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Dispatches From the Culture Wars – Scoundrel Time Edition

Kanye shrugs; Peterson sells in; Campus capers; Court joins the attack on democracy; From ACORN to (poison) oak; Incels vs. equality; Making the case against Cos

Darrin Bell / Washington Post Writers Group

Kanye West’s Bastardization of “Free Thinkers”

By Jeet Heer
May 3, 2018
The New Republic

A noble tradition of American dissent has been hijacked by right-wing trolls—including the famous hip-hop artist.

Jordan Peterson is On a Crusade to Toughen Up Young Men. It’s Landed Him On Our Cultural Divide.

By Karen Heller
May 2, 2018
Washington Post

A couple of years ago, Peterson was a respected though far from famous academic when he began posting his lengthy lectures online. Now there are hours and hours of his talks and interviews on YouTube, a viral Encyclopedia Jordanica with more than a million subscribers.

 

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State of Conflict

By Steve Kolowich
April 27, 2018
The Chronicle of Higher Education

How a tiny protest at the U. of Nebraska turned into a proxy war for the future of campus politics.

The Right To Vote Just Suffered One of Its Worst Losses of the Trump Era

By Ian Millhiser
April 30, 2018
ThinkProgress

Want to keep poor voters of color from casting a ballot? A federal appeals court has your back.

How the ACORN Scandal Seeded Today’s Nightmare Politics

By Zach Carter and Arthur Delaney
May 5, 2018
HuffPost

Breitbart led the charge, but Democrats delivered the killing blow. Has anyone really learned?

What Do Incels, Fascists and Terrorists Have in Common? Violent Misogyny

By Jason Wilson
May 4, 2018
The Guardian

Many accounts of incel subculture have treated it as a sharp deviation from the norm. It’s not.

Bill Cosby’s Guilty Verdict Was Made Possible By Decades of Activism by Black Women

By Treva B. Lindsey
April 26, 2018
Vox

Long before the Cosby trial, black women paved the way for our current robust national conversation about sexual violence.