The Dissidents

Writer and activist Helen Raleigh has paired up with Professor and economist Paul Prentice to provide “three counterpunches” to socialism. The first counterpunch is about defining our terms. What is Democratic Socialism? According to Helen and Paul, it is a oxymoronic term we simply made up to “soften” socialism. However, when they ask others what it means the typical response is sharing and caring, versus capitalism that is equated with greed. Through political, economic and personal examples, they show how government sharing, much like Democratic Socialism, is just another oxymoron. Following along with these ideas, their second counterpunch looks at the popular fallacy that many Nordic countries are thriving Democratic Socialist regimes. They are market capitalist countries with a heavy welfare system. The Nordic countries themselves use the term Social Democrat, which is a nuanced, but widely divergent term from Democratic Socialism. In their third counterpunch, they try to change the messaging around capitalism to highlight its more compassionate attributes. Through both personal stories of Helen’s life in China and Paul’s incisive economic perspective, when put side-by-side, “compassion” is more the domain of capitalist systems. In order to see this more clearly we have to disassociate true capitalism from other forms of capitalism, e.g., “crony capitalism” (another oxymoron), which is really just fascism in disguise. In the end, they conclude that the most important question is not one of partisan politics (e.g., left vs right), but one of human nature and which system fosters the “better angels” of our humanity. Podcast Resources: Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation: https://victimsofcommunism.org/ Helen Raleigh: https://www.helenraleighspeaks.com/about Paul Prentice: https://i2i.org/about/our-people/paul-prentice/

Today’s episode features what turns out to be a succinct masterclass in public speaking as Chris and Joia chat with Zander Keig, one of the senior leaders of the Institute for Liberal Values and an expert public speaker with over 30 years of experience. Zander discusses his early involvement in advocating for gay and lesbian rights in the 1980s (and the importance of freedom of speech in articulating those demands) as well as his experience as a conscientious objector in the military. He provides a framework and tips for effective communication and encourages listeners to find like-minded individuals and organizations to support their advocacy for free speech.   Listen to Zander’s podcast, The Umbrella Hour, at: https://ukhealthradio.com/program/the-umbrella-hour/

In the second of our two-part series, Jennifer Richmond and Winkfield Twyman, Jr. talk with Brent Hamachek about his book Dissidently Speaking. As self-proclaimed Dissidents in their own book, Letters in Black and White, Jen and Wink were excited to hear from Brent on how he defines “dissidently speaking.”  In this episode, we work to define labels like “left,” and “right,” examine how we’ve co-opted terms (e.g. communism and liberalism), explore the manipulation of slogan words (e.g. marginalization and woke), discuss a variety of ethics, including objective ethics, “Tootsie Roll” ethics, and the “Golden Rule,” and emphasize the power of metaphor. Join us for a conversation on how we can “sober up” from our conflict addictions and just… do better. Podcast Resources: Dissidently Speaking, Brent Hamacheck: https://www.amazon.com/Dissidently-Speaking-Change-Words-War/dp/1962578089/ Letters in Black and White, Jennifer Richmond & Winkfield Twyman, Jr.: https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Black-White-Correspondence-America/dp/1634312368/ Black Enterprise, Or, How I Became Black, Winkfield Twyman, Jr.: https://twyman.substack.com/p/black-enterprise-magazine-or-how Yes, the Term “Far-Right” is Frequently Abused, Helen Pluckrose: https://substack.com/@helenpluckrose/p-147330524 Matthew Henson, This Week in Black History, Institute for Liberal Values: https://institute-for-liberal-values.circle.so/c/this-week-in-black-history/august-week-2 The Prince, Niccolo Michiavelli: https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Niccol%C3%B2-Machiavelli/dp/B08WZHBPW6/

In the first of our two-part series, Jennifer Richmond and Winkfield Twyman, Jr. talk with Brent Hamachek about his book Dissidently Speaking. As self-proclaimed Dissidents in their own book, Letters in Black and White, Jen and Wink were excited to hear from Brent on how he defines “dissidently speaking.”  We discuss the power of language, including changing the statement “it is” to the question “is it,” the danger of false axioms, our addiction to confrontation, the need for discernment and defining terms in our communication, especially in our use of social media, how we are good at labeling but bad at describing, the declination of codependence and the importance of exchanging left and right labels with a simple question – how much freedom are we willing to give up? Join us next week as we go deeper into labels, slogan words and dogma.   Podcast Resources: Dissidently Speaking, Brent Hamacheck: https://www.amazon.com/Dissidently-Sp... Letters in Black and White, Jennifer Richmond & Winkfield Twyman, Jr.: https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Black-... • Chapter 42 on John Mercer Langston: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gZsG... Black Enterprise, Or, How I Became Black, Winkfield Twyman, Jr.: https://twyman.substack.com/p/black-e... The Dartmouth Scar Experiment, Winkfield Twyman, Jr.: https://twyman.substack.com/p/the-dar... The Alternative Reading Guide for the 1619 Project Essays, Jennifer Richmond & Winkfield, Twyman, Jr.: https://truthinbetween.com/curricula Understanding and Embracing the Role of the 21st Century American Dissident, Brent Hamachek: https://www.brenthamachek.com/post/un... AP African-American Studies is Still Radical, National Review, Stanley Kurtz: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner... Common Ground Campus: https://www.commongroundcampus.com/

In today’s episode, Chris and Joia interview Dr. Brandy Shufutinsky, who has been the Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values. Brandy discusses the importance of free speech and the erosion of this right in recent years, which makes us become more “robot-like”. She also emphasizes the need for education on democratic values and free speech in K-12 schools.   Learn more at: https://jilv.org/

In this week's episode Mark Horowitz joins us for a discussion about potential racism revealed by online daters' preferences. In a recent published critique of a book on the subject, Mark questions the authors' claims of systematic and racially exclusionary patterns in online dating. The book was based on a large dataset and we appreciate the complexity of the process used to compile the descriptive statistics. However, we question the authors' conclusions when there are many alternative biosocial explanations. Mark and Elizabeth agree that reducing daters' discriminatory behavior to racism is not supported by the data, and is particularly ill-considered in today's polarized ideological environment. Podcast Notes Horowitz, M. (2023). The Dating Dupe―The Limits of Biosocially Unfriendly Sociology. Controversial Ideas, 3(2). Curington, C. V., Lundquist, J. H., & Lin, K. H. (2021). The dating divide: Race and desire in the era of online romance. University of California Press.

The topic of this week's episode is the long history of biases inherent to the book reviews used for library collection decisions. Elizabeth is joined by academic librarian Pamela Hayes Bohanan to discuss 60 years of research and reflection about the limited exposure librarians get to the large corpus of potential acquisitions.  While perspectives differ, there is little disagreement that publishers, editors, and book review publications are impacting what appears in your local public and academic libraries. Podcast notes April Liberalism in Practice Panel Discussion: McCarthyism in the Stackshttps://youtu.be/_xwjUR7tNGM?si=LlwxLTrZqEyvy7MC Pokornowski, E., & Schonfeld, R. C. (2024, March 28). Censorship and Academic Freedom in the Public University Library.  Best, P. (2024). How to Combat the Biased School Library Book Selection Process. Gordon, Rosalie M. (1961). Why you can't find conservative books in public libraries.  Human Events, 18, 591-4. Macleod, B. (1981). Library Journal and Choice: A Review of Reviews. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 7(1), 23-28. Kister, K. (2002). The conscience of a reference reviewer. Journal of Information Ethics, 11(1).

Join in as Chris and Joia speak with Ken Pope, the Vice President for Academic Operations and Strategic Partnerships at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Ken discusses the importance of free speech and the need for a robust understanding of ideologies like Marxism, socialism, and communism. He also emphasizes the role of education in promoting a complete understanding of these ideologies and the negative consequences of totalitarian systems. Ultimately, Ken encourages aspiring free speech leaders to become informed, stand up, and speak out: “If you would be the first man or woman to stand up, I guarantee you, you will not be alone."   See: https://victimsofcommunism.org/

In this bonus episode, we share the recording of our Liberal Values in Practice livestream about the current state of libraries and librarianship, including comparisons to McCarthy era fears. Library professionals Pamela Hayes-Bohanan, Sara Hartman-Caverly and Caroline Nappo define McCarthyism in both its historic and contemporary contexts and its relationship to library work.  The panelists answered a series of questions about the exponential rise of book challenges from both the left and the right, funding pressures, author de-platforming, as well as biases in publishing and collection practices.     Podcast Notes This bonus episode is one of a series of panel discussions ILV hosts monthly. Learn how you can participate in live discussions by visiting ILValues.org, signing up for our newsletter, or visiting us on Circle for access to past events and notice about upcoming events. American Library Association reports record number of unique book titles challenged in 2023: https://www.ala.org/bbooks/book-ban-data ‘My Heart Sank’: In Maine, a Challenge to a Book, and to a Town’s Self-Image Wealthy, liberal-leaning Blue Hill prided itself on staying above the fray — until the library stocked a book that drew anger from the left:  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/03/us/libraries-book-bans.html

In this bonus episode, we share the recording of our Liberal Values in Practice livestream with Helen Pluckrose. ILV Director Jen Richmond and Dissidents Podcast hosts Mike and Elizabeth discuss Helen's new book, The Counterweight Handbook: Principled Strategies for Surviving and Defeating Critical Social Justice - at Work, in Schools, and Beyond. We ask Helen what Liberalism means. We also ask what Critical Social Justice is, whether it remains a genuine threat, and what the average person can do when faced with an ethical choice between silent submission to ideological pressures and often very risky opposition. There is no better person to answer these questions, and the new handbook cuts through the jargon of critical theory to help readers decide how best to stand up for their individual liberties and universal rights. Podcast Notes: This bonus episode is one of a series of panel discussions ILV hosts monthly. Learn how you can participate in live discussions by visiting ILValues.org, signing up for our newsletter, or visiting us on Circle for access to past events and notice about upcoming events. FIRE on Elizabeth’s story George Orwell on the proper making of tea