Am. History & Culture
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How We Got into This Predicament
It is easy sometimes to lose sight of how extreme a period this is in America's history, how profoundly our national character has been degraded and how fundamentally our country's core has changed over the last six years. Glenn Greenwald Well, yes, but let's put that into some perspective. I'd argue that the seeds of
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Jesus Camp
This Pentecost weekend I saw the documentary about Becky Fischer's camp for shaping young evangelicals into the righteous army who will take back America for Christ. I don't think I was bothered so much by the religious aspects which, to be frank, were not that different from some of the indoctrination I received in Catholic
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We’re a Right-Leaning Country
Center right at best. But that’s in the cultural sphere, not necessarily in the political sphere. This is a reality that the progressive netroots seems not to grasp. They talk themselves into believing that on the issues most Americans support them, and in their heads most Americans might, but in their guts they don’t. It
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Who Are We?
I have to say, I’m still reeling from the shock of learning that 48% of Americans are de facto creationists. It drives home a point I’ve been making all along, which is that action in the political sphere in a democracy is subsidiary to attitudes in the cultural sphere. If you want change in the
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Americans & Evolution
A recent Newsweek survey presented people with three explanations for the origins of human life: that humans developed over millions of years, from lesser to more advanced forms of life, while God guided the process; that God played no hand in the process; and that God created humans in their present form. The first option
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Hate Speech is Hate Speech
Liberals prefer to ignore this comparison, insisting that there is something authentic and artistic about hate speech coming out of the mouths of millionaire black men as compared with millionaire white men. I disagree. While the social contexts that produce such speech are obviously quite different, the desensitizing effect it has on cultural communication is
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Going Postal: Identity, Humiliation, Violence
The early indications point to Cho Seung-hui’s rage having been rooted in perceived or real humiliation, and in this he shares common ground with Columbine’s Klebold and Harris and Osama bin Laden. Although the specific causes are different, they all seek a remedy for having been humiliated or made to feel powerless, and they do
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Imus
I wasn’t planning to say anything about this incident, because flaps about politically correct or insensitive speech don’t register very high on my outrage meter, especially when there is so much else to get outraged about. But the angle that interests me most about the Imus incident is why so many outrageous, demeaning things can
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Evangelical Fission?
I found Frances Fitzgerald’s piece in the New York Review interesting for trying to parse out some of the complexity that lies behind the word "evangelical." Christian right activists, most of whom are themselves evangelicals, claim credit for these votes. Further, the activists tend to speak as if they represent the evangelical community as a
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Religion and Politics II
I’ve been arguing for some time now that it’s clarifying to think of the cultural sphere as separate from the political sphere. There is obviously overlap, but I think a lot of our current confusion and poor judgment in the political sphere lies in incorrectly understanding what politics is really about and what culture is