El-Sayed: "I'm not running to fight a culture war"

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/g39heZk9ogw

 

Who Killed Charlie Kirk? (w/Brandy Zadrozny) (Conspirituality podcast)

MS NOW senior reporter Brandy Zadrozny spent 10 months tracking the conspiracy theories that evolved online in the wake of the death of Charlie Kirk. She joins Derek to discuss what her investigation found.

Interview: 

https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/drop-who-killed-charlie-kirk

Weekly Roundup: Cultural Crusades: From Hegseth’s Boat Attacks to Oklahoma’s Classrooms (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

Brad and Dan return with a packed Weekly Roundup that cuts through the noise of culture war headlines to get at what is really happening in American politics and religion this week. They start with the bizarre story dominating Congress: alleged Venezuelan narco boats, U.S. military strikes, and the growing scrutiny around Pete Hegseth’s involvement. Brad and Dan unpack the legal and ethical questions raised by the operation, the bipartisan concerns over potential war crimes, and the way Hegseth’s rhetoric is being weaponized in the larger project of authoritarian politics. As blame shifts within the administration, the hosts look at how these events fit into a longer pattern of circumventing democratic norms under the guise of national security.

From there, the episode moves into the latest culture war flashpoint out of Oklahoma. A University of Oklahoma student, Samantha Fulnecky, received a failing grade on a paper centered on conservative Christian claims, and the incident was quickly inflated into a statewide moral panic. Brad and Dan trace how a classroom disagreement became a coordinated spectacle, how politicians and media personalities seized on the moment, and what the uproar reveals about academic freedom and the pressure educators face in a polarized climate. They discuss the difference between expressing a viewpoint and meeting academic standards, and why higher education has become a convenient battleground for Christian nationalist narratives.

The hosts also break down the Supreme Court’s decision to keep Texas’s contested congressional maps in place for 2026. They examine the racial and partisan consequences of the ruling, what political leaders are saying in response, and how the decision fits into a broader assault on voting rights and democratic representation. Despite the heavy topics, Brad and Dan close with reasons for hope. They highlight ongoing pushback against authoritarian politics, communities organizing for justice, and signs that democratic accountability remains possible.
Interview: 

https://straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/weekly-roundup-cultural-crusades-from-hegseths-boat-attacks-to-oklahomas-classrooms/

In culture war backlash, Democrats sweep school boards - POLITICO

The party recruited and invested in school board races to oust Republicans. It worked...

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/21/culture-war-democrats-school-boards-00663699 

 

The Cracker Barrel mess exposes the cynicism of the rightwing culture war

The restaurant means little to activists – it's simply a tool to bludgeon perceived enemies and flex conservative power…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/29/cracker-barrel-rightwing-culture-war

 

Josh Cowen: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers | FFRF Convention 2024 - YouTube

Josh Cowen speaks out against school voucher programs, warning that they undermine public education and exacerbate inequality. He explains that vouchers were initially framed as "school choice" but have become a tool for advancing Christian nationalism and defunding public schools. Cowen argues that vouchers benefit private, often religious, schools at the expense of vulnerable students, and he advocates for investing in public education to ensure better outcomes for all students.

Josh Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University, is the author of the new book, "The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers." His popular writing on education politics, school choice and culture wars has appeared in daily newspapers, "The Hechinger Report," "The New Republic" and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIthoF-hlnM 

The Privateers (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

After a roundup of state/church news around the country, we celebrate the birthday of Eric Idle, 82, (who calls himself an “old agnostic”) by listening to his irreverent song, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” from the movie “Monty Python’s Life of Brian.” 

Then, professor and author Josh Cowen tells us about his book The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers.

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/freethought-radio/freethought-today-march-27-2025/

US public schools burned up nearly $3.2bn fending off rightwing culture attacks – report | US news | The Guardian

Researchers surveyed 467 schools and found funds for learning improvements were diverted to security, PR and attorneys in wake of targeting…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/oct/23/public-schools-culture-war-cost

The Case Against School Vouchers (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliot and FFRF Legal Fellow Hirsh Joshi join us to talk about state-church developments in Utah, Alabama, Colorado, Missouri, Tennessee and Minnesota. 

Then, we speak with Michigan State University Professor Josh Cowen about his new book, The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers.

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/freethought-radio/freethought-today-september-12-2024/

House Republicans wage ‘woke’ culture wars with the military - The Washington Post

The House vote for a defense spending bill that includes controversial amendments shows how central anti-abortion and anti-transgender policies have become to the Republican Party's agenda…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/15/house-republicans-culture-wars-military/

Why DeSantis targeted the Orlando Philharmonic’s liquor license

In fact, even after the undercover agents specifically concluded, in writing, that they "did not witness any lewd acts," the DeSantis administration's complaint said the venue had allowed children to see "acts of sexual conduct, simulated sexual activity, and lewd, vulgar and indecent displays" in violation of state decency laws.

It's almost as if the GOP administration had a predetermined political agenda, and when the evidence didn't support the plan, the evidence was simply overlooked...

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/desantis-targeted-orlando-philharmonics-liquor-license-rcna75737

Trump unveils new education policy loaded with culture war proposals - POLITICO

Now running for office again, Trump is calling for a certification program for teachers who "embrace patriotic values" and "funding preferences and favorable treatment" for states and school districts that follow his calls for abolishing teacher tenure. He also calls for cutting administrative roles, and adopting a "parental bill of rights." Trump said he would also remove "the radical zealots and Marxists" he claims have "infiltrated" the Department of Education…

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/26/trump-unveils-education-policy-culture-war-00079784

The Culture War Is Alive And Well In This Pennsylvania School District | HuffPost Latest News

"The board members are not interested in a democracy," Nazemi said. "What they want are either one of two things: public schools with Christian values, or public schools that fail so badly that we can then use our tax dollars to pay for private school."

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pennsylvania-culture-wars-books_n_63612d97e4b039b01e1f8fc5

Opinion | The culture war calculation has changed, and Democrats need to respond - The Washington Post

Let's be clear: Overturning Obergefell and making it possible for states to outlaw same-sex marriage is still the official position of the Republican Party. Republicans laid that out in their 2016 platform, which they re-adopted in full in 2020...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/09/culture-war-calculation-abortion-marriage/

Opinion | Republicans Say, ‘Let Them Eat Hate’ - The New York Times

…I'd say that G.O.P. campaigning in 2022 is all culture war, all the time, except that this would be giving Republicans too much credit. They aren't fighting a real culture war, a conflict between rival views of what our society should look like; they're riling up the base against phantasms, threats that don't even exist…

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/18/opinion/republicans-senate-immigration-jd-vance.html

Republicans’ midterms pitch: never mind the policy, here’s the culture war

"There were some very good things about the old Republican party. Now it's a party of racists and homophobes and people pursuing bizarre cultural things. It's just crazy."…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/26/republicans-midterms-culture-war-lgbtq-abortion-book-bans

‘It’s a culture war that’s totally out of control’: the authors whose books are being banned in US schools

"First," she wrote, "the remark: 'Offensive to Christians' amazes me. Nowhere in the book is the regime identified as Christian. As for sexual explicitness, The Handmaid's Tale is a lot less interested in sex than is much of the Bible."…

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/22/its-a-culture-war-thats-totally-out-of-control-the-authors-whose-books-are-being-banned-in-us-schools

Josh Hawley's 'Attack on Men' - The Atlantic

The rising-star Republican continues to try to stoke culture war in the GOP base...

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/11/josh-hawley-war-on-men/620683/

America’s evangelical church is being torn apart by culture wars

…The other side, the side that lost last week, wants to be more political, more explicitly aligned with the Trump-era Republican party, and aggressively prosecute the culture wars. They are motivated, I believe, by an inordinate fear of being out of step with the Republican party's brand of white identity politics – and its de facto leader, Trump. They believe white Christian America is embattled and surrounded by a hostile secular-liberal culture. Their only chance of survival, they believe, is to stay aligned with the Republican party against a radical left that threatens the Christian faith's very existence in America and whose ideologies are seeping into the SBC, as Mike Stone charges. As he said as he geared up for his run at the SBC presidency: "Our Lord isn't woke."…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/29/southern-baptist-convention-america-culture-wars

‘Unique problem’: Catholic bishops split over Biden’s support for abortion rights

…A scathing editorial in the National Catholic Reporter earlier this month said the "tragic reality" of proceeding with the proposal was that "it will seal the deal on the branding of Catholicism in the United States as a culture war project. 

"This culture war … is not the church of mercy and encounter that Pope Francis is trying to offer the world. Nor does it resemble what the carpenter's son from Galilee preached and died for."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/12/biden-support-abortion-rights-catholic-bishops-split