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How the Left is Winning the Social Media Wars0
- Culture
- February 21, 2017
In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. elections, numerous accounts surfaced of nefarious content creators profiting by posting fake content on social media. The most successful engaged in “anti-Clinton fervor,” promoted Donald Trump’s candidacy and spread right wing news, all for profit. Buzzfeed editor Craig Silverman described how “teens in the Balkans” earned up to
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France Says to Hell With Free Speech0
- Culture
- February 21, 2017
One of the most commonly misattributed quotes credits Voltaire with a beautifully-shaped sentence – which he never wrote. Anyway, the father of the French Enlightenment and of its values, allegedly proclaimed: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” (In fact, the phrase comes from
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CPAC Pays the Price for Political Promiscuity0
- Politics
- February 21, 2017
Movement conservatives are finding out that the enemy of their enemy is not necessarily their friend. In fact, the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) seems to be finding out that they are themselves their own worst enemy. After just having invited Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at its annual conference, it was revealed that right-wing gay provacateur
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Why We Need to Bring Back Archie Bunker0
- Culture
- February 20, 2017
Comedy as social commentary is nothing new. You can go back to the days of Jonathan Swift, who wrote the outrageous, “A Modest Proposal,” as a means of bringing attention to the poor Irish. Comedians such as Lenny Bruce were doing it in the 1960’s with their standup comedy – touching on issues such as
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Why a Gay Liberal from New York Came Out as Conservative0
- Culture
- February 20, 2017
Earlier this month the New York Post shared the story of Chadwick Moore, a 33-year-old writer from New York. In September, Moore had been assigned to write a piece on the now-famous provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos for Out magazine. Moore knew he was covering a controversial (i.e. loathed) figure, but he decided he was going to write
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Presidents Day: How We Got Such a Lame Holiday0
- Education
- February 20, 2017
“This is Washington’s Birthday,” sings Fred Astaire in the movie classic Holiday Inn, “And I can’t tell a lie.” Americans of a certain age no doubt can remember when the day we now know as Presidents Day was called Washington’s Birthday, invariably celebrated on February 22. George Washington was officially born on February 11, 1731
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Motherhood: The Ideal vs Reality0
- Family
- February 20, 2017
When I was pregnant, my husband gifted me with a book called “No more perfect moms”. While I am by no means a perfectionist, he knew that I would have high expectations of myself as a mother – basically that I was subconsciously assuming that I would be able to slot in the whole ‘having
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Miss Manners: Trump is Making Americans Ruder0
- Culture
- February 20, 2017
In a recent article in The Atlantic, Judith Martin or ‘Miss Manners’ insists that the reason why most people have deplorable manners is not poor upbringing, but Donald Trump. Not only does fact imitate fiction and life imitates art. According to Miss Manners, the public imitates politicians. Martin rehearses the age-old argument that political leaders
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Is Patriotism Irrational?0
- Education
- February 20, 2017
Last September, President Donald Trump vowed to promote “patriotism” in America’s schools. This vow, along with ones like it, was greeted with cringes from those who see patriotism as irrational, opposed to critical thinking, and a form of propaganda. But in his recent book Conserving America? Essays on Present Discontents, Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen
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