Dispatches From the Culture Wars - March 31, 2020

Even social distancing sparks a culture war. Even Britney gets woke. And more revelations

Portside
Printer friendly  
Coronavirus New York Volunteers with Ridgewood Mutual Aid, Brooklyn,Photo: Awen Films.

Everything Has Changed Overnight

By Nathan J. Robinson
March 27, 2020
Current Affairs

There is only one issue on everybody’s minds: the virus, along with its consequences. An effective, on-message Democratic opposition is needed, exposing Trump and offering a clear plan of their own. Unfortunately, Democrats for the most part have failed utterly. 

Mutual Aid is Here

By Peter Rugh
March 27, 2020
The Indypendent

Sprawling mutual aid work is underway across the borough and New York City, now the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.  

Social Distancing Culture War

By McKay Coppins
March 30, 2020
The Atlantic

As the coronavirus now emerges as another front in the culture war, social distancing has come to be viewed in some quarters as a political act—a way to signal which side you’re on.

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)

What a Plague Reveals

By Frank Rich
March 26, 2020
New York Magazine

There’s a titanic dynamic playing out now in real time. Celebrities and the wealthy are first in line for the lifeboats of coronavirus tests. The permanent residents of resort towns on the Eastern seaboard are being shoved aside by prematurely returning summer vacationers who are stripping shelves of food and flooding the limited local health facilities.

Covid-19 and Climate Change

By Gilad Edelman
March 23, 2020
Wired

Now we’re faced with the threat of another global catastrophe arising from the clash of nature and modern human activity. As with climate change, any serious effort to mitigate or stave off this disaster will require major economic disruptions. 

How To Talk To a Corona Skeptic

By Teresa Carr
March 24, 2020
Undark

Is there something people who communicate about Covid-19 can do to better convey the gravity? Experts have some ideas.

Chesa Boudin: Prisoners at Risk

By Jennifer Gonnerman
March 26, 2020
The New Yorker

As covid-19 has been spreading throughout the country, Boudin has been outspoken in urging criminal-justice leaders to reduce their jail and prison populations. 

Sanders Saves America

By John Nichols
March 27, 2020
The Nation

Bernie Sanders’s moral outrage and devastating sarcasm struck back against a GOP assault on poor and low-income workers. 

#WhereIsJoe

By Daniel Strauss and Lauren Gambino
March 28, 2020
The Guardian

Even with the ramped-up online schedule, it can still be difficult for Biden to break through as he is overshadowed by other figures actually fighting on the frontlines.

Woke Celebs

By Brendan Wetmore
March 25, 2020
Paper

It may have taken suffering and virus with no cure to make it happen, but celebrities are pivoting towards uplifting the working class more so than the executive branch of the United States government.