Dispatches From the Culture Wars – July 4, 2023
- SCOTUS Backlash, Popular Response
- Youth Climate Activists Turn Up the Heat
- Childcare Workers Rediscover Power
- Gun Crazy
- Florida Workers Exit Stage Left
- History Correction: Turns Out Women Hunted Too
- Public is Funding Rightwing Ideology as Education
- Graham’s Crackup: MAGA’s Own Culture War
- When Businesses Become Voters
- Moms For Liberty Summit
SCOTUS Backlash, Popular Response
- Progressives Vow Higher Ed, Court Reforms By Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams
- Queer New Yorkers React By Edward Helmore, The Guardian
- Solving the Student Loan Problem By Nina Turner, Newsweek
Youth Climate Activists Turn Up the Heat
By Keerti Gopal
The Lever
The youth-led direct action organization Climate Defiance shut down a 2024 swing state fundraiser at the Harvard Club in New York City, headlined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The activists were protesting Schumer’s hand in approving the Mountain Valley Pipeline and his ties to the company leading the project, utility giant NextEra Energy.
By Michael Gould-Wartofsky
TomDispatch
The New York City Police Department recently attempted to charge multiple protesters with “terrorism” after they peacefully occupied a subway station to protest the choking to death of Jordan Neely, an unhoused New Yorker, by an ex-Marine. And across the country, such police work continues under the guise of counterterrorism.
Childcare Workers Rediscover Power
By Pamela Haines
Waging Nonviolence
Childcare workers and parents from all over the country gather on the phone every other Wednesday evening to strategize and plan together. They go for highly visible events, built around childcare worker schedules, organized for maximum media potential, with a strong focus on building morale.
By Corey G. Johnson
ProPublica
Why haven’t lawmakers acted with forceful correctives? What will it take to regain a sense of safety? When will change happen? And how, exactly, did America end up here? Ryan Busse, former executive at Kimber America, a major gun manufacturer, recently shared his thoughts on these questions with ProPublica.
News Video: Florida Workers Exit Stage Left
By Manuel Bojorquez
CBS News
A controversial Florida law which took effect Saturday no longer recognizes driver’s licenses issued to undocumented immigrants from other states, among other restrictions. It is part of a sweeping immigration bill signed by Republican Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. The run-up to the new law has sparked protests by immigrant workers.
History Correction: Turns Out Women Hunted Too
By Bridget Alex
Science
Reviewing accounts penned by scholars who study culture, known as ethnographers, as well as those by observers between the late 1800s and today, researchers found that women hunted in nearly 80% of surveyed forager societies. These data flatly reject a long-standing myth that men hunt, women gather, and that this division runs deep in human history.
Public is Funding Rightwing Ideology as Education
By Jeff Bryant
Z
Charges that public schools are subjecting children to leftwing indoctrination are proving to be mostly over-hyped or not at all based in fact. Yet, there’s evidence, according to a new report, that a fast-growing sector of the charter school industry is engaged in indoctrination, only, in this case, the schools are instructing children in white, conservative ideology.
Graham’s Crackup: MAGA's Own Culture War
By Heather Digby Parton
Salon
At a Trump rally, the South Carolina crowd turned on their homeboy, Sen. Lindsey Graham. Trump seemed surprised by the vehement hostility, even laughing and muttering “Jesus” under his breath at one point. Trump heard those boos and the writing is on the wall for Graham.
By Dan McCue
The Well News
In Seaford, Delaware, a proposed city charter change has brought a bit of unexpected controversy to this community of tree-lined streets and brick sidewalks: City officials want to give municipal voting rights to nonresident owners of limited liability companies, corporations and trusts.
By Shirley Hershey Showalter
Billy Penn at WHYY
What I heard loudly and clearly at the summit was a call to theocracy in the guise of democracy — asserting conservative Christian values as normative for all. God’s name came up often, his blessing invoked, and his guidance proclaimed. For people who decry ideology and accuse teachers of indoctrination, the speakers seemed blind to their own.