The vast majority of Americans – both then and now – agree that democracy requires freedom of speech. That’s in the abstract. When the questions get more concrete, though, their support wanes. Only about half of the respondents in both the 1939 and 2024 polls agreed that anybody in America should be allowed to speak on any subject at any time. The rest believed some speech – or certain subjects or speakers – should be prohibited.
Commentary
The Lebanese Make Survival an Art Form
Theodore Ell’s new book, “Lebanon Days,” spans the tumultuous period from 2018 to 2021, which include the country’s economic collapse, Covid, and the horrific explosion in Beirut’s port in August 2020. Ell’s book exudes reality to anyone who has lived in Lebanon. He describes vividly the Lebanese sense of fun, the nightclubs in East Beirut where patrons could drink and dance till dawn – and had done even in the depths of the civil war.
How Dementia Rates Could Be Reduced by Up to 45%
Nearly half of all dementia cases could be delayed or prevented altogether by addressing 14 possible risk factors, including vision loss and high cholesterol. That is the key finding of a new study published in the journal The Lancet.
If You Want Americans to Pay Attention to Climate Change, Just Call It Climate Change
You probably have been hearing phrases like “climate crisis,” “climate emergency” or “climate justice” more often lately as people try to get across the urgent risks and consequences of climate change. The danger is real, but is using this language actually persuasive? It turns out that Americans are more familiar with – and more concerned about – climate change and global warming than they are about all those other ways to describe the problem.
Philosophy Is Crucial in the Age of AI
If AI alignment is the serious issue that OpenAI believes it to be, it is not just a technical problem to be solved by engineers or tech companies, but also a social one. That will require input from philosophers, but also social scientists, lawyers, policymakers, citizen users and others.
Arms Embargo Demands Won’t Stop Military Aid to Israel
Activists are calling for a U.S. arms embargo on Israel, which the Democratic Party’s new national platform does not include. Dov Waxman, a scholar of Israel studies, explains what is behind the U.S.’s relationship with Israel and the strategic reasons why an arms embargo is, at best, a remote possibility.
DeSantis Wants to Build Golf Courses and Hotels in Florida’s State Parks
The DeSantis administration has plans to transform Florida’s award winning state parks. One of the worst plans talks of building not one, not two, but three golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound. There are plans at the other parks for big motels and pickleball courts and disc golf courses, all of which run completely counter to what our state parks are all about.
Members of Congress Undermine the Country with Antidemocratic Rhetoric
Differences over politics and policy have a long history of being divisive, of course. But it’s one thing to disagree over substantive matters such as tax rates or foreign aid and something very different to undermine the legitimacy of your opponents. It’s the difference between framing those who disagree with you as fair and equal competitors or as enemies who must be defeated.
No, 5G Does Not Affect Your Health
Since 5G’s rollout, which coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic, it was accompanied by all manner of conspiracies and falsehoods, notably that it was causing or spreading the pandemic, and that vaccines contained computer chips that would allow us to be controlled from a distance via 5G technology. Don’t believe the fabrications.
Au Revoir, Alain Delon
Alain Delon’s death at the age of 88 brings down the curtain of one of postwar European cinema’s most important film stars. Known for his striking “movie star” look – chiselled features, piercing blue eyes – and magnetic screen presence, Delon portrayed characters who seemed on the surface to be effortless and suave.