Recommended Reading: Revisionism and Authoritarianism
Recommended Reading: Revisionism and Authoritarianism
This Week's Recommended Reading on Substack: Jared Yates Sexton, Parker Molloy, Karim Zidan, Sarah Kendzior, Michael Ian Black, Joyce Vance, and Ben Cohen
This Week's Recommended Reading on Substack:
writes that “mythologies, conventional histories, narratives. They shaped how people saw the world, or rather, how people didn’t see certain things. The American mythology was a vehicle to historic power and influence. The mythology of Western Civilization, as it is told, is the story of how a small group of white and wealthy elites have controlled the world and led us to this point.”
writes that “just because two opposing groups are unhappy doesn't mean the truth lies somewhere in the middle. It's entirely possible that both sides have legitimate grievances, or that one side's criticism is valid while the other's is not. By falling back on this defense, journalists like Bash risk dismissing valid criticism and avoiding genuine self-reflection. This stance can lead to false equivalence.”
writes that Steven Seagal recently “appeared on Russia’s state-sponsored news channel RT to discuss the US ‘disinformation machine,’ which he lamented is being utilized against American citizens ‘because they’re very afraid of the truth and they are highly cognizant of the fact that they are engaging in skullduggery that is going to be exposed.’ To fully understand how Seagal transitioned from a 90s action star to a willing mouthpiece for authoritarian regimes, it's important to delve into the origins of his unlikely friendships with powerful figures like Putin—a friendship rooted in martial arts, and strongman politics.”
writes that “there is a high level of bullshit involved in proclaiming ‘this election may be your last’ every four years and then doing little but fundraising off fear. But that doesn’t change that the GOP threats that the Democrats describe are real. I’ve faced them since my Reagan-era childhood, and watched Democrats defer to them since then, too. It also doesn’t change that a remarkably bipartisan lack of concern over protecting Americans from sedition, pandemics, climate change, genocide, and other existential threats leaves me suspicious that the election is less of a game-changer than the next stage of a plan.”
write that “I believe that Tim Pool and others of his ilk parrot Kremlin propaganda about the degeneracy of the West because they believe it. They believe that the American government should work hand-in-glove with American Christianity, just as Putin has embraced Russian Orthodox Christianity as a means to tie himself closer to traditional Russia. They believe that the current rightwing American bogeyman – transgenderism – is going to destroy American civilization, just as all the bogeymen that came before (gay marriage, Muslims, immigrants, rap music, etc.) would do the same. I believe that they truly believe that Putin/Orban-style “illiberalism” would benefit the US. I believe that they really are that stupid.”
writes that “ever since the Supreme Court decided that individual Americans, not just the ‘well regulated militia’ the Second Amendment references, have a right to ‘keep and bear arms,’ our vulnerability to gun violence has exploded. How many more students and teachers and families and communities will have to experience the devastation that Winder, Georgia, is dealing with tonight? We need people in our state legislatures and Congress, and leaders at every level of government, who will be more concerned with our children than with gun sellers’ profits.”
writes that “the cottage industry created by journalists like Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Michael Shellenberger, and to a certain extent Bari Weiss, is based on a simple idea: liberals are more dangerous than the far right and present an existential threat to human civilization. Taibbi has been explicit about this, arguing violent MAGA fanaticism isn’t worth paying attention to because Democrats are building a global super state surveillance system to track your every move… the purpose of his inflammatory statements isn’t to provide readers with evidence based journalism, or even an informed opinion. It is instead to implant an idea.”
