Author: TheConversation

By James Piazza, Liberal Arts Professor of Political Science, Penn State An attendee at an October 2021 political rally hosted by right-wing activist Charlie Kirk asked: “How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?” The attendee was referring to the baseless allegation that Joe Biden stole the 2020 U.S. presidential election and that he unfairly denied Donald Trump reelection. Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA, condemned the question. But one year after the Capitol insurrection that was fueled by Trump’s claims of a rigged election, Kirk, other commentators and politicians – and, of course,...

By John M. Murphy, Professor of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign President Joe Biden closed his speech commemorating and deploring the events of January 6, 2021, by asking God to “bless those who stand watch over democracy.” To “stand watch” is to stand guard, but as a metaphor, it runs deeper. To stand watch on a ship is to keep out a weather eye – to keep an eye on the sea and sky for potential danger. In this larger sense, Biden’s address called on Americans to see the plain truth, to bear witness to the violence of...

By Amanda J. Crawford, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Connecticut Americans had to confront a new reality when an angry mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021: Some of their fellow citizens were in the grips of a false reality and had resorted to violence to support it. Conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election and the strange alternate universe of QAnon helped drive the attack, which has prompted concerns about further domestic upheaval. In the year since, a flurry of studies and analyses have tried to gauge the American appetite for conspiracy theories and the...

By Brock Bastian, Professor, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne; and Ashley Humphrey, Lecturer in Psychology, Federation University Australia The term “toxic positivity” has received a good deal of attention lately. Coming off the back of the “positivity movement” we are beginning to recognize while feeling happy is a good thing, overemphasizing the importance of a positive attitude can backfire, ironically leading to more unhappiness. Research shows that happier people tend to live longer, be healthier, and enjoy more successful lives. And “very happy people” have more of these benefits relative to only averagely happy people....

By Miriamne Ara Krummel, Professor of English, University of Dayton On December 31, people from cultures all around the world welcomed in A.D. 2022. Few of them thought about the fact that A.D. signals “anno Domini,” Latin for “in the year of our Lord.” In A.D. temporality – the one acknowledged by most societies today – next year marks 2023 years since the purported birth of Jesus Christ. So why did we all toast this new year, given that most of the world’s nearly 8 billion people are not Christians? My fascination with time was nurtured by the millennium and the...

By Bill Kovarik, Professor of Communication, Radford University On the frosty morning of December 9, 1921, in Dayton, Ohio, researchers at a General Motors lab poured a new fuel blend into one of their test engines. Immediately, the engine began running more quietly and putting out more power. The new fuel was tetraethyl lead. With vast profits in sight – and very few public health regulations at the time – General Motors Co. rushed gasoline diluted with tetraethyl lead to market despite the known health risks of lead. They named it “Ethyl” gas. It has been 100 years since...