Fear & Loathing In Smithtown is new and improved with more items and citations. Check it out if you haven't in a while. This piece, which has little to no real promotion, has amassed over 3,500 hits.
Now onto some deeper reads.
Reads from around the web will range from all sides. There will be opinions that don't necessarily reflect our own. I think it's essential to read "outside the box." Otherwise, we fall into the same echo chamber as many did in the Smithtown groups and election fiasco. Despite this, I also will stick to more educated opinions, fact-based publications, and sites with some journalistic integrity (unless to point out something awful).
Speaking of Something Awful, here is Long Island's Loud Majority attempting to take credit for the Smithtown Schools Board of Education election victory:
"We were approached by concerned parents of the school district to help weed out corruption. There had been multiple FARA requests and we found the administration was tied to the NY teacher's union, and was pushing the 1619 project."
No. Not quite. But nice try to pick up the “1619” buzzword that’s making the rounds lately.
The election got co-opted thanks to board opponents' and other parents' involvement in far-right groups and news spin cycles. Their Smithtown Parent Watchdog group devolved into fearful parents falling into partisan rhetoric traps, as many other far-right group members and Republican operators came in to peddle their agenda to what would become an echo chamber.
THE READS
The Bulwark:
Scenes From The Culture War
Yoga, the 1619 project, and Critical Race Theory.
Politico:
How the 'Culture War' Could Break Democracy
Thirty years ago, sociologist James Davison Hunter popularized the concept of "culture war." Today, he sees a culture war that's gotten worse.
Fivethirtyeight Politics Podcast:
How Racial Justice Protests Have Become The Contemporary Culture War
A discussion history professor Yohuru Williams speaks with Galen Druke about how this protest movement compares with past social justice movements.
Yahoo News:
White Republicans an outlier on views about race in America
How a recent poll shows that Republicans and Democrats seem to live in two different worlds in their views on race relations.
The Editorial Board:
Moral people don’t draw attention to their virtue, but amoral people spend a lot of time sending signals
You don't need a reason to wear a mask, but there are plenty. Beyond this subject, John Stoehr skewers punditry with a flamethrower.
On a pundit:
“He does not make arguments, however, with concern for them being right or wrong, good or bad. He makes those arguments for the purpose of getting attention, which is the metric by which he measures the advancement of his self-interest. People who wear a mask don’t make a big deal about it. Those who refuse to wear one, however, often do. Moral people don’t draw attention to their virtue. Amoral people are the ones sending all the signals.”