Mexican water lily

Nymphaea mexicana opening at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center on September 8th.

 For those of you interested in the craft of photography, points 1, 9, and 18
in About My Techniques are relevant to today’s portrait.

 

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Are you troubled by the rising tides of censorship and intolerance seemingly everywhere? Dismayed by the loss of complexity and nuance in discussions about, well, seemingly everything? Frustrated that we’ve somehow shorthanded all of this with an unfortunate phrase like cancel culture? Me too.

Having grown up under a military dictatorship in Pakistan, I know well what happens when freedom of expression is threatened and people are bullied into silence. It pains me deeply to see this happening in my adopted country. As a professor, attacks on open speech and academic freedom on campus are even more alarming. Hence my podcast: Banished.

Banished is a show about our reassessment of the many people, ideas, objects and even works of art that conflict with modern sensibilities. To be clear, I have no tribe and don’t feel the need for one. So join me as I look at threats to expression across the ideological spectrum — from book bans to anti-CRT bills to the increasing dogmatism of both conservative and progressive politics. Banished is where you’ll find interesting, intellectually sophisticated and thought provoking conversations about illiberal trends.

That’s from the welcome page of Banished, a blog by Amna Khalid that I recently came across. I call your attention to a July 24th post she wrote with Jeffrey Aaron Snyder called “Cancel Culture: It’s real and on the rise, on the left and the right.” The authors state that

cancel culture is much more than a ginned up moral panic. This becomes evident when you zoom out to look at the U.S. censorship landscape beyond a narrow, partisan frame. In this piece we will debunk the myths about cancel culture advanced by both the left and the right. 

You’re welcome to read the post, which fleshes out seven of what they consider cancel culture myths. The piece includes plenty of links to relevant articles.

 

© 2022 Steven Schwartzman