Snippets about: Human Rights
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The Long Arc of Changing Attitudes Toward Gay Rights
In the early 1980s, when Evan Wolfson wrote his law school thesis making the case for same-sex marriage, the idea was so far outside the mainstream that he couldn't find a professor willing to serve as his advisor. Popular culture, exemplified by the 1969 bestseller Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), portrayed gay men as promiscuous, maladjusted, and incapable of stable relationships.
The AIDS crisis further stigmatized gay life in the public imagination. In 2004, a majority of Americans supported amending the U.S. Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.
Yet by 2012, the tide had dramatically turned, with a rapid cascade of states legalizing same-sex marriage and polls registering solid majority support. Once considered an impossibility, gay marriage became the norm in a historical blink of an eye. Understanding this dizzying transformation requires looking beyond politics to the realm of popular culture.
Section: 3, Chapter: 8
Book: Revenge of the Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Freedom Demands Civic Courage - We Must Take Responsibility
Lesson 20: Be as courageous as you can: Stand up for your convictions even in the face of fear and intimidation.
We face a dangerous moment when the future of freedom is in doubt. It's easy to grow cynical or paralyzed. But as Snyder argues, the lesson of the 20th century is that individual citizens have more power than they realize.
Ultimately, tyranny prevails only when the people acquiesce to it. So we all share responsibility to muster our courage and fight for democracy. This takes many forms - participating in politics, defending dissent, standing up to oppression in our daily lives. As Snyder poignantly observes, "If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny." The stakes are high, but so is our duty. We must practice the "corporeal politics" of showing up in person and putting our bodies on the line when called to do so.
Section: 1, Chapter: 20
Book: On Tyranny
Author: Timothy Snyder
The Autocratic Assault On The Language Of Human Rights
Autocracies are systematically working to purge the world's guiding institutions of references to human rights and democracy. Their replacement vocabulary:
- "Right to development" - a metrics for well-being defined by states, not universal principles
- "Sovereignty" - code for governments' impunity within their borders
- "Win-win cooperation" - mutual agreement not to criticize each other's political systems
- "Mutual respect" - non-interference in others' "internal affairs"
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Book: Autocracy, Inc
Author: Anne Applebaum
