Backing Trump When He Is Out of Office Is…Expensive

As the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol begins its work, the Department of Justice invites Republican politicians who supported the insurrection to defend themselves

The ripples of the explosive Tuesday testimony that four police officers gave before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol continue to spread. Committee members are meeting this week to decide how they will proceed. Congress goes on recess during August, but ...
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Backing Trump When He Is Out of Office Is…Expensive

The Myth That Meat Is Essential for Human Health Could Harm Us All

Americans eat more meat per capita than any other country, even though meat consumption is linked to heart disease, diabetes and cancer

_____ Bacon and eggs for breakfast, a turkey sandwich for lunch, and roasted chicken for dinner are some of the go-to meal choices in America where meat is considered an essential part of the everyday diet. Historically, Americans have been led to believe that eating meat and other animal products is necessary ...
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The Myth That Meat Is Essential for Human Health Could Harm Us All

Censorship Is Now so Broadly Defined as to Mean Anyone Disagreeing with Me Is Censoring Me

Free speech and counter-speech are not “cancel culture”

_____ Newspapers and magazines and any kind of media in printed form have always, and I mean always, reserved the right to publish or not publish whatever they feel like publishing or not publishing for whatever reason—even just because. I come from printed stuff. This belief is baked into me. When ...
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Censorship Is Now so Broadly Defined as to Mean Anyone Disagreeing with Me Is Censoring Me

Undercover Investigations Expose Brutal Wildlife Killing Contests

Welcome to the cruel world of wildlife killing contests, family events where children play amidst piles of slaughtered animals—and legal in 42 states

_____ You would really have to try hard to find anything more depraved than a wildlife killing contest, which targets coyotes, foxes, bobcats, squirrels, raccoons, crows and even wolves and cougars in some states, for the sake of a prize that could range from cash to hunting equipment. These contests are ...
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Undercover Investigations Expose Brutal Wildlife Killing Contests

How Charlie Brown Remained A “Good Man”

Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz went to great lengths to avoid political controversy. But as culture became more political, he navigated that challenge with skill and grace

_____ Charlie Brown had a hard time choosing sides. This was always part of the humor of his character. It was also one of the many things he hated about himself. On New Year’s Eve 1965 Charlie Brown, the star of cartoonist Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts, decided to change: he would be decisive, clear-cut, ...
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How Charlie Brown Remained A “Good Man”

20 Years of U.S. Occupation Was Brutal in Afghanistan—And So Will Be the Exit

Alongside the relief of ending the longest war in modern American history, we need to acknowledge the horrors of what we are leaving behind in Afghanistan

_____ When a reporter in early July asked Joe Biden a question about the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. president sniped back, saying, “I want to talk about happy things, man.” Biden revealed, perhaps unintentionally, that the situation in Afghanistan is anything but a happy topic. It might have been one ...
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20 Years of U.S. Occupation Was Brutal in Afghanistan—And So Will Be the Exit

In a Federal Infrastructure Bill, Waste Isn’t Pork

Politics may or may not be a sewer, but the fact is a lot of rural American backyards are: a Democratic Congresswoman from Alabama wants to fix that with tax dollars

_____ There are two Americas, and of the many things that divide affluent Americans from poor ones, the one that we talk about the least might be the ability to take waste disposal for granted. But, of course, it isn’t always the case: tree roots growing into a fragile pipe, a ...
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In a Federal Infrastructure Bill, Waste Isn’t Pork

Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest One Year Later

The city’s deep history of radical activism – and how it became a national symbol of anarchy

_____ A little over one year ago, on July 1, 2020, then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany proclaimed with fanfare that “Seattle has been liberated from the anarchists.” At the time, many Seattleites shrugged off this bizarre declaration that seemed so at odds with the city they inhabited – and with the ...
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Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest One Year Later

A “Proud Capitalist,” Joe Biden is Championing Competition

Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism; it’s exploitation

_____ Last week, as President Joe Biden signed “An Executive Order Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” he echoed the language of his predecessors. “[C]ompetition keeps the economy moving and keeps it growing,” he said. “Fair competition is why capitalism has been the world’s greatest force for prosperity and growth…. But ...
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A “Proud Capitalist,” Joe Biden is Championing Competition

On the Sociology of “Doing as If”

For Jeffrey Goldfarb

_____ I taught with Jeff Goldfarb for many years, mostly at the New School, but also at  Sciences Po, in Paris.  Sometimes, as part of a curriculum, and some times for the mere pleasure of debating. It was a pleasure we pursued almost uninterruptedly for more than I0 years, inviting ourselves to each ...
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On the Sociology of “Doing as If”

What Jeff Goldfarb Understood

_____ In the summer of 2013, I was about to start my graduate degree at The New School for Social Research. A month before I sat in Jeff Goldfarb’s contemporary sociology class, I was in Istanbul—protesting, resisting, and critically thinking with many others about our collective actions, media activism, and the ...
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What Jeff Goldfarb Understood

Learning to Think About Memory and Politics

Jeff Goldfarb navigated–and worked through–the polar opposites that can define academic and political life

_____ Jeff Goldfarb has been my teacher, colleague, and friend: our conversations about culture, politics, democracy, and activism—through reading and writing, in public and private forums—have continued since I began as a student in the Department of Sociology at the NSSR. From and with Jeff, and by studying sites within which democracy ...
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Learning to Think About Memory and Politics