Sex strike! (Well, maybe not.)

Sex Strike

Natasha Frost, “Should women go on a sex strike over Republican abortion laws? Feminists are divided,” Quartz, May 12, 2019, https://qz.com/1617531/feminists-disagree-on-alyssa-milanos-sex-strike-over-abortion-laws/


Donald Trump

Marc Fisher, “A riddle in New England: A casino, 321 acres of Indian tribal land and a presidential tweet,” Washington Post, May 13, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-riddle-in-new-england-a-casino-321-acres-of-indian-tribal-land-and-a-presidential-tweet/2019/05/13/dfcc6dd8-7354-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html


Fast Food

Kate Taylor, “Evidence is mounting that fast-food chains from Chick-fil-A to McDonald’s will be forced to add vegan menu items — or face the consequences,” Business Insider, May 13, 2019, https://amp.businessinsider.com/vegan-items-sweep-fast-food-chick-fil-a-mcdonalds-eye-options-2019-5


Uprisings

The researchers appear to have pitted non-violence against violence and compared the historical results.[1]

But the reality of uprisings is more nuanced: Few are purely one or the other. Edward Said criticized the emphasis on Mahatma Gandhi in expelling the British from India by pointing out that he arrived at the end of a centuries-long struggle and arguing that such a focus actually enables colonizers to treat examples such as Gandhi as exceptions and thereby to obscure a resistance that included both violent and non-violent factions.[2]

There are a number of possible explanations for the relationship between social change and 1) violence and 2) non-violence. But a reductive approach necessarily elides important factors.

David Robson, “The ‘3.5% rule’: How a small minority can change the world,” British Broadcasting Corporation, May 14, 2019, http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world


  1. [1]David Robson, “The ‘3.5% rule’: How a small minority can change the world,” British Broadcasting Corporation, May 14, 2019, http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
  2. [2]Edward W. Said, Culture and imperialism (New York: Vintage, 1994).

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