Political Thought
I’m not sure why so many people miss this. It is in the nature of “progressivism” to “progress,” according to the lights of the ideology. By definition, there is no destination short of perfection. Moreover, there can’t even be a pause for evaluation as “progress” is made. Wherever a new generation finds itself as a…
Law and order is shifting in the United States. On one hand, it seems as if our justice system is increasingly reluctant to hold criminals accountable, with sometimes tragic outcomes like the recent death of an East Greenwich teen in a car crash. Increasing assaults on college students in Rhode Island’s capital city raise no…
A friend recently told me about a Massachusetts school that is explicitly leveraging peer pressure to influence families’ medical decisions related to COVID. The initiative seems to encourage a form of bullying that is unhealthy for both the students applying and the students receiving the pressure, and it reminded me of past initiatives that gave…
One of the bigger local stories in Rhode Island, right now, is the (alleged) killing of an East Greenwich teen by a long-rap-sheet thug who shared beforehand his intention to drive while intoxicated, albeit with his mind on harming himself rather than others. The story is heartbreaking on multiple fronts, but for this post, let’s…
Even as long ago as the late ’90s, when I finished up my undergraduate studies, the seeds of cancel culture were visible. Contrarian that I am, I would often challenge professors’ and other students’ arguments in classes that fostered debate, and some disputants were clearly looking for excuses to invalidate my case out of hand. …
Rather than focusing on racial differences and calling each other names, we should be working together to spread the wealth around naturally, through our ingenuity and hard work. All of us would benefit. Oh, well. Maybe in 2022.
I’ve suggested repeatedly that the motivation for the heavy government hand on COVID in states like Rhode Island isn’t a practical reaction to the virus so much as an emotional need to know that the government can tell people to do things when it wants. Ben Shapiro has a similar point of view: So, why pursue…
A while back, I saw a short article about an incident in which the Providence police saved a woman from suicide. Police went to the scene at 9:26 a.m. Some officers tried to calm her down and coax her off the ledge, Verdi said. But at one point the woman became despondent and a crisis negotiator thought…
John and Justin wrap up 2021 with discussion of how COVID politics have been going in RI and some predictions for Ocean State politics in the year to come.
Articles like this from the New York Times are a fascinating view into a worldview where the frame is just shifted (off, I’d say) by a little bit. (Search the link in Google to read the article if it’s blocked when you click.) In a Northern California school district, the superintendent is taking shifts as a lunchroom…