To grasp how extraordinary evils are often committed by ordinary people, we need to consider how we define evil, and most importantly, whom we consider to be the agents of evil.
Mass murders like the killings at a Pittsburgh synagogue are seen as the work of disturbed individuals. But America has allowed violence to become unexceptional, ignoring its root cause.
After the killing of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, a scholar explains why this hate crime reminds her of the political climate between the two world wars in the US.
The attack at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and the sending of pipe bombs to critics of the current administration are examples of the increase in the violence on the margins of the right.
With its attempt to purge the country’s courts of 40 percent of its judges, Poland’s right-wing ruling party passed another milestone on the path towards establishment of a one-party state.
The 20th-century philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote how refugees, in the absence of legal rights, were forced to live in a state of ‘absolute lawlessness.’ Her words matter today.
Trump administration officials falsely claim the law required them to separate immigrant families. The same excuse was used in the Nazi era to bar hundreds of thousands of refugees from the US.
Schools and universities have a responsibility to protect students from hate speech while also exposing them to views that disrupt their ways of thinking and ideas of the world.
The rise of neo-Nazism under President Donald Trump signals a new wave of authoritarianism. Now more than ever, colleges and universities must help students become informed and compassionate citizens.
Witch-finders of early modern Europe and modern Africa made themselves indispensable by showing people a threat of a growing crisis of threatening evil.
Fake news has been used in the past to feed into people’s fears and prejudices. A particularly poignant story from 1913 relates to the wrongful conviction of an innocent man named Leo Frank.
Each year at Easter, Christians recreate the spectacularly violent end of Jesus’s life, raising some tough questions about the depiction of suffering on stage.
The U.S. saw an increase in anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant sentiments in the period between World War I and World War II. Here’s why it matters to know that history today.
Today’s radical right is remaking its profile, using online communications to spread its message farther and deeper into our society than ever possible before.
The world’s most famous YouTube vlogger has been at the centre of a media storm over perceived anti-Semitism. But amid the demonisation, some nuance is needed.