Batman and vigilantism in pop culture
In the latest film, the dark knight’s revenge fantasies are exposed as unhinged, as his foes no longer only hide under bridges but also brazenly roam the corridors of power.
Johannesburg needn’t be Fear City
The crisis in which the city finds itself reflects the failings of capitalism, but there is an antidote to dystopian urbanism.
The hallucinatory bunker of the white right
The anti-Black Lives Matter backlash in South Africa highlights the growing ideological convergence between the far right and conservatives
Beneath Mashaba’s ‘centrism’ lurks the reactionary
A fanatic of the free market, Herman Mashaba advances extreme economic policies for South Africa. But he needs political power first, so he rides on xenophobic sentiments for votes
The enduring allure of Robin Hoods
Society’s fascination with robbing the rich to feed the poor, whether fabricated or in real life, reveals a profound longing for justice and redistribution in a capitalist world
A cultural war waged by a cartoonist
Helen Zille’s favourite cartoonist is a case study of a right-wing con artist inspired by Donald Trump
The persistence of the far-right
The Crusaders terror plots shows that far from being minor maniacal blimps, militant racist groups are on the rise in South Africa
Plutocrats in high orbit: Whether Musk or Bezos win the space race, we all lose
A new space race is being led by two notoriously greedy, egomaniacal billionaires. They’d do better to focus their attention and resources on Earth