Even though, to some, it feels like a decade has passed, 2021 is almost behind us. Gods and Radicals is not a news site, but staggering events around the globe have made it difficult to avoid incorporating this ‘genre’ into our writing. Before stepping into this new Gregorian calendar year, let’s revisit some of the events we felt the need to cover and consciously decide what lessons we hope to take with us into this next phase, and what we ought to leave behind.

It’s astounding how little the average citizen knows about nature and their local ecosystems. It has become easier for us to imagine a mosquito that is genetically engineered to be sterile, than to learn about which animals in our area are their natural predators.

In a world where politicians lie constantly, companies continue to wreck the Earth and our food is processed with things we can’t pronounce, we ought to think carefully about who has our faith.

Violence against Indigenous people is not a natural disaster, and they need not be rescued from it. To be rescued from violence doesn’t end violence, it only keeps certain people temporarily safe.

Banning burkinis, the War on Terror and the US occupation of Afghanistan have nothing to do with improving the lives of women. Why, then, did Women’s welfare become central to any discussion about these topics?

“Government investments in public transport systems may very well be exacerbating inequality due to their direct ties with the global capitalist system.”

“Bloodthirsty savagery”, which is often attributed to the Mayan people, far better describes U.S. foreign policy than any pre-Columbian civilization in the Americas. We ought to remember that the Mayan people still exist today, and they were and still are far from the backwards and underdeveloped stereotype propagated in mainstream media.

This year, in the largest anti-Illegal logging operation in the history of Brazil, in the state with the highest rate of deforestation — Pará — the wood seized was of “native woods of the Amazon biome” and did not correspond with the information declared officially.

Whatever rules being imposed by the state or the parallel powers of organized crime, they seem to signify a blatant disregard for the lives of marginalized peoples.

[Fanon] has taught us well, that it is not through kindness, asking please, begging for crumbs and simply pointing out injustices that we will overcome our condition as colonized peoples. And most importantly, it is not through the reproduction of the oppressor’s tactics that we will regain our humanity.

“Fidelity to the rule of law” may now be a sentiment that serves our fleeting motivation to get rid of Trump, but it will never rescue us from the pervasive toxicity of the global political landscape ‘American Democracy’ has devised.

Yesterday, December 4th, 2020, we had to say goodbye to our beloved writer and friend — Judith O’Grady.

Faith in the democratic system is eroding not only in Belarus, but also in the United States and other places around the globe. The principles of ‘Freedom' America sought to defend for almost a century revealed to be a shortcoming in their own territory, and not exclusive to 2nd and 3rd world authoritarian governments.

If someone worships wealth, though the idea of it might be immutable, they want how much they have of it to change. Even in worshiping deities, eternal as they might be, they are seen as having the power of Change.

From Rhyd Wildermuth

Today, as the cautionary tale that we have become, it’s not too late to start putting this planet back in our sights, even if it means looking at something uncomfortable and un-rescuable.

A review of the “The Old Guard” — without spoilers.

It’s easier to think it’s the other, those ‘bad apples’, because we don’t want to come to realization that pretty much every white American is unprepared for what it really means for their Nation to give up being a world power fueled by racial injustice.

“The murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, and the attack against Christian Cooper. Do these specific cases, whose punishments rely on the chance of someone recording at the right place and time, shake the foundations of our structurally racist society?”

The cultural impact of ultra-processed foods is “a consequence of the desire to consume more and more as to create the sensation of belonging to a more modern and superior culture." With this, late stage capitalism has changed the concept of poverty and hunger.