By DeRay Mckesson

From On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope, By DeRay Mckesson:

There was a time when I believed that racism was rooted in self-interest or economics — the notion that white supremacy emerged as a set of ideas to codify practices rooted in profit. I now believe that the foundation of white supremacy rests in a preoccupation with dominance at the expense of others, and that the self-interest and economic benefits are a result, not a reason or cause. I believe this because of the way that white supremacy still proliferates in contexts where there is no self-interest other than the maintenance of power.  I have seen it hold sway even in contexts where it does not materially benefit the white people who hold the beliefs.

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An Argument for the Declaration

An Argument for the Declaration
By Wade Lee Hudson

Activists undermine progress. Deep-seated tendencies reinforce fragmentation and drive away potential recruits. These divisive impulses, rooted in biological instincts inflamed by our hyper-competitive society, weaken our power.

Not everyone suffers from the same weaknesses, but most are burdened with many. “Americans for Humanity: A Declaration” aims to help overcome these barriers to personal, social, and political growth.

These personal problems include:

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Campaign Zero

Campaign ZERO was developed with contributions from activists, protesters and researchers across the nation. This data-informed platform presents comprehensive solutions to end police violence in America. It integrates community demands and policy recommendations from research organizations and President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Together, we will win.

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Founded by DeRay Mckesson, author of On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case of Hope

The Autocracy App

The Autocracy App
By Jacob Weisberg OCTOBER 25, 2018 ISSUE
The New York Review of Books

A review of:

  • Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
    by Siva Vaidhyanathan
  • Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
    by Jaron Lanier

…A professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, Vaidhyanathan is a disciple of Neil Postman, the author of Amusing Ourselves to Death. In that prescient pre-Internet tract, Postman wrote that Aldous Huxley, not Orwell, portrayed the dystopia most relevant to our age. The dangers modern societies face, Postman contends, are less censorship or repression than distraction and diversion, the replacement of civic engagement by perpetual entertainment.

Vaidhyanathan sees Facebook, a “pleasure machine” in which politics and entertainment merge, as the culmination of Postman’s Huxleyan nightmare. However, the pleasure that comes from absorption in social media is more complicated than the kind that television delivers. It encourages people to associate with those who share their views, creating filter bubbles and self-reinforcing feedback loops. Vaidhyanathan argues that by training its users to elevate feelings of agreement and belonging over truth, Facebook has created a gigantic “forum for tribalism.”

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…What would the world look like if Facebook succeeded in becoming the Operating System of Our Lives? That status has arguably been achieved only by Tencent in China. Tencent runs WeChat, which combines aspects of Facebook, Messenger, Google, Twitter, and Instagram. People use its payment system to make purchases from vending machines, shop online, bank, and schedule appointments. Tencent also connects to the Chinese government’s Social Credit System, which gives users a score, based on data mining and surveillance of their online and offline activity. You gain points for obeying the law and lose them for such behavior as traffic violations or “spreading rumors online.”

Full implementation is not expected till 2020, but the system is already being used to mete out punishments to people with low scores. These include preventing them from traveling, restricting them from certain jobs, and barring their children from attending private schools. In the West online surveillance is theoretically voluntary, the price we pay for enjoying the pleasure machine—a privatized 1984 by means of Brave New World.

Male Trouble

Male Trouble
By Arlie Russell Hochschild
New York Review of Books
OCTOBER 11, 2018 ISSUE

A review of:

The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It
by Warren Farrell and John Gray
BenBella, 493 pp., $25.95

Healing from Hate: How Young Men Get Into—and Out of—Violent Extremism
by Michael Kimmel
University of California Press, 263 pp., $29.95

White American Youth: My Descent into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement—and How I Got Out
by Christian Picciolini
Hachette, 275 pp., $15.99 (paper)

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My letter:

Dear Arlie

I very much appreciate your important and insightful “Male Trouble” in the New York Review of Books.

In addition to the “roots” you address in the section on solutions, I recommend more attention to cultural changes. Beyond making it “heroic to be a great dad,”  a new paradigm of modern humanity could replace Faludi’s “paradigm of modern masculinity.” The biological differences between men and women are relatively insignificant, so far as I can tell. Our shared humanity is key.

Moreover, we need to redefine the American Dream, or perhaps return to its original definition, which assumed a gradual accumulation of wealth. Widespread, rabid greed is a relatively new phenomenon. The drive to climb social ladders and look down on and dominate those below is deadly.

Americans for Humanity: A Declaration” aims to contribute to that kind of transformation. If you will, please consider signing it. (BTW, the other day, I sent you an email about it with a bad link. Sorry about that if you tried it.)

Carry it on,
Wade Lee Hudson

Imperial Exceptionalism

By Jackson Lears
New York Review of Books
February 7, 2019 issue

A review of:

Empire in Retreat: The Past, Present, and Future of the United States
by Victor Bulmer-Thomas
Yale University Press, 459 pp., $32.50
and
Republic in Peril: American Empire and the Liberal Tradition
by David C. Hendrickson
Oxford University Press, 287 pp., $34.95

To read, click here.

Irrational Politics

Human beings join tribes. This instinct is biological. Tribes assume moral superiority over and seek to dominate other tribes. Winning is primary. The price of victory is secondary. These battles produce strong emotions that distort reality.

When tribes join with other tribes into super-tribes, a threat to one tribe is a threat to every tribe. Life becomes more dangerous and irrational. Republicans and Democrats are super-tribes. They focus on winning the next election.

The development of these electoral super-tribes has undermined the ability of legislators to compromise, which is the heart of democracy. Legislators must compromise to address difficult problems, but increased polarization has made it more difficult. Tribalism is pulling the country ever deeper into a downward spiral of bitter gridlock.

Compromise is not always timely. Militant activism can help bring attention to pressing issues and build pressure for stronger improvements. But outside the electoral arena, on the left and the right, doctrinaire, victory-centric tribes have also formed super-tribes. They demonize opponents, resist all compromise, and disregard the consequences of their actions. The result is profound fragmentation.

The time has come for everyone to step back and engage in critical self-evaluation. Learning to overcome arrogant, hyper-competitive, domineering tribalism is essential in order to unite and transform this nation into a compassionate community.

Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity by Lilliana Mason analyzes Republicans and Democrats. Her book applies to other tribes as well.

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Mason argues:

A single vote can now indicate a person’s partisan preference as well as his or her religion, race, ethnicity, gender, neighborhood, and favorite grocery store. This is no longer a single social identity. Partisanship can now be thought of as a mega-identity.

Mason calls this dynamic “social polarization.” The convergence of multiple identities into one mega-identity leads to greater stereotyping, prejudice, and emotional volatility — and makes us “increasingly blind to our commonalities.”

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