In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Erica Caines, founder of Liberation Through Reading and Editor of Hood Communist Blog to discuss how hashtag activism and online social media activism is used to justify western imperialism, how hashtags like #Kony2012 and #BringBackOurGirls played into the US ambitions to expand the role of AFRICOM on the African continent, how online activism has been co-opted by the state to both justify imperialist intervention and present online activism as a substitute for organizing, and why organizers should avoid knee-jerk reactions in support of so-called protest movements which are pushed on social media.
In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Abayomi Azikiwe, the editor of the Pan-African News Wire to discuss the roots of imperialist aggression on the African continent and how it relates to current events on the African continent, how this intervention has also bred resistance as characterized by protests in Burkina Faso against neocolonial rule, the historical and contemporary importance of the African continent in global politics, and how the anti-imperialist movement should orient itself to the popular movements against imperialism on the African continent.
In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Nate Wallace, co-host of Red Spin Sports to discuss Dan Snyder’s claims that he has a dossier of dirt on other NFL owners and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the extreme danger posed by Thursday Night Football to players and why the NFL and corporations are so willing to sacrifice player safety for profit, and the continued use of Brittney Griner as a political pawn as the US escalates its proxy conflict in Ukraine.
Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Rachel Hu, organizer and co-host of the CovertAction Bulletin Podcast to discuss a new report detailing how anti-Asian violence was fueled by anti-China and anti-Asian rhetoric employed by politicians, how imperialism and its reliance on racism and anti-communism to manufacture consent for war degrades the humanity of all people, the closure of public schools in Oakland which serve large Black communities and how these closures are connected to the broader issue of gentrification, and the continuing aftermath of Hurricane Fiona on Puerto Rico and its relationship to US colonialism.
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