Dispatches From the Culture Wars - February 18, 2020

Corruption on top, rebellion on the bottom, and Bernie on the ballot

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Occupying the NYC subway,credit: Getty Images

 

The Golden Age of White Collar Crime

By Michael Hobbes
February 10, 2020
HuffPost

Over the last two years, nearly every institution of American life has taken on the unmistakable stench of moral rot. The criminal justice system has given up all pretense that the crimes of the wealthy are worth taking seriously. 

Is the Patriarchy Too Big to Fail?

By Laurie Penny
February 11, 2020
The Baffler

Abuse, including sexual abuse, was and remains the core of how power operates in industries and institutions built on complicity. For men like Trump, getting away with it is their personal brand, their special sauce. He appeals to a caucus of bitter moral cowards whose dearest wish is to be allowed to get away with it, too.

The Naked Emperor

By Lucien K. Truscott IV
February 15, 2020
Salon

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The man who stands before those rallies and encourages such idolatry isn't merely running for president. He is calling for the kind of obedience and loyalty demanded by dictators. He is commanding worship and submission. Evangelical Christians have fallen for him in the same way the most conspicuously devout worshipers commit sins. 

Bernie’s Battalion

By Connor Turque
February 11, 2020
USA Today

Bernie Sanders supporters are people who, according to the norms of American politics, shouldn't have anything in common. Except now we do.

Beware of the ADOS Movement

By Jessica Ann Mitchell Aiwuyor
February 14, 2020
The Christian Recorder

A fringe movement called “American Descendants of Slavery” is focused on widening divisions between African American, African and Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latino communities. Their platform currently advocates for policies that would remove Black immigrants from affirmative action and would limit visas to African immigrants.

Oakland Housing Fight

By Josh Cohen
February 10, 2020
Yes! Magazine

Moms 4 Housing elevated the shifting conversation about housing preservation and commodified real estate markets to national headlines.

No Escape for NeverTrump Conservatives

By John Ganz
February 17, 2020
The New Republic

Donald Trump is not an aberration, a kind of eruption of atavistic “tribalism” from the prehistoric past, but the result of a historical narrative that’s hiding in plain sight.

NYC Subway Rebellion

By Sarah Emily Baum
February 14, 2020
Teen Vogue

Activist coalitions said they came out to protest the increased police presence in the subways, harassment by cops of locals, vendors, and minorities, and recent fare hikes, while advocating for a more fully accessible public transit system.