Dispatches From the Culture Wars – July 30, 2024
- Anti-Harris Leftys Hit a Brick Wall
- The Pros and Cons of Protest
- Beyoncé vs. Hulk Hogan
- Tell the World About Project 2025
- Social Cleansing of Paris
- Blackboard Battleground
- “Oil Kills” Protests Disrupt Airports
- Undercover in the Incel Movement
- Pay Attention to Leonardo Leo
- Jane McAlevey, Hellraiser
Anti-Harris Leftys Hit a Brick Wall
By Angela Yang
NBC News
Some left-leaning social media users were quick to criticize progressives’ willingness to vote for “a cop,” and some pro-Palestinian voters argued that Harris’ foreign policy would be just as intolerable as Biden’s. Soon, however, a slew of TikToks and X posts lambasted the narrative that Harris is on par with former President Donald Trump.
By Mark Engler and Paul Engler
Waging Nonviolence
Not all disruptive protests are created equal — and not all are equally beneficial in advancing a cause. Some actions can win popular support and help escalate energy within a movement. Others can drive away potential participants, repel sympathizers and invite state repression. Some actions lead to victory, while others trap activists into a cycle of self-isolation and alienation from the wider public.
By Noah Bierman
Los Angeles Times
Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White lauded Trump’s toughness as they introduced his convention speech. Harris' first official campaign video used the Beyoncé power anthem “Freedom,” which she also plays at campaign events. Harris has put “freedom to make decisions about your own body” at the center of her message.
Tell the World About Project 2025
By Jacob Knutson
Axios
Democrats have warned of the damage that Project 2025 could do to the federal government and access to reproductive care if former President Trump wins in November. The Heritage Foundation-backed plan would do far more than that. Its 900-page wishlist could reshape daily life for millions of Americans if some of its less publicized recommendations are adopted.
By Daniel McArdle
Waging Nonviolence
With the approach of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, organizers and aid groups are working to ensure the continuation of social services in the city. They are also trying to stop the evictions of over 12,500 of the city’s most vulnerable people, who often face the destruction of their dwellings, belongings and documents.
- Saving African American Studies By Jeff Amy, Associated Press
- The Right to Show Pride By Elsie Carson-Holt, LGBTQ Nation
“Oil Kills” Protests Disrupt Airports
By Steve Topple
The Canary
Cars arriving at Montreal Airport were disrupted on Wednesday 24 July, as supporters of Last Generation Canada joined US and European groups taking nonviolent action with Oil Kills – the International Uprising to end oil, gas and coal by 2030. This came after seven groups caused disruption at airports across Europe earlier in the day.
Undercover in the Incel Movement
By Sian Norris
openDemocracy
Incel stands for involuntary celibates: a group of men and boys who feel sexually rejected by women and who are very angry about it. The subcultures’ violent fantasies have spilled out into real-life terror, with extremists driving vans into cafes, shooting men and women in California, murdering Asian sex workers in massage parlours, and stabbing people to death in Plymouth, UK.
By Dennis Aftergut
Salon
The extremist justices are seizing a moment that Leo has prepared them for – a moment to put back in the tube a forward looking, equal opportunity America where church and state are separate. Within their grasp is a presidential dictatorship by which they can realize the rightwing, religious future-state that they perceive as the natural law of the universe.
By Sarah Jaffe
The Baffler
Jane made a calculated gamble a decade and a half ago, believing that sharing her experience in the labor movement, her triumphs and mistakes, her fights and feuds, would be worth something to thousands of people who had no idea what the world of an organizer was like. She was right.