Tag: David Remnick

The first is that we need to break out of our echo chambers. One such collision came in the controversy over Steve Bannon’s (non) appearance at the New Yorker festival. To host Bannon at a literary festival, critics argued, was to afford a white supremacist a platform and to provide him with legitimacy. He doesn’t need the New Yorker to give him legitimacy. Steve Bannon dropped from New Yorker festival after invite sparks anger Read more A festival hosted by the uber-liberal New Yorker may not, of course, be the best place to engage with Trump supporters. “Every minute spent debating the opponents’ lies,” he insisted, “is a minute when we fail to deliver our truth.” It’s true that simply presenting facts and figures about job losses or racial disparities rarely sways people. That means tackling figures such as Bannon in public debates, not refusing to engage with them because their ideas are odious. Engagement can also mean challenging ideas that we know we despise. The real audience would have been those who were open enough to rethink their views on Bannon. That is to imply that there is no future for politics.

New Yorker editor David Remnick says that President Donald Trump is playing right into the hands of Vladimir Putin and creating a hero out of the Russian president to cultural conservatives.

Comey memos: six of the biggest takeaways Read more Would the left vote for Comey, even after how he handled Hillary Clinton’s emails? “I wouldn’t call myself a member of the resistance – resistance to what?” he replies. Trump, I suggest. “I don’t support Trump but I wouldn’t say I’m an active part of the resistance.” Why? “Because I’m not actively resisting. I resist emotionally but I don’t necessarily do anything.” Not everyone considers themselves so passive. She speaks highly of Comey, but remains “split” over whether she’s a fan. “I have co-workers who went to college with him and he’s a man of integrity, people don’t question that,” she says. After the crowds file out of the theatre, I manage to bump into Remnick and ask him what he thinks. I don’t think he feels like he’s part of any resistance.