In late December, an obscure Brazilian far-right group firebombed the Rio de Janeiro office of the production company behind a comedic Netflix “Christmas special” that portrayed Jesus as gay. A security guard quickly extinguished the blaze, and no one was hurt. Porta dos Fundos, the comedy group behind the film, immediately began casting themselves as
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I often file things that I read in my growing collection of 100-year-old magazines – in bound volumes, six months apiece, 1,000 large pages in small font – under the category, “Different World.” Such is an article from The Century Magazine, January 1900, called “Fellow-Feeling as a Political Factor.” Its author knew a lot about political warfare, having long fought the
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The desire to control other people’s ideas and behaviors, particularly when they challenge widely-held beliefs and customs, is one of human nature’s most nefarious tendencies. Socrates was sentenced to death for stepping out of line; Galileo almost was. But such extreme examples are outnumbered by the many more common, pernicious acts of trying to control
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Imagine that you’ve had a heated argument with a co-worker, and you call up your husband or wife to talk about it. Your partner can react in one of two ways. They can assure you that you were right, your co-worker was wrong and that you have a right to be upset. Or your partner
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My 16-year-old recently texted me one of those where-do-you-fall-on-the-political-spectrum quizzes. She was curious to see how my results compared to those of a friend of hers who speaks fondly of socialism. His results were predictably leftist, though not as authoritarian as one might fear. So, I suppose there’s hope. I’ve been encouraged lately by some
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A Car for the Masses When Henry Ford came up with the Model T, his goal was to build a car for the masses. Although history teachers typically present this as pertaining to price, Ford actually had to do much more than make his automobile cheaper. In fact, when the Model T was released in
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