Blue v. Red
Several examples from the history of the last century — with particular clarity in the Spanish Revolution and the rise of Nationalist Francisco Franco — follow a pattern. Communists made inroads and proved themselves to be such immoral, disruptive radicals that even fascists seemed preferable to ordinary people. Modern Democrats in the United States know…
A theme one picks up from podcast discussions with cognitive scientists is that much of our perception — what we understand as real — is a matter of our choices about what we don’t pay attention to. A fully capable human has five senses, all of which are constantly sending more data to the nervous…
It still seems like a waste of resources, to me. Here’s his tweet from May, when he announced his continuing fundraising: There’s no pressure, here. Once people have that initial burst of “right on” feeling, such billboards become part of the background. When I looked into billboards years ago, they were about $10,000 per…
Arthur Brooks offering the graduates of Providence College positive life advice: You can get rich by telling people that they’ll be happy if they drive a certain car. You can get elected President of the United States by convincing people that their lives will make sense if they just get angry and hateful enough about…
John DePetro and Justin Katz review the undercurrents of politics in RI and nationally.
John DePetro and Justin Katz put a spotlight on the aspects of controversies that nobody seems to notice.
The need for national unity on a landscape where it may be impossible leaves only few options and hard work on the table, but hope, nonetheless, if we take Memorial Day to heart.
This video of some proverbial “frat bros” mocking some antifa clowns brought to mind Saul Alinsky’s encouragement toward mockery of the opponent: Preparation for conflicts is crucial, however. The mockery worked because the antifa were outnumbered and in somebody else’s element. Mockery is a group activity. You must have a group.
A self-improvement celebrity’s partisan trigger warning provides a warning about the extent to which we’ve lost our civic heritage.
With that perspective, I’d suggest that America works better when voters put the adults in charge but then laugh at them through media and entertainment. Once, adults could be of either party, but they became increasingly of the Republican variety. Unfortunately, voters’ frustration with the inability to return to adult policies is loosening that rule,…
