One of the main reasons I'm so pessimistic about the future of this country is the complete refusal of left-wing elites to describe what is actually taking place in it.
Yes. We're not "divided." We have a two-party system in which one party has dramatically radicalized. That's it, that's the cause of roughly 90% of our political dysfunction.
As usual it contains an "alarming" anecdote without any context. It certainly seems like this dude was placed on leave over a silly complaint, but are leftist students the only ones lodging silly complaints? Why is this case worthy of national attention?
There's been a yearlong steelmanning effort with the beliefs of QAnon and the people pushing them. There's some economic anxiety there sure, but there's also a lot of straightforward Republican and evangelical catnip religionnews.com/2021/02/11/sur…
Like, Marjorie Taylor Greene is not mad because we don't have universal healthcare
When "Brokeback Mountain" came out in theaters, nearly every mainstream reviewer called it a "universal" love story. It's not about gay people! It's about forbidden love!
In his now-classic review, Daniel Mendelsohn argues that "Brokeback Mountain" is not in fact a universal love story. It is about the specific experience of the closet.
We have no idea in what context these slides were given. "Try to be less white" could have been presented as an option and discarded. But even if it were straightforwardly presented... who cares?
It's so embarrassing. Companies regularly give anti-union trainings. Christian companies have religious content in their onboarding materials. But I'm supposed to treat this one like a national crisis?