Within a victimhood culture, challenging a purported victim’s claims or failing to comply with their demands is often recast as a form of abuse–a type of revictimization. To extend compassion, sympathy, curiosity, or understanding toward accused wrongdoers–to press for nuance, […]
Greenland & the Turner thesis
Is Greenland the new frontier? Is a new “Manifest Destiny” in the air? Are we seeing a revival of historian Frederick Jackson Turner’s “frontier thesis?” Some Trump conservatives think so. Here is Ian Ward at Politico: But in the corner […]
Mr. Baseball, RIP
Bob Uecker was one of the greats:
David Brooks: We live in a “soap opera” country. The Pete Hegseth confirmation hearing is proof.
Here is The New York Times columnist: First let me hit you with some realities: Now, if you are holding hearings for a prospective secretary of defense, you would think you might want to ask him about these urgent issues. […]
Oaths matter
On Monday, Donald Trump will put his hand on the Bible and say: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability preserve, […]
Commonplace Book #312
…sociologists Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning argue, a different moral culture has hold among contemporary symbolic capitalists–a “victimhood culture.” Victimhood cultures, they argue, operate by a different set of rules and norms as compared to moral cultures oriented around “honor” […]
The cars of the civil rights movement
Historian Travis Wright teaches us about the Sojourner Motor Fleet. A taste: On a late summer night in 1964, a small plane landed on a desolate airstrip outside Greenwood, Mississippi, carrying two of the civil rights movement’s most prominent supporters—Harry […]
Why the Democrats need to turn away from identity politics and toward a class-based politics
Over at Jacobin, Melissa Naschek interviews New York University sociologist Vivek Chibber about identity politics and the Democratic Party. Here is a taste: Melissa Naschek: The Democratic Party has become almost synonymous with identity politics. How did the Democrats get […]
Commonplace Book #311
When someone works for less pay than she can live on–when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently–then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of […]
There is a “crisis of trust” in the college classroom
I am thankful to historian Seth Bruggeman for writing this piece at Inside Higher Ed. It put into words much of what I was feeling last semester in one of my classes and raises some important points about teaching college […]
Liberals “abandoned the truism that arguments are true or false, irrespective of the race or the origins of the person who makes them.”
Michael Ignatieff is the former leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Here is a taste of his New York Times piece, “I was born liberal. Defeat taught me our hidden reslience.” Ignatieff writes: “To rebuilt liberalism, we’ll need to […]
Commonplace Book #310
Granted, today, thanks to platforms like Patreon, YouTube, or Substack, there is a possibility to become a sort of “populist” influencer–to retain a voice and a livelihood independent of mainstream gatekeepers and patronage via crowdfunding (particularly for those who have […]
60 German universities leave X
In case anyone was wondering, I still do not have my X account back. And I am not losing much sleep over it, probably for the same reasons 60 German universities and research universities are not losing too much sleep […]
Why Jimmy Carter chose “Imagine”: two views
During his state funeral last week, Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks sung the John Lennon song “Imagine.” Why would Carter pick a song that begins: Imagine there’s no heavenIt’s easy if you tryNo hell below usAbove us, only sky Imagine […]
Commonplace Book #309
Consider the myriad cases where policies and initiatives intended to benefit historically marginalized and disadvantaged groups end up primarily serving elites from those groups, while the people from the target populations who actually need help end up benefiting far less, […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Jonathan Haidt and others are winning the battle over smartphones in school. Are graduate students in history doing sloppy work? Why did Jimmy Carter choose “Imagine.” The Muslims who fought […]
Commonplace Book #308
…liberal democracy in the late modern world will not find renewal without the moral imagination to envision a public life that transcends the present warring binaries, and with it, a fresh vocabulary with which to talk about and pragmatically address […]
Commonplace Book #307
Though the North’s triumph in the Civil War followed by the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution were great and necessary achievements, the laws could do only so much work. A new solidarity was imposed […]
A Christian view of diversity is rooted in unity
Here is moral philosopher Charles Camosy at Religion News Service: …suddenly, skepticism about all kinds of DEI abounds. Even The New York Times did a long and deeply reported piece on how DEI is failing in higher education, particularly at the University […]
Gino Auriemma on NIL and the transfer portal
The University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach is exactly right: