Hillary Clinton will never be as progressive as the Internet wants her to be
Published: Daily Dot (July 20, 2015) In becoming our nation’s first female president, a Hillary Clinton presidency would be a milestone in American history. However, Clinton’s moment in the sun may never come: Hillary Clinton will never become the progressive that many of her supporters would like her to be, and this fact may create serious problems for her candidacy. During Netroots Nation, a...
How to Maintain a Happy Workforce: An Interview with TINYpulse
Published: Good Men Project (July 16, 2015) Matthew Rozsa’s interview with the CEO of TINYpulse, a company that is revolutionizing how employers and employees interact with each other. If there’s one thing that sends a chill up the spine of any boss, it’s the thought of one of their best employees walking into their office and quitting unexpectedly. Now there’s a new approach to that problem....
Obama’s low-income broadband initiative could change the lives of millions of Americans
Published: Daily Dot (July 16, 2015) If equality of opportunity is to be a reality in this country, we need to recognize that it is impossible for anyone to be competitive in our modern economy without access to the Internet. That’s why President Obama’s new program to subsidize broadband for low-income families is such an encouraging step forward in addressing the systemic problems of millions...
How American taxpayers are spending billions to keep innocent men behind bars
Published: Daily Dot (July 14, 2015) As talk show host John Oliver explained in a segment last month, America’s bail bond system discriminates against low-income Americans who can’t afford to make bail. “Jail can do for your actual life what being in a marching band can do for your social life,” Oliver quipped. “Even if you're just in for a little while, it can destroy you.” After going viral,...
Honor and the KKK
Published: Good Men Project (July 14, 2015) Let’s discuss the concept of honor. More specifically, let’s explore the version of that term as it was once described by Socrates: “The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” Bearing this definition in mind, it’s important to understand the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in our news cycle (more on that in a...
A Plain-English Explanation of How Greece Got Into Its Debt Debacle
Published: Question of the Day (July 13, 2015) Greece’s years-long debt crisis has finally come to a head this summer. Though Greece looks like it'll get its third bailout in five years, the Greeks were very much on the brink for the last few weeks, and very close to being kicked out of the eurozone over the last few days. The Greek debt crisis seems like a never-ending tragedy, a story that...
Why It’s Good To Take Breaks from the Internet
Published: Good Men Project (July 11, 2015) Matthew Rozsa discusses why it’s important to spend time offline as well as on it. — For someone whose livelihood depends on the Internet, and who maintains some of his closest personal relationships almost exclusively online, why do I feel the regular need to take a break from cyberspace at least once a day? It started when I found myself feeling stir...
Bernie Sanders has a troubled record on gun control (but the NRA still hates him)
Published: Salon (July 9, 2015) Gun nuts go after Bernie Sanders: NRA just reveals its radical paranoia Sanders' Second Amendment position falls to the right of many liberals, but NRA types just assume the worst Gun nuts go after Bernie Sanders: NRA just reveals its radical paranoia Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., may be a self-described “Independent Socialist,” but his surprisingly moderate views...
Hillary Clinton, unpaid internships, and the culture of exploiting young workers
Published: Daily Dot (July 9, 2015) Although Hillary Clinton has proposed a series of programs for reducing youth unemployment, she has also come under fire on the Internet for staffing her presidential campaign with unpaid interns. In response, Clinton announced on Tuesday that she was hiring 20 paid staffers in Iowa (the first state to hold a presidential primary or caucus next year). But, as...
The Proverbial Freeze Out: Why Do We Hold Grudges?
Published: Good Men Project (July 9, 2015) Matthew Rozsa discusses the millennial generation’s habit of freezing people out… and whether the practice of holding grudges offers any benefits. “No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full.” I’ve always been fascinated by this quote, which was allegedly the personal mantra of the Roman dictator Sulla. From...
The ‘Paranoid Style’ of Alex Jones: Why the right-wing ‘Jade Helm’ insanity won’t go away – and why that’s extremely scary
Published: Salon (July 8, 2015) Brace yourself: After months of frantic conspiracy theorizing, Operation Jade Helm is finally underway next week. One week from today, one of the largest military training exercises in history — dubbed “Operation Jade Helm 15? — will occur across seven southwestern states. According to Bastrop County Republican Party Chairman Albert Ellison, there is good reason...
2 Ways We Need to Redefine ‘Masculinity’ in American Foreign Policy
Published: Good Men Project (July 7, 2015) American foreign policy has long been governed by ideas of masculinity. Now it’s time to evaluate what that has meant for our nation – and how we should redefine “masculinity” in the future. Why do we equate “masculinity” with “aggressiveness” when conducting our foreign policy? “In the aftermath of September 11 Bush enacted a highly masculine...
Debunking the 3 biggest myths about the death penalty
Published: Daily Dot (July 6, 2015), Salon (July 8, 2015) After the Supreme Court issued a 5-to-4 ruling upholding the use of a lethal injection drug for death penalty cases last week, Justice Breyer’s dissent has lit up the Internet. In his opposition, Breyer not only opposes the controversial use of midazolam, a drug that’s been criticized as “cruel and unusual punishment,” but also condemns...
Why I’m Sick of Superhero Movies
Published: Good Men Project (July 4, 2015) Matthew Rozsa has one thing to say about superhero movies: Enough! To celebrate this 4th of July, let’s talk about one of the most American art forms out there: the superhero movie. “There’s only so many uniquely American art forms—Broadway musicals, abstract expressionism, jazz,” explained Michael Kantor in an interview for fastcocreate.com about a PBS...
Life on the Spectrum: Time and Chance in All
Published: Asperger's 101 (July 3, 2015) As I explained in an editorial for Mic (which I wrote in December 2012, when Asperger’s Syndrome entered the national conversation after unconfirmed rumors circulated that Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter, had been diagnosed with it): Experts have found that communication is only one-third verbal, with the two-thirds that are...
Why the government ignored a terrifying report that predicted the Charleston shooting
Published: Daily Dot (July 2, 2015) It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Morris Gulett, the leader of a white supremacist religious group that vows to fight to “safeguard the existence of our race, the purity of our blood and the sustenance of our children,” recently expressed support for Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old white supremacist who shot nine people at a black church in Charleston, South...
A Quote Collector’s Thoughts on Economic Conservatism
Published: Good Men Project (July 2, 2015) Matthew Rozsa loves quotes. And he disagrees with economic conservatives. Here’s where he’s going with that. — “I have gathered a posie of other men’s flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is my own.” – John Bartlett, publisher and editor of “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations” Some men collect baseball cards. Others collect comic books. I...