None of Trump or Republican disinformation can happen without their propaganda machine. Fox plays their dupes like a violin. While the company is telling their employees to shelter in place as far as possible and follow reasonable instructions for personal health, they have rolled the virus into their most familiar narrative. Let Jeanine Pirro make…
“Some people say…” “Many people are saying…” This is how they do it, Trump and Fox. It’s a simple formula: reduce all to opinion and then to controversy and then to an us versus them. Voila. You can then sell anything, including reversal, contradiction, or conspiracy. It really matters not what. Just follow the formula….
This weekend I can guarantee you that thousands of Americans will go to church on Sunday. That they will defy government mandates and pay the consequences. It’s unlikely that they will pay any legal consequences because they are “free” to be religious and government will not prosecute them, I promise you. What will happen is…
I never quite imagined I would find myself citing George W. Bush in any pursuit of wisdom. His vacuous intellect and dangerous judgments seemed at the time to express fully America’s own incapacities to choose wisely. But at least he could read and chose to delegate the bullying to Cheney. At least we could anticipate…
It’s always problematic to take on a sweeping generalization and emerge with anything like facts or the truth. The scenes of Florida and California beaches, Mardi Gras, and other Spring Break revelry are pretty darn disturbing. The pressure on politicians to keep business going has apparently outweighed public health concerns in the midst of a…
Most of you know I have a thing about pink scarves from India, heavy duty blue jeans from Japan, and rock’n’roll boots. I can get away with that now that I’m an old professor and they just laugh at me. I was joking with my University colleagues that now we are going to be teaching…
There is a phrase in Japanese—isn’t there always? Kuuki ga yomenai means “cannot read the air.” Nowadays it is often reduced in text messaging simply to KY. The implication is plain enough: it is when someone is seemingly impervious to the current need, the social and cultural feeling that is expected. It’s when someone “doesn’t…
First, a quotation: “Successful presidential candidates are mythmakers. They don’t just tell a story. They tell a story that helps people make meaning out of the current moment; that divides people into heroes and villains; that names a central challenge and explains why they are the perfect person to meet it.” Myths are of course…
Scholarship doesn’t reward the personal. We’re told it’s not our job. But Rajanaka—and that means you, people you likely know, friends, folks who’ve come to the conversation with open minds and willing hearts—has taught me that I don’t know any other way of doing scholarship and live with myself. I’ve never been very good at…
I am at heart both pragmatism and dreamer. If that’s a paradox, add it to the list. My jam is prudence and risk, it’s hit your target and aim high and then higher. It’s try not to fall for the fleece and the folly and never let anything stop you from what you really want…