Orwell's 1984 may provide us with a vocabulary for critiquing the Trump administration. "Double speak," "thought police": these and other turns of phrase explain the peculiar and insidious ways in which Trump is gaslighting America. (This is a phenomenon that Lauren Duca has explained, incisively, in Teen Vogue.) And while we need 1984's lexicon of authoritarianism, it's not... Continue Reading →
On Freedom and Patriotism
I've recently been binge watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and yesterday—in one of those inexplicable accidents of perfect timing—I watched the episodes in which Oliver takes on predator drones and interviews Edward Snowden. The segment on Snowden, which also covered the dangers of renewing the PATRIOT Act, reveals in stark detail just how... Continue Reading →
Patrick Thomas Henry 