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TheConversationUS

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A nonprofit news organization dedicated to sharing the knowledge of experts with the public, in accessible, trustworthy articles drawing on their research.

Pictured: just a few of our recent writers.

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We combine academic rigor with journalistic flair.

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TheConversationUS , to AcademicChatter group
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A march by Edgar Elgar is the traditional soundtrack for American college commencements and high school graduations. It’s a stirring bit of music, but perhaps an odd choice, given its roots as a celebration of the British king.

Here’s a brief history of how it happened:
https://theconversation.com/how-a-british-military-march-became-the-distinctive-sound-of-american-graduations-230060
@academicchatter 🎓🎉

Seniors at Smith College’s commencement walk down the aisle to Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance played by a brass band

joelvanderwerf ,
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@TheConversationUS @academicchatter

*Edward Elgar

TheConversationUS OP ,
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@joelvanderwerf @academicchatter Oops, yes. Thank you!

TheConversationUS , to histodons group
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The Republican road from a deep faith in freedom given by God, to a candidate hawking $59.99 bibles

https://theconversation.com/reagans-great-america-shining-on-a-hill-twisted-into-trumps-dark-vision-of-christian-nationalism-226997
@histodons

MaggyWells ,
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@TheConversationUS @histodons nice job complete or ignoring the whole Christofascist movement. Also Teagan was no saint

buermann ,
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@MaggyWells @TheConversationUS @histodons

Well it's nice to hear that Saint Reagan wasn't so preoccupied with murdering Catholics in Latin America to attempt a death bed conversion of his atheist father in-law by testifying to how prayer cured a peptic ulcer. Really puts a human face on an impersonal god.

TheConversationUS , to histodons group
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"Every so often, a cause ignites a sustained fury on college campuses across the nation. In 2020, it was Black Lives Matter. In 2011, it was Occupy Wall Street. In the 1980s, it was apartheid in South Africa.

Today, it’s the Israeli military campaign in Gaza."

Here are five books that shine light on a rich history of campus protests in the US that goes back to the 1960s – compiled by veteran journalist Steve Friess.

https://theconversation.com/5-books-to-help-you-better-understand-todays-campus-protests-229166

@histodons

TheConversationUS , to blackmastodon group
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Although companies have created detectors to help spot , studies have found that biases in the data used to train these tools can lead to certain demographic groups being unfairly targeted.

A team of researchers discovered new methods that improve both the fairness and the accuracy of these detection algorithms by teaching them about human diversity

https://theconversation.com/deepfake-detection-improves-when-using-algorithms-that-are-more-aware-of-demographic-diversity-226061
@blackmastodon

TheConversationUS , to blackmastodon group
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Black Lives Matter protests often pitted demonstrators against police in 2020 − but not in every city.

Protests in cities with police departments led by Black women tended to be peaceful.

https://theconversation.com/cities-with-black-women-police-chiefs-had-less-street-violence-during-2020s-black-lives-matter-protests-227440
@blackmastodon

iagox86 ,
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@trode @TheConversationUS @blackmastodon @lisamelton Those memories burned into my brain of Chief Carmen going on the news every night spreading outright lies

eugenekim ,
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@TheConversationUS @blackmastodon Correction: “Police departments led by Black women in cities with protests tended to be peaceful”

TheConversationUS , to AcademicChatter group
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With some universities canceling or modifying commencement ceremonies over protests or fear of protests, an anthropologist reminds us that there’s a lot more at stake than just a line of seniors getting a fancy piece of paper.
https://theconversation.com/commencement-isnt-just-about-awarding-degrees-and-cancellations-leave-students-disconnected-and-disillusioned-229425
@academicchatter

shaunyata ,
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@TheConversationUS @academicchatter
East for you to say... did you spend 4 + years of your life and a hundred thousand to get a degree that barely gets you a job? People deserve to celebrate some parts of their short life on earth without political interference.

CStamp ,
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@TheConversationUS @academicchatter Disconnected and disillusioned? Sounds like life preparation. ;)

I barely remember my graduations, more people I celebrated with.

TheConversationUS , to bookstodon group
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Young people are reading , but they’re rejecting the identity of ‘reader,’ which perhaps has more to do with community, wealth and gender than whether someone actually reads.
https://theconversation.com/gen-zers-and-millennials-are-still-big-fans-of-books-even-if-they-dont-call-themselves-readers-228569
@bookstodon

EllenInEdmonton ,
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@noodlemaz @TheConversationUS @bookstodon
I agree that there's a difference between having a hobby and seeing that hobby as part of your identity. I tend to get caught up in so I generally identify myself according to my hobbies/interests, which are many!

diazona ,
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@noodlemaz @EllenInEdmonton @TheConversationUS @bookstodon That's an interesting point. I just realized that I would call myself a "reader" simply because I read, but I don't like to call myself a "gamer" because to me that implies a specific pattern of buying and playing many different games and being invested in their communities. I never really realized the difference in how I think of those two.

TheConversationUS , to histodons group
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It stands as the crowning achievement of Western classical music.

200 years ago today, Beethoven premiered his instantly beloved Symphony No. 9 in D minor.

Widely praised as a groundbreaking composition, the symphony has and continues to influence artists across the cultural spectrum, and to spark joy.

https://theconversation.com/beethovens-ninth-symphony-at-200-revolutionary-work-of-art-has-spawned-two-centuries-of-joy-goodwill-and-propaganda-221734
@histodons

Nanya_DB ,
@Nanya_DB@ohai.social avatar

@TheConversationUS @histodons
This is my favorite video of this song!
https://youtu.be/kbJcQYVtZMo?si=rmuTwbcsqN-gVcry

steven_vlad ,
@steven_vlad@med-mastodon.com avatar

@TheConversationUS @histodons Dudes. ‘Crowning achievement of Western classical music'?

Only if you look at everything through a romanticism-tinged lens and ignore 500+ years of music before Beethoven and 200 years of music after.

Beethoven 9 is a great piece of music. But it's hardly 'The Best Piece of Music Ever.'

There is loads of wonderful music out there that is equally as important and inspiring.

TheConversationUS , to philosophy group
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To make the moon a graveyard goes against the beliefs of various human religions.

Here’s a look at what believers would say about this winter’s attempt to send a probe holding the remains of paying customers to the lunar surface

https://theconversation.com/why-having-human-remains-land-on-the-moon-poses-difficult-questions-for-members-of-several-religions-221399
@philosophy

Anarchy_How ,
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@skydog @TheConversationUS @philosophy

I see. There's a good deal more going on here (& w/ religion in general). A key insight from RS is that “religion” has no singular non-reductive definition, only a family resemblance of features. So can only define religion for the purposes of a given discussion. You take value derived from myth as religion's core here.

What's the most helpful way to think about myths and values?

Screenshot from a lecture that reads as follows: Reductive Definitions of Religion - Below are examples of definitions of religions different scholars have used. - Each is reductive (misses stuff about religion that’s important to talk about) in some sense. FRIEDRICH SCHLEIERMACHER (Protestant theologian) | Religion is “the feeling of absolute dependence. KARL MARX (economic and political theorist) Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
Text continues WILLIAM JAMES (psychologist and philosopher) “Religion... shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine. EMILE DURKHEIM (sociologist) A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden —beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them. SIGMUND FREUD (psychologist) | Religion would thus be the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity.
PAUL TILLICH (Protestant theologian) | Faith is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern. CHARLES LONG (religious studies scholar) Religion will mean orientation-orientation in the ultimate sense, that is, how one comes to terms with the ultimate significance of one’s place in the world. Source o Prothero, Stephen. Religion Matters.

An illustration of Wittgenstein's Notion of “Family Resemblance”. Text reads: "Each member of the set contains three of the four features, but none of them have all four, much like the features of a genetic family." There are four shapes to the side. There are then four bundles of shapes, each with unique combinations of shapes.
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    • Anarchy_How ,
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    @skydog @TheConversationUS @philosophy

    Myths are stories that fill the world with meaning and value. Humanism has its myths (answers to questions of meaning) too---and some are quite cosmological in scope.

    “Values are ideas about what people ought to want.”

    TheConversationUS , to AcademicChatter group
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    Many media outlets are paying a lot more attention to arrests than to the actual demands of protesters.

    US media largely ignored campus protests until encampments (and police clearing of encampments) got going, fitting in with a general pattern, according to a researcher who studies how journalists cover protest movements:
    https://theconversation.com/media-coverage-of-campus-protests-tends-to-focus-on-the-spectacle-rather-than-the-substance-229172
    @academicchatter

    MHowell ,

    @TheConversationUS @academicchatter

    People are abandoning mainstream coverage of campus protests per WAPO article by @taylorlorenz https://archive.ph/WaeRg

    "Tofugh0st said that consuming Twitch live-streams of protests herself has made her more skeptical of traditional media."

    Twitch streamers from the article:
    Bret Hamilton?
    https://www.twitch.tv/caprisunnpapi
    https://www.twitch.tv/frogan
    https://www.twitch.tv/tofugh0st

    Can anyone provide (me) a (link to a) list of Twitch.tv streams that someone interested in these protests could watch? I've never used/watched Twitch, yet,






    marioivargas ,
    @marioivargas@mastodon.world avatar

    @MHowell @TheConversationUS @academicchatter @taylorlorenz there's plenty of independent journalist covering this very well on plenty of channels. The Breakthrough News, The Grayzone, Glenn Greenwald, even Democracy Now has been doing better than usual and giving protesters a platform.

    TheConversationUS , to bookstodon group
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    Once upon a time, romance novels from major U.S. publishers featured only heterosexual couples. Today, the 5 biggest publishers regularly release same-sex love stories
    https://theconversation.com/whats-behind-the-astonishing-rise-in-lgbtq-romance-literature-223159
    @bookstodon

    TheConversationUS , to blackmastodon group
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    There’s an important gap between “hope” and “optimism.”

    Hope is not just about looking on the bright side. It plays the long game: enduring suffering with integrity.

    It’s something Martin Luther King understood when he said “I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.” But hope makes us act, anyway.

    https://theconversation.com/hope-is-not-the-same-as-optimism-a-psychologist-explains-just-look-at-mlks-example-226384
    @blackmastodon

    TheConversationUS , to AcademicChatter group
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    At Columbia University and elsewhere, law enforcement is displaying a growing militarization when it's sent in against protesters, according to a criminal justice historian

    https://theconversation.com/why-universities-turn-to-the-police-to-end-student-protests-and-why-that-can-spiral-out-of-control-229158
    @academicchatter

    TheConversationUS , to histodons group
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    In 1942, Japanese Americans were rounded up and sent to internment camps because of hyped up fears of ‘disloyalty’.
    In 1944, thousands of young Japanese American men were drafted out of those camps and sent to fight for democracy.
    Despite this, they fought gallantly, earning more than 14,000 medals.
    Then veterans faced more prejudice when they returned home
    https://theconversation.com/japanese-american-soldiers-in-world-war-ii-fought-the-axis-abroad-and-racial-prejudice-at-home-158512
    @histodons

    peihuaku ,
    @peihuaku@sfba.social avatar

    @TheConversationUS @histodons After World War II the French persisted with what can only be called fake history or national amnesia in which their collaboration during the 1940-1944 German Occupation and the outrages of the Vichy Government under Marshall Phillippe Pétain were suppressed if not forgotten. Paris was very slow to understand that it lost stature after WWII because of its complicity and collaboration during the Occupation and that the center of the art world had shifted to New York to which many artists and dealers had emigrated in response to French behavior during the Occupation. SCHWARZ | The Magic of Paris and Dark Side of Paris https://cornellsun.com/?p=15253367

    peihuaku ,
    @peihuaku@sfba.social avatar

    @TheConversationUS @histodons @geographile How Hawaii’s Japanese Population Was Spared Internment During World War II
    https://time.com/5802127/hawaii-internment-order/ Sometimes it is not the path history takes but the one not taken that teaches the most important and enduring lessons.

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