Responses to In These Times
I'm not yet sure whether this should be here or under the reading namespace. We'll start it here.
This is not meant to be in any way comprehensive. Rather, it will only cover those pieces about which I have something to say, grouped by issue (or under “Online” if not printed).
"Who Would Want to Grow Old Only to Grow Poor?" (July 2024)
It is rather uncomfortable that this article is framed around the Townsend Plan. While noteworthy for its place in history and relevance to the article's real focus, the Townsend Plan was in effect a pyramid scheme dressed up as a political organization. The article doesn't dig into the ideological implications of that structure, it doesn't concern itself with the ways in which the Clubs were pulling its supporters away from more ambitious movements, and it fails to question whether the Plan's stated goals were in conflict with its proposed implementation. To be fair, the article is primarily about a rising wave of organizing among today's seniors, not the Townsend Plan itself. However, the Plan is weighted quite heavily in the final product and receives comparatively little scrutiny. Imagine an article about feminism that discusses at length how empowering LuLaRoe conferences are.