Tag Archives: Modest Proposal

Classics to the Rescue in Dark Times

In Trump’s first 100 days, Jill Lepore turned to 100 classics to survive.

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Swift on Media Sane-Washing

Jonathan Swift would have something to say about how the corporate media continues to sane-wash Donald Trump.

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When News Resembles an Onion Headline

A recent case of an American man arrested for parodying a police department elicited a supportive brief from “The Onion.”

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Trump’s Modest Proposal

It may be April Fools’ Day, but there are Republicans who are advocating a version of Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal.” For real.

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In Praise of Literary Biography

I share a discussion I had with John Stubbs, author of riveting biographies on Swift, Donne, and the cavalier poets.

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Imagining the Poor as Breeders

Donald Trump has been using words like “infest” and “breeding” to dehumanize people of color. Swift’s Modest Proposer does the same.

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The GOP and Trump’s Modest Proposals

The practice of separating immigrant children from their asylum-seeking parents is reminiscent of the Modest Proposer’s solution.

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Reflections on Internet Trolling

Internet trolling is not contributing to discourse but poisoning it.

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Jonathan Swift, Master of Fake News

Fake news, which played a role in the 2016 election, may have become particularly sophisticated, but satirists have been creating fake news since at least the days of Jonathan Swift. Take, for instance, Swift’s “The Last Speech and Dying Words of Ebenezer Elliston,” which supposedly lowered the crime rate but which, for that reason, is problematic.

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