Monthly Archives: February 2021

The corporate world may not be as supportive of its staff as we would think or like it to be with excesses of passive and hidden aggression. Even with modern management approaches, have we really arrived? Reading the hidden signs in dealing with hostility is key in improving performance and addressing dysfunction in teams.

There is a western trend to a more progressive and less directive culture in certain companies. In theory, employees have greater autonomy and influence over their respective scope of work. This is driven by change management practices, belief in the value of employee engagement, a drive to self-actualization, and the current trends in Mindfulness.

However, I believe there are some recent regressive factors moving away from this, in part driven by a competitive marketplace and the need to be more agile. This may seem as paradoxical as the conventional theory / practice has shown that a more engaged and content workforce will perform better, and deal with the need for agility and rapid delivery. I have tried to postulate the drivers for this regression.

There has been a recent rise of factionalism and tribalism, and the need for people to identify with certain factions or groups. Some commentators are also concerned about the dangers of political correctness, in terms of its potential lack of transparency, and the potential consequence of limiting open debate. This has been exemplified by the recent rhetoric on social media and in the press, post the Brexit vote in 2016. We have also witnessed lower levels of actual teamwork and more individualism. This selfishness is driven by the need to survive, especially as the economy gets tighter.

The first step to delivering impact in a hostile culture is to recognize that you are in one. That statement may sound trite, but it is not as easy as it looks.

What defines a hostile culture or environment? My definition is relatively simple. It is one which limits ones ability to execute their work or perform consistently without thinking of what could come next, and negative distractions like watching your back continually. It is noteworthy that people do not have to shout or raise their voice for the atmosphere to be hostile.

A key element for success, is to understand the difference between active hostility and constructive pressure. The former is intense, repetitive, inauthentic, and likely to be less rational. The latter is the opposite, but still maintains the required accountability, and has a level of mutual trust between parties.

Typical behaviors and activities that are common for active hostility include unrealistic targets, minimal information, poor explanation, no context, shifting deadlines or targets and changing the scope of work. In more severe cases, there can be a mob style approach where a manager enlists others to aid the hostility.

There are many other behaviors that one may witness, but another useful reference point is the work done by Geert Hofstede, the eminent psychologist and his associates, on macro cultures. Hofstede categorizes and describes six different cultures. There will be traits mentioned above that are pertinent in a significant number of the dimensions, but probably the most relevant are Power Distance and Masculinity vs. Femininity.

Cultures that are likely to be hostile will have large power distance and show the characteristics of hierarchy, leading to existential inequality, expected subordination, autocracy, the belief that power is absolute and that its legitimacy cannot be challenged. Cultures with small power distance tend to be more collegiate.

Another trait of active hostility that I have witnessed is that of Compliance. In this case, compliance can be interpreted not of defined rules, but of dictates and edicts. Here, the end justifies the means and defined rules can be bent or ignored to meet the edict.

We must remember that none of these characteristics can be taken in isolation, and on their own, will not determine active hostility, but a combination could lead to one.

What do I mean about finding the balance point, and why is it relevant?

If you are a new leader in a large organisation, then for you to be impactful you will have to be different, without alienating yourself or acquiescing to inappropriate cultural norms. It is critical that you resonate with your team and conform to the rules initially. This does not stop you being a change agent, but you should do it without being too much of an initial maverick.

If you are already established in the organisation, this will be easier, but for you to effect any internal change may be more difficult as there may be a reticence to your challenge. You need to be accepted by your own team to have future impact. This does not mean you do not question, or challenge paradigms. It means you must effect change from the inside and gather momentum.

A coaching background, or understanding the concept of mindfulness and particularly self-awareness, can help. According to the Building Strong Coaching Cultures for the Future, a 2019 study from the International Coaching Federation and the Human Capital Institute (HCI), developing coaching skills for leaders is an ongoing and successful process in organizations with strong coaching cultures.

Understanding the impact of your approach and the behaviour you elicit on the people around you will enable a greater chance of success. This will give you key insights into how your approach will impact the team as you start to challenge them. You need to find the critical balance point between listening, challenging and conforming.

In the previous section I mentioned about the importance of finding the balance point and understanding your environs. This will be a platform for the work you are going to do and help determine the impact you will have on your team.

So, in more detail, what are the key things you need to do to have impact in a hostile environment?

Professional Coaching is an asset for many organisations looking at enforcing authenticity in their workplaces. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. ICF professional coaches work within high ethical standards when coaching teams and leaders. They are part of a worldwide network of credentialed coaches across a variety of coaching disciplines and work toward the common goal of enhancing awareness of coaching, upholding the integrity of the profession, and continually educating themselves with the newest research and practices.

Professional coaching services can befound usingICFs directoryof credentialed coaches spread all over the world.

http://www.coachingfederation.orgwww.coachfederation.org.ukwww.experiencecoaching.com

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How to have impact in hostile environments | theHRD - The HR Director Magazine

Letters to the editor| Ames TribuneFaith and helping

In response to Hector Avalos'sopinion article ("Imagine if we all offered emotional, physical help to those who need it," Jan. 29) I would like to think that being a person of faith does not exclude or prohibit helping others. On the contrary, in many, if not most cases the two go hand in hand.

Renate Dellmann, Ames

I am fed up with the obscene costs of elections and the nauseating levels of political spending.

Nationally, $14 billion was spent on the 2020 elections, with $234 million going towards the Ernst/Greenfield Senate race, the most expensive campaign in Iowas history.

Its no wonder that Americas politics have been overwhelmingly dominated by the ultra-wealthy and well-connected. Sohow can you and I, ordinary people with modest means and good ideas, ever hope to run for office?

Well, finally there is corrective action!H.R. 1, or the For the People Act is a bill introduced in Congress to strengthen voting rights, reform ethics laws, and change campaign finance for the better.

H.R. 1 fundamentally transforms the way that candidates raise money. It addresses dark money, requiring political organizations to disclose big donors. It also establishes a 6x1 matching system for small-dollar donations to presidential andcongressional campaigns, with funds coming from a surcharge on settlements involving corporate wrongdoing (think Wells Fargo or Purdue Pharma).

Reforming money in politics amplifies support from regular people, so that many more of us can run for office without chasing mega-donors. Iowas representatives should vote for H.R. 1.

Susie Petra, Ames

It was once a strength of our country to have a First Amendment that encourages free speech and vigorous debate. A place where all sides of an issue are heard and expressed. But now those who profess to be the most progressive among us wish to stifle debate. When some or many disagree with them concerning the Ames Schools' Black Lives Matter campaign, they are dismissed as racists and bigots. No thought goes into a response like that. It's reflexive and implies that the person with an opposing opinion is ignorant and doesn't deserve to be heard. We have moved from political correctness to the cancel culture. Where are we going as a country? How long before our First Amendment rights have been shredded and we become a totalitarian state like Russia or China?

James Baker, Ames

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Letters to the editor: Regular people must be able to run for office - Ames Tribune

Over the coming months, hundreds of thousands of words will be written about Donald Trump's presidency and the future of the Republican Party. This seems to me a mostly fruitless endeavor, not least because the relationship between Trump and his adopted party was very publicly transactional. He used the GOP to win the White House with very little help from the institutional party, whose leaders abandoned him on the eve of two successive general elections, and they were happy to allow him to appoint 234 judges to the federal bench and sign one tax bill in the first year of his administration. Trump will disappear from the political considerations of Republican elected officials as swiftly as he entered them on the fateful day of the escalator.

A more interesting question is what effect Trump had upon the so-called "conservative movement," that somewhat more nebulous entity, with its magazines, its think tanks and conferences, its canons of half-understood books, its pantheons of gods and heroes. Despite what some have argued, the movement and its institutions have never been synonymous with the Republican Party, which tacitly made its peace with the New Deal when the oldest living Americans were children. What the movement offered the party instead was a kind of geological survey: a map of the sedimentary layers in American political life, and the potential riches waiting to be unearthed by skillful miners of right-wing public opinion.

Like many observers, including an enormous number of the president's loudest detractors, I believe that Trump brought the conservative movement to an end. But what its destruction means is something very different from the prophecies of permanent Democratic supermajorities issuing forth from the former president's critics. Trump's greatest achievement, one that speaks far more than his actual record in office to his business acumen, was recognizing that in the 2012 presidential election, the old movement vein had been exhausted and that a much richer one was awaiting exploration.

What Trump recognized was that there are millions of Americans who do not oppose or even care about abortion or same-sex marriage, much less stem-cell research or any of the other causes that had animated traditional social conservatives. Instead he correctly intuited that the new culture war would be fought over very different (and more nebulous) issues: vague concerns about political correctness and "SJWs," opposition to the popularization of so-called critical race theory, sentimentality about the American flag and the military, the rights of male undergraduates to engage in fornication while intoxicated without fear of the Title IX mafia. Whatever their opinions might have been 20 years ago, in 2021 these are people who, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, accept pornography, homosexuality, drug use, legalized gambling, and whatever GamerGate was about. On economic questions their views are a curious and at times incoherent mixture of standard libertarian talking points and pseudo-populism, embracing lower taxes on the one hand and stimulus checks and stricter regulation of social media platforms on the other.

I have come to think of the people who answer to the above description as "Barstool conservatives," in reference to the popular sports website, especially its founder and CEO, Dave Portnoy. For many years the political significance of Barstool was implicit at best, reflected mainly in its conflicts with Deadspin and other members of the tacitly liberal sports journalism establishment.

But in the last year, as Portnoy emerged as one of America's most visible critics of the lockdown policies instituted by virtually every state governor, it became clear to me that more so than anyone else he embodied the world view of millions of Americans, who share his disdain for the language of liberal improvement, the hectoring, schoolmarmish attitude of Democratic politicians and their allies in the media, and, above all, the elevation of risk-aversion to the level of a first-order principle by our professional classes. This, I suspect, is why in the last 24 hours I have received several text messages asking me whether I thought he had any interest in running for president. (My guess is no, though I also believe that his prospects for electoral success would be decent.)

Regardless of Portnoy's own ambitions, I fully expect the future of the Republican Party to belong to Barstool conservatives, which is to say, to a growing but so far almost invisible coalition that could very well carry the White House. The Barstool conservative movement will not have institutions in any recognizable sense, certainly not think tanks or highbrow magazines, but it will be larger, more geographically disparate, younger, and probably more male. It will also, I suspect, be more racially diverse, much like the portion of the electorate that gave Trump 74 million votes in 2020.

Where will Barstool conservatism leave what remains of the old conservative movement? In the case of free market dogmatists, I believe there is almost zero daylight between them. The policy papers on why blockchain-enabled futures markets in organ donation brought to you by ManScaped will revitalize Dayton, Ohio, will write themselves. Meanwhile, a small number of earnest social conservatives will be disgusted. But I suspect that a majority of them will gladly make their peace with the new order of things.

This is in part because while Barstool conservatives might regard, say, homeschooling families of 10 as freaks, they do not regard them with loathing, much less consider their very existence a threat to the American way of life as they understand it. Social conservatives themselves have largely accepted that, with the possible exception of abortion, the great battles have been lost for good. Oberfegell will never be overturned even with nine votes on the Supreme Court. Instead the best that can be hoped for is a kind of recusancy, a limited accommodation for a few hundred thousand families who cling to traditions that in the decades to come will appear as bizarre as those of the Pennsylvania Dutch.

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Rise of the Barstool conservatives - The Week

By Alaskan James Madison Fellows

The James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation was established by Congress in 1986 to honor the legacy of James Madison by funding graduate study focused on the Constitution. The Foundations goal is to improve the teaching of our constitutional history and principles in secondary schools by selecting one James Madison Fellow from each state each year to support in their pursuit of a masters degree in areas of study related to American constitutionalism. In this way, the James Madison Fellowships are intended to ensure that future generations of Americans understand and appreciate our constitutional heritage.

We are Alaskas James Madison Fellows. We come from different communities, generations, and political affiliations, but share a commitment to teaching the principles of the Constitution. We are writing because of our concern following the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Regardless of partisanship or feelings about the outcome of Novembers election, all Americans must recognize that an assault on Congress as it carries out its constitutionally mandated responsibility to count electoral votes certified by the states undermines the constitutional order and respect for the rule of law. We also have to recognize that protests against governments throughout history have been the result of perceived failures to adequately address significant societal problems. If we do not acknowledge both of these points, we can only expect continued division, polarization, and violence.

This problem was not unknown to the founding generation. In Federalist 10, James Madison argued that an advantage of a well constructed Union was its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. In the 1780s, immediately following the Revolution as the states and Congress struggled with the war debt and attempted to establish functioning peacetime governments, the dangers of mob rule and popular leaders who would exploit and inflame public passions threatened to destroy the fragile new Union. Madisons vision of a successful federal republic assumed that in a large country it would be more difficult for the influence of factious leaders to gain the widespread support necessary to spread a general conflagration throughout the states. For nearly two and a half centuries Madisons blueprint has served us well, but it faces a new and unprecedented challenge in the age of social media and the ease with which we can segregate ourselves and shut out all opposing ideas or be shut out of the platforms we use to express ourselves. Those who choose their social media platforms and news sources based on a shared political perspective are as guilty as those who seek to silence opposing voices based on political correctness. In either case, we create and foster the factions that Madison correctly identified as the downfall of democratic government and liberty, while making it easier for those who would divide us to spread disinformation.

As Americans we all share the responsibility to educate ourselves and hold our elected officials accountable for upholding their oaths to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. The advantage of a written constitution is that we can refer to its text. When leaders at the highest levels tell us that the federal government has powers that have never before been exercised we owe it to ourselves and future generations of Americans to go back to the Constitution and demand that they show us the source of those powers. This is especially true when their actions threaten to undermine the powers reserved to the states or our individual liberties.

Being an informed and active citizen, and participating in the preservation of our constitutional order is a great responsibility. Two resources that can help with this are The Constitutional Sources Project (https://www.consource.org/) and Constitution Annotated (https://constitution.congress.gov/). Both of these sites provide searchable digital versions of the

Constitution. The Constitutional Sources Project also has a vast collection of other relevant documents, including The Federalist Papers, Anti-Federalist writings, and records of the state ratifying conventions. Constitution Annotated includes detailed explanations of constitutional interpretation over time and references to relevant court decisions.

As Madison Fellows, we have faith in the wisdom, resilience, and endurance of our constitutional principles. As constitutional scholars and educators, we also recognize that the preservation of any constitutional system depends on an educated populace that cannot be easily misled or manipulated. The events of Jan. 6 represent the failure of constitutional and civic education at all levels. We can, and must, do better.

The Alaskan James Madison Fellows who contributed to this piece are Donald Davis (1996); Jill Drushal (1998); Barbara Marshall (1999); Jennifer Klaameyer (2003); Mark Oppe (2006); Roxann Gagner (2009); Nathan Walters (2012); Ruth Sensenig (2013); Deborah Lawrence (2014); Leandra Wilden (2016); Stephen Rosser (2018) and Alyssa Logan (2020). The James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation was established by Congress in 1986 to honor the legacy of James Madison by funding graduate study focused on the Constitution. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Heres how to submit a My Turn or letter.

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Opinion: We can and must do better - Juneau Empire

Tuesday while shoveling the sidewalk, as others were doing, I saw a man, arms folded in front of him, yelling, They cant take away my rights. Im not shoveling. Sounds ridiculous, doesnt it? No more than refusing to wear a mask. Shoveling and mask-wearing protect you and others. How can people be so selfish?

As Joe Biden tries to explain his avalanche of job-killing executive orders, he and his cabinet nominees sound like the bumbling bureaucrats that they are. None of these people have come close to actually holding down a real job or running a real business. They are telling the thousands of citizens that have been laid off as a result of Biden's job-killing executive order pen to get jobs in renewable energy. And tell me where are those jobs? Certainly, they aren't in Wisconsin, or Pennsylvania, or Arizona, or Georgia, or Nebraska, or Michigan. The citizens who lost their jobs have mortgages, bills, loans, etc., to pay today they can't wait for 15 years or more for jobs in solar energy. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris should not be in charge of a hamburger joint, let alone our country.

Billy G.

I just read that the "National Spelling Bee" for the first time since 1945 has been cansuled ... cansiled ... canseled...! It's been called off!

Jim Fitch

One of President Trump's major accomplishments is the fact that his administration did not commit US troops to additional conflicts anywhere in the world. In addition, the administration obliterated the ISIS caliphate, brought peace treaties to the Middle East, and brought almost all of the US troops home from the Middle East. It took Joe Biden less than 2 weeks to commit US troops to Syria and Biden started saber-rattling with Iran by declaring that Iran is only weeks away from a nuclear weapon. Moreover, Biden put in place an occupying force in Washington, DC. One of the reasons President Trump was disliked by so many in the Deep State is the fact that he kept his promise not to involve the USA in foreign conflicts. Joe Biden is beloved by the Deep State because he will almost certainly start a new conflict before the end of his first year in office.

By all means, Perkiomen Valley School Board member Raeann Hofkin should not resign. Political correctness is just fascism pretending to be manners!

Our government is a disgrace. Instead of wasting more money and time on an unnecessary impeachment, they should be focusing on trying to get this coronavirus under control. And instead of bickering about a stimulus payout, they should just give everybody back the money they wasted on the Russia collusion inquiry.

Many claims have been made over the past four years about the rise of racism. I submit that nothing could be further from the truth. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of groups claimed by the KKK has fallen from 2016 when there were 130 such groups to 51 presently. In addition, another source puts the number of KKK members at 3,000 nationwide which amounts to less than one per county nationwide. I worked since 1981 side-by-side with all nationalities and I saw no hint of racism in the workplace. We joked, helped each other, prayed for each other, ate lunch together, and sometimes we argued too imagine that! I go to a Wawa and people smile at one another and hold doors for one another. I frankly think that Joe Biden and his party want there to be racial discord. I just don't get it.

To quote Mr. Spock, "Fascinating!" Once upon a time, Mitch McConnell would have called a GOP member a "RINO" for being insufficiently conservative about things like budget deficits, etc. Now, would-be kingmaker Lou Dobbs says Mitch McConnel is a "RINO" for being insufficiently Trumpish.

Is there a dossier bearing Sen. Pat Toomeys name? On Jan. 26, he voted to confirm Antony Blinken as Secretary of State. For the unaware, Blinken was a significant contributor to the Russian Collusion Hoax. This was not the first time that Toomey accommodated those who had weaponized federal agencies against political adversaries. Over time, officials at the IRS, FBI, an Attorney General, CIA Director, DNI director escaped judgment as did a witness against a U.S. Supreme Court nominee who offered perjured testimony. Toomey declined to rein in social media oligarchs who, in 2016, manipulated search engine algorithms to the advantage of a presidential candidate. 2020 brought more of the same including suppression of Biden-disqualifying scandals. Will the senator now memory-hole a treasure trove of Biden offenses? Those to whom he answers know better than you or I.

M. Furlong

It would appear Trump supporters believe his lies and even proven history won't change their minds. Sad, very sad.

Star Light

For anyone who wondered if the man in the basement would govern as a moderate or a puppet of the extreme left, we now know the answer and it isn't the former. Does he even know what he is signing in all those executive orders?

Farmer Sam

I want to applaud Mr. Greg Levengoods letter that appeared in Sundays Mercury. His letter was spot on. I recently dropped my 40-year subscription to a newspaper for left-wing bias. One of its writers recently opined that readers should combat racism by contributing to organizations that post bail for BLM rioters. Before the newspaper went bankrupt, I could have told you who each one of their writers voted for with probably 99% accuracy, except for their best reporter who never interjected his political views into news articles. Papers like The Philadelphia Inquirer have never endorsed a Republican candidate for president of course, they are fair and objective. Unfortunately, leftists are not satisfied with controlling virtually all media outlets, now they want to silence all opposing points of view and censor not only speech but thoughts as well. Dont be surprised if Joe Biden signs an executive order that establishes a Ministry of Truth and he would probably assign Adam Schiff to head it up.

Clark S. Kent doesn't have a clue about truth-telling, because he puts his faith in The Washington Post that knowingly published false story after false story about the Russia Collusion Hoax. Then The Washington Post got sued by Nicholas Sandman and the Post settled out of court with him because they lied about Nicholas. Mr. Minninger is absolutely correct about Adam Schiff, he is a pathological liar. The NY Post, CNN, Boston Herald, Wall Street Journal and others confirm that Schiff lied about Russia Collusion and the infamous Ukraine Phone Call for starters. But more importantly, the "Lasso of Truth" confirms that President Trump is the truth-teller and Adam Schiff is in the running for "Liar of the Century."

Diana Prince

To all the Trumpers out there who wonder what the big deal is about a handful of people attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, are you serious? A "handful" of people? You really are living in another world, aren't you? While you're there, say hello to Peter Pan, Tinkerbell & Captain Hook for me. I hope you all make it back some day, but I really doubt that will happen!

Before the election, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and NBC were proudly talking about how great the Lincoln Project "Republicans" were who supported Joe Biden. Now all of a sudden the truth about the Lincoln Project has come out. The founder is an alleged serial sexual harasser. His name is John Weaver. Here is one link outlining the charges against the wonderful Lincoln Project Founder: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/01/31/never-trump-lincoln-project-founder-john-weaver-accused-sending-provocative-messages-young-men/#

Wow, did you all read the commentary of Marc A Thiessen on Jan. 30 in The Mercury? Mark has been a Republican his whole life and a Pro-Trumper the last four years. However, after some Republicans have gone after Republican Liz Cheney (daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney) because she called for a vote on Trump. Marc is defending her because of Trump inciting the riot at the Capitol. Yes, he did! Marc is upset that Trump went after Pence and then the mob went after Pence looking for him, to lynch? Marcs last words, If this is the Republicans reaction to the Capitol riot, then the future of the party is bleak.

Clark S Kent

This wish was related to me by a wise friend: I wish Joe Biden would disappear as fast as all this snow will.

The impeachment trial is upon us. President Trump is a dangerous con man. He groomed and goaded thousands of armed militia to attack our legislative branch. At his name, rampaging Trumpists stormed the U.S. Capitol, looting and destroying property and terrorizing members of Congress. Five people died. Little do those criminals know that their gun rights will be revoked. We now know that he groomed these terrorists with his lies of a fraudulent election for months before the event. This was always his plan.

Jay Miller

To Ivy, the mask I wear does not protect me, it protects other people. Next, why did the governors close down all small businesses? I can see eateries because you can't eat with a mask on, but other small businesses could do the same sanitizing process as the big box stores so why are they being punished and losing their livelihood? People are traveling in and out of the country which is increasing the pandemic.

The Golden Ager

Please understand that divisive hyper-partisan political hypocrisy is deeply rooted in the DNA of liberals and the Democrat Party. For example, under the Trump administration, the unemployment rate for Blacks, women and Hispanics hit a historic low yet no Black or female or Hispanic representatives in the House stood to acknowledge the fact that Trump, with his economic plan and tax cuts, has done more than and any president, including the almighty Obama, to lift them up. Despite this, Trump has been relentlessly pummeled by Biden, Harris, the Democrats and their media mouthpieces who proclaim hes the "first racist president" when nothing was done during the eight years Biden and Obama were in power.

Otis-D

In most cases, the "fact-checking" done by media and tech platforms is really "fact checks" of opinions or policies, not facts or data. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC only broadcast one side of many news stories. For instance, even though there was and is a mountain of evidence supporting the Hunter Biden story of profligate influence-peddling around the world, the story was mostly ignored. Google is actively censoring Newsmax, Breitbart, Parler and many other media outlets that are counter to their Democrat opinions. It has been documented that Google results have been slanted to return liberal viewpoints as the top results of most searches on many political stories. YouTube makes it very difficult or impossible to find certain unflattering videos of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Obama and other Democrat leaders. Censorship by most of the media is going to destroy our country.

Michael Stern

After dealing with all of these "lockdowns," I've come to understand why our dogs try to run out the door as soon as it's opened!

Jim Fitch

Sound Off is an opinion forum to spur dialogue from residents of the communities The Mercury serves on topics of general interest in those communities and the world beyond. We will not publish comments that are potentially libelous, slanderous, mean-spirited, vulgar or inappropriate. Publication of Sound Off comments is at the sole discretion of the editor and are subject to editing for length. Email your brief comment to letters@pottsmerc.com. Please use "Sound Off" in the subject line of the email.

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The Mercury's Sound Off for Thursday, February 4 | Opinion | pottsmerc.com - The Mercury

Russias state-controlled media has been turning to a disinformation playbook it has used before in a bid to discredit protesters agitating for the release from prison of Kremlin critic AlexeiNavalny, say analysts.

Navalny was detained on his return to Moscow for parole violations after recovering in Germany from a near-fatal poisoning. His arrest has triggered the largest anti-Kremlin protests seen in Russia since 2011, and Washington is being blamed for the demonstrations, with Kremlin officials and state media presenters alleging that Western powers, mainly the U.S., are behind the agitation.

Washington is becoming a convenient pretext for accusations, although in reality it has very little to do with what is happening, Donald Jensen, director of the United States Institute of Peace, a research organization, told VOAs Russian service. This is a question for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and the Russian people, and it is clear that a significant minority of Russians are unhappy.

Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russias security council, has compared the Navalny protests to the popular Maidan uprising in Ukraine of 2013-2014, which he and other Kremlin officials also accused the West of fomenting.

He told the state-owned weekly newspaper Argumenty i Fakti the West needs Navalny, To destabilize the situation in Russia, for social upheavals, strikes and new Maidans.

What this can lead to we see in the example of Ukraine, which in essence, has lost its independence, he added.

Maidan revolt

Disinformation analysts also are drawing comparisons to the Maidan revolt not as an example of Western intervention, but in terms of the Kremlins information management strategy launched to try to save Putin ally President Viktor Yanukovych from ouster.

They say many of the same memes, tropes and conspiracy theories dissimulated during the Maidan revolt are being used now to try to shape a narrative discrediting pro-Navalny protesters.

In 2013, when hundreds of thousands of pro-Europe protesters occupied Kyivs Maidan to demand Yanukovychs resignation, Kremlin-controlled media portrayed the people behind the uprising as being opposed to traditional, socially conservative Russian values of family and religion.

Among the memes Russian disinformation channels broadcast were those conflating the agitation with homosexuality, warning of the risk that a homo-dictatorship would be established in Ukraine, according to analysts.

Theres a long tradition of pro-Kremlin propaganda using homophobic rhetoric to discredit pro-democracy activism, said Zarine Kharazian, an analyst at the Digital Forensic Research Lab, part of the Atlantic Council, a U.S.-based research group. The lab studies disinformation campaigns.

The protesters in the early days of the revolt were predominately young and their occupation of the Maidan, one of Kyivs central squares, was sparked by Yanukovychs decision not to sign an association agreement with the European Union. Because the EU supports same-sex marriage, Russias state-controlled medias starting point was that the European Union was homosexual, and so the Ukrainian movement toward Europe must be, as well, according to Yale academic Timothy Snyder.

Writing in his book, The Road to Unfreedom, Snyder noted, In November and December 2013, the Russia media covering the Maidan introduced the irrelevant theme of gay sex at every turn.

'Political pedophilia'

As the anti-Kremlin protests erupted this week in Moscow, St. Petersburg and about 70 other towns across Russia, state-controlled media appeared again to color the political agitation with sexual politics, accusing protest leaders of political pedophilia, part of an official claim that most protesters were manipulated minors.

Sociologists say the protesters came from a range of age groups, although some 25 percent were 18- to 25-year-olds. Nonetheless, Russian officials say Navalny and his supporters have been exploiting the vulnerability of children and the young, persuading them to demonstrate in the streets. This is a serious operation, alleged Valery Fadeyev, head of Putin's human rights council.

TV presenter Dmitry Kiselyov, the head of Rossiya Segodnya, complained on his marquee show News of the Week. There are people who are so low, they drag children into politics, like political pedophiles. Is this bad? Its horrible. Other presenters on Russian newscasts also tagged protesters as political pedophiles.

Pedophilia, with or without the qualifier political, is a charged word in Russia, say disinformation analysts. They argue that the government has a long propaganda history of linking homosexuality with pedophilia. They say labeling the protesters as pedophiles has to be understood within a larger state project of defining Russias identity in terms of traditional values, delineating Russia from a Western world often portrayed by the Kremlin as dissolute and decadent.

I do think its an attempt to paint opposition protests as Western and fundamentally at odds with traditional Russian values, said Kharazian. The equating of homosexuality and pedophilia is based on common homophobic tropes of homosexuality as unnatural or in some way perverted. And beyond Maidan, these homophobic narratives have also been applied to protests in Armenia, Venezuela, Georgia and elsewhere.

It is hard to say if this tactic will work for a wide swathe of Russians, but for those already receptive to anti-Western propaganda, it certainly is potent, she said.

Putin avoided mentioning his foe Navalny by name in a midweek speech to the World Economic Forum. But he warned against the destruction of traditional values. The social and values crisis is already having negative demographic consequences, from which mankind is at risk of losing entire civilizational and cultural continents.

Putin himself has defended Russia's anti-gay laws in the past by equating gays with pedophiles, saying Russia needs to cleanse itself of homosexuality.

In an interview in 2014 with ABC TV, on the eve of the Sochi Olympics, he suggested that gays are more likely to abuse children. And in September 2013, Putin talked about the excesses of Western political correctness, which he said had reached the point where there are serious discussions on the registration of parties that have propaganda of pedophilia as their objective.

Jakub Kalensky, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a colleague of Kharazian, says the Kremlin-controlled medias homophobic tropes are playing into the prejudices of some of the more conservative Russians. Its not just about influencing the audience, but also using the audience's prejudices to discredit the protests, he said.

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Why is Kremlin Tagging Protesters Political Pedophiles? - Voice of America

Pride or appropriation? Two North Carolina towns are the sites of fierce battles over American Indian imagery.

The mascot for South Point High School Red Raiders is an American Indian man with an earring and a long feather running alongside a mohawk. Its an image Isabella Lanford would like to erase.

Lanford grew up in Belmont, a small cityin Gaston County near Charlotte. In the mid-2010s, she attended Belmont Middle School (nickname: the Wildcats) and thought shed join her classmates for the ninth grade at South Point High.

A home football game changed her mind. Lanford, a Lumbee Indian, saw South Point fans in face paint carrying fake tomahawks. Most of the crowd was white. When the Red Raiders scored, many cupped their hands over their mouths and released stereotypical Native American war cries.

It enrages my family when they hear that, she said of the chants that bear no resemblance to the actual sounds her relatives make at traditional ceremonies. When everyone was doing that around me, I was like, I dont think I should come back here.I think thats when I understood.

Her mother, an Indigenous rights advocate, requested Gaston County Schools transfer Lanford to another school. The district approved the request, but Lanford attended a magnet school instead. After graduating from the N.C.School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, Lanford, now 18, is a freshman at American University in Washington, D.C.

Though she never attended South Point, Lanford still feels compelled to help end the American Indian mascot at a school with few American Indian students.

Last summers protests for racial justiceescalated theperennial debate around American Indian nicknames, logos, and actions - like chants and tomahawk chomps - in schools and sports.

Facing pressure from corporate sponsors like FedEx and Nike, the professional football team in Washington, D.C.,abandoned Redskins, a slur according to most dictionaries. In December, the Cleveland Indians baseball team - which had already phased out its scarlet-faced cartoon mascot Chief Wahoo - announced it would play under a new name.

Many North Carolina schools made these changes years ago.

Since 2002 - the year the N.C. State Advisory Council on Indian Education called on all K-12 public schools to stop using American Indian mascots and imagery - districts have swapped out Indians for Wolves (Alamance-Burlington Schools), Braves for Bears (Craven County Schools), and Redskins for Ravens, Miners, and Knights.

According to the council, the number of North Carolina schools using Native American names and images in athletics fell by half from 2002 to 2017.

This summer, Catawba Countys Arndt Middle School became the latest school to ditch Redskins.In a message to families introducing Arndts new nickname of Warriors, principal Jennifer Stodden said, It is time for us to take this leap forward and show that we are a school of cultural responsiveness.

But some schools like South Pointhavent taken this leap.Local residents argue the nicknames and mascots are about pride,not appropriation -honor, not hate. They are symbols that bind their communities together, mascot defenders say, and altering them would be bowing to unchecked political correctness.

In a pair ofNorth Carolina counties, the mascot issue has splitschool communities,pitting alumni against alumni in a battle over tradition and identity.

'Dude, you're not going to change this'

Late last spring,Lanford joined Retire the Red Raider, a network of students, teachers, alumni, and Belmont residents that formed to push for a new mascot.

State data shows fewerthan 0.2% of students at Gaston County Schools identify as American Indian. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only one American Indian student was enrolled at South Point in the 2018-19 school year.

Its infuriating, and its sad because I know the children who go to that high school dont understand because no one tells them, Lanfordsaid. They just see it as a mascot, they see it as an image, and they see it as something of their own.

Laura Boyce, who graduated from South Point in 2003, started aRetire the Red Raider Mascot petition which has received 6,300 signatures.

Boyce, who now lives in Philadelphia, said she didnt think twice about the Red Raider logo when she attended South Point.

Thats a common experience weve heard from a number of our supporters that it took getting outside of Belmont to really understand the offensiveness of the name, she said. I look back and wince.

But many South Point alumni look back with pride.

A counter-petition supporting the Red Raider mascot, created by South Point alum Celeste Kitchen (Class of 79), has gained 3,500 signatures. I am getting sick of all this stupid political correctness, someone wrote on the petition website as their reason for signing. Enough is enough.

The Gaston Gazette reported that when Retire the Red Raider members spoke at the local school board meeting in July, Red Raider supporters showed up, too.

I believe I speak for the overwhelming majority of citizens in the Belmont and South Point High School community when I say that we regret having to be here to defend our team name and logo, which takes away precious time from your agenda, Jason Rumfelt, a Belmont resident, told the board.

Jerry Denton, a Belmont resident who has watched South Point sports for decades, said it helps to be from the area to truly understand the mascots significance.

You would have to have lived the memories if you grew up in this city, he told the USA Today Network in a Facebook message.

Asked about the prospects of South Point getting a different nickname, Denton was blunt: Dude, you are not going to change this.

More: Students can wear Confederate symbol to school. Some Buncombe students want that to stop

Belmont isnt the first community to tussle over mascots.

In the late 1990s, Erwin High School in Asheville drew national attention after a parents complaint prompted a U.S. Justice Department investigation into whether Erwins use of American Indian imagery created a racially hostile environment.

The complaint came from Pat Merzlak, whose adopted son Richard was a Lakota Sioux Indian.

Classmates would ask Richard to ride his horse at home football games, which at first he agreed to do, but eventually grew resentful of Erwins pervasive Native references.

The boys teams were called the Warriors and girls teams were called the Squaws (an offensive term for American Indian women). A massive statue of an American Indian man loomed by the schools front entrance. A totem pole stood inside.

At Erwin games, opposing fans made ruthless references to American Indians, calling on their players to Scalp and Massacre the Warriors.

In the 1998-99 school year, fewerthan 0.5% of Buncombe County students were American Indian.

Speaking before the Buncombe County School Board in December 1998, Merzlak said, If just one Indian child suffers impaired self-esteem and is discriminated against because of a mascot, isnt that too many?

The Justice Department soon got involved, sending an American Studies professor from Yale to tour the school. Merzlak recalls the issue dividing the community, with some shouting Indian lover when they drove by her.

In March 1999, the district struck a compromise with the Justice Department, agreeing to terminate the Squaws nickname while keeping Warriors. The towering American Indian statue still stands on school grounds.

I think it educated some people and probably firmed up some beliefs both pro and con, Merzlak, who now lives in eastern Tennessee, said of the controversy.

Since Erwin retired Squaws,the number of K-12 schools using American Indian mascots, names, or images has dropped from 73 in 2002 to 36 in 2017. Community activists, not school boards, drove this decline according to Mary Ann Jacobs, a professor of American Indian Studies at UNC Pembroke and member of North Carolinas Lumbee Tribe.

You have to have a situation where organized groups - or at least one really determined individual - goes to the school board and says, You have to make this change, she said. Its very unusual for the school board to just do it on their own because people are really attached to their mascots and want to put ownership on that.

The nine-member Gaston County Board of Education hasnt decided on the fate of the Red Raider, district spokesperson Todd Hagans said in an email on behalf of board chair Jeff Ramsey.

We realize that people have strong feelings related to school mascots, Hagans said, referring both to South Point and East Gaston High School, which uses mascot imagery of an American Indian wearing feathers and sometimes a headdress.

Hagans suggested the board might abstain from ruling on the Red Raider mascot, noting the board doesnt have a mascot policy. Past decisions on school colors, mascots, and logos, he said, were left up to school and community leaders.

Gastons school board is elected, which adds a political component to how it addresses this divisive issue.

In an interview with the USA Today Network, board member Steve Hall said he wanted to hear from all concerned residents before deciding on the Red Raiders.

Born and raised in Gaston County, Hall said hes still trying to learn more about why many find Native American references in sports problematic.

The Washington Redskins, its been that way for years and now its not good enough, he said. Thats not my decision making, but a lot of it I just dont understand. I dont think it was called that to disgrace the American Natives.

More: U.S.-China rivalry reaches into NC classrooms through a controversial cultural program

Athletic teams at UNC Pembrokeare called the Braves and their mascot is an American Indian with a hawk hovering over their head.

Pembroke was founded in the late 1800s as a teaching school for American Indians. Its student body is 13% American Indian, as are many of its professors. The campus is in Robeson County, home to the Lumbee Tribe. Its this presence of actual American Indians, Mary Ann Jacobs said, that makes the nickname and mascot feel representative, not exploitative.

For schools without a significant American Indian population, Jacobs warned the use of tomahawks, war cries, and chieftain caricatures prevent students from understanding the real challenges facing Indigenous communities.

Mascots hurt because if your only experience with Native people is through mascots or cartoons, then its going to be hard for you to see us as real human beings, Jacobs said. You cant really understand all these other problems that were having in our community.

Unemployment, health inequalities, domestic violence, and other side effects of historical disenfranchisement are prevalent in American Indian communities, she said. Inequalities extend to the classroom.

In 2019, American Indians in North Carolina public schools trailed their white classmates by at least 15 points in every state tested subject. Their dropout rate is3%, nearly doublethat of white students.

More: NC revises history standards amid national debate on teaching America's past

This October, a video played before the Dare County Board of Education showeda procession of Manteo High School students and alumnistating their names and graduating classes before declaring they were proud to be a Redskin.

Located in the smalltown of Manteo on the Outer Banks,Manteo High is one of two schools in the state that carries on the controversial nickname that some American Indians call the R-Word.Supporters of the nickname say it honors the Croatan Indian chief Manteo, who lived in the area in the 16th century.

Please do not erase our identity because of the current trend to cancel the past, a Manteo High student said in the video to the school board.

Most of thepeople in the video, like most students at school, werewhite or Black. This year, only one American Indian student was enrolled in Dare County Schools, state data shows.

The Proud to be a Redskin video was a response to an effort started last year by The Change the Manteo Mascots Initiative which hopes the high school follows the lead of Washingtons professional football team and changes its nickname.

In September, the Change the Manteo Mascot group brought a petition with more than 12,000 signatures to the Dare County school board. In addition to the high school, the group of alum and Outer Banks residents Manteo Middle School reconsider its Braves nickname.

Redskin does not inspire pride in everyone, especially my people, Marilyn Berry Morrison, chief of the Roanoke-Hatteras Indians of Dare County, said in a video message to the board. Morrison called the nickname racist and said, If ever there is a time to make a change, it is now. Its past time to change.

Following the pro-Redskin video in October, the seven-member school board decided to keep Manteos nickname for now, with members not wishing to burden students with a mascot change during the pandemic. Severalboard members graduated from Manteo High andvoiced their pride in its nickname.

Board member Harvey Hess expressed disappointment in the schools and teamsthat have phased out "Redskins."

It is regretful that some localities and organizations have conceded to the pressure from people who are determine to make every effort to do away with the very idea of own American traditions and local traditions, he said.

Brian Gordon is a statewide reporter with the USA Today Networkin North Carolina. Reach him at bgordon@gannett.com or on Twitter @briansamuel92.

Excerpt from:

Native American mascots are dwindling in NC schools, but some aren't ready to give them up - The Fayetteville Observer

The inauguration is complete. Power has transferred. We are on to the next chapter of American political history. But as Republicans, are we? Do we have a way forward? If elections are the scores by which politics are measured, the last four years have been an unmitigated disaster. We lost the House, Senate, and White House. Somethings not working.

And while some in the party would say we need a more forceful version of the same, Id say not. Why dont we try different? Accordingly, I would offer five things that need radical change or what many Republicans would recognize as a return to things we once stood for.

One, adherence to the truth. Facts used to be stubborn things, but that was so 1980s. Now we have alternative facts. They represent madness. If I dont trust you, and if we cant even agree that there are things we legitimately disagree on, what are we doing? A debate between conservative and liberal answers to the problems that ail us cant even begin without facts to debate. Trump has done great damage here in legitimizing the idea that its ok to make up ones own facts or not tell the truth.

Two, a tone thats not tone deaf. I really dont care or hear what youre saying as long as youre yelling at me, would strike most as a pretty normal reaction to verbal hostility. Yet thats the place former President Trump seemed to live, and his actions have given license to rudeness and cruelty on both the right and left. Ive seen firsthand how singlehandedly the president turned off a lot of young voters in this. They dont always love mom and dad, but what they saw was so at odds with what they had heard from them about treating others, they turned away in droves.

Everyone has become so strident. We have lost the humility that allows one to believe something, but be willing to hear another view. Maybe its just a re-embrace of compassion or faith, but whatever it is we need it and we need it now. The French political philosopher Tocqueville observed in the 1800s that America was great because America was good. I still believe that of the American people, but we have lost that in what we see too often in politics today. So particularly in the Republican Party, given the coarseness of Trumps approach, we need to elevate the virtues of decency, patience, and kindness so that we can be heard again. The Faustian deal struck between the religious right and Trump in pretending these things didnt matter in exchange for good court appointments needs to go.

Three, a re-embrace of reason. Just as you cant have a debate of ideas without facts, you cant do it without reason as well. Our Founding Fathers gave us a reasoned-based republic, and two of its underpinnings were faith and common sense. Their idea of reason was based on the common sense of the farmer, not the aristocrat or the intellectual. In an age wherein many are tired of political correctness, Trumps common man language had appeal. But it wasnt reasoned. It was authoritarian. Do it because I said so has a short half-life in the system of checks and balances the Founding Fathers created. Reason should also mean looking past the next election and beyond ones immediate self-interest. To contemplate what a decision means for ones descendants will require leadership sorely lacking in todays politics but its precisely the thing that people would respond to.

Four, a re-embrace of science. As Republicans, we have simply lost our minds here. How can there be any logic in trusting the science behind the miracles of modern medicine, but when the same science is applied to our planet its fake science? We should embrace science, wherever it might lead and then look for conservative solutions in fixing the problems that science uncovers.

Finally, we need to re-embrace math. We have joined the arms race of upward spending with the Democratic Party, and in doing so robbed ourselves of what was once a distinction between Republicans and Democrats. Over the last four years, Republicans have been mute as the national debt spiraled upward by about $2 trillion a year. And if both parties have abandoned watching out for my financial future, why not grab a Bud rather than a Bud Light, must be the thinking of many as they compare Democrats and Republicans. Our collective financial amnesia has us walking each day one step closer to the most predictable financial crisis in the history of man, and its sad the Republican Party no longer leads here.

These five things wont fix all that ails the GOP, but theyre a start and they need your voice.

Originally posted here:

Opinion: How the Republican Party Can Find Its Way - Prescott eNews