Dispatches From the Culture Wars – December 19, 2023
- The Whole World is Grieving
- When Leftys Turn Right…
- … And Rightys Turn Weird
- The New McCarthyism
- Cori Bush and Ayanna Pressley Lead Fight for ERA
- Climate Scientists Call For Action
- Appalachian Artists Stand Against Pipeline
- South African Students Take On Anti-Immigrant Violence
- Confessions of a Middle-Class Startup Founder
- I Dreamed I Saw Francisco Franco Last Night
By Li Zhou
Vox
The international community is increasingly turning against Israel’s ongoing military onslaught in Gaza, in large part due to a growing civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis. This change has been evident in the last few weeks as global support for a ceasefire has grown, and as US public opinion has also moved in that direction.
By Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet
In These Times
Left-to-right sliders (or at least left-ish-to-right) — themselves migrants across the political divide — find themselves in strange constellation with those they might once have disdained.
By Richard Hames
Novara Media
How does the far right attract a particular – and particularly odd – group? Instead of rounded political subjects, people form themselves into chains of diverse contrasting aspects from their scattered engagements with the world. And the far right attracts people who are particularly fragmented by seeming to offer ways to master this incoherence.
By Harry Blain
Foreign Policy in Focus
The campus “anti-Semitism” investigations being conducted by the U.S. House of Representatives are remarkably reminiscent of the legislative smear campaigns during the early Cold War. While these investigations claim to be concerned with anti-Semitism, they have been led by congressional Republicans who have displayed no interest in exposing the growing anti-Semitism on the right.
Cori Bush and Ayanna Pressley Lead Fight for ERA
By Bonnie Stabile
Ms.
A strong push from the local and state levels is needed to motivate federal officials to support advancing the ERA to see constitutional equality, said Bush. “We won’t see this change happen even when we take back over the majority. … We won’t be able to get this through and signed by the president” unless we mobilize with momentum—starting at the grassroots level.
Climate Scientists Call For Action
By Damien Gayle
The Guardian
As diplomats meet in Dubai for the 28th round of the COP climate talks, in a year predicted to be the hottest on record, and as carbon emissions continue to rise, 1,447 scientists and academics signed an open letter calling on the public to take collective action to avert climate breakdown.
Appalachian Artists Stand Against Pipeline
STOP MVP, a compilation album of 40 tracks, amplifies the voices of Appalachian artists standing against the Mountain Valley Pipeline. All proceeds from the album support the Appalachian Legal Defense Fund in their battle against environmental threats.
Video: South African Students Take On Anti-Immigrant Violence
Anti-immigrant sentiment and xenophobia are rife in South Africa. DW meets two young people who have turned their backs on racism and anti-migrant groups like Operation Dudula.
Confessions of a Middle-Class Startup Founder
By Anonymous
New York Magazine
The irony that selling fiction to investors was making these founders richer than selling a bona fide product to paying customers wasn’t lost on me. But it wasn’t just the money: After years of work, I had the temerity to be proud of the culture and product we had built.
I Dreamed I Saw Francisco Franco Last Night
By Jason Wilson
The Guardian
Some US far-right figures have made renewed attempts to rehabilitate the 20th century Spanish dictator Gen Francisco Franco in recent months, praising him as an avatar of religious authoritarianism, and praising his actions during and after the Spanish civil war as a model for confronting the left in the US.