TLP Week in Review, 1/7-1/13

Your weekly summary of what we've been up to here at The Liberal Patriot.

Peter Juul

and

John Halpin

Jan 13, 2024

A minke whale greets a waddle of penguins in front of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter *Polar Star* during its late December 2023 deployment to Antarctica as part of Operation Deep Freeze. (Credit: U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Graves/Department of Defense)

What We’re Reading (and Watching and Listening To…)

“How Poland’s Opposition Won an Unfair Election”: Candidate campaign manager Alexander Sikorski details on Zocalo Public Square how the Polish opposition dethroned the ruling nationalist-conservative party in Poland’s legislative elections last October. He cites a close-knit campaign team, a “positive and patriotic” campaign, and “an around-the-clock social media presence on every platform” as reasons for the opposition’s electoral success.
“Taiwan’s Status Quo Election”: In Foreign Affairs, David Sacks (no, not that one) argues that Taiwan’s foreign policy is unlikely to change all that much after the island’s January 13 presidential election given the country’s broad consensus to avoid the fates of Hong Kong and Ukraine by bolstering ties with the United States and its allies. No matter who prevails in the upcoming election, “Taiwan is dedicated to continuing to embed itself in the West, a process that is inimical to China’s interests.”
“‘There Are a Lot of Mexican People Looking Forward to Trump’”: Politico reporter David Siders travels to El Paso, Texas, and provides a sobering look at political currents among Hispanic voters there. “The growing appeal of a pro-Trump, hardline immigration mentality was even evident here, in a city where more than 80 percent of the population is Hispanic or Latino, and in a county where Biden pummeled Trump by more than 35 percentage points three years ago.”
“Our Kids Are Living in a Different Digital World”: In the New York Times, tech writer Emily Dreyfuss warns that the combination of smartphones, social media platforms like TikTok, and influencer culture has created an online world light years beyond that known by their parents. “With ruthless efficiency, social media can deliver unlimited amounts of the content that influencers create or inspire. That makes the combination of influencers and social-media algorithms perhaps the most powerful form of advertising ever invented.”
“How to win the culture war”: The Economist identifies two main approaches to America’s politicized culture wars: combat and transcendence, as epitomized by Dave Chappelle’s newest stand-up special and the film American Fiction. “In America culture has become politics by other means, and that has not been good for either realm. Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix special, ‘The Dreamer,’ released on the last day of 2023, is routing his critics in the culture war, but ‘American Fiction’ transcends the whole fight.”
American Fiction: A sly, cutting satire of the contemporary literary world, well-meaning but clueless progressives, and America’s racial politics as a whole, this film stars actor Jeffrey Wright Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, an exasperated author who fakes a stereotypically “black” novel on a lark and winds up winning accolades and award for his hoax. Family melodrama nicely complements and leavens the satire along the way.

What We’ve Posted

“The Disturbing Rise of Strategic Antisemitism” by TLP contributor Emily Blout.
“The Progressive Youth Chimera” by TLP politics editor Ruy Teixeira.
“Hyperbole For Sale” by TLP executive editor John Halpin.
“How an “Endless War” Begins” by TLP editor-at-large Brian Katulis.
“Don't Worry About the ‘Arab Street’” by TLP contributor and CFR senior fellow Steven A. Cook.
“To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, scientists say…” by the Breakthrough Institute’s Patrick T. Brown.

Ruy’s Science-Fiction Pulp Cover of the Week

Who among us does not like a good dino cover? I can’t speak to the Paganini thing, though… (J. Allen St. John, *Fantastic Adventures*, October 1940)

Just one more thing…

NASA rolled out its newest test aircraft, the X-59, on Friday. The X-59 will see if it’s possible to reduce the noise generated by supersonic flight from a sonic boom to a “sonic thump.”