Början på ett mediakrig om mångkulturen?

College today functions as middle-class finishing school, the gate and key to the world outside the service industry. But the critical point that the Jacobin piece misses is that academia is the font of moral instruction in American society, a decade or so upstream from the mass media. We learn at college that “people of color” is the proper designation for non-whites and that “LGBTQA+” is the proper acronym for the broader gay community. This is the twenty-first-century version of knowing which fork to use when navigating a multi-course meal. Where dining etiquette expresses refinement and discipline, politically correct behavior demonstrates a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

But something common is signaled by both protocols: the education and personal virtue that legitimize social elites. The differences between the protocols are functions of a changing moral context. God no longer has the role of moral lawgiver—democracy has crowded him out. Pride Month, which comes every June, is a new sort of Eastertide, complete with passion-plays about LGBT history. Trillion-dollar corporations trip over each other to signal adherence to the queer, borderless creed. Their otherwise shameful power is sanitized with signals that their position is justified by some other moral authority. Just as attacks on the the king were once reframed as rebellions against God, attacks on corporations and governments today can be neutralized as bigotry. Whether this is justified — or if it even works — isn’t relevant. What matters is that diversity is the moral order that power instinctively tries to map itself onto.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that every dominant cultural institution has aligned against Donald Trump. Populism, in contrast to democracy, is deeply worrisome to the powerful. It appeals to the morally defective, who use the wrong fork and the wrong pronouns. Its problematic language is inevitably the language of the townie and the boozer, direct and demotic, vulgar and in need of decontamination through linguistic missionary work. And, most importantly, its particularism cuts vertical lines through the wide, horizontal world of the elite.

Italy's Matteo Salvini says being called a populist is 'a compliment'
[...]
In his first international TV interview since he became a lightning rod for criticism over Italy's treatment of migrants, Matteo Salvini told CNN he relished his role as an outsider and praised the populist wave sweeping across Europe.
"(Populist) is used as an insult, but for me it is a compliment," Salvini, also Italy's deputy prime minister, told CNN from the Interior Ministry. "Listening to the people, being a minister that goes to the cities, to the squares, to the stations, to the hospitals, for me is a duty and a pleasure."

Salvini said that if there was a lesson to be learned from Brexit and recent elections in Italy and Austria, which saw populist and right-wing parties score major victories, it was that "people want identity, security, and jobs."

"There is a beautiful reaction of the people against the dictatorship of finance, (which) wants out of control immigration," he added.
[...]
"Macron talks about values, but he doesn't recognize the values itself, and therefore they have no lessons to give to Italy," Salvini told CNN.
"With nice words we never obtained anything. In this month of government with our actions, we managed to be listened to -- the Spanish intervened, Malta must intervene, and so do the French, the German, the Dutch. ... It's clear that we need a different kind of politics," Salvini said.
[...]
"I am tired of ... the dead on the bottom of the Mediterranean, and that other countries are not doing what Italy has done over the last years. Numbers speak -- none of the other European countries did even half of what Italy did. (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel said Italy cannot be left alone. The Spanish and French, everyone speaks of generosity -- let them put that in practice."

Rapport: Kontroversiell islamism växer i Sverige

Salafismen, en fundamentalistisk inriktning inom islam, har vuxit sig starkare i Sverige, enligt en ny rapport. På flera platser i svenska städer påverkar salafister numera vardagen genom påtryckningar och hot.

Radikala predikanter skrämmer till lydnad, moralpoliser bevakar kvinnor och barn hindras från att leka med barn av annan tro.
[...]
Politiken och hela samhället bör förstå hur de här miljöerna påverkar den svenska samhällsutvecklingen, säger terrorismforskaren Magnus Ranstorp som är en av rapportförfattarna.
[...]
Några exempel:

I Gävle sätter salafisterna press på andra muslimer att bli mer radikala och inlemma sig i deras tro. De har tydliga kriterier kring vad som krävs för att leva som en ”riktig muslim”. Muslimer som vägrar riskerar att trakasseras.

I Borås sätts unga från tidig ålder i koranskolor och får lära sig att inte beblanda sig med det motsatta könet. Enskilda elever dricker inte skolans vatten och får inte måla med vattenfärg eftersom vattnet är ”kristet”.

I Västerås förekommer religiös påverkan blandat med kriminalitet. ”Det kan handla om ett gäng grabbar som kommer in i matbutik. Har kassörskan inte slöja på sig tar de vad de vill ha utan att betala, de kallar kassörskan för svennehora och spottar på henne”, berättar en polis i rapporten.

I Eskilstuna bevakar salafister hur kvinnor och barn klär sig. Heltäckande klädsel praktiseras långt ner i åldrarna.