Is Matt Rife the Manosphere’s Next It Boy?
Charles Sykes/AP Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Matt Rife ends his new comedy special, Natural Selection, with a literal mic drop. It’s a bold move considering the special, released on Netflix November 15, garnered almost immediate criticism for being misogynistic, ableist, racist, and generally unfunny. …
The Disturbing Story of How America Saved the Buffalo
Mother Jones; Library of Congress; Unsplash Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.If you attended high school in the United States, you likely learned about the “Great Slaughter” of the American buffalo: During the 19th century, with the aid of the railroad, hide hunters poured into…
What Does It Mean to Protect Children?
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.The Campbell County Public Library is a handsome, low-slung building in the center of the small city of Gillette, Wyoming. Steps lead up to two sturdy stone columns that support an overhang, where patrons can sit on benches protected…
How the Right Retired “Negrophile”—and Substituted “Woke”
Mother Jones illustration Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.On June 14, 1862, the New York Times published an editorial titled “The Mystery of Negrophilism.” The essay questioned the origins of white Americans’ “extraordinary interest in the negro” and called the “passion for the American…
Authors Like Me Are Fighting the Book-Ban Zealots. We Need Help.
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Not long ago, I was one of 22 authors honored at a fundraising dinner for my local library. It was a swanky affair, with a multicourse meal, a pair of emcees, and a photographer to capture the rare sight…
The Creators of Florida’s Black History Standards Get an F on Their Homework
James Forten (1766-1842), cited by Florida policymakers as a Black man who acquired shoemaking skills under slavery, was neither a shoemaker nor a slave, historians say.Historical Society of Pennsylvania via Wikipedia Commons/Public Domain Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Florida education officials and the state’s…