Culture Warriors category archive
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
UGa history professor Stephen Mihm hears the Trump maladministration’s ICE shaking down brown people and hears a rhyme. Here’s a bit:
Case in point: the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a deeply unpopular law that effectively radicalized large swaths of the American electorate. It led to widespread civil disobedience, the destruction of a major political party and, thankfully, accelerated the end of slavery itself. Its lessons are ones Republicans should ponder – and fast.
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*Mark Twain.
Immunity Impunity
0
My old Philly DL friend Noz has some thoughts on what must be done if the American Stasi is to redirected from their current path of trampling on rights and violating Constitutional protections.
Republican Thought Police 0
In the midst of a longer article about the Trump maladministration’s attempt to white-wash America’s history, Diane Carman succintly sums up what’s going on:
But apparently only the white ones.
American Stasi 0
MIT professor and Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu is not sanguine. A snippet:
If this violence goes unchecked, it could indeed be a turning point, because it will create a template for other security forces more closely aligned with Trump to use force against any manifestation of opposition. In that case, the slide toward an authoritarian regime could become difficult to reverse, as civil society becomes prostrate in the face of mounting repression and the norms against such crackdowns become steadily eroded.
Already, the two branches of government that are supposed to check the presidency (Congress and the Supreme Court) have proven to be highly solicitous of Trump’s agenda.
Afterthought:
I question his use of the term “Trump’s agenda.” Me-me-me-me may be motivation, but I don’t think it rises to the level of “agenda.”
“Agenda” implies a coherent strategy, not an incoherent one.
“She Was Just Following Orders” 0
David hears Kristi Noem say something that rhymes with the Nuremberg trials.
American Stasi 0
The Brock Press (a student publication at Brock University in Canada) offers a case study in devolution:
No Change Agents 0
At the The American Scholar, Robert Zaretsky writes of the theories of Austrian philosopher Karl Popper, who lived through and studied the rise of fascism in early and mid-twentieth century Europe. In the midst of a lengthy exploration of Popper’s work, Zaretsky makes what I find a trenchant observation, one which I characterizes dis coarse discourse:
I find his piece a timely and relevant read.
Republican Thought Police 0
Texas Governor Abbott is upset that Texas school students have the utter unmitigated gall and effrontery to form their own opinions about the American Stasi.
American Stasi 0
Farron discusses a federal judge’s asking the Trump maladministration why the heck are you doing this to justify why ICE has invaded Minnesota.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
At NJ.com, Daysi Calavia-Robertson stands tells a tale of Republican mean for the sake of mean as she recounts the story of a legal immigrant who was snatched up by ICE and then moved from place to place, while his family and his attorney were kept in the dark as to his whereabouts.
Buried deep in the article is a plausible explanation for the mean for the sake of mean.
Harol agrees. He tells me he knows the transfers are meant to “break us down.” “To hurt us, one way or the other, to make us miss our court dates, to make us tired, or depressed, to make us want to self-deport,” he says.
The gratuitous cruelty would make the Marquis de Sade tumescent, as I’m sure it does its perpetrato–oh, never mind.
Follow the link for the details.
American Stasi 0
Rick Strom argues that ICE should be abolished.
I’m not sure that I sure that I would go that far, but certainly those changes that have turned it into the official KKK of the USA need to be undone.
