On Incels

It’s a man’s, man’s problem

Before Alek Minassian murdered ten people -- mostly women -- in Toronto by driving a van down a crowded street, he made a Facebook post that read “The Incel Rebellion Has Already Begun!” Once esoteric, this violently misogynistic ideology has now made its way to the mainstream. Incels, short for the “involuntarily celibate,” ...
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On Incels

Rent Protections Grow Scarcer and Landlord Harassment Gets More Common

The challenges for low-income tenants in New York City

Since the turn of the century, there has been a tectonic shift in the type of housing low-income New Yorkers live in. While most still live in rent-regulated rentals that number is dropping significantly. At the same time, tenants in both rent-regulated and unregulated housing report increased harassment by their ...
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Rent Protections Grow Scarcer and Landlord Harassment Gets More Common

The Flawed Specialized High School System

And Ways to Fix It

Mayor Bill de Blasio faces an uphill battle in Albany in his quest to get rid of the admissions test for elite high schools including Stuyvesant and Bronx High School of Science, but there’s a lot he can do now to advance his Administration’s stated goal of increasing opportunities for ...
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The Flawed Specialized High School System

#AgainstTrump

A re-invitation to read Jeffrey C. Isaac’s Notes from Year One

With the Donald Trump now virtually declaring, “L'Etat, c'est moi,” in his attempts to avoid possible indictment, I can think of no better time than now to highlight Public Seminar’s second book, Jeffrey C. Isaac’s brilliant #AgainstTrump: Notes From Year One (for a free download click here). The book was officially published to coincide with Adam Michnik’s visit ...
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#AgainstTrump

Authoritarianism and the Cultic Dynamic

Traumatic Narcissism in American Politics Today

I spent thirteen years of my life, including all of my thirties, as a fervent devotee of an Indian guru. I lived communally and worked full-time in the guru’s organization, until one day, after a long process I now know was me slowly coming out of dissociation, it dawned on ...
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Authoritarianism and the Cultic Dynamic

The Corporate Outer Circle Goes to Washington

Trump and the Divided Politics of the Corporate Elite

Trump’s background in business is, by now, very familiar: Trump owns and manages the Trump Organization, a privately held real estate and development conglomerate. The Trump Organization’s control over billions of dollars in assets and thousands of employees make Trump a member of what sociologists call the corporate elite. These ...
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The Corporate Outer Circle Goes to Washington

The Quest for an Honest Broker

Are we nearing the end of the US-led peace process as we know it?

Much has been said and written on President Donald Trump’s controversial statement on Jerusalem on December 6, 2017. But there was one sentence in the speech that everyone -- the conflicting parties and the international community -- could agree on: “It would be folly to assume that repeating the exact ...
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The Quest for an Honest Broker

Bill Clinton’s Symphony of Hypocrisy and Rage

Remembering Monica Lewinsky

I used to love Bill Clinton (known in our household for years as The Big Dog) and now I just want someone to get him off the stage. Two days ago, in an interview with The Today Show's Craig Melvin about a new thriller co-written with James Patterson, former president William Jefferson ...
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Bill Clinton’s Symphony of Hypocrisy and Rage

Twinks, a Manhattan Con Artist, and the Ford Mustang

Past Present Episode 133

In this episode, Neil, Natalia, and Niki debate the rise of the “twink” aesthetic, Manhattan con artist Anna Sorokin/Delvey, and the cultural endurance of the Ford Mustang. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The New York Times has declared “ the age of the twink .” Neil referred to this ...
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Twinks, a Manhattan Con Artist, and the Ford Mustang

Rethinking Communication in Populist Times

A conversation on Trump and the Media

In the following interview, Yuval Katz speaks to Pablo J. Boczkowski and Zizi Papacharissi, editors of the recently published volume Trump and the Media, about Trump’s engagement with the media and the question of whether it has to be considered as exceptional or not. Pablo J. Boczkowski and Zizi Papacharissi’s introduction to Trump ...
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Rethinking Communication in Populist Times

The Election of Donald Trump and the Great Disruption in the News and Social Media

Pablo J. Boczkowski and Zizi Papacharissi’s introduction to Trump and the Media

Donald Trump's election as the 45th President of the United States came as something of a surprise -- to many analysts, journalists, and voters. The New York Times’s The Upshot gave Hillary Clinton an 85 percent chance of winning the White House even as the returns began to come in. What ...
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The Election of Donald Trump and the Great Disruption in the News and Social Media

Changing Social Norms

An Introduction to Social Research Spring 2018 edition

Since Social Research is a quarterly journal and each of its issues is focused on a single theme, we must plan long in advance of publication and invite authors a year or two before an issue appears. As a consequence, we cannot hope to be timely, although sometimes -- almost by chance ...
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Changing Social Norms