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Articles on Dissent

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Traffic flows over the Ambassador Bridge joining Detroit and Windsor, Ont., a day after protesters who were blocking it were cleared by police under Ontario’s declaration of emergency. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Protecting infrastructure from the ‘freedom convoy’ could forever silence legitimate dissent

Racialized and marginalized populations whose protest movements are already subject to ongoing forms of monitoring, infiltration and pre-emptive police action are at risk from the convoy crisis.
The rally – fed by citizen-spread misinformation and disinformation – that turned into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. Jon Cherry/Getty Images

We are all propagandists now

America’s public sphere is broken because propaganda has replaced political communication. How did we all become propagandists?
Two autocrats: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, left, and Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, right, in Budapest, Hungary, Nov. 7, 2019. AP/Presidential Press Service

So you want to be an autocrat? Here’s the 10-point checklist

Today’s autocrats rarely use brute force to wrest control. A human rights and international law scholar details the modern authoritarian’s latest methods to grab and hold power.
A rally celebrating the second anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, March 18, 2016. AP/Ivan Sekretarev

Autocracies that look like democracies are a threat across the globe

Almost one-third of countries around the world are authoritarian regimes with the trappings of democracy. Their bad behavior poses a threat to real democracies, as the United States recently learned.
‘It’s really difficult to live as a rock musician in Bangladesh,“ says Samir Hafiz, a guitarist in the heavy metal band Warfaze. Facebook

Rock ‘n’ roll is dying in Bangladesh

For decades, Bangladesh had a very vibrant – and highly political – rock scene. But the genre is struggling to survive the country’s crackdown on dissent and increasing Islamic conservatism.
Students walk out of school in March 2018 as part of a nationwide protest against gun violence. Lynne Sladky/AP

Could protest curb school violence? Lessons from the opt-out movement

Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan has called for a school boycott to change the nation’s gun laws and make schools safer. A scholar who studies protest explains how the boycott could work.
Scientists felt strength in numbers at April’s March for Science. But those who speak out individually may suffer career repercussions. David Moir/AAP

What happens when scientists stand up for science

It’s not a new phenomenon that scientists who challenge the orthodoxy or policy positions suffer career ramifications.

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