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Young People Say the American Dream Is Dead. The Antidote May Not Be What People Think.
For FAIR’s Substack, Julian Adorney writes about why younger Americans’ disillusionment may stem less from politics than from a growing sense of invisibility.
What’s going on? Why are so many of us, especially my generation and younger (I’m 34), in despair about the state of our nation—and, by extension, the state of our own lives? The report posits several explanations, from a struggling economy to a dearth of meaning in our lives to toxic polarization.
I think there’s truth to many of these explanations, but one key piece of the puzzle isn’t being discussed: fewer and fewer of us feel seen.
Your School’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum Might Be More Radical Than You Think
On the latest 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗬𝗼𝘂 podcast episode, FAIR Executive Director
discusses how her experience as a gay Black woman in Hollywood and then in “flyover country” shattered many elite narratives about America. She describes why she believes much of our current polarization is manufactured by media and political interests, and how identity-based frameworks like liberated ethnic studies and DEI are deepening division rather than healing it.
There are valid debates among conservatives. This isn’t one.
For The Washington Post, FAIR Advisor Robert P. George writes about why conservatives must draw a bright line against the bigotry of Nick Fuentes and other extremists.
At the foundation, however, is the basic commitment to inherent and equal dignity and natural rights. If conservatism doesn’t stand for conserving these values, it stands for nothing… The “groypers” who are attempting to bring their toxic ideas into the conservative movement and remake conservatism in their image ought to be met with reasoned, principled responses. Conservative leaders and institutions must not pander to them or play footsie with them. We must, in the name of our ancient faith, draw the bright line.
Helping students flourish, not just achieve: An interview with Mike Goldstein
For the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, FAIR Advisor Robert Pondiscio speaks with Mike Goldstein about what’s required beyond the school walls for teen flourishing.
Flourishing teens build busy calendars: sports, restaurant jobs, Starbucks hangouts with friends, church youth groups, scouting, playing guitar. Each domain (fitness, music, work, sleep, socialization) has its own vein of research showing benefits. Some flourishing teens do this the easy way: they join activities that the school offers. Other flourishing teens busy themselves with cool things that aren’t part of the school menu.
What we don’t know is precisely how to increase languishing teen participation in all of these things. There aren’t many field experiments. That’s what our center wants to do: challenge the conventional wisdom and do some R & D on how to help teenagers live healthy and meaningful lives.
If free speech only matters when convenient, it isn’t free at all
For FIRE’s Newsdesk, Samuel J. Abrams writes about the fragile state of free expression in contemporary America.
Free speech is not a decorative ideal meant for ceremonial brochures or abstract jurisprudence seminars. It is a living civic discipline, and it demands that we cultivate tolerance even — especially — when it offends our sensibilities. That discipline has historically been one of the United States’ most distinguishing features: the belief that robust public debate, rather than enforced consensus, is the engine of democratic resilience.
But today’s culture increasingly treats emotional discomfort as a kind of injury, speech as a form of violence, and dissent as a moral failing. Within that framework, the logic of suppression becomes not only tempting but virtuous: If speech causes harm, then silencing it becomes an act of justice. Once adopted, that logic expands rapidly. Today it is Charlie Kirk. Tomorrow it will be someone else. The principle does not survive the politics.
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