Culture Warriors category archive
Actualizing Fiction 0
Robert Reich looks at Donald Trump’s and J. D. Vance’s attitudes (and, in the case of Trump, documented behavior) and warns,
Follow the link for his reasoning.
A Notion of Immigrants, Carrion Crows Dept. 0
The parents of Aiden Clark have had enough of Republicans’ politicizing the death of their son. Aiden died in a traffic accident involving a Haitian immigrant in Springfield, Ohio.
Here’s bit from Aiden’s father’s statement before the Springfield City Commission:
They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants. The border crisis, and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members. However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio. I will listen to them one more time to hear their apologies.
Follow the link for the video and more background.
“This Is What Racism and Xenophobia Look Like” 0
San and the crew discuss how the right-wing spins lies about immigrants and how Trump seizes on and amplifies the lies. (The post title is a quote from the video.)
“Childless Cat Ladies” 0
At the Portland Press-Herald, Victoria Hugo-Vidal takes issue with J. D. Vance’s stated position that the only purpose for women is to be brood mares women who have not had children are not qualified to serve as school teachers. She does so by citing numerous examples of childless women teachers (aka, “nuns”) that she had during her days in Catholic schools.
In the course of the article, she offers, almost in passing, a theory to explain J. D. Vance’s misogyny:
Methinks she’s onto something.
Follow the link for context.
Republican Family Values 0
Michael in Norfolk decodes de code.
Republican Establishmentarian Thought Police 0
Thom notes that some public schools are starting to resist Oklahoma State Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters’s orders to “teach the Bible.”
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
In a letter to the editor of The Charlotte Observer, Dan Busch describes a sign of the times.
The Fifth Columnist 2
The Arizona Republic’s Laurie Roberts is less than pleased at how Arizona state senator Wendy Rogers has embraced fascism.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
At AL.com, Roy S. Johnson decodes de code.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
At the Roanoke Times, Jeanne Larsen highlights Republicans’ hypocrisy.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
As I have mentioned before in these electrons, Dr. William Shade, one of my history professors back in the olden days when I was a young ‘un, was found of saying, “History is irony.”
In the midst of a larger column focusing on a notion of immigrants, AL.com’s John Archibald notes such an irony (emphasis added):
Alabama is so afraid of “divisive concepts” that it won’t let students study the sins associated with that flag. But counties can run ‘em up the flagpole and call that history.
Follow the link for context.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
Grung_e_Gene notes that coarse discoursers dislike it when others remind them of the coarseness of their discourse.
Establishmentarians 0
The EFF reports on an establishmentarian copywrong.
Republican Family Values 0
Nickolas Kristoff details the deception. A snippet:
The problem? While neither party has done enough to support families and children, the one that is failing most egregiously is — not surprisingly — the one led by the thrice-married tycoon who tangled with a porn star, boasted about grabbing women by the genitals and was found by a jury to have committed sexual assault.
Follow the link for his bill of particulars.
The Bully’s Puppets 0
Robert Reich looks at how the rich and powerful use misdirection plays to get even more rich and powerful and expresses hope that persons are finally catching on. An excerpt; follow the link for the rest.
The bullied are still there; Trump is still exploiting their anger.
For nearly a decade, Trump has channeled that anger into racism, nativism and misogyny. He has encouraged his followers to feel powerful by bullying those with even less power: poor Black and Latino people, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, Muslims, families seeking asylum, undocumented workers, pregnant women who can’t afford to travel to a state where abortions are legal.
This bullying game has been played repeatedly in history by self-described strongmen who pretend to be tribunes of the oppressed by scapegoating the truly powerless, but who are actually fronting for the rich and powerful.
In reality, Trump and his lackeys work for the oligarchs — cutting their taxes, rolling back regulations that protect the public but that cost the oligarchs, and dividing the rest of us into warring factions so we don’t look upward to see where most power and wealth have gone.
The good news is that Americans are catching on.