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Moving Pictures

The Story of Stuff: A look at the underside of production and consumption patterns.




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George Carlin Explains How the System is Rigged | Video

George Carlin was more than just a comedian - he was an insightful social/political commentator as is demonstrated here. In this monologue from eight years ago, no punches are pulled, no sacred cows are exempt when he reveals the truth about the America we presently live in.

Schools Must Equip Students to Navigate Alt-right Websites That Push Fake News

  More than 60 percent of America’s middle and high school students rely on alt-right internet sites as credible sources for their research papers. The students are using alt-right sites to write papers on topics that range from free speech and the Second Amendment to citizenship, immigration and the Holocaust. These were among the key findings of a preliminary survey of 200 teachers I conducted recently to develop a snapshot of how common it was for middle and high school students to turn to alt-right websites. As a researcher who specializes in teaching what is known as “ hard histories ,” including slavery, the Holocaust and other genocides, this finding is of concern, particularly as the nation approaches the one-year anniversary of the tragedy in Charlottesville, Virginia . Who they are The alt-right is a connected set of far-right groups , beliefs and individual people . They believe in white supremacy, and that it is under attack by multiculturalism, ...

The Slippery Slope of Dehumanizing Language

Roseanne Barr had her sitcom canceled on May 29, after calling former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett the child of an ape. Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File   By  Allison Skinner , Northwestern University Comparing people to animals seems to increasingly be a part of our political discourse. When Roseanne Barr tweeted that former White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett was the child of an ape , it came only a couple of weeks after Donald Trump called immigrant gang members, “ animals .” Trump has been a target himself: On the cover of its April 2 issue, New York magazine depicted the president as a pig . As a psychologist who studies social attitudes and intergroup relations, I get a bit uneasy when I see these types of insults get normalized. At their core, they’re a way to dehumanize others – a practice that can have pernicious effects. In a range of studies, psychologists have been able to show how dehumanizing messages can ...