Author: Elliot Neaman/US Correspondent
Elliot Neaman/US Correspondent
Elliot Neaman is a professor of European intellectual history at the University of San Francisco. His scholarship focuses on post-World War II German society, including, on the right, the politics of literature after Nazism and on the left, the trajectory of youth revolts from reform to extremism. He is the author of A Dubious Past: Ernst Jünger and the Politics of Literature after Nazism (1999) and Free Radicals: Agitators, Hippies, Urban Guerrillas, and Germany's Youth Revolt of the 1960s and 1970s (2016). His work engages themes of fascism, right-wing thought, terrorism and memory politics in Germany and Europe.
By Elliot Neaman/US Correspondent The attempted assassination at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner exposes America’s deepening polarization, gun saturation and social media-fueled disinformation. Conspiracy narratives, now embraced by both the left and right, distract from real threats like political violence and security failures while eroding democratic trust. Instead of mirroring extremist tactics, society must address root causes and prioritize truth, accountability and collective problem-solving to heal its frayed democracy. Within minutes of the shots fired near the security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCD) dinner on April 25, social media had already delivered its verdict: “STAGED.” Never mind that the suspect,…