The government of Israel's social media account promoted an event called Pride Land, 'the biggest LGBTQ+ festival ever in the Middle East.' As might be expected, the right flipped out.
Political parties are increasingly using targeted social media ads to reach specific demographics and local constituencies. The spending on paid advertising online has been growing significantly.
"Never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country. Never before have so many states passed laws or regulations to facilitate the banning of books, including bans on specific titles statewide."
With Hitler in LA, Leon Lewis hid the spy codes but once I figured it out, I realized, Oh my God, I've got a historian's dream here, which is an unknown story that's really important.
In 2024 alone, authorities imposed 304 internet shutdowns across 54 countries - the highest number ever recorded. This reflects a growing trend of governments treating connectivity as a weapon.
Populism may well have been the defining word of the previous decade: a shorthand for the insurgent parties that came to prominence in the 2010s, challenging the dominance of the liberal centre. But no sooner had it become the main rubric for discussing both the far left and far right than commentators began to question its validity: worrying that it was too vague, or too pejorative, or fuelling the forces to which it referred.
The word that comes to my mind is dissidence. If we want to understand why the whistleblowing, camera-wielding people of Minneapolis have caused the Trump administration-and Donald Trump himself-to flinch, I believe we need some added history, and a bigger map. What we've been watching is part of a long, established tradition-one that might help Americans unlock a different kind of future.
