This is the ninth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Through all the difficult events of the last two decades (a Great Recession, an opioid epidemic, economic stagnation, creeping nativism, a pandemic, a pandemic recession), Old Whitewater has responded with the same question: how can we market the town to others? If…
Culture
City, Culture, Democrats, Local Government, Politics, School District, University, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Subcultural City
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the sixth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. There’s no politically predominant group in Whitewater. Strictly speaking, a subculture implies a dominant culture, but it’s less dramatic to describe Whitewater as several subcultures than as balkanized. One might call the city multicultural, but that term often implies an acceptance of…
Coronavirus, Culture, Humor
Google Wisely Avoids a 2021 April Fools’ Prank
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads that, for the second year, Google decided to forgo its annual April Fool’s prank: For the second year in a row, Business Insider has obtained an internal emailstating that Google will not create a series of elaborate and occasionally entertaining April Fools pranks this year. Google confirmed the memo to Business Insider, and…
Coronavirus, Culture, Documentary
Frontline: Death Is Our Business
by JOHN ADAMS •
Coronavirus, Culture, Education, Science/Nature
On COVID-19 Skeptics
by JOHN ADAMS •
It was likely, as it was a century ago during a prior pandemic, that significant numbers of Americans would argue falsely there was no pandemic (‘just like the regular flu’), that if it were a pandemic it would go away (‘like a miracle’), that anyone talking about illness was merely fearful (as though discussions of…
Bigotry, Culture, Education, Law
Responsibility for Students, Patients, or Clients
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, Georgetown Law fired an adjunct law professor after publication of a Zoom call in which she deprecated the abilities of many of her Black law students. See Georgetown Law professor terminated after ‘reprehensible’ comments about Black students. Here’s the most objectionable part of her remarks from the video call: “I hate to say…
Boosterism, CDA, City, Culture, Economics, Economy, Local Government, Politics, School District, That Which Paved the Way, University
Local Politics Hasn’t Been Merely ‘Local’ for Years
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at the Wisconsin Examiner, Henry Redman writes (with concern) that All politics is national (‘Candidates for local office are ignoring community issues, instead highlighting national culture wars’). First, Redman’s case, then a few remarks. Woodman [Kyle Woodman, a Republican running for Eau Claire’s city council] is part of a mostly conservative group of candidates…
Coronavirus, Culture, Public Health
Social Distancing: Who Maintains, Who Doesn’t?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at ProMarket, Tim Besley and Sacha Dray assess One Year Into the Pandemic: Who Maintains Social Distancing and Who Doesn’t. Their full analysis is well worth reading. They write that social capital is an important factor behind reducing risks of infection. Social capital is an index that encompasses the presence of strong social networks,…
Babbittry, Blogging, Boosterism, Culture, Disinformation, Freedom of Speech, Mendacity, Public Relations, Rhetoric
The Power of Refutation
by JOHN ADAMS •
Laura Hazard Owen writes When’s the best time to correct fake news? After someone’s already read it, apparently: Debunking > prebunking. If you want someone to not believe that false or misleading headline they just read, when’s the best time to correct it? We hear a lot about inoculating people against fake news or “prebunking”…
America, Culture, Freedom of Speech, Justice, Local Government, Race
‘A New Generation Challenges the Heartland’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last July, Tim Craig and Aaron Williams reported A new generation challenges the heartland (‘Big changes in small towns are fueling a racial justice movement across the Midwest’). They wrote last summer that The number of young people of color living in the Midwest has surged over the past decade, as the older white population…
Culture, Local Government, Politics
Local ‘Apolitical’ Isn’t Apolitical and Never Was
by JOHN ADAMS •
One sometimes hears that local politics should be purely local, without regard to state or (especially) national issues. Local politics has never been purely local, and in any event purely local is a stunted standard. For decades, in small cities like Whitewater, the disingenuous claim of an apolitical local atmosphere belied a center-right politics. Which…
Babbittry, Boosterism, Conflicts of Interest, Culture, Disinformation, Local Government, Mendacity, Negligence, Politics, Public Relations, Reasoning, School District, Self-Dealing, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, Trumpism, University
Consequences, Accountability, Repentance, Redemption
by JOHN ADAMS •
David Frum, writing of Trump & Trumpism in The Conservative Cult of Victimhood, observes that There is no redemption without repentance. There is no repentance without accountability. There is no accountability without consequences. He rightly concludes that for the Trumpists, the absence of a moral order of accountability and repentance has meant that Even as Trump commits…
City, Culture, Demographics, Economy, Education, Local Government, Politics, School District
Local 2021 Races in the Whitewater Area
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update: this post about local politics, with an optimistic final sentence, was published before the morning and afternoon events in Washington. It has always been true – and always will be true – that what harms the country harms the city; what stains the nation stains the city. Every moment of opposition to Trump and…
Aside, City, Coronavirus, Culture, Economy
For Whitewater, the Pandemic Reveals What Was Already There
by JOHN ADAMS •
For Whitewater – and other places – the pandemic hasn’t changed contemporary politics or culture, it has revealed plainly the character of contemporary politics and culture: divided, debilitated. Whitewater’s meaningful changes began years ago, with the Great Recession (2007-2009). For small towns like Whitewater, that recession never ended. It’s as if a man with poor…