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Articles on Culture wars

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A pro-Palestine protest outside the State Library of Victoria, where the Melbourne Writers Festival is held. Joel Carrett/AAP

Australian writers festivals are engulfed in controversy over the war in Gaza. How can they uphold their duty to public debate?

Writers festivals navigate the fraught frontier between social media’s echo chambers of outrage and the civilised public debate of the public square. What’s the way forward in this heated atmosphere?
South Korean women protest against sexism and digital sex crimes, such as the making of pornography using hidden cameras. Jean Chung/Getty Images

Why so many South Korean women are refusing to date, marry or have kids

The South Korean government’s embrace of gendered citizenship has fueled the virulent gender war between men and women, with digital sex crimes used as ammunition.
Protesters, supporters of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, storm the National Congress building in Brasilia on Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

Why populism has an enduring and ominous appeal

Populism has been unleashed. We’re beyond the stop-gap measures of small-step reform or pragmatic centrist liberalism. What’s next? We’re about to find out.
Activist Jason Hershey reads from a Bible as he protests in front of the U.S. Supreme Court with the anti-abortion group Bound for Life in 2005 in Washington, D.C. Win McNamee via Getty Images

What the Bible actually says about abortion may surprise you

Faith can inform opinions about abortion on both sides of the political debate, but the Bible itself says nothing directly about the topic, a biblical scholar explains.
Quebec’s bill may be seen as part of on-going ‘culture wars,’ and alongside Ontario and Québec conservative governments’ grandstanding about ‘free speech’ on university campuses. (Shutterstock)

What is Québec’s Bill 32 on academic freedom, and why does it matter?

In addition to undermining universities’ and faculty members’ autonomy, the bill blurs distinctions between free expression and academic freedom, and turns academic freedom into a political weapon.
Illustration detail from the cover of Andy Griffiths’ international bestseller, The Day My Bum Went Psycho (Pan Macmillan).

Teacher sacked for reading bum book to students: the latest conservative book ban

A teacher was fired this month for reading his favourite picture book, I Need a New Butt, to kids. It’s an example of how US conservatives are focusing on school boards as weapons in the culture wars.

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