Category: Uncategorized
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The Bully and the Nerd
Pardon me for repeating this metaphor for the third time in a week, but here goes… Picture a bully and a nerd in a school playground. C’mon, you know this story. The bully makes demands, and if he doesn’t get his way, there’s hell to pay. The nerd thinks about good solutions and has some…
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Is politics your home, or your car?
When I’m in my home, I want to be comfortable. I don’t want to live with people who make me feel ill at ease, or whose values I don’t share. I don’t want conflict. I take great care in making my “house into a home.” I hang things on the walls that reflect my personality,…
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one for the best headlines ever file…
originally published on September 13, 2010 Sometimes direct action really does get satisfaction. Think Progress brings us this great headline: Texas Skateboarder Stops Christian Extremist From Burning The Qur’an In Amarillo, Texas, David Grisham, director of Repent Amarillo, “which aims to deter promiscuity, homosexuality and non-Christian worship practices through confrontation and prayer,” planned to burn…
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“Would you like to come to the protest?” (What prevents radicals from acting strategically?)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fp8PNap2bo&w=480&h=385] And here’s the three-part essay: What Prevents Radicals from Acting Strategically? Ritual & Engagement Encapsulation The Story of the Righteous Few
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The Centrality of Fear in Right-wing Hegemony
originally published on September 11, 2010 Paul Rosenberg nailed it yesterday in his article on Taxes & Terrorism (Open Left): …the basis of conservative politics is fear. The basis of liberal politics is reason. The conservative try to flood the zone with fear, so that people can’t think straight . . . If the GOP…
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What Prevents Radicals from Acting Strategically? (part 3 of 3)
Reposted. Part Three of a three-part article from 2006, written in collaboration with Madeline Gardner. Read Part One here and Part Two here first. Many of us, when we become disillusioned with the dominant culture, we develop an inclination to separate ourselves from it. When we begin to become aware of racism, sexism, capitalism and…
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What Prevents Radicals from Acting Strategically? (part 2 of 3)
Reposted. Part Two of a three-part article from 2006, written in collaboration with Madeline Gardner. Read Part One first. And then here’s Part Three. Encapsulation While in Argentina in 2004 I interviewed Maba and Valde, a sister and brother from one of the Movements of Unemployed Workers1 groups, MTD Solano. Interviewing them separately, I asked…
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Great BP commentary from Banksy
I’d love to see more compositions like this — from Banksy’s website:
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What Prevents Radicals from Acting Strategically? (part 1 of 3)
This article made the rounds on Z net and a bunch of Indymedia sites back in 2006. I wrote it in collaboration with Madeline Gardner. I’m reposting here in three parts, with no edits. Here’s Part Two. And here’s Part Three. And here’s the video. Ritual & Engagement It’s August and I’m back in San…
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Book Review: The Big Sort (part 2)
This is Part Two (of two). Read Part One here. While I’m a big fan of The Big Sort for all the reasons discussed in Part One of this review (among other reasons), I was disappointed by the author’s symmetrical depiction of the ways the left and right demonstrate his Big Sort theory, and by…
Jonathan Matthew Smucker 