Our picksThe Boogaloo Menace | Another World War? | COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy, and more
· Why Some Protesters in America Wear Hawaiian Shirts
· How Bad Is the COVID-19 Misinformation Epidemic?
· The Psychology of Inoculation: How Many Will Take a Coronavirus Vaccine?
· Will a Global Depression Trigger Another World War?
· Pandemic Propaganda and the Global Democracy Crisis
· These Are the Fake Experts Pushing Pseudoscience and Conspiracy Theories about the Coronavirus Pandemic
· U.S. Tussles with France, U.N. Over Counterterrorism Efforts in West Africa
· Mother of Manchester Arena Bombing Victim Says “Terrorism Has Not Gone Away” and Teachers Must Look Out for Radicalization
· The British Government Must Stop Kowtowing to China and Side with Our True Allies
· Preventing the Next Boko Haram in Northern Mozambique
Why Some Protesters in America Wear Hawaiian Shirts (Economist)
Accelerationism, the boogaloo and the meaning of the extreme right. In more than 30 of America’s 50 state capitals crowds have been gathering to protest against stay-at-home orders, buoyed by tweets from the president encouraging them to “liberate” their states. A few among them, toting assault weapons, are dressed incongruously in Hawaiian shirts. They might seem comical were it not for the fact that, in some corners of the internet, such leisurewear is recognized as the uniform of the extreme right.
How Bad Is the COVID-19 Misinformation Epidemic? (Kaleigh Rogers, FiveThirtyEight)
The COVID-19 pandemic has been equally defined by how much we don’t know as how much we do. That vacuum has been quickly filled with bullshit. The United Nations secretary-general has warned we’re living through “a pandemic of misinformation,” and the head of the World Health Organization said it’s an “infodemic.” In the midst of battling a global health emergency, we find ourselves fending off another scourge of conspiracy theories and misinformation.
It certainly feels like there’s a lot of fake news swirling around about the coronavirus, but how does it compare to another major misinformation magnet: the 2016 election? Research on coronavirus misinformation is largely limited to public opinion surveys and preprint research that has yet to be peer-reviewed. But when we compare those preliminary findings to research on the 2016 election, they suggest that more people are seeing — and believing — misinformation now, and it may have something to do with the challenge of understanding a new disease.
Will a Global Depression Trigger Another World War?(Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy)
· “By many measures, 2020 is looking to be the worst year that humankind has faced in many decades. … What could possibly make things worse? Here’s one possibility: war. It is therefore worth asking whether the combination of a pandemic and a major economic depression is making war more or less likely. What does history and theory tell us about that question?”
· “If one takes a longer-term perspective a sustained economic depression could make war more likely by strengthening fascist or xenophobic political movements, fueling protectionism and hypernationalism, and making it more difficult for countries to reach mutually acceptable bargains with each other.”
