Reading Time: 5 minutes The American Civil War is still far from over. A powerful metaphor for this worry was the violent insurrection Jan. 6, 2021, at the US Capitol, during which a Confederate battle flag was carried triumphantly, by an aggrieved Southerner, through the hallowed confines of Statuary Hall. Many, if not most, in the Jan. 6 mob […]
politics
Posted inLGBTQ News
Stochastic terrorism and the Colorado Springs Club Q shooting
Reading Time: 7 minutes Humans are highly suggestible. We yawn together. We laugh together. And when given a sense of belonging, of shared identity, we flock together. Sometimes in wonderful, constructive ways. Other times, in ways that drive us to a deepening hatred of our fellow human beings. Other times, into overt violence against them. In the US this […]
Posted inCulture
First death penalty issued for Iranian protesters under expanded mandate
Reading Time: 3 minutes Last week, 227 members of Iran’s 290-person parliament advocated for harsher retributive actions to be taken against protesters arrested in the nation-wide demonstrations after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was brutally murdered by morality police in September. Prior to the parliament’s decision, the Islamic Revolution Court was already charging people connected to these protests with death penalty […]
Posted inTechnology
Anonymity, privacy, transparency, integrity: Do we even know the future we want?
Reading Time: 8 minutes In the late 2000s, research blossomed around our use of online avatars. Did our videogame icons and social media profiles represent our actual selves, our ideal selves, or something else entirely? And did they have a reciprocal impact, a “Proteus effect” that transformed self-perception? Did we change in the real world based how our online […]
Posted inLaw, Politics
Common sense wins: ‘Religious Freedom’ Amendment fails in Arkansas
Reading Time: 3 minutes In a state where Sarah Huckabee Sanders will soon be governor and a Republican trifecta will control the government, you wouldn’t expect common sense to win out when it comes to a ballot measure regarding “religious freedom,” but that’s what happened with Amendment 3, a proposal intended to block the government from ever “burden[ing] a […]
Posted inFree Expression
‘Free speech’ must be reformed before it destroys US democracy
Reading Time: 7 minutes The midterm elections are over. But, in a sense, it doesn’t matter—because the virulent, now-years-long epidemic afflicting American politics remains: cynical Republican mendacity, which is to say, purposeful lying and duplicity—spearheaded by former president Donald Trump. And zero accountability so far for the merchants of this corrosive assault on the nation. Make no mistake, this […]
Posted inPolitics
Here’s how atheist candidates fared in the 2022 elections
Reading Time: 4 minutes There’s always a lot to process after major elections, but when it comes to the openly nonreligious and explicitly atheist candidates on the 2022 ballots for state or federal office, we know quite a bit as the results continue rolling in. With help from the Freethought Equality Fund PAC and the Center for Freethought Equality—both of which are […]
Posted inPolitics
Gen Z in the House, abortion rights wins, and other highs from Election Day
Reading Time: 3 minutes Democrat Maura Healey is projected to be the first female governor of Massachusetts and the nation’s first openly lesbian state executive. Maryland elected its first black governor, Democrat Wes Moore. The first member of Gen Z is headed for the House of Representatives, and several states affirmed abortion rights.
These long-overdue historic feats are just some of the high points of the 2022 midterm elections.
Posted inCritical thinking
The work goes on: 7 post-midterm podcasts for a better democracy
Reading Time: 12 minutes Are you doomscrolling around the ongoing US midterm count? The closeness of many races, the losses on some key issues, and the spectacle-driven politics that a tightly split House of Representatives foretells certainly weigh on the US today. Will results be contested on the grounds that they didn’t yield a massive sweep for one side? […]
Posted inLaw
TN’s ban on pastors in government may go away (but an atheist ban will remain)
Reading Time: 5 minutes Tennessee is on the verge of eliminating a discriminatory, archaic part of its State Constitution that forbids pastors from holding elected office… but state officials are purposely not getting rid of a similar ban on atheists in government. You may be familiar with the ban on atheists because it pops up in the news every […]