Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

In the summer of 2026, as New Zealand navigates its own intensifying culture wars, the Free Speech Union NZ (FSU) invited Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker for a high-profile event in Auckland. Framed as "An Evening with Steven Pinker" at the Bruce Mason Centre on February 2, the gathering promised insights on reason, progress, and free speech—core tenets of Pinker's brand. FSU's chief executive, Jillaine Heather, touts it as a vital strike in the "fight for free speech in New Zealand." At first glance, this appears benign: an esteemed thinker engaging a public audience in a free society. Yet, delve deeper, and the invitation exposes a profound hypocrisy. It underscores how purported free speech advocates selectively safeguard expression to protect influential, often tarnished figures, while orchestrating a "war on woke" that vilifies marginalized communities as dire threats to liberty. More alarmingly, it sustains a culture where white supremacis...

  The evidence is overwhelming, documented in court filings, university investigations, and the massive tranches of Justice Department-released Epstein files—most recently the blockbuster drop of over three million documents, emails, photos, and videos in late January/early February 2026.  These files expose sustained, post-conviction ties between convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and the professoriate at our most elite institutions. Dismissing these revelations as conspiracy mongering or overreach protects the powerful at the expense of victims and erodes the moral foundation of higher education itself. This culture isn't abstract or historical; it's active and ongoing. Epstein didn't merely donate money—he cultivated long-term relationships with star academics who continued corresponding, meeting, flying on his private jet, and even visiting his private island years after his 2008 conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution. These interactions often blu...

  The revelations emerging from the Jeffrey Epstein files in 2026 should shock us. Peter Mandelson, architect of New Labour and embodiment of its "modernizing" project, exchanging sensitive government information with a convicted sex trafficker. Tony Blair, the humanitarian interventionist, introduced to Epstein through Mandelson's networks. Birthday notes referring to Epstein as "best pal." Payments totaling $75,000. These aren't peripheral scandals involving minor party figures—they implicate the very core of the New Labour project, the men who redefined British social democracy for a generation. Yet perhaps the most disturbing aspect isn't the revelations themselves, but how unsurprising they feel. The Epstein connections don't contradict New Labour's legacy—they crystallize it. They reveal with stark clarity what "pragmatism" actually meant in practice: the subordination of ethical principles to elite networks, the conflation of ...

I had learned my analysis of propaganda, communication and imperialism by reading Chomsky. I was then sixteen years old. But I had also learned my analysis of power and control from Adivasi activists and organizers, articulating their theories of change from everyday observations in struggles at the global margins. The Epstein files and the Chomsky linkages show the impermanence of elite critiques from spaces of privilege, distanced from the voices and embodied struggles at the margins. Such critique often falls short, itself complicit in power. The other kind of critique, that emergent from within struggles is transformative, holding the potential to undo the very games that underlie imperial power. In February 2019, Chomsky wrote to Epstein dismissing what he called the "hysteria" around abuse of women. He characterized press coverage as "horrible" treatment—not of the victims, but of Epstein himself. The women who Julie Brown's reporting had finally centered...

In the shadowy corridors of elite universities, where intellect meets ambition, the Jeffrey Epstein scandal isn't just a tale of one man's depravity—it's a damning indictment of how money corrupts the pursuit of knowledge. The recently released Epstein files, including troves of emails, documents, and correspondences from 2025-2026 drops, paint a vivid picture of systemic rot. They reveal how powerful donors—often wealthy white men—wield their fortunes to infiltrate, influence, and ultimately distort academia. This isn't mere philanthropy; it's a toxic blend of extreme neoliberalism, chronic defunding of public institutions, and a creeping donor culture that erodes academic freedom. As universities scramble for cash in an era of slashed budgets, they've become playgrounds for the ultra-rich, who buy access, set research agendas, and silence dissent. Let's dive deeper into what the files expose about this disgusting decay, expanding on the networks Epstein cu...