Donald Trump’s bromances with political strongmen like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un have been bewildering to watch from afar. Today in The Conversation Canada, Robert Huish of Dalhousie University gives us an up-close-and-personal perspective of a North Korean defector he met who was horrified at the U.S. president’s enthusiastic embrace of Kim at their recent summit. It’s an interesting take on Trump’s unorthodox, win-against-all-odds style of diplomacy.
Another person Trump admires – alt-right guru Stephen Bannon – is the topic of an essay by Ronald Beiner of the University of Toronto, who looks at how those on the radical right have appropriated “powerful but dangerous philosophers” like Nietzsche.
And finally…why do we sometimes cheer against the good guys? It’s an interesting social phenomenon – sometimes called “do-gooder derogation"—that Pat Barclay of Guelph University has researched.
Regards,
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U.S. President Donald Trump gives North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a thumbs up during their meeting at a resort on Sentosa Island in Singapore on June 12, 2018.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Robert Huish, Dalhousie University
Donald Trump is unmoved by high risks and wild odds, apparently feeling that his sheer cunning will always win, including, now, in geopolitics — his latest casino.
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Former White House strategist Steve Bannon holds a news conference with National Front party leader Marine Le Pen in the northern French city of Lille in March 2018.
(AP Photo)
Ronald Beiner, University of Toronto
Fears about the resurgence of fascism might have seemed irrelevant during the past 70 years, when it was discredited. It doesn’t seem irrelevant today with liberal democracy on the defensive.
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Why do we sometimes punish the virtuous among us? It’s complicated.
(Photo by 小胖 车 on Unsplash)
Pat Barclay, University of Guelph
Is the expression 'no good deed goes unpunished' accurate? New research shows we often do, in fact, punish those who do good deeds.
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Science + Technology
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Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland
Researchers have found evidence of a large lake of salty water, buried 1.5 kilometres beneath the southern polar ice cap on Mars. So what does that mean for life on the red planet?
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Politics
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Sukru Cildir, Lancaster University
Muhammad bin Salman is set on transforming the oil-rich kingdom into a modern, economically diverse superpower. It won't be easy.
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Arts
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Adam de Paor-Evans, University of Central Lancashire
There are many sub-genres of Hip Hop, so why is all non-Anglophone music lumped under the label 'world music'?
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