Stop comparing Kim Davis to Rosa Parks
Published: Salon (September 10, 2015), The Daily Dot (September 8, 2015) In a mission to cast Kim Davis—the Kentucky clerk who has been temporarily jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses—as a martyred culture warrior, conservatives are comparing her to the heroes of the civil rights movement. Iowa Congressman Steve King tweeted that Davis should win the Rosa Parks Award, a...
If you want fair presidential elections in America, we need fair debates
Published: The Daily Dot (September 9, 2015) If Democrats want to make the election process as democratic as their party’s name suggests, the best way to do is by having a competitive race among a diverse field of presidential hopefuls. This is especially crucial in a political era where the Internet is leveling the playing field by making candidates’ messages instantly accessible to a wide,...
“Eyeglasses can be fashionable too,” says Liskula Cohen
Published: The Good Men Project (September 8, 2015) Historically, eyeglasses have often been regarded as a fashion faux pas. My co-author for this article, Matthew Rozsa, recalls having to wear them his entire life – and can attest from firsthand experience that his thick-lenses and bulky frames played a major role in the “nerd” persona that he assumed through much of his early childhood (for...
Why Do Americans Love “Jurassic World”?
Published: The Good Men Project (September 5, 2015) It's official - "Jurassic World" is the highest grossing film of Summer 2015. And I couldn't be more confused. Make no mistake about it, I get the anticipation. The "Jurassic Park" movies were a staple of my childhood, so when I heard that a fourth installment was being made after more than a decade of waiting, I was excited. Then when I heard...
A Democratic Race Without Hillary Clinton
Published: The Good Men Project (September 3, 2015) If Hillary Clinton doesn’t become the Democratic presidential nominee next year, who could replace her? Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that Hillary Clinton doesn’t run in the Democratic presidential primaries next year. There are plenty of reasons to assume that won’t happen: The FBI’s investigation into her private email may not yield...
Understanding (and Misunderstanding) Gay Rights
Published: The Good Men Project (September 1, 2015) Matthew Rozsa deconstructs the dangerous logic being used by the anti-gay rights movement in America today. — Over the last week or so, there has been a growing problem with the logic of the anti-gay rights movement. Let’s see if this article from the right-wing blog InfoWars about Vester Lee Flanagan, the African-American gay man who shot two...
Oliver Sacks’ brilliant & essential lesson: What the legendary science writer taught us about politics & the human mind
Published: Salon (August 31, 2015) “We normals — aided, doubtless, by our wish to be fooled, were indeed well and truly fooled… And so cunningly was deceptive word-use combined with deceptive tone, that only the brain-damaged remained intact, undeceived. So wrote neurologist Oliver Sacks at the conclusion of “The President’s Speech,” a chapter from “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” his...
Quick Note: ‘Reverse Racism’ Doesn’t Exist
Published: The Good Men Project (August 27, 2015) When people talk about "reverse racism," they are describing a phenomenon that doesn't exist. This isn't to say that yesterday's shooting of two Virginia journalists wasn't motivated by prejudice. For that matter, even if perpetrator Bryce Williams was correct in claiming that he had experienced discrimination at the hands of his employers, he...
Donald Trump has blood on his hands: Why the nativist demogogue is the second coming of George Wallace
Published: Salon (August 26, 2015), The Good Men Project (August 22, 2015) Donald Trump has indelibly associated his presidential campaign with the cause of opposing political correctness. He has every right to do this – but we in the media need to make sure that ideas which are simply “un-PC” are distinguished from near-criminal irresponsibility. This brings us to Trump’s comments after hearing...
Americans aren’t just putting in longer hours—we’re being forced to work until we die
Published: Salon (August 26, 2015), The Daily Dot (August 19, 2015) Believe it or not, there is a line that Donald Trump refuses to cross. As he has made clear in debates and speeches, he parts ways with the other Republican candidates over the touchy subject of Social Security reform. “Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, they do it on Medicare, they want to do it on...
Joe Biden’s Legacy for Battered Women
Published: The Good Men Project (August 25, 2015) I have a guilty conscience. Although I respect Vice President Biden quite a bit, I recently wrote an op-ed arguing that it would be a bad idea for him to run for president. My concern (then and now) is that Biden, despite being a qualified statesman, simply doesn't have the political chops or base of support to mount a viable campaign against...
Josh Duggar’s hypocrisy is part of a much larger cultural problem
Published: The Daily Dot (August 21, 2015) America’s most high-profile Christian conservatives often use their social media platforms and media prominence to extol the virtues of chastity—only to get caught up in sex scandals. The most recent example comes by way of Josh Duggar, one of the oldest kids from the hit reality TV show 19 Kids and Counting. Coming on the heels of a revelation...
Why We Need To Bring Back Crushes
Published: The Good Men Project (August 20, 2015) Let’s talk about crushes. I recently noticed that when adults discuss their romantic feelings, the term “crush” is almost never used. When it does appear, there is almost always an apologetic undertone to it – people will qualify their crushes with adjectives like “schoolboy” or “schoolgirl” (as in, “I have a bit of a schoolboy crush on you”), or...
A Few Thoughts on Racist Tweets
Published: The Good Men Project (August 18, 2015) Political articles have been written for millennia, but thanks to the Internet, anyone with the right technology at their disposal can voice their opinions on the published work produced by professional writers. This is mostly a good thing… but what lessons can we learn from those occasions when readers cross important lines of decency?...
Voters are already sick of the election—and it’s not just because of Trump
Published: The Daily Dot (August 14, 2015) Does anyone care that our election cycles are getting increasingly longer? If the Republican National Committee is to be believed, then the answer is no. Despitepledging at the beginning of the year to limit the number of presidential debates that it would allow during the 2016 election season, Nancy Reagan will be hosting yet another presidential...
5 Simple Tips To Being Both Lazy and Successful
Published: The Good Men Project (August 13, 2015) If you’re reading this article and consider yourself to be lazy, ask yourself one question: Why would someone choose to be lazy? There is a considerable stigma attached to the lifestyle associated with laziness: Out-of-shape both physically and mentally, someone who doesn’t contribute to society, mooches off others instead of supporting...
“Cuckservatives” and Other Disgraces to Masculinity
Published: The Good Men Project (August 11, 2015), Salon (August 13, 2015) I’d like to advance the following proposition: A real man strives to be valued as an individual on the basis of what he does, not by maintaining unfair privileges he possesses through sheer dumb luck. This may seem obvious, but there is a glaring disconnect between the (often hyper-masculine) rhetoric of many white male...