What happens when one of the twentieth century's greatest Marxist theorists is tested against the world that emerged after unipolarity began to fracture? This Weaponized Intellects review excavates Samir Amin's Beyond US Hegemony? as both a product of its historical moment and a living revolutionary framework, measuring its arguments against China's socialist transition, Russia's anti-hegemonic resurgence, the rise of BRICS, and Amin's own later theoretical development. The result is neither celebration nor dismissal, but a critical reconstruction that distinguishes multipolarity from socialism and argues that only organized popular power can transform the decline of empire into genuine human emancipation.
The Foreign Enemy Fraud: From Russiagate’s Thought Police to Chinagate’s Electoral Cage
David Corn's resurrection of Russiagate in response to Trump's accusations of Chinagate exposes the absurdity of electoral politics in a billionaire-dominated America. By framing the discourse as a conflict between foreign adversaries—Russia or China—Corn obscures the true culprits: a corrupt ruling class manipulating the political system to protect its interests. Both narratives serve to distract the populace from the reality of a plutocracy masquerading as democracy. The ongoing chaos is but a struggle within the elite, each side reinforcing the structures of oppression while preventing real power from reaching the working class. True resistance demands unity against this imperial façade.
China’s Missing Protests: How Bloomberg Turns Workers’ Grievances into Investor Intelligence
Bloomberg turns a decline in documented protests into evidence of a hidden political crisis, relying on a US-backed monitoring project whose methods cannot support such sweeping conclusions. By collapsing wage disputes, housing conflicts, petitions, and local administrative complaints into the single category of “dissent,” the article strips Chinese grievances of their concrete class content. It also ignores the institutions through which millions of people pursue redress and reduces China’s political system to a Cold War caricature. The result is not a serious account of Chinese society, but investor intelligence: workers appear only as risks to accumulation, while the real struggle over socialism’s direction disappears.
When the Numbers Revolt: The World Stops Buying the American Empire
The world is turning its back on the American Empire as perceptions shift dramatically in favor of China, a shift underscored by a recent Pew survey revealing greater global trust in China over the U.S. The BBC attempts to downplay this trend, attributing it to America's chaotic leadership under Trump, but the truth lies in a stark reality: nations are weary of U.S. interference and long for a relationship defined by trade, not military might. This reversal signals not just a popularity contest but a fundamental reevaluation of power dynamics. The challenge now is to harness this anti-imperialist sentiment into a mass movement against war with China.
The Guardrails Are a Cage: AI, Surplus Humanity, and the Technofascist State
Hundreds of economists warn that artificial intelligence could displace millions of workers, but their petition mistakes a ruling-class offensive for a technical oversight. AI is already being used to reduce workforces, intensify surveillance, automate discipline, exclude applicants, restrict public benefits, and strengthen military and counterinsurgency systems. The real danger is not that machines may escape human control, but that monopoly capital is using them to reduce its dependence on labor while expanding the apparatus needed to manage those it renders surplus. Against this technofascist future, workers are organizing to seize control over deployment, data, productivity, and power.
The Palestine Exception: Why Washington Is Trying to Break the ICC
The Guardian's coverage of Marco Rubio's claim that the International Criminal Court (ICC) threatens U.S. sovereignty highlights the deeper issue of imperial exemption rather than genuine sovereignty. The U.S. has long opposed ICC jurisdiction that could implicate American or allied personnel, reacting strongly against Palestinian efforts to document crimes under occupation. The article critiques the liberal institutionalism of the response, noting a lack of representation for affected parties. It underscores that U.S. sanctions targeting Palestinian organizations and ICC officials are a means to maintain impunity. Oppressed nations seek accountability, using available legal systems to challenge the dominance of imperial powers and protect their sovereignty against external coercion.
The Viceroy’s Ledger: How Washington Seized Venezuela’s Present and Mortgaged Its Future
The New York Times paints Marco Rubio as Venezuela's imperial viceroy, wielding control over its government through military force, financial manipulation, and a façade of diplomacy. This orchestrated colonial domination, disguised as governance, reveals a grotesque power dynamic where a nation’s sovereignty is traded for political tapestries spun by Washington. While Rubio's grip tightens, the real resistance lies among Venezuelans and anti-imperialist allies in the U.S. They must dismantle U.S.-imposed sanctions and return Venezuela’s wealth to its people. The struggle against colonial rule continues, as the masses can't be merely passive subjects in the rewriting of their national story.
The Tollbooth at the Edge of Empire: Washington Sets Fire to Hormuz and Charges the World for Water
The Trump administration claims it is defending freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, yet its latest policy reveals something very different: a naval blockade of Iran, a bid to control one of the world's most strategic waterways and a proposed 20 percent charge on global commerce passing through it. Excavating the BBC's coverage, this essay reconstructs the chronology buried beneath the headlines, exposing how a war launched by the United States and Israel has been repackaged as a story of Iranian aggression. Behind the rhetoric of maritime security lies a deeper struggle over sovereignty, imperial power and who has the right to govern the world's vital arteries of trade.
The Backdoor Empire: When Chinese Sensors Expose U.S. Cyber Hypocrisy
In a provocative take on CNBC’s coverage of Chinese AI models in the U.S., the article uncovers a treacherous narrative. Rather than celebrating technological advancements, it highlights the U.S. elites' panic over losing control in an imperial market. While U.S. firms grapple with high AI costs, their pivot to cheaper Chinese alternatives reveals a failing monopoly. This shift isn’t about competition; it’s a crack in the empire’s intelligence enclosure. As monopoly rents crumble, a reckoning looms. The essence of the matter extends beyond corporate rivalries to a fight for who ultimately controls artificial intelligence's future. It's a high-stakes battle for power and access.
NATO’s Plantation Ledger: When Spain Refused the War Chain
Trump’s threat to cut trade with Spain was not a diplomatic feud. It was imperial discipline. TIME reported the spectacle, but the real story sits beneath the headline: Spain refused to let Rota, Morón, and its airspace become automatic instruments of the U.S. war on Iran, while rejecting NATO’s demand to raise military spending to 5 percent of GDP. Washington’s response exposed the alliance for what it is: a command system that turns allied territory into launchpads, public budgets into war tribute, and dissent into a target for economic coercion.