The Fish Rots from the Head
It's already been a volatile month for all things DEI, and that leaves Dr. Lisa and Dr. Shaunna with exponentially more to discuss. This week, topics include Meta’s new content policies, the Equal Rights Amendment, and how disconnected the electorate voting patterns can be. These are all (fish)bones of contention.
Word of the Week [1:40]: Oligarchy: President Biden's final speech to the American people made mention of it, but many may have had to google it.
Phase 1 [5:20]: Anti-Meta: Ending third-party fact checking wasn't enough. They've ended DEI efforts and will now allow social media users to suggest a person’s sexual or gender identity is the product of mental illness when it does not conform to dominant categories.
Phase 2 [20:43]: (Less) Equal Rights: Biden dropped the ball by not instructing the National Archivist to formally publish the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: The Equal Rights Amendment. The Archivist is the one person charged with making constitutional amendments official.
Phase 3 [31:30]: Disconnected Electorate: Why don't elected officials represent the people who elected them? And why does the electorate vote for issues and representatives that are not aligned? The 2024 Missouri amendment to protect abortion is a good case study for this disconnect.
Mentioned in the show
Meta's new hate speech guidelines permit users to say LGBTQ people are mentally ill - NBC News
Meta's New Policies: How They Endanger LGBTQ+ Communities and Our Tips for Staying Safe Online - Human Rights Campaign
Meta's Hateful Conduct Policies
What Biden didn’t do on the Equal Rights Amendment is more important than what he did - Politico
Biden says the Equal Rights Amendment is law. What happens next is unclear - NPR
