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Rhetoric

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Dead Men Tell No Tales: How The British Empire Destroyed Pirates With Monstrous Legal Rhetoric, Ashley L. Nef May 2023

Dead Men Tell No Tales: How The British Empire Destroyed Pirates With Monstrous Legal Rhetoric, Ashley L. Nef

Theses and Dissertations

The state often enacts violence against marginalized groups by rendering them monstrous. The early eighteenth century saw early and stellar instances of this phenomenon in the way the British Empire pursued and executed pirates. These "golden age" pirates represented an extraordinary cross-section of marginalization politically, economically, socially, and otherwise, all of which threatened the political and social mores of Imperial Britain. In order to implement a policy and practice of pirate annihilation, British authorities constructed pirates as monstrous by racializing, dehumanizing, and emphasizing the supernatural quality of pirates. This study analyzes three eighteenth-century piracy trial transcripts--those of William Kidd, Stede …

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Neil Postman's Loving Resistance Fighter: A Philosophy Of Communication In The Age Of Technopoly, Ryan Mccullough May 2023

Neil Postman's Loving Resistance Fighter: A Philosophy Of Communication In The Age Of Technopoly, Ryan Mccullough

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project walks the work of Neil Postman (1931-2003) into the philosophy of communication. Traditional conceptions of Neil Postman’s body of work position his ideas within the traditions of media ecology, general semantics, or, more broadly, as a form of media studies and criticism. In addition, others label Postman’s work, especially in Technopoly (1992), as pessimistic, deterministic, and/or imbibed with Luddite tendencies. This project articulates a different view and contends that Postman’s scholarship, in particular his articulation of the loving resistance fighter in the final chapter of Technopoly, is committed to resisting the nefarious forces embedded in both technology …

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"Don't Put Restrictions On Us": The Dangers Of Conservative And Populist Appeals For Abortion Access In Post-Roe America, Kayla Schmitz May 2023

"Don't Put Restrictions On Us": The Dangers Of Conservative And Populist Appeals For Abortion Access In Post-Roe America, Kayla Schmitz

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis critically analyzes Kansans for Constitutional Freedom’s campaign ads for their campaign against the Value Them Both Amendment in Kansas in 2022. Value Them Both would have stripped the Kansas constitution of its protection of personal autonomy and therefore abortion rights. Kansans for Constitutional Freedom used populist and otherwise conservative appeals in their ads to reach audiences across the political “spectrum” to gain their votes against Value Them Both. While the campaign was widely successful, there are many things it did not do for the broader concern of reproductive healthcare access in the United States, particularly for those living …

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Collective Identity And Feminist Rhetorics: 19th-Century Relief Society Leaders' Use Of Ethos-Based Identities As A Pathetic Appeal To The Women Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Tiffany Gray May 2023

Collective Identity And Feminist Rhetorics: 19th-Century Relief Society Leaders' Use Of Ethos-Based Identities As A Pathetic Appeal To The Women Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Tiffany Gray

English Theses

Latter-day Saint women have led the Relief Society by implementing a rhetorical practice that seeks to unite the women of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 19th-century Relief Society leaders began a rhetorical pattern of persuasion by utilizing ethos-based rhetorics found in their use of the collective identity ‘Sister’ and feminist identity of ‘Charity Work.’ As exemplified by commemorative acts of remembrance of the Relief Society’s March 17th Birthday and the perpetuated use of the terms established by the first leaders of the Relief Society, Latter-day Saint women continue to invoke pathos as a relationship …

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Making The Political Personal: Consciousness Raising For The Contemporary Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist, Danica Fuerst May 2023

Making The Political Personal: Consciousness Raising For The Contemporary Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist, Danica Fuerst

Honors College Theses

Consciousness raising (CR) typically refers to the specific small group practice pioneered by second-wave feminists, but as networked media gradually replaced the small group process, new forms that are descended from the original CR emerged. This thesis traces consciousness raising from it's origins in the late 1960s and early '70s, through third-wave feminism, to contemporary feminist uses. It analyzes the rhetorical effects and functions of CR from the perspective of Symbolic Convergence theory, considering the various media through which CR is practiced. Finally, using the understanding of CR and its functions that this provides, it analyzes how one specific contemporary …

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A Burkean Analysis Of Eighteenth, Nineteenth, And Twentieth Century Christian Hymns, Keely Hardeman May 2023

A Burkean Analysis Of Eighteenth, Nineteenth, And Twentieth Century Christian Hymns, Keely Hardeman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hymns are one of the most popular forms of Christian worship, dating back to biblical times. Throughout history, hymns have been a way for people from all backgrounds and beliefs to express themselves in song. Hymnists have based their hymns on scriptures from the Bible, but have also written their hymns based on inspiration from scripture or divine revelation as well as their own earthly experience. To this day, hymns are still very present in both traditional and contemporary places of Christian worship, suggesting they are continually influential to the masses. My analysis looks at how hymns inform Christians’ theological …

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The Myth Of Perfection: Charting The Rhetoric Of Veteran Disability For A Course To Stability, Nicholas Rader May 2023

The Myth Of Perfection: Charting The Rhetoric Of Veteran Disability For A Course To Stability, Nicholas Rader

All Dissertations

This dissertation rhetorically analyzes discrimination in Western institutional discourses and documentation procedures, such as architectural texts and procedures, through a historiographic lens. An analytical methodology will be offered to show how discrimination of intersectional bodies is historically informed and reaffirmed by the manipulation of Western myths and mythos. Specifically, by mapping navigational mathematics and cartographic methods over rhetorical, architectural, and historiographic theory, it will be shown how the manipulation of Western myths establishes and reifies patriarchal discrimination that eventually fissions into eugenicist logics in nineteenth and twentieth century France, England, and the United States. In modernity, the practice of manipulating …

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Rhetorics Of Cancer In America, Christopher J. Wernecke May 2023

Rhetorics Of Cancer In America, Christopher J. Wernecke

Communication Dissertations

This dissertation examines the constitutive functions of multimodal cancer rhetoric in America and critiques the resulting ideological consequences. This study locates the multimodal manifestations of American cancer rhetoric within three realms – textual/oral, visual/material, and bodily/performative. Beginning in the discursive realm, it traces the metaphoric evolution of the “War on Cancer” and the “Cancer Moonshot Initiative” in presidential rhetoric before then moving to an analysis of artifacts from American cancer rhetoric’s nondiscursive formations. For the visual/material modality, this study analyzes the pink breast cancer “awareness” ribbon and the yellow Livestrong cancer “support” bracelet; for the bodily/performative modality, it then considers …

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Brand-Funded Documentary Films And Climate Change: An Aristotelian Rhetorical Analysis, Matthew Rossetti May 2023

Brand-Funded Documentary Films And Climate Change: An Aristotelian Rhetorical Analysis, Matthew Rossetti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the concept of brand-funded documentaries that center on the issue of climate change and uses Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle to better understand how the films use rhetoric in communicating their message. A rhetorical analysis was conducted using four brand films from Amazon, Corona, Patagonia and REI and the results are intended to demonstrate the best methods of persuasion and the most effective rhetoric utilized in brand-funded documentaries. Because brand-funded documentaries not only make an argument about a particular issue, in this case climate change, but also must communicate a particular brand’s values and commitments, examining the rhetoric in …

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“Look What You Made Me Do”: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Taylor Swift’S Persona, Sydney Risher May 2023

“Look What You Made Me Do”: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Taylor Swift’S Persona, Sydney Risher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Humans have found countless ways to create and consume media. Particularly, the world loves to consume music. With the variety of music available at any given moment due to streaming services and radio, musicians now must compete harder than ever for their popularity. An artist now must create something new and exciting that sets him or her apart from every other artist, highlighting the importance of novelty. One artist who used novelty as a key to her success is Taylor Swift. Using image and roles from the concept of persona and Standpoint Theory, I created a theoretical framework to rhetorically …

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The Solidarity Manifesto: A New Network For Future Change, Sofia Calicchio May 2023

The Solidarity Manifesto: A New Network For Future Change, Sofia Calicchio

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Colonialism is a scheme of standpoint; colonizer versus colonized, West versus East, good versus bad. When put in the foreground, the value of what we see heavily relies on our perspective and knowledge. When learning to dissect, deconstruct, and decolonize spaces, we need to start utilizing decolonial thought as an historical tool rather than a true depiction of reality. Decolonizing spaces and recognizing Western colonization practices means challenging the normative structures in colonial history, thus breaking the cycle of oppression through building community and fostering solidarity. Drawing on theories exploring access to public spheres, representation, protection, permanence, cultural displacement and …

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Technical Communication Inclusionary Interventions Into Academic Spaces, Sam Clem May 2023

Technical Communication Inclusionary Interventions Into Academic Spaces, Sam Clem

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

While many efforts have been made to make higher education in the US more equitable, there are still academic spaces in which some knowledges and some knowledge makers are marginalized. In this dissertation, I identify three such spaces: technical editing, graduate instructor training, and online academic research in trans communities. When editors make revisions based solely in American Standard English, as most editing practices and teaching are currently based, they risk marginalizing non-heritage speakers of English and speakers of various dialects of English, like African American Vernacular English. I suggest that by shifting our focus of editing from grammar policing …

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"You Call It Honor, We Call It Dishonor." Counterstorytelling & Confederate Monuments In Isle Of Wight County, Virginia, Brooke Covington, Chief Rosa Holmes Turner, Julianne Bieron Apr 2023

"You Call It Honor, We Call It Dishonor." Counterstorytelling & Confederate Monuments In Isle Of Wight County, Virginia, Brooke Covington, Chief Rosa Holmes Turner, Julianne Bieron

Community Literacy Journal

This essay considers how everyday citizens use counterstorytelling as a persuasive tactic in sites of ordinary democracy like public hearings. Specifically, we examine the counterstories and stock stories shared during a public hearing held in Isle of Wight County, Virginia to determine the future of a confederate monument that stood in front of the county's courthouse. By focusing closely on one particular counterstory, this essay considers counter storytelling as a form of racial countermemory that challenges dominant narratives by centralizing social justice and anti-racism. The authors aim to contribute to understandings of storytelling and its role within sites of participatory …

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Rhetorical New Materialism, Queers, And Cringe, Katherine Anne Schell Apr 2023

Rhetorical New Materialism, Queers, And Cringe, Katherine Anne Schell

Theses and Dissertations

Cringe, the negative reflexive reaction we experience when we witness something embarrassing or awkward, has a bad reputation in the queer community. In online and physical queer spaces, there is a pervading belief that “cringe culture” must be antithetical to queerness, that no queer community could possibly achieve liberation until it has eradicated the threat of cringe. This thesis revises that cringe vs. queer positioning by reimagining cringe as its own rhythm of queerness and examining the productive aspects of cringe through engagement with thinkers like Karen Barad and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. The thesis, formatted as a response to a …

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Writing For The Humanities And The Arts, Olivia Wood Apr 2023

Writing For The Humanities And The Arts, Olivia Wood

Open Educational Resources

This is the syllabus, course calendar, and grading contract used for Olivia Wood's section of ENGL 210: Writing in the Humanities and the Arts at City College in Spring 2023. Students write opinion editorials in the first unit, research a genre of their choosing and create a "genre guide" to help others write in that genre during the second unit, and then complete a multimodal project in the third unit, perhaps using their own or a classmate's genre guide to assist them.

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Organizations Ensuring Resilience: A Case Study Of Cortez, Florida, Karla Ariel Maddox Mar 2023

Organizations Ensuring Resilience: A Case Study Of Cortez, Florida, Karla Ariel Maddox

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Resilience” has often been defined by examining case studies in resilience failures. In contrast, this case study utilizes the oldest, still functional fishing village in Cortez, Florida to rhetorically analyze how organizational communicative practices have worked to ensure its resilience. Situating this conversation within Rhetoric proves valuable since so many attempts to define and utilize “resilience” seek to capitalize on its positive connotation but distort resilience definitions and practice. This dissertation explores three research questions: 1. “What systems and/or structures made our continued existence possible and what ideologies or goals drove their creation?” 2. “What ideologies, perceptions, and/or goals inspired …

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Saying Way More Than Gay: Polarized Adoption Of Ultimate Terms In U.S. Legislation, Shelby E. Limbach Mar 2023

Saying Way More Than Gay: Polarized Adoption Of Ultimate Terms In U.S. Legislation, Shelby E. Limbach

Theses and Dissertations

Due to rampant political polarization in the United States this thesis investigated the role of language in perpetuating opposing ideologies. A critical rhetorical cluster analysis of Florida’s House Bill 1557, political rhetoric, and public discourse reveals the contemporary power of ultimate terms. Within the United States terms such as “parental rights” and “Don’t Say Gay” operate to further divisive discourses due to their simultaneous perceptions as god and devil terms. In the United States such buzzwords are associated with vastly different valences dependent on individual ideological value systems, which often correlate with one’s political affiliations. Existing scholarship on the ideograph …

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Community-Based Risk Communication During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Biwoc Framework, Raven Latice Preston Mar 2023

Community-Based Risk Communication During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Biwoc Framework, Raven Latice Preston

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis explores the impact of COVID-19 on marginalized communities, particularly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and the disparities in risk communication that affect them. The author argues that traditional risk communication practices are often hegemonic and fail to consider the embodied experiences of marginalized communities. The thesis proposes a framework, Cooperative Risk Communication, that values Black Feminist and intersectional experiences to inform risk communication measures as an extension of institutional communication. Highlighting environmental and medical racism as factors that contribute to the vulnerability of BIPOC communities to COVID-19 and other diseases. The thesis concludes that culturally competent …

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Final Master's Portfolio, Alaina Brubaker Mar 2023

Final Master's Portfolio, Alaina Brubaker

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

The following is my final portfolio for the Master of Arts in English with a specialization in Professional Writing and Rhetoric. It includes an analytical narrative and the three essays I revised to complete this portfolio. The narrative reflects on my academic journey, the three essays contained in the portfolio, and the skills that I learned through completing the MA program. The first essay, “Feminism, Rhetoric, History, and the Impact of Audience Assumptions in Sewing Machine Manuals,” investigates the intersection of feminism, rhetoric, and historical perspectives in technical communication by analyzing two sewing machine manuals that share a 102-year age …

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"Ok, Groomer" :(Post) Truth Rhetoric And Transphobia, Adit R. Selvaraj Mar 2023

"Ok, Groomer" :(Post) Truth Rhetoric And Transphobia, Adit R. Selvaraj

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Paying attention to anti-LGBTQ rhetoric circulating on social media in Fall 2022, this thesis situates political rhetoric on Twitter, by analyzing the use of the hashtag #okgroomer. This hashtag, a corruption of the popular phrase “ok, boomer,” has been used to show contempt on social media by equating left-wing ideologies to pedophilia. Informed by gender critical theory, this work espouses the idea that #okgroomer is constructed as a post-truth ideal aided by the mythos that queer people are dangerous to children. To study #okgroomer, this thesis employs a critical technical discourse analysis informed by ecological scholarship to a case study …

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Priestly Pragmatics : Leviticus 1-7 As Rhetoric Of Enculturation, Dustin J. Mills Jan 2023

Priestly Pragmatics : Leviticus 1-7 As Rhetoric Of Enculturation, Dustin J. Mills

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

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Master's Portfolio, James Stank Jan 2023

Master's Portfolio, James Stank

Master of Rhetoric and Composition

Contents include reflective introduction, teaching philosophy, sample of scholarly writing, and sample teaching materials (syllabus, assignment, and lesson plan).

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Master's Portfolio, Kimberly Patterson Jan 2023

Master's Portfolio, Kimberly Patterson

Master of Rhetoric and Composition

Contents include reflective introduction, teaching philosophy, sample of scholarly writing, and sample teaching materials (syllabus, assignment, and lesson plan).

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Making A Case For Political Technical Communication (Pxtc), Ryan Cheek Jan 2023

Making A Case For Political Technical Communication (Pxtc), Ryan Cheek

English and Technical Communication Faculty Research & Creative Works

In This Article, I Argue that the Accelerated Adoption of Political Technology during the COVID-19 Pandemic Evinces Exigency for a Rhetorically Grounded Framework to Teach, Research, and Practice Political Technical Communication (PxTC) as a Sub-Discipline. as a Starting Point, I Use a Rhetorical Genre Studies Approach to Identify Political Social Actions that Separate Political Communication Technologies into Four Distinct Genres: Election, Electioneering, Constituent Services, and Punditry.

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Twitter As Limited Digital Rhetorical Forum – The Reproductive Rights Discourse Online, Jacob L. Longini Jan 2023

Twitter As Limited Digital Rhetorical Forum – The Reproductive Rights Discourse Online, Jacob L. Longini

Comparative Woman

Rhetorical discourse has long been characterized by patriarchal systems, and this reality has persisted in online spaces. How might today’s scholar dissect and better understand the nature of online communities, specifically those that engage in women’s rights discourses? I argue that using Thomas Farrell’s notion of “rhetorical forum”, James P. Zappen’s outline for digital rhetorical theory, and Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin’s feminist understanding of rhetorical practice, one can account for the current state of such discourses on Twitter. The patriarchal flaws that Foss and Griffin identify in traditional rhetoric can shed light on the negative aspects of …

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Analyzing Media Representations Of Rape Investigations And Interrogating The Representation Of Victim Blaming And Rape Myths: A Feminist Rhetorical Critique On The Netflix Limited Series Unbelievable, Kelly N. Hutchison Jan 2023

Analyzing Media Representations Of Rape Investigations And Interrogating The Representation Of Victim Blaming And Rape Myths: A Feminist Rhetorical Critique On The Netflix Limited Series Unbelievable, Kelly N. Hutchison

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The problematic portrayals of rape investigations in televised media reify a culture ofvictim blaming and perpetuate an ideology that is harmful to victims and survivors. This thesis utilizes a feminist rhetorical critique to analyze the gender and socioeconomic representations of rape victims and rape investigators, in the Netflix limit series Unbelievable, to understand the problems in their portrayals. In a world where individuals are consuming media constantly, it is important to be critical of media representations because even seemingly progressive media representations may perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

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Pink Tax And Other Tropes, Bridget J. Crawford Jan 2023

Pink Tax And Other Tropes, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Law reform advocates should be strategic in deploying tax tropes. Through an examination of five common tax phrases—the “nanny tax,” “death tax,” “soda tax,” “Black tax,” and “pink tax”—this Article demonstrates that tax rhetoric is more likely to influence law when used to describe specific economic injustices resulting from actual government duties, as opposed to figurative inequalities. In comparison, slogans describing figurative taxes are less likely to influence law and human behavior, even if they have descriptive force in both popular and academic literature as a short-hand for group-based disparities. This Article catalogues and evaluates what makes for effective tax …

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Rhetorical Vulnerability, Sophia Brauner Jan 2023

Rhetorical Vulnerability, Sophia Brauner

WWU Graduate School Collection

Rhetorical vulnerability is a necessary, underlying condition for rhetoric. That is, in order for rhetoric to be meaningful or even possible, we must already be vulnerable to each other. This paper frames vulnerability as a rhetorical concept different from vulnerability as a way of being, a personality trait, and a modifier of actions and behaviors. I examine how vulnerability has shown up in rhetorical scholarship as approaches to rhetoric, in relation to desire, and as embodied and affective. I close by proposing a practice of embracing vulnerability which creates capacities to differently engage identification categories and to understand spaces not …

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When Leaders Use Self-Uncertainty Strategically: Consequences For Intergroup Leadership And Identity Confirmation Dynamics, Alison Young Jan 2023

When Leaders Use Self-Uncertainty Strategically: Consequences For Intergroup Leadership And Identity Confirmation Dynamics, Alison Young

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Framed by the social identity theory of leadership, one question that is beginning to receive attention is how intergroup leaders can lead across distinct subgroups and improve inter-subgroup relations without provoking social identity-related concerns (e.g., subgroup identity distinctiveness threat). Past studies have found that leaders can use their rhetoric and boundary spanning behavior to meet their members’ identity needs and garner support. In addition, the self-uncertainty literature has suggested that leaders can strategically elevate and resolve members’ self-uncertainty through their rhetoric. The current research proposed that members who felt uncertain about their subgroup’s identity would have more favorable evaluations of …

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Time Is A Flat Circle: Lessons From Past And Present Conspiracy Theories, Lucy Jewel Jan 2023

Time Is A Flat Circle: Lessons From Past And Present Conspiracy Theories, Lucy Jewel

Scholarly Works

This essay analyzes how conspiracy theories were viewed in the 1990s, particularly in the context of the then-existing debate over racial differences in perception, and how they are dealt with today, where prevalent conspiracy theory adherents are White and conservative (QAnon, Pizzagate, and widespread voter fraud) in the 2020 election). In the 1990s, conflict over conspiracy theories was part of a larger culture war involving critical race theory, conspiracy thinking, truth, reason, and post-modern theory. These cultural flashpoints are obviously still with us today. But now, high-profile persons holding false, unreasonable beliefs often hail from the right and are assailed …

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