Author: Reporter

White Victimhood: One small town in Wisconsin shows how fringe fears have become mainstream

A word, “Hope,” is stitched onto a throw pillow in the little hilltop farmhouse. Photographs of children and grandchildren speckle the walls. In the kitchen, an envelope is decorated with a hand-drawn heart. “Happy Birthday, My Love,” it reads. Out front, past a pair of century-old cottonwoods, the neighbors’ cornfields reach into the distance. John Kraft loves this place. He loves the quiet and the space. He loves that you can drive for miles without passing another car. But out there? Out beyond the cornfields, to the little western Wisconsin towns turning into commuter suburbs, and to the cities...

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Merriam-Webster picks “gaslighting” as word of the year for 2022 due to popularity in political trolling

“Gaslighting,” behavior that is mind manipulating, grossly misleading, and downright deceitful, was selected by Merriam-Webster on November 28 as word of the year for 2022. Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There was not a single event that drove significant spikes in curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year. The gaslighting was pervasive. “It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and...

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Putin’s weaponization of winter leaves a Christmas in Ukraine without its traditional holiday glow

Just a year ago, Sophia Square in Kyiv was all about the big Christmas tree and thousands of lights spreading over the plaza. These final days of 2022, in the middle of a war that has ravaged the country for 10 months, a more modest tree stands there, its blue and yellow lights barely breaking the gloom of the square that is otherwise dark apart from the headlights of cars. In recent months, Russia has been targeting the energy infrastructure, aiming to cut electricity and heating to Ukrainians, as the freezing winter advances. And although the Ukraine government tries...

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Occupation Billboards: Russia’s propaganda war has been waged in tandem with the battlefield brutality

A Ukrainian firefighter tears off a Russian billboard in Kherson, southern Ukraine, November 17. 📸 Bernat Armangue (AP) In the liberated city of Kherson, Ukrainians have been tearing down a glaring symbol of occupation, billboards spreading Russian propaganda. Throughout the southern city that was under Russian occupation for nearly nine months, the Russians had put up billboards declaring the city part of Russia or promoting important figures from their past. This is part of a propaganda war that has been waged over Ukraine in tandem with the one being fought on the battlefield. Moscow has tried to spread its...

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Culture as a target: Why Russian attacks specifically aim to erase Ukrainian identity

Russian troops in Ukraine are deliberately attacking the country’s museums, libraries and other cultural institutions, according to a report issued on December 2 by the U.S. and Ukrainian chapters of the international writers’ organization PEN. “Culture is not collateral damage in the war against Ukraine; it’s a target, a central pillar of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justification for the war,” the report stated. “Putin has repeatedly claimed that Ukrainian culture and language simply don’t exist. By targeting art museums, music halls, libraries, theaters and historical sites, he attempts to make it so.” PEN cited Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture as...

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Peace and PTSD: Ukraine is already working to heal the mental wounds of its soldiers

Sleep plunges the soldier back into the horrors of Ukraine’s battlefields. He can hear bombs falling again and picture explosions. He imagines himself frantically running, trying to save himself and others. The nightmares are so vivid and frightening that he pleads with his doctor for help. “It will blow my mind,” he warns. “So do something.” “Very, very, very stressful,” Witalij Miskow, 45, says of the night terrors he is fighting with tranquilizers and therapy at a mental health treatment center for soldiers on the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. When peace eventually returns to Ukraine, many thousands of...

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