The Genesis of 'Isms'
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A person espousing the ideas of liberal thinkers, in the vein of philosopher John Locke, can often be dismissed today as an unfeeling supporter of the status quo. “Neoliberal” began as a proud watchcry of progressives and is now a slur levelled by progressives at others. What, exactly, is a “progressive”? How has the label "Republican" been applicable to Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump? Linguist John McWhorter explains how ordinary principles about how words' meanings change has intersected with the current social climate to make our political terms some of the most dynamic — and confusing — ones in the modern American language.
- 2019 Festival
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USA
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Most Americans today would agree that the dream of supporting a family and living a good life on one full time salary is not available to vast numbers of people. Wages have no...
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Even when the economy is booming and unemployment is low, millions of Americans still face economic hardship. And in the last few years the United States has dealt with supply...
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Populations around the world have been electing more and more autocratic leaders in the past couple decades, via supposedly free, fair, and democratic elections. The freedom o...
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The U.S. Supreme Court continues to issue major decisions that have profound impacts on the lives of Americans and the political future of the country. During the term that ju...
At the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival, we dug into some of the most important and fascinating issues of our time, from rebuilding trust in our institutions and the promise and peri...
If one dives deeply into the statistics, the American Dream is actually quite alive and well. In his provocative book, The Myth of American Inequality, former U.S. senator Phi...
How do we describe the Republican Party today, and what are the dynamics that will shape its future?
In their new book, co-authors and Stanford professors Rob Reich and Mehran Sahami argue that big tech’s obsession with optimization and efficiency has sacrificed fundamental h...