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Dispatches From the Culture Wars – February 28, 2023

Dilbert's race problem, how COVID affected the labor market, and more cultural crackups

Luke McGarry
  1. Covid and Workers’ Power
  2. Unbanning Books
  3. War American Style
  4. High Schoolers in Action
  5. Indigenous Peoples Day in Anchorage
  6. Child Marriage and Trans Rights
  7. Dilbert’s Daddy Has a Race Problem
  8. The National Gun
  9. The Great Ohio Rail Disaster
  10. Seymour Hersh’s Scoop Has a Big Hole

 

Covid and Workers’ Power

By James Meadway
openDemocracy

The pandemic called into question the core ideologies of work and capitalism. Strikers have enjoyed public support in both the US and the UK. The ‘Great Resignation’ of 2021 was another symptom of this change in people’s relationship to the work they performed, pre-dating the shift into collective action.

Unbanning Books

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By Lexi McMenamin
Teen Vogue

The Florida-based Dream Defenders got to work, connecting with leftist publishers including Haymarket Books, Verso, and PM Press, to distribute books and literature to Florida students. Dream Defenders have planned walkouts, demonstrations, and teach-ins across Florida.

War American Style

By Andrea Mazzarino
TomDispatch

As a society, it seems to me that we’ve come to view violence rather than other ways of solving problems (including critical thinking and honest conversation) as the new normal. There are alternative responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, other than sending endless billions of dollars in arms to that country. A green-energy plan could have helped starve President Vladimir Putin from his post long ago.

High Schoolers in Action

Indigenous Peoples Day in Anchorage

By Emily Goodykoontz
Anchorage Daily News

Anchorage will celebrate Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples Day as municipal holidays after the Assembly on Tuesday voted unanimously to add both as paid days off for city employees. Indigenous Peoples Day honors Alaska Native and Native American history and is often observed in lieu of Columbus Day. 

Child Marriage and Trans Rights

By Molly Sprayregen
LGBTQ Nation

Wyoming Republicans continue to propose anti-trans legislation under the guise of protecting youth. But despite the GOP’s supposed concern for the safety of children, the state’s GOP is waging a campaign against a bill that would prohibit child marriage. The legislature is currently considering several anti-trans bills. 

Dilbert’s Daddy Has a Race Problem

By Oliver Darcy
CNN

Newspapers across the country dropped the “Dilbert” comic strip over the weekend after the creator of the satirical cartoon went on a racist tirade, calling Black Americans a “hate group” and suggesting that White people should “get the hell away” from them. The move came after Scott Adams, the cartoonist behind “Dilbert,” effectively encouraged segregation in a shocking rant on YouTube.

The National Gun

By Sharon Zhang
Truthout

House Republican has introduced a bill that would make the AR-15, which has been used in many of the nation’s most horrific mass shootings, the “National Gun of the United States,” positioning it alongside official symbols like the bald eagle and Francis Scott Key’s “Star Spangled Banner” in representing the U.S.

The Great Ohio Rail Disaster

Seymour Hersh’s Scoop Has a Big Hole

By Natalia Antelava
Coda Story

Did the United States blow up the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea? Seymour Hersh, a well known U.S. investigative journalist, made the claim last week. Hersh’s story is a case study in modern-day disinformation. But if we just dismiss Hersh’s story as bad journalism, we risk missing its impact.