Here are some thoughts regarding the January 6th insurgency. Conspiracy theories and misinformation are playing a pivotal role in motivating unrest. There is recent scholarship about the nature of contemporary conspiracy theories that many see, which seems to be light on theory and strong on claims. Such conspiracism targets democratic Continue Reading
Free Speech, Part Two: Don’t feed the Nazis
This is the second part of my short series on free speech. If you have not read part one, I encourage you to do so before continuing with this one. Unlike many philosophical debates, experiments testing the bounds of free speech has been tested. I think there are important lessons Continue Reading
Free Speech, Part One: Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces
In choosing themes to write about in this blog, I aim to avoid topics that are already covered thoroughly elsewhere. I thought that the free-speech debate (and the related moral panic over “cancel culture”) was one of those topics. Then came the infamous Harper’s article, the feigned outrage and victimization Continue Reading
Treating Politics Like Entertainment
Observing the state of politics today vexes my spirit. The polarization, the vitriol that spills out of social media and into the real world, and the lost art of empathy and compromise serve the world’s democracies poorly. There is no lack of explanations or reasons for our state of affairs: Continue Reading
Antifa Hysteria: Understanding a Moral Panic
According to certain media personalities, pundits, politicians, and clergymen, the United States faces an enemy who threatens to unravel the social fabric. That enemy has a name, and that name is antifa. In recent weeks rumors proliferated how busloads of antifa anarchists were on their way to small towns across Continue Reading
Pandemic Propaganda: A New Electoral Crisis
How will the misinformation pandemic inflamed by the coronavirus crisis reshape the political landscape? And how might domestic and foreign actors weaponize rumors, conspiracy theories, and disinformation about Covid-19 against American voters in the lead-up to the November election?
The problem with saying, “We are one race.”
The murder of George Floyd at the hands of police fills me with anger and sadness, and I hope that justice will prevail. Black lives matter, and I do not want to see another person fall victim to systemic racism and police brutality. I agree with those who say that Continue Reading
Of Foxes, Hedgehogs, and Trolls
While taking a break from endless COVID-19 news stories, and hoping to have something new to talk about with my pre-school nieces and nephews, I watched the most recent DreamWorks Animation film, Trolls World Tour. After watching the ending credits, my first thought was how marvelously it illustrated the ideas Continue Reading
Pandemics, Hegemony and Global Cooperation
I had not yet decided which coronavirus related topic I would write about next when I heard the news that the sitting president of the United States—amid a global pandemic of historic proportions—pulled America’s funding from the World Health Organization. I should not have been shocked, despite the perversity of Continue Reading
Nativism, Sinophobia, and COVID-19
In a nativist worldview, nations should be both culturally and ethnically homogenous. However, no nation on earth has such ethnic and cultural purity. Such a construct of nationhood goes against the central pillar of modern liberal democracies—pluralism—which holds that a society consists of separate groups with diverse and competing interests, each of which should be taken as legitimate.