Recommended Reading: Unmasking the Real Agenda
Recommended Reading: Unmasking the Real Agenda
This Week's Recommended Reading on Substack: Parker Molloy, Charlotte Clymer, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Sian Norris, Lyz Lenz, Melissa Ryan, and Kristin Du Mez
This Week's Recommended Reading on Substack:
writes that the “manufactured outrage over [Imane] Khelif's gender identity isn't just a story about one boxer or one Olympic match. It's a stark illustration of how quickly misinformation can spread in our hyperconnected world, and how readily certain groups will weaponize that misinformation to further their own agendas. More disturbingly, it reveals the broader implications of unchecked transphobia — not just for trans individuals, but for anyone who doesn't conform to narrow, traditional ideas of gender expression.”
writes that “perhaps the most glaring thing about the misogynistic and transphobic nonsense surrounding Imane Khelif is that Algeria is notoriously anti-LGBTQ in law, and she would never get a passport approved if she were trans. There is no trans equality in Algerian law. At all. Are there LGBTQ people in Algeria? Yeah, of course, and there are a lot of non-LGBTQ Algerians who stand on the side of equality, but the Algerian government does not.”
Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes that “when Trump praises Chinese head of state Xi Jinping for his ability to rule ‘with an iron fist,’ he is praising a situation in which opposition parties don’t exist, which makes elections moot and ‘simplifies’ political life. Trump has worked hard for almost a decade to get Americans to give up their quaint ideas about voting as a valued democratic right: he has conditioned them to see democracy as a failing system, and to view elections as an inferior and unreliable way to choose leaders.”
writes that “the modern far right does have its groups: Patriotic Alternative and its multiple regional branches; Britain First. But the days of groups of (mostly) men meeting in pub backrooms following the instructions of a known leader are over. This is a networked movement, organising and existing online, sharing and telegraphing an ideology.”
Lenz writes that “for so long, society has posited that the keys to a happy life for women are marriage, children, and home. But marriage has been a violent trap and an engine of inequality; children are unaffordable and also sometimes people don’t want to have them and also having them further drives inequality. As for houses, well, who can afford them in this economy? In response, people have learned to exist outside of those confining parameters — redefining relationships and the concept of home.”
writes that “none of this is normal or reflects the lived realities of most Americans. One of the reasons calling Vance and MAGA weird is such an effective attack is that the more you learn about what these guys want and think, the more obvious it becomes how completely divorced from reality the MAGA movement is.”
writes that “while many observers seemed shocked at what appeared to be a complete disregard for truth, some of us weren’t surprised. I experienced much of the same in critiques of Jesus and John Wayne from right-wing evangelicals. What surprised me (but shouldn’t have) was the paucity of substantive critique from that camp but the deluge of misrepresentation and straight-up lies about me and my book.”
