political aspects

"This book deals with two very large and often amorphous concepts: privacy and surveillance in the context of both government and the marketplace. Both concepts have undergone changes over the millennia of recorded human history, and those changes have dramatically sped up and expanded over the past few centuries, starting with the widespread use of the printing press in the mid- to late-15th century when books and newspapers began to proliferate across Europe and the rest of the "civilized" world by the end of the 17th century. The development of radio, television and the internet in the 20th century heightened the need to define more clearly what both concepts meant and how they applied both to governments (the "public sector") and individual and corporate players (the "private sector"). The Thought Police and Big Brother are terms introduced into the popular lexicon by George Orwell in his novel 1984; Big Brother was the overweening all-powerful government of Orwell's novel, and the Thought Police were those who managed to burrow so deeply into every citizen's behavior, speech and even thoughts that they could control or punish behavior based on the slightest deviations from orthodoxy. Orwell was only slightly off the mark. Big Brother types of government, and Thought Police types of social control, are now widespread in the world and incompatible with democracy, as I'll show in more detail later in the book. Most concerning for Americans and citizens of other "democratic" nations, the mentality of both have heavily infiltrated both American government and corporate sectors, reaching so deeply into the day-to-day details of our lives that the techniques and technologies they use can - and do -not only control, but predict our behavior"--.

"As a scholor of philosophy and propaganda and the child of refugees of World War II Europe, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding that democratic societies, including the United States, can be vulnerable to fascism. In 'How Fascism Works', he focuses on fascist politics--the language and beliefs that separate people into an 'us' and a 'them.' Stanley knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations, making clear the immense dangers of what he identifies as the ten pillars of fascist politics. By uncovering disturbing patterns that are as prevalent today as ever, Stanley reveals that the stuff of politics--rhetoric and myth--can become policy and reality all too quickly. Only by recognizing them, he argues, can we begin to resist their most harmful effects and return to democratic ideals."--Back cover.

"A groundbreaking work that retells modern history through the rise and spread of written constitutions--some enlightened, many oppressive--to every corner of the globe"--Provided by publisher.

Hackers as vital disruptors, inspiring a new wave of activism in which ordinary citizens take back democracy. Hackers as vital disruptors, inspiring a new wave of activism in which ordinary citizens take back democracy. Hackers have a bad reputation, as shady deployers of bots and destroyers of infrastructure. In Coding Democracy, Maureen Webb offers another view. Hackers, she argues, can be vital disruptors. Hacking is becoming a practice, an ethos, and a metaphor for a new wave of activism in which ordinary citizens are inventing new forms of distributed, decentralised democracy for a digital era. Confronted with concentrations of power, mass surveillance, and authoritarianism enabled by new technology, the hacking movement is trying to "build out" democracy into cyberspace.

"In 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency with the help of key African American defectors from the Republican Party. At the time, most African Americans lived in poverty in the South, denied citizenship rights and terrorized by white violence. But Roosevelt's victory created the opportunity for a group of African American intellectuals and activists to join his administration as racial affairs experts. Known as the Black Cabinet, they organized themselves into an unofficial council. They innovated antidiscrimination policy, documented the New Deal's inequalities, led programs that lifted people out of poverty and paved the way for greater federal accountability to African Americans and a greater black presence in government. But the Black Cabinet never won official recognition from Roosevelt, and with his death, it disappeared from history"--Provided by publisher.

"Anthology of curated essays addressing QAnon and conspiracy theories--why they begin, how they catch fire, and how they affect politics and society"--Provided by publisher.

A look at Karl Marx and how his fascination with the devil influenced Marxism and his political writings. Examines Marx's antagonism to organized religion, particularly the Catholic Church.

"In a world of deepfakes, it will soon be impossible to tell what is real and what isn't. As advances in artificial intelligence, video creation, and online trolling continue, deepfakes pose not only a real threat to democracy--they threaten to take voter manipulation to unprecedented new heights. This crisis of misinformation which we now face has since been dubbed the 'Infocalypse.' In [this book], [the author] uses her expertise from working in the field to reveal . . . examples of deepfakery and explain the . . . political consequences of the Infocalypse, both in terms of national security and what it means for public trust in politics"--Amazon.

"Two powerful phenomena are simultaneously unfolding on Earth: the rise of the climate movement and the rise of women and girls. The People's Climate March and the Women's March. School strikes for climate and the #MeToo movement. Rebellions against extinction and declarations that time's up. More than concurrent, the two trends are deeply connected. From sinking islands to drought-ridden savannas, the global warming crisis places an outsized burden on women, largely because of gender inequalities"--Provided by publisher.

"A Washington D.C. insider discusses both the historical and current influence of African Americans in our electoral process and offers ideas for how they can use their rising power to affect elections and overcome voter suppression efforts"--OCLC.