Reading List: December 24–25
A holiday gift basket for you over the weekend.
FAIR’s Adam Johnson wonders why New York Daily News columnist Gersh Kuntzman is so happy about the assassination of a Russian diplomat in Turkey this week. Kuntzman’s comments came in a pair of articles in which he celebrated the assassination and then wondered why the Russian government found that upsetting.
Predictably, calling for the assassination of Russian diplomats in such a large forum upset the Russian government, and President Vladimir Putin has since asked for an apology from the paper’s editor. But Kuntzman, polishing his Bold Truth-Teller bona fides, used the opportunity to posture and further troll the world’s largest nuclear power.
Felix Biederman has a well researched, in-depth piece on Saudi Arabia, tech, and human rights over at The Concourse.
Presenting an absurdly unrealistic modernization plan for your country while your family violently represses its subjects and your military incinerates foreigners might, for some nations, seem an embarrassing contradiction, but Prince Salman knows he has a few advantages: First, that none of Saudi Arabia’s western allies will ever do anything more than issue a press release alluding to “deep concerns” for his nation’s human rights record. Second, that there’s money to be made in any attempted Saudi reshaping, no matter how obviously ill-conceived.
Sam Kriss examines how much truth matters in the post-Trump world at Slate.
Politics is where people can gain the ability to actively reshape the world, rather than just describe it. It’s as false as the Athenian theater, and this is no bad thing. Of course these aspects of politics can give rise to monsters like Donald Trump; dreams always raise the possibility of a nightmare. But when we’re confronted with political evil, our response should be to fight it with something good, not to grumble that it’s getting its statistics wrong.
Andre Roberge and Raven Payne profile Michigan’s progressive leader Lena Thompson for Progressive Army.
Lena first got involved with politics in the late 80s, when she worked in a grassroots capacity on the board of the Human Rights Campaign Fund (HRCF). Her main focus was on gay politics and she was a founding member of the Michigan Gay Lesbian Democratic Caucus and was the Treasurer for Pride PAC.
Finally, Elizabeth Bruenig talks about faith, family, and tragedy.
A week before my daughter was born, my husband lost his job. It was unexpected. I came home from work just a little early one day because I thought I had felt a contraction — I didn’t know what they would feel like, having never given birth, and so I thought every pain could be a sign of labor.
Have a good holiday weekend everyone.