ABOMINATIONS

MEDEA BENJAMIN—NICOLAS DAVIES—It’s true people can search for their own truth on social media to counter the corporate babble, but social media is itself a distraction. People spend countless hours on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms venting their anger and frustration without getting up off the couch to actually do something—except perhaps sign a petition. “Clicktivism” will not change the world. Add to this the endless distractions of Hollywood, video games, sports and consumerism, and the exhaustion that comes with working several jobs to make ends meet.

RAY McGOVERN—Five years ago, when Ukraine first came into the news, those Americans who thought Ukraine was an island in the Pacific can perhaps be forgiven. That members of the House Intelligence Committee don’t know — or pretend not to know — more accurate information about Ukraine is a scandal, and a consequential one. As Professor Stephen Cohen has warned, if the impeachment process does not deal in objective fact, already high tensions with Russia are likely to become even more dangerous.

Chile’s state of social upheaval began almost four weeks ago when a student protest over an increase in Santiago’s subway prices grew to unexpected levels. Much of the Chilean capital’s subway network was crippled, President Sebastián Piñera reacted by giving the military control of security and imposing a state of siege, and 1.2 million people demonstrated calling for change.

Bolivia”s neofascist regime offers us now many cases of false consciousness in action as poor, indigenous men in “security uniforms” repress the very people they spring from.

RENEE PARSONS—Not surprising it has been Tulsi Gabbard as the Only Democrat who understands the need to cease the fragmentation of American society. While not prone to hyperbolic overstatement, she suggests a more rational strategy, encouraging voters to do their job in November. The party’s hierarchy, and apparently much of its base, however, prefer to follow its Reptilian instincts strewing divisiveness and animosity far and wide.