Feature Archives - Page 121 of 150

Feature

“Focus on the Issues, Not on Trump?” NOT!

How the Trump Administration is waging war against the Media

February 25, 2017 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

The right-wing version of this, expressed by conservative MSNBC talk-show host Joe Scarborough but also by his MSNBC colleague Chuck Todd, goes something like this (I paraphrase): “Trump’s antics are distracting him from attending to the substantive policy issues of his campaign. He is needlessly making enemies of the press, ...

Feature

McCarthyism

An American Analog to Trumpism

February 23, 2017 • by Barbara Falk

Without denying the relevance of the European experience, however, I want to suggest there is plenty in U.S. history powerfully instructive to the present moment. When the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed in 1798, and again following World Wars I and II during the first and second “Red Scares,” ...

Feature

Trump and his Recent Denunciation of Anti-semitism

11 Theses

February 21, 2017 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

2. This is a very bad thing for Jewish-Americans, for minorities of all kinds, for all citizens who care about the rights of individuals and the importance of constitutional democracy, and for all human beings who care about human dignity and respect. 3. It is imperative that this anti-semitism is denounced ...

Feature

Responding to Neo-Fascism (Part 2)

Full-bodied Democratic Power Six Theses for a Robust Resistance to Trumpian Fascism

February 21, 2017 • by Romand Coles and Lia Haro

Whereas much grassroots democratic politics often resembles Nietzsche’s sarcastic image of a huge mouth on a feeble stick of a body with atrophied senses, we need to cultivate a robust, full-bodied politics. Radical politics is often represented today by a bullhorn in the hands of a protester speaking truth ...

Education

The False Premises of Alt-Right Ideology

Academics must understand how the Alt-Right sees the world if we are to resist it

February 20, 2017 • by Rachel McKinney

Adequately understanding the alt-right ideology requires us to see how it is different from other strains of racism, how it is different from political frameworks that it might seem superficially similar to (e.g. Marxist critique) and how it understands and responds to the left’s own narratives, frameworks, and discourse. Once ...

Feature

Peddling Acquiescence as Unity

Exploring the complexity of empathic communication in the face of Trump

February 19, 2017 • by Laura Hooberman

Alongside the article’s publication, the Times’s political podcast The Run Up announced a three-episode series called “Dialogues” in which pairs of family and friends -- one Trump voter and one Clinton voter per episode -- would pose these questions to one another. Perhaps not unsurprisingly the dialogues, resting on necessarily ...

Feature

Understanding Neo-Fascism (Part 1)

Trump-shock and Resonant Violence Five theses for Comprehending Trumpian Fascism

February 17, 2017 • by Romand Coles and Lia Haro

The new regime bears important similarities to classic fascism, meaning that it buzzes with rapid intensifications of white supremacist nationalism, dismissive attacks on reason, autocratic leadership, deepening entwinements of state and capital, disenfranchisement, the attack on liberal and representative democratic institutions and, increasingly, right-wing populist violence. However, this new fascism ...

Education

Keep the Doors of American Universities Wide Open

A Letter from the President of the New School

February 16, 2017 • by David Van Zandt

With one signature, President Trump threatened the fundamental premise upon which America’s excellent universities, and indeed our country, has been built. The recent Executive Order banning entry into the United States by refugees, immigrants and citizens from seven predominantly Muslim nations is antithetical to the core values of inclusion and ...

Education

Citizens of the Cognisphere

February 15, 2017 • by Daniel Sauter

As we prepare a new generation of students for the computational regime (Brueck, 2016) we need to make room for cultural examination and critical reflection—not just to transcribe a liberal arts agenda in "an obligation to develop their abilities to think and live," (Deresiewicz, 2015) —but also to re-instill astonishment and ...

Feature

GTMO Is Open for Business

Be Afraid!

February 15, 2017 • by Jeremy Varon

On February 13, Republican Senators begged Trump in a joint letter to issue the order. Exceeding even its harsh terms, their letter called for the suspension of GTMO’s Periodic Review Boards (PRBs). First convened in 2013, the PRBs have cleared for release dozens of prisoners hitherto destined for indefinite detention ...

Feature

Trump’s Gothic Populism

Comparing Trump’s Inauguration Speech to Obama’s

February 15, 2017 • by Michael Ure

Unsurprisingly, Trump hit all the main notes of contemporary radical populism: the Manichean, moralistic distinction between the pure people and the corrupt elite; the anti-pluralist idealization of a common, unified people; and the commitment to a populist leader who directly incarnates the general will: Trump expresses himself as the pure, ...