Recommended Reading: From Fringe Conspiracy to Trump Policy
This Week's Recommended Reading on Substack: Melissa Ryan, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Gary Legum, Andra Watkins, Brynn Tannehill, and Erin Reed
This Week's Recommended Reading on Substack:
Melissa Ryan writes that “Trump’s campaigns have always relied heavily on communities such as QAnon and MAHA to win elections and drive media narratives. Now that he’s back in power, the false conspiracy theories MAGA adherents believe, no matter how insane they sound, are increasingly driving policy, legislation, and the White House’s political priorities.”
Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes that “Trump is a skillful propagandist who has surrounded himself with other skillful propagandists with long histories of television and media performances on Fox and elsewhere. Watch how their language and slogans align and how Communist threats to elections become the drum they beat as we head into the midterms.”
Gary Legum writes that Luara Loomer is “now a full-on Ukraine booster, urging Trump to send the nation more Patriot missiles to defend itself, among other steps. And she has turned, with no apparent sense of irony, against conservative influencers who use their perch to sell pro-Russian propaganda. About this issue, anyway.”
Andra Watkins writes that she thinks “Musk and his ilk hate this version of The Odyssey because it reminds us of Xenia, our fundamental human obligation to one another. It spotlights how far this regime and its enablers have strayed from basic humanity.”
Brynn Tannehill writes that “none of the arguments made against transgender people, including those in the military, were made in good faith. They were always designed to ultimately remove transgender people from public life.”
Erin Reed writes that a Florida school district is considering “eliminating school libraries altogether. Clay County School District, a conservative school district which serves over 40,000 students south of Jacksonville, has removed more books than nearly any district in the state. Now, the fate of school libraries themselves appear to hang in the balance.”
