Author: TheConversation

By Reed Blaylock, PhD candidate in Linguistics, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences On January 3, the American Dialect Society held its 30th annual “Word of the Year” vote, which this year also included a vote for “Word of the Decade.” It was the year – and the decade – of the pronoun. In a nod to shifting attitudes about gender identities that are nonbinary – meaning they don’t neatly fit in the category of man or woman – over 200 voters, including me, selected “(my) pronouns” as the word of the year...

By Scott T. Vehstedt, PhD Candidate in American History, American University The Methodist Church, the largest mainline Protestant denomination in the United States, is headed toward a divorce. In early January, mediators from across the United Methodist Church proposed a separation plan to split the church into two separate denominations, with one that will allow same sex marriages and “practicing” LGBTQ clergy. Members of the General Conference, the church’s legislative body, are expected to pass the proposal in May. If a split occurs, it will be the result of nearly 50 years of failure to resolve the United Methodist...

By Michael Klare, Director, Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies, Hampshire College As experts warn that the world is running out of time to head off severe climate change, discussions of what the U.S. should do about it are split into opposing camps. The scientific-environmental perspective says global warming will cause the planet severe harm without action to slow fossil fuel burning. Those who reject mainstream climate science insist either that warming is not occurring or that it’s not clear human actions are driving it. With these two extremes polarizing the American political arena, climate policy...

By Barry M. Mitnick, Professor of Business Administration and of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh What is real can seem pretty arbitrary. It’s easy to be fooled by misinformation disguised as news and deepfake videos showing people doing things they never did or said. Inaccurate information – even deliberately wrong information – doesn’t just come from snake-oil salesmen, door-to-door hucksters and TV shopping channels anymore. Even the president of the United States needs constant fact-checking. To date, he has made an average of 15 false or misleading public claims every day of his presidency, according to a...

By Walter Reynolds Farley, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Michigan The 2020 Census hasn’t even started – but it has already kicked off spirited fights. A Supreme Court case, decided last year, blocked a Trump administration proposal to ask every respondent if they were a citizen. Meanwhile, there are three pending federal court suits in which plaintiffs for civil rights groups and one city claim that the administration has not done sufficient planning or provided enough funding for Census 2020. Census 2020 is far from the first census to set off bitter political fights. One hundred years ago,...

By Joel Christensen, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis University In an age of deepfakes and alternative facts, it can be tricky getting at the truth. But persuading others – or even yourself – what is true is not a challenge unique to the modern era. Even the ancient Greeks had to confront different realities. Take the story of Oedipus. It is a narrative that most people think they know – Oedipus blinded himself after finding out he killed his father and married his mother. But the ancient Greeks actually left us many different versions of almost every ancient...