The radical right is a fervent anti-government strain of Libertarian ultraconservative, emerging out of the anti-New Deal ideology of the 1930s. From McCarthyism to the John Birch Society, from fiscal conservatives to Christian nationalists, the radical right contains some of the most extreme ideologies in the right wing. Conservative ideology has gotten more and more […]
Twin visions were there at the start and here they still remain — we’ve been oscillating around the same set of unresolved issues for centuries, like a pair of neutron stars. There have always been two Americas: one egalitarian and Enlightened, patterned after Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin; and one haughty and zero-sum like John […]
When using the Broken Record method, think K.I.S.S. for quick and dirty media strategy: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Then, repeat those short phrases or sentences frequently. Themes to Broken Record for 2022 (and beyond): Fascism / Authoritarianism warnings Optimism > Pessimism Buddhism and Stoicism were hopefully about humanity — these were philosophies that placed humans […]
Supremacy is the magical thinking that one’s ingroup is the only source of truth. It’s the ultimate conspiracy theory, and the apotheosis of a hierarchical worldview. Supremacy is a common worldview shared by narcissists and totalitarians. Supremacist groups in American history White supremacy in particular is both a psychological condition and an institutional condition — […]
Majority Leader Schumer is right to come around to the idea that the filibuster must be changed in order to pass voting rights and save our democratic republic from the forces of authoritarianism. The filibuster is an archaic rule that was at first only there by accident, then whittled into a sharp blade of minority […]
Research has shown that emotional repression causes authoritarianism (Altemeyer, Adorno, Stenner et al). Fundamentalist religious groups favor the most repression, culturally — ergo, fundamentalist groups are at the highest risk for nurturing authoritarian traits. Emotional repression is the keystone of fundamentalist parenting. The strict application of “Biblical law” as cherry-picked by extremists is inherently contradictory […]
Mythology has it that “reckless Democratic spending” is to blame for the ballooning of the national debt — though the historical record shows otherwise. In fact, the conservatives‘ beloved demi-god Ronald Reagan was the first President to skyrocket the debt, thanks to some bunk ideas from an old cocktail napkin that linger to this day […]
The estate tax only kicks in at $5.4m in wealth — so it’s not about the “American worker”! Repealing it would give away $270 billion to rich elites. The concept of “double taxation” is a red herring, because most estates contain real estate assets whose capital gains have never been realized and taxed.
Economics Dictionary This economics dictionary and lexicon is a work in progress, so please pardon the dust — I’ll be adding to it over time. The goal is to democratize the esoteric language of economics, and arm more people with the tools to understand policy decisions — and identify bad ones. Economic literacy ought to […]
Inequality is the difference in measures of economic well-being between individuals in a group, among groups in a population, or among countries. Also known as economic inequality; inclusive of both income inequality and wealth inequality. In the United States, the data broadly shows shared economic growth and prosperity in the post-WWII period until the 1970s, […]
Or: How Milton Friedman destroyed Western civilization, the neolliberalism story. An economic ideology first theorized in the 40s and 50s by scholars, it was brought to popular attention in the 1970s by the works of economist Milton Friedman and novelist Ayn Rand among others. It grew in popularity and became widely adopted in U.S. economic […]
It’s not just here at home in the US that fascism seems to have taken root in the population. There are many burgeoning nationalist movements resurrecting right-wing populism around the world, and as per many experts’ warnings, right-wing authoritarianism is on the rise around the globe. Many of the right-wing populist thatches that have sprung […]
On May 31, 1921, a mob of murderous whites descended on the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma dubbed Black Wall Street, and razed it to the ground. They dropped homemade bombs in the first ever domestic aerial attack on American soil, during the Tulsa Race Massacre following the end of World War I. Over three […]
Cultism as a kind of collective personality disorder The enemy at the gates is us
Empathy is the capacity, ability, and willingness to understand or share the feelings of someone else. It is to harmonize with that person (or animal, or even fictional character…) and synchronize with their mood — to walk a mile in their shoes. The word empathy comes from a Greek word meaning “suffering,” which describes the […]