rationalskepticism.org

There was once a time when the newly-invented printing press, easily and cheaply available to everybody, was the means of social change and progress. This was deemed a major threat by the ruling elites. Just look at this quote from the 19th century.

One British civil servant said that these papers "inflame passions and awaken their selfishness, contrasting their current condition with what they contend to be their future condition - a condition incompatible with human nature, and those immutable laws which Providence has established for the regulation of civil society.".

Newspapers are no longer like this. I've gone into the details in other posts, but the purpose of this thread is different.

But the internet might change all this. One reason is that it becomes very cheap to publish things that can reach a vast amount of people. I've just looked at the prices: the cost of having a basic website is about £20/year. Well within the budget of almost all individuals and organisations.
But a problem with the internet is that people could easily replace one corporate-controlled medium for another. Even though use of the internet has risen dramatically most people still go to only a few websites such a guardian.co.uk or nytimes.com The opening up of the media won't happen on its own, we have to make it happen.

So following the success of the Post atheist/anti-theist slogans. and anti-theist / atheist / science videos you enjoy. threads. I thought we should all contribute to a thread here which lists political websites and blogs that can all play a part in breaking open the corporate monopoly on the media.

Here's a brief guide of how I think posts should be structured.

1. The website URL
2. A few words on the website's position and your personal opinion of it.
3. A link and short quote from a particularly good article on that website


1. http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/LiberalFAQ.htm
2. More than ever before, opponents of liberalism are broadcasting pseudo-science, demagogic politics, crank economics, and think-tank propaganda in easily parrotted sound bites. This site is a gateway to an entire arsenal of liberal studies, statistics and state-of-the-art arguments that refute their myths.
3. http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-richmerit.htm

The vast majority of academic studies on who becomes rich have found that intelligence and merit are only a part of the reason -- social factors play a huge role as well. Studies of Fortune 500 companies have found that American executives are seeing exploding pay, but there is no correlation between their pay and a company's profitability. In fact, companies with the greatest inequality of pay suffer worse product quality. And many studies have found that societies with the greatest equality generally enjoy the fastest rates of economic growth.

1. http://www.democracynow.org/
2. A predominantly radio and visual station that also publishes textual articles. Based in the US but focused on global issues. Was the chosen platform for Julian Assange of Wikileaks to talk to the world. Famously once had Bill Clinton phone up. Hilarity ensued.
3. http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/7 ... my_goodman

In one of his first public events since being held under house arrest, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange appeared in London Saturday for a conversation with Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, moderated by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman. They discussed the impact of WikiLeaks on world politics, the release of the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, and Cablegate — the largest trove of classified U.S. government records in history.

“From being inside the center of the storm, I’ve learned not just about the structure of government, not just about how power flows in many countries around the world that we’ve dealt with, but rather how history is shaped and distorted by the media,” Assange said.

1. http://www.obligedtooffend.com
2. This blog is focused on British politics but I find it has a lot of good thoughts that are relevant to all nations.
3. http://www.obligedtooffend.com/2012/01/ ... trade.html

Extending democracy beyond the confines of 19th century liberalism will not be done by erecting a tent in one of capitalism’s bustling metropolises, nor by inconveniencing shoppers in Regent Street. It will come through the tireless and unglamorous struggle of those, like the workers at Primark, who realise that by standing together they can claw a little back from those who would make off with everything given half the chance.
Trade unions are by no means perfect, but if the left is to become relevant again it must rediscover the notion that social justice begins at work.

1. http://libcom.org
2. This website holds an anarcho-communist position. It's a bit too extreme for me but it has many great articles on organising and activism. They write about practical matters as well as theory.
3. http://libcom.org/organise/workplace/ar ... work-guide

Nowadays many workplaces have no active workers' organisation. Depending on whereabouts you are in the world and what sector you work in there may or may not be much of a trade union presence. And even if there is it may just be a skeleton organisation which only represents workers with individual problems, and is unable to win demands of management. Or worse, it could be actively in cahoots with management against the workers.

Hardly, surprisingly, therefore that one of the most frequently asked questions by workers is - "What can be done at my workplace to improve things? It seems impossible, the bosses are too strong."