The Week Magazine February 11, 2022

Let’s be honest with ourselves: A censor lurks in all of us. When we encounter ideas and arguments that we believe are morally and factually wrong, we instinctively want them banned. When a speaker triggers our visceral disgust, we want him or her silenced, fired, ruined, and perhaps drawn and quartered. These impulses have been given free rein through most of human history, until that radical document, the Constitution, enshrined free speech as a fundamental right. But it’s a right that’s in constant conflict with our passions, and is thus always in danger—never more so than now. With the culture war at a boil, the clamoring for censorship has risen to a din. Books that discuss racism, homosexuality, and even the Holocaust are being banned from schools, and history lessons…

What happened President Biden said last week he would choose a successor for retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer by month’s end, and pledged to honor a campaign vow to name the first Black woman nominee in the high court’s 232-year history. The announcement by the 83-year-old Breyer that he would step down after the court’s current term in June was greeted with relief by Democrats, because it will enable Biden to name a successor with 51 votes while Democrats control the Senate. Breyer, the court’s senior liberal jurist, faced mounting pressure to give Democrats the chance to confirm a successor before the November 2022 midterms, when Republicans may regain Senate control—and the power to block any nomination. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer promised to “move quickly” toward a…

What happened Tensions spiraled between the U.S. and Russia this week as the U.S. approved deployment of 3,000 troops to NATO members Poland, Germany, and Romania. With 130,000 Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders, the White House warned that a Russian invasion would trigger punishing sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. The Russian president accused the U.S. of goading Russia into war while ignoring its security concerns, and reiterated his demand that NATO never accept Ukraine as a member. In a heated U.N. Security Council meeting, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya blamed the U.S. for undermining a pro-Russian administration in Ukraine in 2014, and said Washington had installed “pure Nazis” in its place. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a brief call with Russia’s foreign minister this week, demanded…

Bouncing Ping-Pong balls. Slicing kiwis with a samurai sword. Juggling blindfolded. Oh, and catching marshmallows. It was a record-breaking year for David Rush, an Idaho man who set out to set one record a week in 2021. So far, the Guinness World Record organization has verified 43 of the records, a few set with partners—including the record for the fastest time to wrap a person with wrapping paper. A teacher, Rush says that his aim is to inspire students, showing them that “if you set your mind to a goal, believe in yourself, and pursue it with a passion, you can accomplish nearly anything.” Kayla and Nathan Dahl were sound asleep when their toddler came in to tug on his mother’s foot and utter two of the few words he’s…

When Dr. Seuss’ publisher stopped printing one of his older books last year because of its racial stereotypes, Fox News and Republicans cried “cancel culture!” said Ryan Grenoble in HuffPost. But unashamed of their hypocrisy, conservatives in 30 states are now seeking to root out books from classrooms and school libraries that offend them, “in what experts are calling a historic and concerted book-banning effort.” The likely inspiration was Republican Glenn Youngkin, whose successful campaign for Virginia’s governorship featured a TV ad in which a white mother complained that her son had nightmares after his high school class read Toni Morrison’s Beloved. (The acclaimed novel includes extensive passages about slavery, rape, and murder.) GOP activists, school boards, lawmakers, and governors across the nation quickly got in on the action,…

Good week for: Josh Wardle, a Brooklyn software engineer, who sold his wildly popular online word game, Wordle, to The New York Times for more than $1 million. “I’d be lying if I said this hasn’t been a little overwhelming,” said Wardle, who created the game in October. The Washington Football Team, which dropped “Redskins” nearly two years ago over complaints it was racially insensitive, finally announced its new name: the Washington Commanders. Arts and crafts, with a report that many of the White House documents obtained by the House committee investigating Jan. 6 had been torn up by former President Trump and taped back together. Trump reportedly had a habit of ripping up internal documents in defiance of the Presidential Records Act. Bad week for: Whoopi Goldberg, who was…