Tag: open letter
The Artists Crying ‘Censorship’ – The Atlantic
For the past few years, the right has worn itself out decrying “cancel culture”—claiming that left-wing mobs have destroyed the career of artists, writers, and freethinkers—and equating it with censorship. Liberals have typically been the first to point out that this is absurd. If someone says or does something that offends your sensibilities, you are of course free to avoid supporting that person’s professional or creative endeavors with your time and money. That is not censorship—it’s merely a
How I Lost the Russia That Never Was
The lack of respect for the dead surprised even a soldier with the Wagner Group, Russia’s mercenary legion of former convicts that fought some of the bloodiest battles in the invasion of Ukraine. He looked at an ugly heap of wooden crosses and flower wreaths that had been pushed aside and cursed the authorities.
“What are you doing? They died for Russia, and you are razing their graves to the ground. You are rolling over them,” he said in
The Double Life of John le Carré
“Spying and novel writing are made for each other,” John le Carré once wrote. “Both call for a ready eye for human transgression and the many routes to betrayal. Those of us who have been inside the secret tent never really leave it.” Le Carré’s enigmatic gift as a writer wasn’t simply that he could draw on his experience of having once been a British spy. He brought a novelist’s eye into the secret world, and the habits of
Cowardice at Sundance
Just about every movie you have ever wanted to see is available to stream. Download some app, and $3.99 later, the opening credits will roll. But the films that command the attention of the real cinephiles are those unavailable to stream at any price. For years, the king of this category was The Day the Clown Cried (1972), a comedy about the Holocaust by the Nutty Professor star Jerry Lewis, who was ashamed of the film and prevented its … Read more
Hybrid Work Is Doomed – The Atlantic
I noticed the shoes first. That I was wearing them. Real shoes, the leather kind, with laces. After a year and a half, I was finally returning to the office, and that meant giving up the puffer slippers and slides that had sustained me for so long. Real shoes, I quickly remembered, are terrible. Likewise pants. Likewise getting to work, and being at work. Whew.
That was summer 2021. I’ve since acclimated to the office once again: I don
Mass Shootings, Young Men, and What Can Be Done
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Every Monday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Question of the Week
What do you think about guns, the right to bear arms, gun deaths, and gun policy?
Conversations of Note
Yesterday an 18-year-old gunman killed at least 19 elementary-school children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas,
Penn State’s Pandemic Denialism – The Atlantic
As the fall 2021 semester approaches, nearly 700 college campuses across the United States are requiring proof of vaccination for students or employees. If you plot these colleges on a map, the image bears a striking resemblance to one depicting the results of the 2020 presidential election. And that image resembles a map of current COVID-19 hot spots, which mirrors a map of vaccination rates. In other words, vaccination rates lag behind in the areas where vaccinations are needed