‘The Testaments’ and the Tyranny of Tenderness
In The Handmaid’s Tale, violence had to break in; in The Testaments, a tyrannical tenderness occupies a child’s dollhouse, a child’s mind.
authoritarianism
Meme Culture’s Corrosive Effect on the American Heart
Over time, particularly since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, meme culture has shifted into a series of thought-terminating clichés that eat through our democratic identity like battery acid.
Chile Under Pinochet: A Film Chronology of Dictatorship and Memory
From the 1973 coup to its afterlives in national memory, these films trace violence, silence, resistance, and the ways Chile continues to confront Pinochet’s violent legacy.
Can “No Kings” Protest Humor Shrivel Away Authoritarianism?
Besides billionaires—and without needing to beg or bribe—comedians and No Kings jesters may be the next highest demographic that is thriving during these Trump-led authoritarian times.
Trump Country Music’s Dance of the Cowboy Boots
Trump country music has right-wing country stars and fans dancing to the beat of the authoritarian in their hard-heeled country boots… for now.
‘The Celebration’ Rocks the Cradle of Authoritarianism
Thomas Vinterberg’s acclaimed dark comedy The Celebration strongly evidences the root causes of humanity’s unrestrained aggression, bigotry, and fascist proclivities.
‘Can Democracy Work?’ Is the Essential Question We Must Continue to Grapple With
James Miller's Can Democracy Work? is a coming-of-age story for a generation of Americans whose ideals of social, economic, and political progress foundered on the rocks of brute capitalist power.
The Moral Morass of Playing ‘Beholder’
Beholder shows the disasters that can come from, perhaps, being too compassionate within the context of a totalitarian state.