Repulsion over polygamy is so ingrained in the American consciousness — analogizing it to slavery, the Republican platform of 1856 called it one of the country’s “twin relics of barbarism” — that judgmentally reveling in the exotic perversions of “Big Love” feels like something on the order of a national right.
[H]e raised his lance a little too far, and Saintré's lance struck him just on the besagew* and glanced off the breastplate, and the blow unriveted the besagew and tore off the lance rest, and as it ripped away Messire Enguerrand swayed heavily in his saddle, and thus Saintré achieved his four lances broken, […]
The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.
The fourth crisis is that the left no longer has a distinct message. This is clearly related to the fracturing of this social base. If the left no longer speaks for the workers, if equality is now considered an economically illiterate goal, then the left often finds itself putting forward a message that differs little from those of its competitors. Indeed, since the 2008 crisis, there has been a lot of ‘redwashing’ – i.e. competitors adopting policies that the left has traditionally regarded as its own. Leaders such as Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy were among the most forthright in criticizing market excesses (though their policies did not back up their rhetoric). Similarly, a number of right-wing populists have embraced socially protectionist themes (for example the British National Party’s demand for ‘British Jobs for British Workers’), and so appeal to many former social democrat voters who feel that their parties’ embrace of globalization has left them defenseless against foreign competition.
