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A New Hope Spreads Across a Galaxy Far, Far Away—Here’s Why That’s a Big Problem for the Republic

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-new-hope-spreads-across-a-galaxy-far-far-…
Created
Thu, 08/08/2024 - 22:00

“America now has a choice between the former president’s nightmarish vision of national decline that only a strongman can fix and Harris’ optimistic vow that America is still a land of aspiration. But that dichotomy also points to a huge risk for Harris. Running a campaign rooted in hopefulness and good cheer at a time when many Americans feel demoralized and tired could backfire.” — CNN

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Look, I get it. Emperor Palpatine is dead, again, and the First Order has scattered to rural Outer Rim diners to lick its turbolaser wounds over heavy mugs of blue drink. The new new hope is ascending in our galaxy far, far away, and that’s a great thing.

But is it really?

I mean, sure, we mustn’t forget the billions of voices who screamed out and were silenced as literal planets disintegrated before our very eyes, but this hope message everyone’s jazzed about… I can’t be the only one thinking it’s a bit of a risk, right?

Israel’s Short-sighted Political Assassinations with Sharmine Narwani

https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-political-assassinations-sharmine-narwani/…
Created
Thu, 08/08/2024 - 21:27

Sharmine Narwani shares her insights on the targeted killings of Fuad Shukr and Ismail Haniyeh, which have sent shockwaves through the Middle East and raised the specter of a broader regional conflict.

The post Israel’s Short-sighted Political Assassinations with Sharmine Narwani appeared first on MintPress News.

Saving Meritocracy

https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2024/08/08/saving-meritocracy/
Created
Thu, 08/08/2024 - 19:28
The promise of social mobility is broken for many people. This makes it tempting to blame meritocracy, claiming that the ideal merely serves to uphold an unjust system. But if taken seriously, this remedy would have disastrous effects. A world in which top positions are not even supposed to go to the most deserving would […]

Tim Walz, Hannah Arendt, and the Occupation at Wounded Knee

https://coreyrobin.com/2024/08/07/tim-walz-hannah-arendt-and-the-occupation-at-…
Created
Thu, 08/08/2024 - 11:17
Before Tim Walz became a politician, he was a high school teacher. One of his passions as a teacher was the subject of the Holocaust. Walz wrote his masters’ thesis on “Improving Human Rights and Genocide Studies in the American High School Classroom.” It argued that the way we teach the Holocaust and genocide in school was mistaken. Walz pushed for an approach that didn’t separate the Holocaust from other genocides and human rights abuses. He also insisted that it was a mistake to focus on the maniacal character of Hitler and the Nazis. Instead he argued for a more integrated, comparative, and historicist approach, incorporating factors such as colonialism, economics, and civil war, and connecting the Holocaust to the […]

The not-so-strange shortage of conservative professors

https://crookedtimber.org/2024/08/08/the-not-so-strange-shortage-of-conservativ…
Created
Thu, 08/08/2024 - 10:24
I have a letter in The Chronicle of Higher Education responding to Steven Teles’ call for more conservative college professors. It’s a shortened version of a longer piece I wrote, which I’m posting here. The fact that conservatives are thin in the humanities and social sciences departments of US college campuses is well known. A […]

The “Coach” Approach

https://digbysblog.net/2024/08/07/the-coach-approach/
Created
Thu, 08/08/2024 - 08:00
Brian Beutler says moderates should stop worrying that the Real Americans are going to run for the hills: The implicit premise, familiar to every Democrat in politics, is that Republicans will declare all progressive ideas “socialism” whether their contents or proponents are socialist or not. One school of liberal thought holds that Democrats should thus downplay these kinds of ideas—avoid bad-faith GOP backlash and seize the center through the absence of controversy. Another holds that Democrats can defeat Republicans in a contest to define the issues. As a liberal politician, you can run away from the idea of universal school lunch, because Republicans will call it socialism, or you can run toward it, while persuading people that it isn’t socialism, it’s neighborliness. If you opt for the latter, you can go a step further by noting that stripping free lunch from hungry children, or making school lunch programs a source of stigma for the children of poor parents, are ideas that only animate people of troubling character.

This Is Not The Slam Dunk They Think It Is

https://digbysblog.net/2024/08/07/this-is-not-the-slam-dunk-they-think-it-is/
Created
Thu, 08/08/2024 - 06:30
Providing tampons for high school students is something the Trump people seem to think is very weird. I think most people probably think it’s weird not to. Why do they care about this stuff so much? Former President Trump’s campaign and supporters are going after Vice President Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), dubbing him “Tampon Tim” in reference to a bill he signed last year requiring schools to provide free menstrual products in all public school bathrooms. The Minnesota law, which went into effect Jan. 1, mandates menstrual products — including pads, tampons and other items — “must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district.” State Republican lawmakers pushed back on the legislation at the time, but ultimately failed to amend the bill to apply only for girls’ bathrooms. […] The primary super PAC supporting Trump called Walz a “weird radical liberal,” as part of a new campaign ad against the governor.