- The Social Costs of Declining Literacy
- A Year of Defending Our Immigrant Neighbors
- In Search of a Peace Movement
- The Creep of Cultural Fascism
- The Multi-Leveled Fight for Education
- Trump Cuts, Science Bleeds
- Aesthetics in the Era of AI Slop
- State Violence and the Lies We Tell Ourselves
- Texas Hotel Workers Shake It Up
- Anticommunist Monument Disgraces Itself
The Social Costs of Declining Literacy
By Kate Perry, The Observatory
The United States is in the grip of a reading recession—nearly half of Americans didn’t read a single book in 2023, and fewer than half read even one, according to data from YouGov and the National Endowment for the Arts. What is at stake is a deeper erosion of the habits that sustain knowledge, empathy, and democratic life.
A Year of Defending Our Immigrant Neighbors
By Heather Digby Parton, Salon
Stephen Miller speaks for people who have decided that anyone who doesn’t look like them or worship like them should be driven from the country and no more of them should be allowed to come in. But a funny thing happened: many U.S. citizens decided to fight back on behalf of their immigrant friends, neighbors and co-workers.
In Search of a Peace Movement
By David Cortright and Peter J. Quaranto, Waging Nonviolence
2025 has been a historically bad year for the peace community in the United States and beyond. We surely need a bigger, bolder American peace movement today, with a broader agenda that includes support for democracy and the redesign of our country’s peacebuilding and development policy architecture.
The Creep of Cultural Fascism
By Ashifa Kassam, The Guardian
Far-right groups have seized on cultural production – from clothing brands to top 40 music – to normalise their ideas, in a process that researchers say has hit new heights in the age of social media. A six-country project is looking at how the extreme right uses aesthetics, from fitness influencers to memes and stickers, to spread their views across Europe.
The Multi-Leveled Fight for Education
• The Assault on Higher Ed By Maximillian Alvarez, In These Times
• The Charter School Industry’s Newest Scheme By Jeff Bryant, Z
• Harvard’s Credibility Collapse By Eric Reinhart, The Guardian
• Maine Parents vs the Haters By Emily Duggan, centralmaine.com
Trump Cuts, Science Bleeds
By Carrie McDonough et al., The Conversation
The Conversation asked researchers from a range of fields to share how the Trump administration’s science funding cuts have affected them. All describe the significant losses they and their communities have experienced. But many also voice their determination to continue doing work they believe is crucial to a healthier, safer and more fair society.
Aesthetics in the Era of AI Slop
By Nicholas Liu, Jacobin
Because capitalism orients people toward profit rather than allowing us to pursue our interests freely, it inevitably separates humans from the creative act. AI art is just the slop frothing up from that gap.
State Violence and the Lies We Tell Ourselves
By Scott Hechinger, Zeteo
When the American public sees agents of the state assaulting a civilian, we interpret the image through the dominant narratives about public safety that have been pummelled into our psyche by the media and politicians for decades. We imagine that the person being attacked is somehow dangerous, when the reality of the image contradicts this dominant narrative.
Texas Hotel Workers Shake It Up
By Dayana Cruz Estudillo, Ms.
Immigrant working women at a Central Texas hotel turn shared abuse and silence into collective action—proving that worker-led solidarity can confront intimidation and strengthen democracy from the ground up.
Anticommunist Monument Disgraces Itself
By Hadani Ditmars, The Art Newspaper
A year after the official opening of Canada’s monument to the victims of communism in Ottawa, the Department of Canadian Heritage has reversed its decision to inscribe individual names on it after a federal government report linked many of the unvetted “victims” to Nazis.
