Missiles for the Masses Part 2: Counterinsurgency and the Media

In Part 2 of the exploration of counterinsurgency, Mercedes and Abi discuss the rhetorical and linguistic devices that the media and state employ to build the legitimacy of the state, delegitimise resistance and justify expanding militarism. There is a particular focus on phrases used by the media and the government. The two-fold nature of such devices is explored in how they attempt to separate activists and movements from the broader public, whilst justifying state-sanctioned violence.

Recommended reading:

‘Stigmatising narratives and implications on the exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association’. Melbourne  Activist Legal Support Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, 2024. https://mals.au/2024/07/30/submission-to-the-united-nations-stigmatising-narratives-and-implications-on-the-right-to-freedom-of-assembly/

Seraphin, Bruno. 2023. ‘Settler colonial counterinsurgency: Indigenous resistance and the more-than-state policing of #NoDAPL’. Security Dialogue Vol. 54(3). 272-289. 

Fernandes, Clinton. 2022. Sub-Imperial Power: Australia in the International Arena.

Neocleous, M. 2021. A Critical Theory of Police Power: The Fabrication of the Social Order.

Recommended listening:

A Friday Rave 10th January 2025: https://omny.fm/shows/a-friday-rave/a-friday-rave-10-january-2025

Opening Track - Bombtrack by Rage Against the Machine