Culture Warriors category archive
American Taliban 0
Thom’s guest discusses the cultural similarities between American white supremacists and Muslim extremists.
Selective Breeding 0
Elizabeth Catte discusses the history and legacy of eugenics in the United States with Sam and his crew.
This is a longer video than I usually post, but it is well worth a listen. As the discussion points out, we have a way of covering up forgetting covering up the uncomfortable parts of our history.
You can see the dynamic today in the attempts by right-wingers to ban critical race theory.
History Matters 0
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Tony Norman marvels at (yet more) Republicans who believe in a fairy-tale American past.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
George Santayana’s famous saying has never seemed more apt: Those who do not remember the past (or, in this case, those who would pretend the past never happened) are condemned to repeat it.
Vaccine Nation 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Paul Thagard argues forcefully that there is such a thing as the common good and that it extends to actions to protect public health. Here’s a bit of his piece:
A Bumble 0
He made an unexpected match on Bumble.
“I did storm the capitol,” he said, according to court documents. “I made it all the way to Statuary Hall.”
His potential date wrote back: “We are not a match.” Then, the Bumble user contacted the police.
Then the police contacted him . . . .
Freedom Florida Style 0
Warning: Short ad at the end.
A Pillow of the Community, Reprise 0
At Above the Law, Elizabeth Dye takes a look at My Pillow’s lawsuit against the Dominion voting systems manufacturer and suggest that its legal reasoning may be slightly wanting.
Courting Religion 0
At Above the Law, Tyler Broker argues that, even as the popularity of religion has been broadly declining across the United States, attempts to favor religion and discriminate against nonbelievers (his term) have escalated. Here’s a snippet:
Favoring religion in the law and disfavoring nonbelievers can only be explained by bigotry. Only a bigot would claim religious citizens and religious expression is worth more to this country than nonreligious citizens and nonreligious expression. Only a bigot would claim this country is “only suitable and sustainable for a religious people.”
“But No Other Answer Fits the Facts” 0
Nika Kabiri explores what persons fall for and hold on to conspiracy theories. She identifies three factors:
- First, conspiratorial thinking may have psychological roots that need to be addressed first. Recent research from Emory University suggests people prone to conspiratorial ideation have low social self-esteem and exhibit signs of narcissism, among other traits. . . .
- Second, underneath all conspiracy theories are coherent ideologies, a master world-view in which conspiracies are normative (rather than unusual). This worldview is so compelling that a believer can espouse two inconsistent conspiracy theories at the same time, as long as each aligns with this underlying ideology. . . .
- Third, all people resist new evidence that challenges their beliefs to varying degrees. Confirmation bias leads all of us to do online research using keyword searches that are bound to serve up what we want to see. . .
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Follow the link for a more detailed discussion of each, as well as her thoughts on how to combat conspiratorial thinking.
Disunited States 0
Werner Herzog’s Bear mulls over Republicans’ “culture war” strategy, first wielded with effectiveness by Richard Nixon, and the implications of said strategy. Here’s a bit; the entire article is well-worth the three or four minutes it will take for you to read it (emphasis added).
“We’re the Victims Here” 0
David discusses what’s behind the right-wing notion of “cancel culture.”
A Notion of Immigrants 0
At the Des Moines Register, an immigrant from Viet Nam who came here at the age of nine muses on her American experience. Here’s a bit:
