Recommended Reading: Authoritarianism Feeds Off Despair

This Week's Recommended Reading on Substack: Jared Yates Sexton, Jessica Pishko, Jemar Tisby, Karim Zidan, Oliver Willis, Erin Reed, and Joshua Hill

Apr 07, 2024

This Week's Recommended Reading on Substack:

writes that “authoritarianism is a disease of the human heart. It is not limited to a time or space or region. It is a byproduct of trauma, a consequence of atrophying of imagination. It is an awful, awful shadow that can fall upon us without so much as warning.”

Dispatches From A Collapsing State | Jared Yates Sexton

It's Meant To Grind You Down: Authoritarianism Feeds Off Despair

Thank you for reading Dispatches From A Collapsing State. If you appreciate my work and analysis, please subscribe. The current environment in media and journalism is meant to reward those who would look away from these things and cooperate with the very forces I’m describing in these pieces. Please support this work if you can…

6 months ago · 95 likes · 9 comments · Jared Yates Sexton

Jessica Pishko

writes that “law enforcement wants to know that they are good and special boys, entitled to privileges and guns and all sorts of financial goodies. They just want to bash heads and not worry about silly little laws. As a group, they care more about feeling free to enact violence on outgroups than they care about being part of the social fabric.”

Posse Comitatus

Trump’s Fascist Michigan Speech

On Tuesday, Donald Trump held an event in Grand Rapids Michigan in which, flanked by law enforcement officers, he accused the Biden administration of creating a “border crisis.” He used the most inhumane of language, calling the situation a “border blood bath…

6 months ago · 7 likes · 1 comment · Jessica Pishko

Jemar Tisby, PhD

writes that “the effect of claiming to extract racial and gender biases from our opinions is more than just wrongheaded, it is harmful to the most marginalized among us. When you claim to offer a neutral analysis, you end up reinforcing the existing unjust racial and gender norms. A person floating on the surface of the lake is not truly neutral, they move in whatever direction the waves take them.”

Footnotes by Jemar Tisby

You Cannot Offer a "Racially Indifferent" and "Gender-Neutral" Analysis in a Racist, Sexist Society

There are a swirl of opinions about the topic below. I want to help you sort through them by offering one, simple analysis. If you find it helpful, would you consider becoming part of the small but essential group of paid subscribers today…

6 months ago · 46 likes · 12 comments · Jemar Tisby, PhD

Karim Zidan

writes that given Andrew Tate’s “given Tate’s history of misogyny and his influence over young, disenfranchised men, his conversion to Islam drew scepticism across Muslim communities. Some claimed that Tate was taking advantage of his growing popularity among young Muslim men in the Western world to rehabilitate and rebrand himself. This became apparent when Tate did not appear repentant about his history of misogyny and abuse but instead seemed emboldened by the misperception of Islam as a religion that promotes violence against women.”

Sports Politika

How Andrew Tate exploits MMA and Islam in his pursuit of profit

Welcome to Sports Politika, a media platform focused on the intersection of sports, power and politics. This outlet was founded by investigative journalist and researcher Karim Zidan and relies on the support of readers like you. If you have not done so already, please consider becoming a…

6 months ago · 16 likes · 2 comments · Karim Zidan

Oliver Willis

writes that “the average Fox News viewer is watching to have an entire network devoted to telling them, no, actually, you’re right about how everything has gone wrong and in fact most people agree with you – it’s just that their point of view is being suppressed by some unseen force (usually operated by people you hate for their race, religion, or gender identity).”

Oliver Willis Explains

Why Conservatives Watch Fox News

I’ve written here before about why I think liberals/Democrats should avoid appearing on Fox News (TLDR: Because it’s a Republican PAC/propaganda outlet and appearing there just helps to further that mission), but one counterargument I receive on a regular basis is that these voters have to be reached somehow, so it’s worth the effort…

6 months ago · 12 likes · 1 comment · Oliver Willis

Erin Reed

writes that “transgender identification is not accurately gauged by answering a single question. Instead, gender dysphoria diagnoses require a persistent, consistent, and insistent desire to be the other sex lasting 6 months, as well as 5 of 7 other criteria, such as a dislike of one’s own sexual anatomy, a desire for sex characteristics to match their experienced gender, preference for cross sex roles in make-believe play, and more. The study, on the other hand, looks at an isolated question at individual moments in young people’s lives and clearly cannot be used as a proxy for transgender people.”

Erin In The Morning

Fact Check: No, A New Study Does Not Show "Being Trans Is Just A Phase"

6 months ago · 72 likes · 11 comments · Erin Reed

Joshua P. Hill

writes that “because the truth is that the biggest offenders are wearing suits; they’re often in boardrooms or state houses. The companies that pushed Oxycodone on America have hurt more people and made more money than any drug dealer. Police forces have killed more people in the United States than any gang. Policies around evictions and climate and health care have hurt infinitely more people than any criminal mastermind could ever conceive of.”