Dispatches From the Culture Wars — August 25, 2026
- The Death of Jason Arday
- Smoking is Cool Again
- The Epstein Files and Scientific Racism
- Public Land and Environmental Justice
- The Church and Haitian ICE Victims
- CA Labor Advances
- The Gloves
- Gig Workers Up Against It
- Turning to Black-Owned Farms for Safe Food
- OpenAI Protester Begins a Movement
By Cornel Grey, The Conversation
Jason Arday’s death at 41 came only days after his resignation from the University of Cambridge. He had been facing intense scrutiny of his academic record and allegations of plagiarism. Questions about one university appointment are widening into claims that Black scholars would largely disappear from elite institutions under a supposedly pure merit system.
By Harrison Mooney, The Tyee
The cigarette is back in fashion, suddenly ubiquitous on Instagram, where “cigfluencers” — that’s what these sexy celebrity smokers are called — rehabilitate the habit for another generation. Celebrity influence goes a long way, but what’s resuscitating cigarettes and glamorizing smoking most of all is modern life: how much it sucks.
The Epstein Files and Scientific Racism
By Santanu Ghosh, Avant-Garde
The Epstein Files, in essence, are a confession. They reveal the moral architecture of an entire class. These people formed the core of America’s scientific elite, gathered under one roof to fortify the longstanding myth of whiteness with the latest tools of genetic determinism and evolutionary storytelling.
Public Land and Environmental Justice
By Ava Guihama Olson, Madison Fowler, Sarah D. Wald and Ashley Cordes, Resilience
Unprecedented assaults on public lands, including mass firings, conservation rollbacks, and proposed public lands selloffs, fuel a sense of existential crisis among environmentalists and public lands advocates. Environmental groups are scaling back progressive initiatives as they try to regain some amount of control in a tumultuous political environment.
The Church and Haitian ICE Victims
By Kathryn Post, National Catholic Reporter
Many of Springfield, Ohio’s Haitians attend evangelical, Catholic, mainline and Pentecostal churches across the city. And in the months of dread and uncertainty before a federal judge cleared the way on Aug. 4 for the termination of Haiti’s TPS protections, faith leaders and congregations have emerged as pivotal actors in the support networks for affected families.
CA Labor Advances
Rideshare Drivers Win Certification By Mark Kreidler, Capital and Main
ICE vs Winery Workers By David Bacon, Truthout
By Sophie Hurwitz, Mother Jones
Homeland Security will spend up to $20m to equip its agents with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to the skin of a person deemed uncooperative. Portable, convenient electric shock devices made for law enforcement like the glove can be, and have been, used for torture. Once called weapons, they’re now marketed as “humane”.
By Jacob Lederman, The Conversation
Most Americans usually see platform-based work as a side hustle to earn extra cash. In fact, these jobs are becoming more essential as a primary source of income, even as they fail to cover basic food and medical expenses for gig workers. If major platforms won’t pay a living wage or provide adequate benefits, government programs often fill the gap.
Turning to Black-Owned Farms for Safe Food
By Adam Mahoney, Capital B News
For Black farmers, the outbreak of cyclospora has become a stark reminder of why their work matters. In communities where generations of Black families have been pushed off farmland and shut out of healthy-food access, farms like Deep Roots are offering a chance to rebuild a relationship to the land and the people who grow what ends up on the table.
OpenAI Protester Begins a Movement
By Robert Booth, The Guardian
An activist who blocked the entrance to one of the world’s biggest AI companies is believed to have become the first person jailed for protesting against artificial intelligence as supporters dub her the “Rosa Parks of AI risk”. Wynd Kaufmyn, 69, was found guilty for her role in an action in protest against the pursuit of artificial superintelligence.