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The Roundup Top Ten for July 1, 2022

Dangerous as the Plague: The History of Moral Panics over Queer "Seduction"

by Samuel Huneke

From the perspective of the post-Obergefell US, this year's politicized attacks on LGBTQ people—particularly as threats to the nation's youth—seem like a sudden reversal. But such attacks have a long and miserable history that has shadowed movements for queer freedom at every turn. 

If the Court Can Reverse Roe, it Can Reverse Anything

by Mary Ziegler

The court majority's assurances that abortion rights are a special case, and that other liberties are not in jeopardy, is hollow. 

Thomas's Guns Opinion is Ahistorical and Anti-Originalist

by Saul Cornell

"Ultimately, the majority opinion in NYSRPA v. Bruen is one of the most intellectually dishonest and poorly argued decisions in American judicial history."

Trump's Incitement Against Shaye Moss over the Georgia Vote Follows American Tradition

by Tera W. Hunter

Whether for casting ballots or counting them, Trump was quick to blame Black Americans for his defeat, carrying on an ignominious tradition of casting Black political participation as illegitimate and dangerous. 

Libs Baffled Why Trump Supporters Aren't Swayed by Bombshells? Look to Iran-Contra

by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

One group—Evangelicals—stood strong behind Oliver North long after his public profile faded. For them, his willingness to break the law in service of his idea of the greater good was the essence of his heroism. 

A Legend of Innocence

by Daniel Solomon

Both the French left and right are impeding the teaching of how 75,000 French Jews were turned over to the Nazis. 

Seeing Through America's "Crisis Industrial Complex"

by Nikhil Pal Singh

While the elite media class indulges in lurid fantasies of an armed breakup of the nation, those who live precarious or impoverished lives find themselves already enmeshed in a civil war; the real red/blue conflict is about who will control the infrastructure of repression built up over the last half century.

Black Women Activists Have Long Connected Abortion Rights to Broader Issues of Freedom

by SaraEllen Strongman

Black women activists have been more likely than their white counterparts to place abortion rights in the broader context of reproductive justice: the freedom to have or not have children on one's own terms without the coercive pressure of political or economic power.

Our Gruesome Politics are Destroying the Cultural Ideal of Childhood

by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

The romantic ideal of children as innocents deserving of the protection of adults has long been a rallying cry for politicians. After two pandemic years and more school shootings, are they even pretending to care anymore? 

The Classic Model of Education and Democracy Can't Address Today's School Politics

by Steven Mintz

The idea of education serving democracy by producing informed citizens is tested by the lack of agreement about what that goal means. Can the competing claims on the education system be reconciled?