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The Power of Ordinary People Facing Totalitarianism

Kathleen B. Jones The Conversation
Since Donald J. Trump’s election, sales of George Orwell’s “1984” have skyrocketed. But so have those of “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” by a German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt. Arendt’s insights into the development of totalitarianism are especially relevant to discussions of the increasing threats to U.S. democracy. Arendt’s Origins, which warns against submitting quietly to the order of the day, is an implicit call for resistance by ordinary people.

What Would Mark Twain Think of Donald Trump?

Jeffrey Wasserstrom The Conversation
Twain felt that no one was too grand to be satirized. “Irreverence,” he wrote, “is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense.”

Exploiting Black Labor After the Abolition of Slavery

Kathy Roberts Forde, Bryan Bowman The Conversation
The exploitation of Black convict labor by the penal system and industrialists was central to southern politics and economics of the era. It was a carefully crafted answer to Black progress during Reconstruction – highly visible and widely known.

Exploiting Black Labor After the Abolition of Slavery

Kathy Roberts Forde and Bryan Bowman The Conversation
As W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, the “slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” According to Douglas Blackmon, author of “Slavery by Another Name,” the choices made by Southern white supremacists after abolition, and the rest of the country’s accommodation, “explain more about the current state of American life, black and white, than the antebellum slavery that preceded.”

Bullshitter in Chief

Lauren Griffin The Conversation
In some ways, it's way worse than lying. A bullshitter just isn't concerned about truth.

Media Have Misjudged Fascists Before

John Broich The Conversation
Not long before Mussolini and Hitler came to power, much of the US press believed that power would "moderate" them, or considered them something of a joke. Are we seeing similar mistakes today?
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