Louis Menand’s new book traces the decline of a defining ideal.
ILLUSTRATION BY LINDSAY BALLANT
In America today, the right has a monopoly on the word “freedom.” Conservatives talk about “freedom” at every opportunity, while liberals and leftists do so only with embarrassment, shielded with qualifying clauses. “First they came for our Free Speech, then they came for our Free Markets, next they’ll come for our Free Shipping on orders $50 or more with promo code: FREEDOM50,” Republican Representative Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina tweeted on January 28, 2021. Cawthorn’s tweet which rewrites Martin Niemöller’s famous denunciation of German quietism in the face of Hitler’s rise as a sales pitch for his official campaign webstore is a joke, of course: a play on different senses of the word “free.” But it’s a joke only a conservative could make, because it relies on the assumption that freedom, of whatever kind, is a self-evident, and preeminent, good. A
How Many More Times Must We Say the Same Thing?
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Review: Louis Menand s The Free World Traces the Decline of a Defining Ideal
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In a virtual meeting for “all hands,” the Pentagon counts the scandal-plagued Southern Poverty Law Center as a credible resource. Pictured: President Joe Biden elbow-bumps Defense Secretary
Lloyd Austin as he arrives to speak Feb. 10 during a visit to the Pentagon. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
The Defense Department is promoting reading resources on opposing “systemic racism” that include radical authors as part of a program to combat extremism within the ranks of the military.
In a virtual meeting for “all hands” last month, the agenda obtained by The Daily Signal counted the scandal-plagued Southern Poverty Law Center as a credible resource alongside the Department of Homeland Security and the University of Maryland.