Recommended Reading: An American Nightmare

This Week's Recommended Reading on Substack: Jessica Valenti, Joyce Vance, Noah Berlatsky, Hemant Mehta, Robert P. Jones, and Jared Yates Sexton

Jun 12, 2023

The Week's Recommended Reading on Substack:

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writes that “Texas’ abortion law doesn’t have an exception for fetal abnormalities, not even lethal ones. The state requires women to carry pregnancies even when the fetus has no chance of survival, a cruelty that Republican legislators don’t like to talk about.”

Abortion, Every Day

An American Nightmare: Young, pregnant & living in Texas

Content Warning: Descriptions of severe fetal abnormalities Some names have been changed to protect the identities of those interviewed…

a year ago · 54 likes · 6 comments · Jessica Valenti

Joyce Vance

writes that “sometimes reasonable people can disagree about what the facts mean, but the starting point for public discourse has to be a commonly held set of true facts. It’s the absence of that base of knowledge that has made the descent of our national conversations possible.”

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

The Week Ahead

“We have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone.” With that, Jack Smith made his opening statement to the American people. He told folks, read the indictment of Donald Trump and decide for yourself. Smith was no Bill Barr, offering up a misleading summary of an extensive investigation and claiming the former president had been exoner…

a year ago · 1115 likes · 137 comments · Joyce Vance

Noah Berlatsky

writes that “Converting bigots is, again, a good thing. Weakening right coalition is valuable. But I don't think it should be the central goal of left community or organizing. Often, resources, time, and energy are better spent on providing resources and solidarity to those targeted for violence, or on educating and strengthening the left commitments of those already on your side.”

Everything Is Horrible

The Left's Main Goal Shouldn't Be Converting Jordan Peterson Fans

When someone on the right realizes that the right sucks, that's a good thing. As I discussed here, the right is better at hate than at solidarity, and as a result it tends to alienate many of its proponents if given half a chance. The left, which values diversity and respect, is better at sustaining large, heterogenous coalitions than the right is. That…

a year ago · 29 likes · 2 comments · Noah Berlatsky

Hemant Mehta

writes that according to a recent survey, “more pastors think they’re better off having random church members with weapons on them instead of hiring private or public police officers with presumably more training in those situations.”

Friendly Atheist

Most Christian pastors use armed church members to thwart a possible mass shooting

This newsletter is free, but it’s only able to sustain itself due to the support I receive from a small percentage of regular readers. Would you please consider becoming one of those supporters? You can use the button below to subscribe to Substack or use…

a year ago · 12 likes · 123 comments · Hemant Mehta

Robert P. Jones

writes that “when analysts contemplate the rise of forces like white supremacy and nationalism in the United States, they often assume that these forces thrive either outside of or in the wake of the weakening of traditional Christian institutions. But both historical analysis and contemporary public opinion data demonstrate that such anti-democratic views regularly find a comfortable home among white Christians.”

White Too Long by Robert P. Jones

The Call is Coming From Inside the House: White Christian Churches as Incubators of Anti-democratic Sentiment

Dear #WhiteTooLong readers, Through the marvels of technology, I’m sending this week’s newsletter from 34,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean on an Iceland Airlines flight, returning from a moving experience of being in Berlin. The occasion for the trip was an invitation to present a paper at an international conference on religion and threats to liberal w…

a year ago · 20 likes · 2 comments · Robert P. Jones

Jared Yates Sexton

writes that “there is nothing you can show the MAGA faithful that will change their opinion of Trump. There is no video, no recording, nothing, that will change it. And here’s why: the unique appeals of Trump have tapped into a unique need within the movement that led to an undying, cultish devotion. By now, they have so solidly intertwined their identities with supporting Trump that politically, economically, and socially, there is no going back.”