Why is mainstream media ignoring the Boko Haram attacks?
Published: Daily Dot (January 19, 2015) Starting on Jan. 3, hundreds of Nigerians were slaughtered in an attack on the border city of Braga by the notorious Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram. Shortly after, two girls blew themselves up at a market in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing at least 19 people. All of this came on the heels of reports last month that a 13-year-old...
Can We Learn Anything From Losers
Published: Good Men Project (January 13, 2015) Matthew Rozsa looks for lessons in the lives and legacies of the presidential ‘Also Rans.’ ___ I have looked by the way at what happens to anybody in this country who loses as the nominee of their party. They become a loser for life, alright? —Mitt Romney, from the documentary, Mitt ___ There is something oddly poignant about the plight of America’s...
“They don’t see what I see”: Why FBI’s claim against North Korea is so dubious
Published: Salon (January 12, 2015) Whether he realizes it or not, James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, has made a rather brazen request of the American people. As he attempted to reinforce the government’s case that North Korea was responsible for the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment, he urged critics of the intelligence community’s position to remember that...
The disturbing psychology behind racist attacks against Muslims
Published: Daily Dot (January 12, 2015) Even before the events in Paris this week, many Americans already harbored prejudicial attitudes toward Muslims, and not surprisingly, there has been a flurry of Islamophobia in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, but it’s all part of a long history of treating and fearing Muslims as the Other. The true enemy, though, is not a single...
3 Lessons Everyone Can Learn from the Impending ‘Autism Tsunami’
Published: Good Men Project (January 12, 2015) With over a million U.S. children with autism approaching adulthood, Matthew Rozsa looks at impact of the coming wave. ___ There is talk of an impending “autism tsunami. “More than 1.5 million people have the condition in the United States alone,” wrote Amir Khan of U. S. News & World Report on Monday. “But because the majority of these people...
How GOP obstructionism empowered the presidency
Published: MSNBC (January 11, 2015) Listening to Rep. Louis Gohmert’s (R-TX) revanchist logic for his failed bid to oust John Boehner as speaker of the House earlier this month, you’d think the tea party wing of the Republican Party had been working with President Obama. “[We’ll] fight amnesty tooth and nail. We’ll use the powers of the purse,” Gohmert vowed in an interview with Fox News during...
The 6 dumbest reasons the Internet has criticized Obama
Published: Daily Dot (January 8, 2015), Salon (January 13, 2015), Interview with LeGrande Green (January 15, 2015) From latte salute-gate to birther conspiracy theories, a look at some of the dopiest attacks against the president Dinesh D'Souza exits the Manhattan Federal Courthouse after pleading guilty in New York, May 20, 2014. (Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson) This article originally appeared...
5 reasons why ‘white pride’ is always racist
Published: Daily Dot (January 6, 2015), Salon (January 9, 2015) History tells us "whiteness" has always been a construct used to exclude certain groups from equal rights The Ku Klux Klan is currently sponsoring a Harrison, Ark., billboard that sends the following message: “It’s not racist to love your people. www.WhitePrideRadio.com.” The message is featured next to an adorable photo of a kitten...
Why the Internet isn’t afraid of the flu epidemic
Published: Daily Dot (January 3, 2015) I don’t need to remind you about the so-called “epidemic” that reached America’s doorstep in 2014. From a ‘90s thriller to a Jesse Pinkman monologue, everyone knew about the dreaded Ebola virus before it reached our shores, but it wasn’t until last year that we became existentially afraid of it. The disease we should be actually scared of is the one that...
I Was A Cyberbullying Victim and I Am Reclaiming My Voice
Published: GirlieGirlArmy (January 2, 2015) co-author: Liskula Cohen This is the story of how I reclaimed my life. Unfortunately, to tell that tale, I need to first explain how my struggle started. Back in 2009, right as the nation’s attention was beginning to turn to the problem of cyberbullying, I was the subject of defamatory attacks by a 29-year-old Fashion...
What ‘The Interview’ controversy says about the cost of threatening free speech
Published: Daily Dot (January 1, 2015) Regardless of whether North Korea was actually responsible for hacking Sony, America can learn an interesting lessons from the brouhaha surrounding the release of The Interview. As a result of this incident, we have learned that the Internet—which was used by the Guardians of Peace in an attempt to intimidate other people—can also stoke the flames of public...
My Life in Review: The People Who Changed Me
Published: Good Men Project (December 31, 2014) As the calendar moves forward, Matthew Rozsa looks back at 6 life-changing relationships he’s had and lost. ___ In less than 72 hours, the dictates of the Gregorian calendar system will draw the current year to a close and a new chapter—on this occasion 2015 A.D.—will begin. As humanity collectively commences with this latest small slice in its...
Why Facebook makes you think the world is ending
Published: Daily Dot (December 29, 2014) Back in October, a Fox News article on apocalyptic belief systems by Dr. Robert Jeffress observed that “47 percent of American Christians believe that the end of the world as described in the Bible will occur within the next 40 years.” Around the same time—but, notably, on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum—Roger Cohen of the New York Times...
‘The Interview’ Has A Smart Argument That Deserves Respect
Published: Good Men Project (December 28, 2014), The Daily Dot (December 30, 2014) The Interview has been getting a lot of sympathy but, from a critical standpoint, not a great deal of respect. After seeing the film twice, I find this attitude a tad dismaying. For those who haven’t seen the movie and wish to watch it with a fresh set of eyes, there are two things you should know: 1) At its core,...
The ‘War on Christmas’ isn’t real – but these 6 Yuletide controversies are
Published: Daily Dot (December 25, 2014) The nativity, whether on a church lawn or brazenly displayed at City Hall, is a fixture of American Christmases—as is, of course, controversy. While arguments over nativity scenes trend toward questions of the separation between church and state, nativity scenes gone wrong run the span from bizarre, to funny, to actively offensive. It's not a War on...
A Call To Dispense With Our Culture of Fear
Published: Good Men Project (December 23, 2014) Matthew Rozsa offers three suggestions to protect both the police and the communities that fear them and calls for both groups to demand that politicians enact them. ___ Believe it or not, Michael Brown and Eric Garner share one very important quality with the pair of NYPD officers who were brutally slain earlier this week: Both of them live in a...
Stop criticizing ‘The Interview’ for killing Kim Jong-un’
Published: Daily Dot (December 22, 2014) Say what you will about The Interview, but let’s abandon the notion that the filmmakers were wrong for their fictionalized depiction of Kim Jong-un’s death. The reason is simple: It is healthy to assert that Kim Jong-un deserves to die. Kim Jong-un is not just some interchangeable foreign leader. This is a point critics, like Justin Moyer of the...