Many of the people who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday were racists and thugs.
ALL of them firmly believed fantasies that they had been fed by professional liars who, among other lies, told them they should not believe anything they hear from actual journalists.
Studies show that once a person is sucked into those fantasies, it's very hard to get them out. The work then is to give young people tools and skills to tell lies from truth before it's too late. That's why I support the work of the @NewsLitProject.
It was founded by @alanmillerNLP, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who realized that it's not enough to produce factual, objective, authoritative journalism -- you have to nurture the audience for it. Check out their website/programs here: newslit.org
I grew up with CS Lewis -- I remember my 2nd Grade teacher reading us "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" the way I remember my first exposure to any great art -- but its greatest value is what the other work it inspired, including, btw, "The Magicians" by @leverus
Also, while I know JK Rowling is doing her best to set fire to the goodwill she created by writing them, the "Harry Potter" books are so much better than Narnia it's not even a contest.
Another worthwhile small film you may not have heard of that I would like to praise is "Avengers: Endgame" which I re-watched last night with my infant son. (He wakes up and cries every ten minutes, I'm not going to watch "Ikiru.") Spoilers, but c'mon, now.
I generally like the MCU movies -- they're all extremely well made, well acted, and most of all, smart. For the most part, they solve the biggest problem with comic book adaptations, ie: comic books are essentially stupid.
(I love comic books! But people solving problems by dressing up in tights and punching other people is pretty stupid. For evidence: see any comic book movie made before, say, 2000.)
A few words on Congressman Riggleman, who's leaving office shortly.
I first became aware of him when he ran for the office in 2018 and we made fun of him for being a fan of "Bigfoot erotica..." which... was sort of true! He's a Bigfoot lore enthusiast, though not a believer.
He won his election and served as a straightforward libertarian Republican. He himself owns and operates a distillery, so has a particular interest in deregulation of business, including the hemp business. congress.gov/bill/116th-con…
But in 2019, true to his principles (ie, Government should leave people alone to do what they want) he officiated a wedding between two of his campaign volunteers, both men. And the local GOP in his district Did Not Like That.
Ever since hosting "Constitution USA" on PBS 7 years ago I've given talks on the Constitution. The principle question I ask and then try to answer is: Why has our Con succeeded (+ or -) when so many others have failed or were instantly ignored?
Here's the Soviet Constitution of 1936, for example. Note: guaranteed universal suffrage, rights to work, health care, leisure time, etc. A liberal's dream. And of course, it was instantly and immediately ignored. Why wasn't ours?
After a long chat, with care to mark the places/times it WAS ignored (see: Jim Crow), I arrive at this answer: because what binds us together in America is not culture or national origin but a kind of civic religion of democracy.