in. Come and meet us there. Let’s fill the courtroom and win this battle for the public airwaves.

The hearing is at 10:00am on Monday, February 16th at the courthouse in downtown Vancouver (800 Smithe St.)

Read more about the case.

Turkish PM Storms Out of the World Economic Forum

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is silenced in Davos, but returns to a hero’s welcome in Turkey.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed off the stage during a panel discussion about Gaza at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday. Erdogan became upset after the moderator, David Ignatius of the Washington Post, initially refused to let him respond to a passionate 25 minute defense of Israel’s recent incursion into Gaza offered by President Shimon Peres. Ignatius then haltingly agreed to give the prime minister one minute to respond but soon interrupted pleading, “Please…we need to get these people to dinner.” Erdogan’s words may not have been heard in the West, but his actions struck a chord with people in Turkey. He returned to Istanbul in the wee hours of the morning to thousands of cheering supporters waving Turkish and Palestinian flags. Link

War Crimes Trials?

Activists attempt to bring charges against the Israeli leadership in the international court system.

Bracing for a onslaught of international lawsuits, Israeli officials responsible for ordering and executing the Gaza offensive are now facing the very real possibility of being arrested and tried for war crimes in the ICC. An activist site launched from within Israel has issued arrest warrants for Tzipi Livni, Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak and urges anyone who has knowledge of the suspects’ plans for international travel to immediately contact The Hague. The age of Israeli impunity seems to be giving way to a harsh new reality.

Link

The Eternal Victim

Each side in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict believes criticisms in the media are biased, but the Palestinians are the ones doing almost all the suffering and dying these days. Antony Loewenstein argues for reality-based coverage.

Israel's highly decorated Chief of Staff, Mordechai Gur, once said, "we make no distinction between civilian and military targets."

Ze'ev Schiff, once the country's leading defence analyst, further explained Gur's remarks: "the Israeli army has always struck civilian populations, purposely and consciously...the army, he said, has never distinguished civilian [from military] targets...[but] purposely attacked civilian targets."

The reason was clear then and now. According to this deluded theory, the Palestinian population will pressure its leaders to cease hostilities with the Jewish state and simply accept colonization and expansion.

Israel's recent war against Gaza must be seen in this light.

These realities are largely ignored in the Western media. Israel is a religion that only the bravest dare challenge publicly in the United States.

Instead we have to listen to claims about the Israeli Defence Force being "unsurpassed in its moral traditions." Now, with over 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza murdered and a handful of Israeli soldiers killed by the Israeli army, many may disagree.

How can we think rationally about this conflict, which consumes more column inches than virtually any other issue in the world? Laugh at the black humor of it all, the supreme irony of Israeli soldiers leaving graffiti in Gazan homes that reads, "We came to annihilate you."

As a Jew, I wonder what my family's Auschwitz ghosts would think about that.

Israel is the eternal victim, surrounded by enemy states and peoples and desperately in need of deadly weapons to kill them as easily as possible.

Or so its most energetic supporters would like the world to believe.

But who really does anymore?

Washington has been happy to provide freedom bombs for Israeli wars and reliably despotic Arab friends.

Hamas rockets threatened Israel's nuclear facility at Dimona during the recent war, according to Rupert Murdoch's Australian newspaper. The Iranian-backed militia are allegedly so crazy that they would risk destroying nuclear warheads and consequently spreading radiation across the occupied Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab states.

But then, Muslims are irrational and have a death wish.

The Zionist lobby regularly complains that the Western media is inherently biased against its noble mission of enforcing apartheid in the West Bank. During the Gaza onslaught, however, virtually all journalists were barred from entering the war zone. The result was unconvincing managed spin, pissed-off journalists and horrific pictures of Israeli devastation from local, Palestinian sources.

Just another win for the well-oiled, Israeli PR machine.

When Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that there was "no humanitarian crisis" in Gaza during days of ceaseless bombardment, this lie was all too evident. Bloggers, human rights workers, Arab journalists and civilians all told a vastly different tale.

I spent hours watching Al Jazeera English on its YouTube channel – Australia's previous conservative government, like the Bush administration, opposed the network's "alternative" perspectives and pressured satellite channel providers to restrict access – and often just laughed at the screen. War is peace. The Palestinians will thank us for destroying their homes. We are fighting a war against terror. You're either with Hamas or us.

I know which side the civilized world has chosen.

Antony Loewenstein is a Sydney-based journalist, bestselling author and blogger. Visit his website, www.antonyloewenstein.com.

Cutting Through the Crap

Bob Simon of 60 Minutes and Jon Stewart are members of the mainstream media who have shown a rare willingness to avoid the party line in discussing the Gaza conflict.

Cutting Through the Crap

Few issues are more divisive than the Israel-Palestine conflict. The comment boards at Adbusters haven’t seen this much action since the hipster issue. We also received an unusually high number of responses to our recent email broadcast, in which we urged everyone in our Culture Jammers Network to “throw their weight behind Gaza.” Some readers were disgusted with our opposition to Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, while others thought we’d be insane to adopt any other view.

This weekend we’d like to draw your attention to two voices in the crowd — two videos which we feel cut through some of the crap.

The first video [link] is Charlie Rose's penetrating interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon. Simon lived in Israel for ten years and just got back from an assignment in the West Bank.

The second video [link: US/CA] is Jon Stewart's take on the media's handling of it all. No, it isn't hard-core journalism, but here is at least one 'mainstream' voice that isn't buying the standard line. This clip already done the rounds on the net, but if you haven’t seen it yet, watch it now.

Rich People Have Taken Up Stealth Shopping

The ultra-rich are opting for unmarked, unbranded bags to disguise spending on luxury goods.

Rich People Have Taken Up Stealth Shopping

The Daily Beast reports on the latest shopping trend among those wealthy few who haven't been seriously affected by the economic downturn:

"...Anyone who can still afford, say, the three cashmere throws at $2,225 each that Mrs. Fuld bought when she stopped by the store that day isn't likely to advertise it. Instead, the city's most extravagant shoppers are ferrying their purchases home in unmarked bags; delegating delivery to assistants; or manipulating credit card bills to disguise their spending from outsiders--and their spouses..."

Read the rest.

Indiscriminate Injustices

Israel’s siege of Gaza amounts to a massive crime against humanity.


In his article, "Israel's Crime Against Humanity," Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Chris Hedges speaks with the former US ambassador to Jordon, Richard N. Veits:

"This is a stain on what is left of Israeli morality," I was told by Richard N. Veits, the former U.S. ambassador to Jordan who led a delegation from the Council on Foreign Relations to Gaza to meet Hamas leaders this past summer. “I am almost breathless discussing this subject. It is so myopic. Washington, of course, is a handmaiden to all this. The Israeli manipulation of a population in this manner is comparable to some of the crimes that took place against civilian populations fifty years ago."

Hedges concludes by wondering whether this contemporary tragedy will breed a new generation of militants and radicals.

The Israelis in Gaza, like the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, are foolishly breeding the next generation of militants and Islamic radicals. Jihadists, enraged by the injustices done by Israel and the United States, seek to carry out reciprocal acts of savagery, even at the cost of their own lives. The violence unleashed on Palestinian children will, one day, be the violence unleashed on Israeli children. This is the tragedy of Gaza. This is the tragedy of Israel.

Read the complete article at AlterNet.

The Very Last Thing You’ll Ever Need to Read About Hipsters

Josh Becker reacts to Douglas Haddow's polemic on hipsters: "Condemning hipsters and their lifestyle choices is just as big an oversimplification...as, say, wearing a symbol of Palestinian solidarity as a fashion accessory."

The Very Last Thing You’ll Ever Need to Read About Hipsters

Although we've posted dozens of articles on economics, politics and ecology in the past year, the piece that has garnered the most attention is all about hipsters. Here's another take from Josh Becker at nyulocal.com.

This Adbusters article from July, which signifies hipsters as “the dead end of Western civilization,” apparently still resonates with the Youth of Today, because college kids keep writing about it. Like this Smith College student who entitled her piece “Pop Rocks and Coke,” which is either an allusion to the explosive fashions at Urban Outfitters or, you know, a reference to cocaine. Because that’s what hipsters do! Cocaine and fashion.

I’m not picking on the author, and I agree that it’s time for all of us to officially retire the keffiyeh (except for Justin Timberlake, who inexplicably pulls it off really well). What I am arguing is that condemning “hipsters” and their lifestyle choices is just as big an oversimplification as, say, wearing a symbol of Palestinian solidarity as a fashion accessory.

Exactly what about American Apparel is “hipster” anymore? For that matter, when exactly did riding your bike or eating vegetarian food become as iconographic of “hipster subculture” as PBR and these guys? I went to Misshapes (more than a couple times), but I don’t ride a bike or drink PBR especially. Do I still count? Ms. Smith Student says that “trends cycle through hipsterdom like wildfire on acid,” which actually doesn’t make much sense, but I think I see her point. And I’d like to take it one step further – there are so many facets to “the modern hipster” that there is no such thing as hipster anymore.

Seriously. Maybe at one point, only a select few could pull off the American Apparel hoodie, but at this point its become so ubiquitous that it doesn’t mean anything at all. Sorry Dov Charney, but your brand lost its “hipness” around the same time you could fake your own Polaroid online. Which isn’t a bad thing!

But I think, with artists like M.I.A. and the widespread resurgence of the Converse sneaker show, that “hipsterdom” is no longer a subculture. It’s a style. And confusing the two undercuts whatever otherwise acute insight you may have into the matter. Nobody can seem to define what a “hipster” is anymore besides what s/he typically wears – but when everyone is wearing that same pair of leggings from Urban Outfitters, it’s safe to say the style has gone past that of a mere subculture.

Even our friend from Smith College doesn’t quite know what a true hipster is. “To clarify, when I say hipster, I don’t necessarily mean the 70 percent or so of Smith students who have an affinity for the aforementioned look. I too sport American Apparel. I mean people who truly subscribe to the subculture as a full-on lifestyle,” she says, which is the only time in the article she attempts to define “the subculture” any further. But the author doesn’t explain what that “full-on lifestyle” entails, and I’d challenge anyone to offer an adequate explanation that doesn’t involve reciting the Hipster Bingo board.

What I’m saying is that, yes, I do think we have witnessed the death of hipster subculture. Its oft-derided superficiality has, like most trends, crossed over into the mainstream. There’s nothing left to brandish, either fashionably or ironically. The clothing is the same, but there’s nothing uniquely “hip” about American Apparel anymore. To wit: the company is now in the news for exchanging lawsuits instead of style tips.

Or am I still a dirty hipster because I like The Knife?

Originally posted at Jess and Josh Talk About Stuff

Our day in court delayed

Update: The appeal in our landmark lawsuit against Canwest, Global, and the CBC will now be heard on February 16th.

Adbusters' appeal of this year's ruling against us in our ongoing legal battle with Canwest Global and the CBC over the right of citizens to buy airtime for public service messages was originally scheduled for December 8, 2008. That date has now been pushed back to Feb 16, 2009. Lead counsel for Global asked for the delay for personal reasons, and the request was granted by the court. For details about the case check out the action updates on our Media Carta campaign page.

Shopping kills

A Wal-Mart employee is trampled to death by insane shoppers on Buy Nothing Day.

The New York Times reports on a Buy Nothing Day tragedy:
A Wal-Mart employee in suburban New York died after being trampled by a crush of shoppers who tore down the front doors and thronged into the store early Friday morning...The 34-year-old employee, who was not identified, was knocked down by a crowd that broke down the doors of the Wal-Mart at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y., and surged into the store. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 6 a.m.
One shopper, Kimberly Cribbs, said she was standing near the back of the crowd at around 5 a.m. on Friday when people started pulling the doors from their hinges and rushing into the store. She said several people were knocked to the ground, and parents had to grab their children by the hands to keep them from being caught in the crush.“They were falling all over each other,” she said. “It was terrible.”
Link

We are a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society.

Now 83,841 strong!

Join Us >>

TOOLS FOR ACTIVISTS

Rethink the Cool

Rethink the Cool - Blackspot Shoes.

Design Anarchy

A radical new aesthetic vision by Adbusters editor-in-chief Kalle Lasn.

What's This?

RECENT ADBUSTERS MAGAZINES

SUBSCRIBE BACK ISSUES
Logo Small