The hottest State Violence Substack posts right now

Alex Pretti’s death is presented as a killing by the state, and denying that is framed as spreading authoritarian propaganda.
Modern media forces everyone into nonstop punditry, which turns politics into performative purity acts and privateizes our shared responsibilities.
True liberalism should protect a neutral public sphere, resist coercive enforcement of beliefs, and demand honesty instead of becoming another regime.

Security forces carried out a brutal, lethal crackdown, shooting at crowds — even people who were running away — and causing thousands of deaths.
Mass protests swelled to around a million people, with many ordinary citizens joining for the first time, showing widespread public anger.
Many protesters have fled or been displaced and now depend on internet access to work and plan a return, while communications remain cut off and safety is uncertain.

Multiple reports and survivor testimonies allege that prison guards trained dogs to sexually assault Palestinian detainees, and these accounts have been circulated by various organizations and journalists.
The alleged practice is widely condemned as deeply evil and morally unacceptable, described as one of the worst kinds of torture.
There is concern that criticizing these alleged atrocities is sometimes labeled antisemitic, sparking debate about where legitimate criticism of state actions ends and prejudice begins.

Tactics of militarized force used abroad are being turned inward and used against people at home. This creates a domestic climate of state terror similar to war zones.
Much of society tolerated or celebrated these brutal methods when they targeted foreigners or marginalized groups. That complicity made it easier for the same tactics to be deployed domestically.
Systems of surveillance, impunity, and militarized policing were perfected on occupied and demonized populations and are now ready for broad use. That means ordinary people can face the same lethal, arbitrary force once reserved for others.

The powerful will preserve the state's ability to wield extreme power while blaming and limiting the individual who used it.
Agencies and tools like ICE are likely to remain funded and intact, so small reforms or criticisms won't remove the underlying capacity for abuse.
If the rules that enabled these abuses aren't reversed now, they will stay in place for future presidents, and relying on elections alone won't eliminate the danger.

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Palestinians have been taught violent tactics by Israel through historical oppression
Israel's response to armed incursions includes genocidal assaults on Gaza
The prolonged occupation of Palestinians could lead to a destructive outcome for Israel

Russia’s 1917 upheaval mixed long-term inequality and wartime collapse with a spontaneous February revolt that was later seized by a small, well-organized Bolshevik party in October.
The Bolsheviks consolidated power through careful planning, political violence, and institutions like the Cheka, crushing rivals and imposing Soviet rule across diverse national and social groups.
The Soviet approach left a lasting legacy: chaotic 1990s privatization helped create oligarchs, and Putin revived security‑state instincts, favoring insider rule, secrecy, and suppression of dissent.