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The Precarious Republic: Understanding the Fascist Threat to Modern Democracies

What if it doesn’t take years, or even months, for a democracy to collapse—but only a few short weeks? The idea that a stable republic could fall in ninety days may seem exaggerated, until you look at the historical record. Then it becomes a haunting possibility. Fascism doesn’t always arrive with fanfare or fire. Sometimes, it walks in through the front door, wearing a suit and a smile, welcomed by the very institutions it plans to dismantle.

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Unlikely Kindred Spirits: Kripke, Heaney, and Elizabeth I: A Linguistic and Philosophical Analysis

At first glance, the analytic philosophy of Saul Kripke, the dramatic poetry of Seamus Heaney, and the political statecraft of Queen Elizabeth I could not seem more disparate. What could a 20th-century logician, a Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet, and a 16th-century monarch possibly share? Yet, beneath the surface, each grappled with language, identity, and authority in redemptive ways. Each, in their own silo, understood that naming and narrative wield power – whether it’s designating a possible world in logic, naming the unnameable traumas of Irish history, or styling oneself “Virgin Queen” to command a realm. In this exploratory conversation, we’ll sink into Kripke’s revolutionary ideas about reference and necessity, examine Heaney’s dramatic explorations of history and identity, and uncover how Elizabeth I engineered her political identity through language. We’ll reveal subtle connections – the resonances in their treatment of naming, authority, and the notion of necessity – to see how each shaped their world and left a lasting impact on the future. The journey is a thoughtful occupation: part historical detective work, part philosophical reflection, as we uncover lessons and methods from this unlikely trio.

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Kamala On Men

As Kamala Harris takes the torch from Joe Biden, I am hopeful she can continue to win over those who do not believe a woman can be president. One of the major initiatives of her campaign will be the loss of autonomy for women in the reversal of Roe v. Wade. There is, however, a trap that is being set for her, and I want to bring attention to that trip wire and offer a resolution.

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The New Book Burning: Rewriting Roald Dahl

There’s nothing new in having established books censored. In 2011, I wrote about the concentrated effort to have Mark Twain’s books “rewritten” and “edited” without him. Today, there is a similar effort to “rewrite” and “edit” the fine work of author Roald Dahl. These reverse efforts, after publication, to quiet the writer’s voice through “social context” editing, is absolutely the same as burning books on a wood pyre — but with the excuse of protecting children. and of being sensitive to the new emancipation of provocative social norms.

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John Fetterman Will Punch You in the Mouth!

[[[ UPDATE 05.15.22: John had a stroke the day this article was published! Please feel better soon, my friend, and yes, he’ll still punch you in the mouth from his hospital bed! ]]] John Fetterman is currently Pennsylvania Lt. Governor and he is also running to be a Senator from the same State. Sure, he’s 6’8″ tall. Yes, he doesn’t wear a tie. Of course, he prefers to wear hoodies. Because John Fetterman is tough. John Fetterman is what a Democrat used to be — and must be again: Of the land, against the elite power, for the common good. Now, I realize John Fetterman may not want to punch you in the mouth right now, but I am confident he would if he needed to, and the idea he could punch you if he were threatened into it is just the sort of inherent, but unspoken, return to earth the Democrat party needs in order to deal with the ongoing foolishness, and intimidation of, far Right Wing radicals. John Fetterman suffers no fools. A year ago, in my Human Meme podcast episode — The Great White Bridge as Throughline — I celebrated John Fetterman as a possible future Democratic President, along with the now self-politically immolated former mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms as his second.

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