Tag Archives: authoritarianism

Boys That Don’t Fit the Gender Stereotype

By Robin Bates | Published: July 5, 2023

Georgia has fired a teacher for sharing “My Shadow Is Purple,” thus denying her kids a narrative that they urgently need to hear.

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Hughes’s Message More Urgent Than Ever

By Robin Bates | Published: July 3, 2023

Langston Hughes’s call for us to return to the vision expressed in the “Declaration of Independence” is more timely than ever.

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Authoritarians Long to Act with Impunity

By Robin Bates | Published: June 13, 2023

Authoritarians long to act with impunity. H.G. Wells captures this fantasy in “The Invisible Man.”

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Warning to Fans of Authoritarianism

By Robin Bates | Published: June 6, 2023

Applying “The Frogs Who Wished for a King” to the U.S., Biden is King Log and Trump King Crane.

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As in 1984, Neo-Fascists Redefine Freedom

By Robin Bates | Published: May 22, 2023

Many on the extreme right are defining “freedom” in ways that Orwell would recognize.

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DeSantis’s Orwellian Power Play

By Robin Bates | Published: April 2, 2023

A judge recently compared Florida governor Ron DeSantis to Orwell’s Big Brother.

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Odysseus’s Authoritarian Power Play

By Robin Bates | Published: February 7, 2023

Homer shows the dynamics of authoritarianism at work in an “Iliad” incident where Odysseus disciplines a critic of the Greek mission.

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Fiction as Authoritarian Weapon

By Robin Bates | Published: December 21, 2022

In “Seduced by Story,” Peter Brooks warns of the dangers of narrative. Borges agrees in “Tlon Uqbar.”

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Trump Dreamed a Voldemort Moment

By Robin Bates | Published: June 30, 2022

It’s now clear that Trump, on Jan. 6, 2021, dreamed of leading his followers into the Capitol. Think of Voldemort entering Hogwarts.

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