A Hero for Our Divided Times
For FAIR’s Substack, Julian Adorney writes about the new Superman movie.
Ultimately, that complexity is what this story's about. As director James Gunn says, "I believe that most people in this country, despite their ideological beliefs, their politics, are doing their best to get by and be good people…This movie is about that." But one of the beauties of Superman is that, in contrast to some recent films and TV shows, the movie doesn't beat the audience over the head with that theme. Instead the theme emerges organically, from complex characters who grapple with thorny questions and sometimes end up on opposite sides of those questions.
Before They Can Read
For The Next 30 Years, FAIR Advisor Robert Pondiscio writes about the importance of picture books for reading success and cultural literacy.
If reading truly “makes us smarter,” as Cunningham and Stanovich argued, then picture books are where it begins. They give children access to sophisticated language, teach them how stories work, and lay the groundwork for background knowledge and cultural literacy. For Hirsch, literacy was always more than decoding letters—it was the ability to understand references, context, and ideas that knit a society together. Picture books begin this work at the earliest stage, building the knowledge and vocabulary they will draw upon for a lifetime.
Six months in, how has Trump’s second term impacted free speech?
In a live taping of the ‘Open to Debate’ podcast, commentator Brandi Kruse and FAIR Advisor Nadine Strossen examine the state of the First Amendment.
This is a fight for what the Democratic Party is going to be, politics professor says
Politics Professor and FAIR Advisor Wilfred Reilly unpacks controversy over New York representative Zohran Mamdani's views on 'Jesse Watters Primetime.'
Cornell University Discriminated Against Me
For the Wall Street Journal, Colin Wright writes about being excluded from a candidate search on the basis of his race.
Imagine if the races were reversed. Suppose a whistleblower uncovered internal emails showing that a university had run a secret search to ensure that qualified black applicants were excluded from consideration. Suppose the school selected only white candidates to produce a racially predetermined outcome. There would—rightfully—be national outrage. It would be a landmark civil-rights case. That’s exactly what Cornell did—except I’m white.
When the 'victim narrative' takes over minorities and the American Dream
For Fox News Opinion, Corey Brooks writes about the American dream being alive and well for everyone.
For those who know me, I preach the American Dream on the South Side of Chicago, where I pastor every day. For decades, people like Gamble told the youth in my neighborhood that the American Dream was dead for them. That is why you’ll hear people here talk about the White man or how the system isn’t built for them. There isn’t anything out there for them but living by the hand of the government.
I have made it my mission over the last two decades to destroy this bad-faith myth that the American Dream is dead. I preach over and over the very simple American virtues of responsibility, accountability, perseverance, resilience, and never ever giving up one’s belief in oneself.
South Park's Trump Takedown Joins a Proud American Tradition
For Reason Magazine, Robert Corn-Revere writes about the American tradition of using outrageous satire to hold the powerful accountable.
The political potency of cartooning persuaded the Supreme Court to unanimously affirm First Amendment protections for Hustler Magazine in 1988 after Rev. Jerry Falwell sued it for causing "emotional distress" after the magazine published a savage and salacious parody of Falwell committing incest with his mother in an outhouse. The Court was untroubled by the "caustic nature" of the graphic attack, observing that "from the early cartoon portraying George Washington as an ass down to the present day, graphic depictions and satirical cartoons have played a prominent role in public and political debate." It noted that political cartoons have "an effect that could not have been obtained by the photographer or the portrait artist," and accordingly, "our political discourse would have been considerably poorer without them."
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