This week in Viewpoints I wanted to focus on language, specifically how language can make a difference in our everyday lives on a casual, cultural, and political level. This theme is much in-keeping with this week’s Engage the Times session which dealt with civility in public discourse. One reason, perhaps, that American politics is so… Continue reading The Week in Viewpoints
Category: Viewpoints
The politicization of phobias
Politics and psychiatry are unlikely bedfellows, but in the 20th century they became quite cozy. Sometimes that came in a more benign form, like providing fodder for catty magazine articles. In 1964, Fact magazine published the opinions of several licensed psychiatrists who testified in large part that the Republican candidate of that year’s election, Barry… Continue reading The politicization of phobias
Who runs the world? Journalists!
If you’ve read the title, you know what this is about. And no, this is not a self-congratulatory piece of gloating. Journalists may run the world, but I certainly do not. To refine the thesis a bit, we might say that “journalists at prestigious and influential outlets run the world.” As much as I love… Continue reading Who runs the world? Journalists!
Advice for young conservatives
This is a trying time to be a young, conservatively-minded person. First, there is the politics, which everyone automatically goes to first. Despite an overall good performance for the GOP, given the circumstances, the Republicans lost both chambers of Congress and the Presidency during the 2020 election. More to the point, the right-of-center political establishment… Continue reading Advice for young conservatives
Presages of a police state
Everyone gets the sense these are dark times in America. Although I am noted for my habitual pessimism (comes with the job it seems), I am not the only person who sees it. According to a recent poll by Axios-Ipsos, I’m one of the 4 in 5 Americans that thinks the United States is falling… Continue reading Presages of a police state
Should anyone have the right to speak privately over the internet?
Whether it’s attacks from the right or left, internet privacy and security is a hot political potato these days. During the Trump Administration, there were widespread concerns that ANTIFA and other such groups were organizing online to commit street violence, and likewise media figures and the Biden Administration have voiced increasing alarm that right-wing extremist… Continue reading Should anyone have the right to speak privately over the internet?
The Week in Viewpoints
This week in Viewpoints, we take a look at some of the stories that highlight how 2021 is definitely not the year that morning comes back to America or we return to normal. First, a longer Viewpoint will likely be out later this week breaking down this very topic, but in the meantime CNET can… Continue reading The Week in Viewpoints
Don’t text and plan
How in the world do you keep track of your life? How do you function with everything going on? How do you manage your time? How are you able to be so involved? These are questions I get asked pretty frequently. So how do I manage all that life throws at me, especially during a… Continue reading Don’t text and plan
The Week in Viewpoints
The theme of this week is “democracy prevails!” Here are some highlights of democracy prevailing at home and abroad. In Germany, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (say that five times fast), the state agency for Constitutional compliance, has placed the opposition AfD (Alternative for Deutschland) Party under government surveillance. This comes after the BfV alleged a… Continue reading The Week in Viewpoints
New administration channels Sanders, plans to deliver solutions to the cycle of student debt
The long-awaited day has come. Student loan debt cancellation, if incoming President Biden is to be believed, may be upon us. Statements made by the incoming administration promise relief for the almost 45 million Americans who currently hold some level of student debt, but what do the new president’s promises really mean for college students?… Continue reading New administration channels Sanders, plans to deliver solutions to the cycle of student debt