Author: TheConversation

By Martha Ackelsberg, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government, emerita, Smith College I have been thinking a lot, recently, about the tension between demanding “individual rights” – in the sense of deciding whether or not to wear a mask – and calling for more action on the part of our government to protect us from the coronavirus pandemic. I am a political theorist, which means I study how communities are organized, how power is exercised and how people relate to one another in and between communities. I’ve realized – through talking to friends, and thinking about the protests...

By Nilufar Ahmed, Lecturer in Social Sciences, University of Bristol From birthdays to weddings and graduations, this year has seen many personal celebrations cancelled, while communal festivities such as Bonfire Night, Eid and Diwali either have not been celebrated or have been more subdued. So it might feel tempting to downplay Christmas too, especially with concerns that people mixing more freely could lead to a third wave of COVID-19. However, it will be more important this year than ever before to engage in the celebrations and rituals of Christmas and New Year. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that...

By Peter C. Mancall, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences When the winter cold settles in across the United States, that is usually when the alleged “War on Christmas” begins to heat up. In recent years, department store greeters and Starbucks cups have sparked furor by wishing customers “happy holidays.” This year, with state officials warning of holiday gatherings becoming superspreader events in the midst of a pandemic, opponents of some public health measures to limit the spread of the pandemic are already casting them as attacks on the Christian...

By Jonathan Obert, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Amherst College The movement called “antifa” gets its name from a short form of “anti-fascist,” which is about the only thing its members agree on. President Donald Trump and some far-right activists and militants have claimed antifa is allegedly conspiring to foment violence amid the protests sweeping the U.S. In my forthcoming book, American Antifa: The Tactics, Culture, and Practice of Militant Antifascism, I describe antifa as a decentralized collection of individual activists who mostly use nonviolent methods to achieve their ends. Their goal is to resist the spread of fascism....

By Michael J. Socolow, Associate Professor, Communication and Journalism, University of Maine If you hav not heard of Substack – you probably will soon. Since 2017, the platform has provided aspiring web pundits with a one-stop service for distributing their work and collecting fees from readers. Unlike many paywall mechanisms, it is simple for both writer and subscriber to use. Writers upload what they have written to the site; the readers pay from US$5 to $50 a month for a subscription and get to read the work. Substack has also elevated a few commentators – perhaps most notably Heather...