Articles
Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy: Is this 1888 vision of a year 2000 Utopia still relevant?
Forty years after the Communist Manifesto eviscerated capitalism and predicted its demise, a relatively unknown American writer shot to fame with a fascinating blueprint for its replacement.
Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward 2000 – 1887 was a literary, cultural, and political sensation. First published in 1888, it was an international hit and only the second U.S. novel to sell a million copies.
On anti-Zionism and Antisemitism: A Response to Mark White’s Article in Plebity
I appreciate the opportunity to respond to Mark White’s blog in Plebity arguing that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. I take up some but not all of Mark’s arguments. But Mark’s analysis is off base both conceptually and factually in several places.
‘Do Your Part’: On the Toxic Rise of Moral Grandstanding in the Pandemic
Moral grandstanding is an ever-present, seductive force. It may feel impossible to avoid for many of us, but it is necessary to do so if we want to coexist meaningfully with each other. Next time you feel the urge to make a moral proclamation, consider whether you are actually advancing a cause, or yourself.
Why the Medical Community is Abandoning Science in the Age of Denial
While medical schools still use some modified version of the Hippocratic Oath, many medical schools, including Harvard, Yale, and the University of Texas are now allowing students to write their own oaths. At the University of Pittsburgh, the graduating class of 2024 wrote an oath of ethics with a social justice bent.
A Story of Fake Photojournalism: The Book of Veles, Real Euros for Fake News
This fake news story begins in Veles, a small city of 40,000 people in Macedonia. Veles became widely known in the Trump election of 2016 as a production center for false information websites. Presumably, there were hundreds of fake news websites developed by some people in Veles that generated income from ads.
Lessons from the 2nd Wave with Women’s Liberation Leader Harriet Fraad
In this episode, Sasha is joined by Harriet Fraad, feminist activist, psychotherapist and hypnotherapist, for a discussion on feminism and class. They talk about how class needs to be at the basis for all social justice activism, her thoughts on the failures and successes of the 2nd wave, debates within feminism like trans activism, Gloria Steinem and the corporate and government sabotage of feminism and the racial equality movement, and the destructive mindset feminists should avoid if they want to be successful in the movement.
Surveillance has been Normalized but so has Self-Censorship
Revelations like those from Snowden and the Pegasus Project have this same unexpected and counterintuitive effect. Instead of rejecting the control, we increasingly learn to adapt and self censor. The panopticon effect lies exactly in this acceptance of the new normal. Afraid to say the wrong thing, we self censure our discourse and the allowable range of ideas becomes more and more narrow. Those who fail to ‘check their words’ are cancelled and provide an example for the rest.