Politics Archives - Page 76 of 143

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Science Fake and Real

On Enlightenment scientists and the forgotten role of imagination

June 23, 2018 • by Tita Chico

Headlines today pop with accusations that traditional sources of knowledge and even experts are biased, ideological, and unreliable. Accusations of “fake science” have become particularly commonplace. The Heritage Foundation think tank reports on the pervasiveness of fake science, laying the blame on scientists themselves. In their view, climate change isn’t caused by ...

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Editors versus Algorithms

Reflecting on not so distant suffering at home and abroad in a moment of American state sponsored child abuse

June 22, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

My morning ritual includes reviewing my email messages, looking at my Facebook feed, and reading “the paper,” i.e. the print edition of The New York Times, which arrives at my doorstep sometime between 5:00 and 5:30. I try to read the paper first, though sometimes, I can’t. The paper arrives late, ...

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The Pathology of Zero Tolerance

Trump administration and its treatment of immigrants

June 22, 2018 • by Sarah Sklaw

Spend enough time in Hebrew school and you may come to fear showers. This euphemism for gas chambers might haunt you. Your ears might prick up at the mention of cleanliness, as you ask what kind of “hygiene” is being promised and to whom? In detention centers in South Texas, Border Patrol ...

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Trump’s State Sponsored Child Abuse

The Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy

June 21, 2018 • by John Lawrence

Having been the main congressional staff person behind the drafting and passage of a major federal child welfare law in 1980, I would have to say that Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the Jordanian diplomat who serves as the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, has got it about right. Donald ...

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The African Decolonial Thought of Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmí

Black Issues in Philosophy

June 20, 2018 • by Lewis Gordon

Recently, the Nigerian sociologist Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmí has earned her place among many of the living in conversation with this stellar community of ancestors by virtue of her contributions to contemporary African philosophy. Readers who haven’t heard of her should take this opportunity to familiarize themselves with her work. Oyĕwùmí specializes in ...

The African Decolonial Thought of Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmí

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The ‘Fear Index’

The autonomization of the social imaginary of finance

June 19, 2018 • by Carla Ibled

The ‘fear index’, also known as the VIX, is a financial instrument created to measure and speculate on market volatility. While financiers of old may have sought to minimize risk, the widespread use of the VIX in today’s financial landscape indicates a shift towards the competitive leveraging of volatility, with ...

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Allegories of America

American “Indians” and the British Imperial Imaginary

June 19, 2018 • by Robbie Richardson

I would like to discuss a statue in London which, like many things in London, is visible and yet generally unread, monument to a hazy or forgotten history: prominently placed in front of Christopher Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, completed in 1711, is an 1886 replica of a statue of Queen ...

Blue Monday

Bucharest Reflections on Political Corruption

Romanian Echoes of Trump

June 18, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington Everything is political. But not everything is political in the same way. In liberal democracies the law is the outcome of contests of power and political negotiations that are uneven and yet constrained by constitutional procedures; ...

Bucharest Reflections on Political Corruption

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A Conversation on The Black Panther

Black Issues in Philosophy

June 17, 2018 • by Lewis Gordon and Gregory Doukas

Prior to the release of The Black Panther, some well-intentioned whites on social media recommended whites to wait a week before going to see the movie so black audiences could “have their moment” without white intrusion. Greg Doukas felt this stance was senseless, and contacted Lewis Gordon to hear his thoughts. Gordon ...

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All the News That’s Fit to Print?

Reporting on the possible hegemony of the paranoid style of American politics

June 15, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

The New York Times on May 29th, the front page headline: “Trump Endorses Shadowy Plots, Eroding Trust,” followed by a subtitle: “Theories from Fringes,” with a further subtitle: “Agencies Undermined by Claims of Deep-State and Spygate.” The article by Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Maggie Haberman is smart and informative, packed with ...

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This is Your America

Why Frederick Douglass Still Matters

June 15, 2018 • by Neil Roberts

I’m worried. Very worried. But don’t mistake my worrying for pessimism or, worse, nihilism. Rather, I worry because I see a nation, with its connection to a wider world, unraveling right in front of us. Daily attempts to shatter what constitutes citizenship contribute to this entropy. There’s no immediate solution ...