‘Jimmy Lai, a symbol of the end of freedom in Hong Kong’
Le Monde editorial board
The “final nail was hammered into the coffin of the freedom that for so long had made Hong Kong a unique territory in the Chinese world,” as “judges appointed by authorities loyal to Beijing imposed an exceptionally harsh sentence of 20 years in prison for pro-democracy activist and former media mogul Jimmy Lai,” said the Le Monde editorial board. This “fate mirrors that of several dissidents in mainland China, evidence, if any were needed, of the flattening of political differences inherited from history.”
‘Toxic stress: The long-term harms ICE’s tactics are doing to our children’
Dana Suskind at The Hill
ICE’s “approach to immigration reform is deeply detrimental to public health, in both the present and long term,” says Dana Suskind. Adverse “childhood events and toxic stress disrupt children’s brain development; it is hard to think of a more traumatic or stressful event for children than being forcibly separated from their families.” Immigration enforcement “should not come at the expense of children’s wellbeing, parents’ and caregivers’ dignity, or our nation’s moral compass.” Children “need access to loving, nurturing caregivers.”
‘I study moral panics. The Epstein files are not one.’
Marcella Szablewicz at MS NOW
As the “world recoiled from the revelations in the U.S. government’s files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,” some op-eds “labeled it a ‘moral panic,’” says Marcella Szablewicz. As a “communication and media studies professor who studies moral panics, I want to be clear: The Epstein scandal is not one.” By “definition, moral panics are short-lived. The fervor dies down, and the once-threatening change is eventually accepted by society.” Let’s “not pretend that demanding more answers constitutes a moral panic.”
‘What Super Bowl commercials teach us about capitalism’
Eben Shapiro at Time
The “Super Bowl is the only thing Google cannot replicate,” says Eben Shapiro. In a “fragmented world, it is one of the only times 120 million people look at the same screen simultaneously,” and the “Super Bowl ad is no longer just a commercial; it is a vanity metric.” It is the “only place where a brand can guarantee that its ad will be watched by a group of people at the same time, in one place, together.”
Opinion, comment and editorials of the day