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Megan Cook, Russ Nelson and Ann Groves Lloyd are mayors of small towns in Maryland, Montana and Wisconsin.

Nelson has been the mayor of Belgrade, Montana, for 20 years.

Karen Rose has been with Sarasota County Schools in Florida for more than three decades serving as a special education teacher, middle school principal and since 2020 on the local school board.

Over their tenures, the quartet and local officials across the country have seen the exponential growth of social media and its impacts on civil discourse, as well as the increasing intersections between divisive national politics and whats happening at the community level.

Rose, who became chair of the Sarasota County School Board in November, said shes worked for and with multiple superintendents and times have definitely changed.

We took great pride in no one knowing our political affiliation. We kept each other in check. It was a matter of pride, Rose said.

Now, Florida conservatives (including Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis) and progressives (including some outspoken teacher unions and Democratic-leaning school boards) clash locally over COVID and vaccine rules, controversial books in libraries, the states so-called Dont Say Gay law restricting elementary school teachers from talking to young students about gender identity and sexual orientation and how to teach Americas racial history.

Rose said she saw some previous superintendents let politics take away from the focus on academic achievement.

Cultural wars were being let in and taking hold, she said.

Rose, a Republican, said the current superintendent, Terry Connor, (who was hired last year) has shown a focus on academic achievement and data-driven solutions.

But thats not stopping the politics at board meetings, she said.

There is clearly an organized agenda that is political in the boardroom during public comment, Rose said. Its very organized.

Rose said Democratic advocates will speak during the comment period, noting a recent hearing where 67 people spoke, with only three focused on academics.

Some of the recent comments have been geared toward Bridget Ziegler, who has served on the Sarasota school board since 2014 and was a co-founder of the lightning rod conservative education group Moms for Liberty, which has become a GOP political force.

Liberal activists and other critics have called for Ziegler to resign her post amid a police investigation of her husband, former Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler, over an alleged sexual encounter with his wife and another woman. Christian Ziegler could face video voyeurism charges for allegedly videotaping the encounter. Bridget Ziegler has never faced any legal allegations in the episode. She did not respond to an interview request.

Social media and national political tensions have changed the landscape of local politics and discourse at school boards, city councils and other bodies.

Rose saidpolitical advocates, as well as some media outlets, have focused on Florida controversies, including debates over controversial and mature content at libraries. Those debates, along with fights over drag shows at libraries, other public venues and local businesses, have been happening across the country.

They continue to talk about book banning. This board has not banned one single book, she said.

Conservative and progressive advocates increasingly view local councils and school boards as venues to mobilize supporters and address issues of concern.

Carlos Guillermo Smith, senior policy adviser for Equality Florida (an LGBTQ rights group), said the group has a long history of mobilizing parents and community members to attend school board and council meetings when issues of concern arise.

We have also had a regular presence at the Sarasota school board meetings, especially in the wake of recent Moms For Liberty/Ziegler scandals, he said.

Anti-war and pro-Palestinian activists have pushed liberal jurisdictions, including San Francisco, to approve resolutions condemning Israels war in Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and calling for a ceasefire. Other progressives advocated for spending cuts and shifting money away from police after the death of George Floyd in 2020.

Among conservatives, Mark Lee Dickson, a Christian pastor and anti-abortion rights advocate from Texas, has gotten 65 cities and seven counties in Texas, Nebraska, New Mexico and other states to pass Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiatives. The measures aim to signal communities oppositionto abortion rights and resistance to having abortion clinics in their jurisdictions.

Florida has seen local fights over school curriculums, controversial books, drag shows at public venues, COVID rules, LGBTQ rights and what teachers should can teach about sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.

Frustrations with and more cautious approaches related to social media are common refrains from local officials wary of viral controversies and local rumor mills.

In small-town Montana, where Belgrade has a population approaching 13,000 people, Nelson avoids social media and its penchant for unpleasant and contentious discourse.

Im not on Facebook. Im not on social media, said Nelson, who has been in office since 2003 and won reelection in November for a final term before his expected retirement. You can call me, or if you need me, you can text me. Thats my technology.

The more contentious nature of local politics whether it comes from social media criticism or its mirroring of national fights over hot-button issues or former President Donald Trump also can discourage potential candidates for local office and can lead to shorter tenures for some city, county and school district staff, Nelson said.

Good people see how challenging it is and dont enter the game, he said.

Ann Groves Lloyd is the mayor of Lodi, Wisconsin, a town of just over 3,200 residents near Madison. Groves Lloyd describes herself as a progressive feminist and small-town mayor on her social media profile on X (formerly Twitter).

The progressive mayor is a vehement critic of former President Trump, is no fan of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and is not sure she can find compromise or common ground with conservative adherents of alt-right media such as Alex Jones or those getting worked up about drag shows.

Groves Lloyd also said she saw already rough civil discourse get even rougher during the debates over COVID mask mandates, vaccines and shutdowns.

It was pretty toxic, she said. For me, personally, I took a giant step back from social media. I used to post a lot of mostly progressive things on Facebook.

Now, the Wisconsin mayor keeps her ideological posts to X, which has a national and international focus.

She also worries about social media rumor mills and rabbit holes leading constituents astray.

From a city perspective, we just wish people would pick up the phone and call us. We are constantly fighting the rumor mill, she said.

Some activists counter that local governments and school boards are not always forthcoming with information or friendly with constituents who are less connected or come from opposing political camps.

Still, social media and live and replayed online broadcasts of meetings allow more residents and local businesses to engage with and keep tabs on local matters.

The more information that we share with the public about whats happening in town, the better. We also have a live feed for all of our council, board and commission meetings. If residents arent able to make it, they can always watch the recordings from our website, said Cook, mayor of Easton, on Marylands Eastern Shore.

The town is using social media as another way of sharing information with the community. Its a quick, easy and efficient way to share information, she said.

Even Nelson said social media helps drive interest and council meeting attendance on hot-button issues such as dogs, fireworks and marijuana,referring to city regulations and decisions on dispensaries after Montana voters legalized cannabis for recreational use in 2020.

Social media allows more residents and local businesses to keep tabs on city councils, county commissions and other local bodies. It can also create more local political tensions that mirror national divisions.

A police officer in Mobile, Alabama, talks to a man protesting a drag story hour at a local public library.

While many local elected offices are nonpartisan, partisan politics has increasingly become part of local elections and governance.

In Montana, Nelson, a self-described moderate Republican, voiced frustration with the far right conservative agenda from the state legislature impacting and dictating policy paths to local entities.

Conservative state lawmakers have passed laws requiring local school districts to open their enrollments to out-of-district students, and looked to put limitsonsome municipal zoning powers, including efforts to develop more affordable and multifamily units statewide.

National political and social media tensions including those centered around former president Donald Trump are increasingly evident in local elections and at local government meetings.

Back East, Easton, which has a population of close to 17,500, is part of Talbot County, which saw a contentious fight that drew national political and media attention over a Confederate statue in front of the county courthouse.

The Talbot Boys statue, erected in 1916, was relocated to a private memorial park in Virginia in 2022 after a vote by the county council. Cook said Easton has been able to avoid some of the wave of national divisiveness, but she has definitely seen a greater interest from Democratic and Republican groups in local races, as well as more questions from voters about her own party affiliation.

In town elections, we dont run on a party system, which I love. It shouldnt matter what youre registered as, if you need assistance from the town were going to be there, said Cook, a Democrat, who was elected mayor last year after serving as Town Council president.

That being said, I was asked more during my last campaign what I was registered as than I have before and both Central Committees seemed to want to be involved.

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Local Lightning Rods: Social media, national partisan divisions, culture wars have changed tone and tenor of local ... - Wyoming Tribune

By Jason Koch, Editor

School districts across the state, including one that borders Warren County, have been dealing with culture war issues that take the focus off education.

But for the most part, Warren County hasnt had to deal with those issues.

I would say that largely we have not been confronted with that, Wright City R-II Superintendent Dr. Christopher Berger said. Have we had a little bit of it? Absolutely. St. Charles County is too close not to have some kind of residual effect to us.

The Wentzville School District has had a number of run-ins with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, including over allegedly hiding its deliberations on instituting a new transgender bathroom policy to avoid input and outrage from parents.

Bailey sued the district after two members of the school board emerged as whistleblowers and more than 40 members of the community filed formal complaints with the attorney generals office.

Parents have the right to know who is in the bathroom with their children. Members of the Wentzville School Board knowingly and purposefully denied parents that right when they shrouded the transgender student bathroom usage policy in secrecy, directly violating the Open Meetings Law, Bailey said.

Fortunately for Warren County, that type of issue hasnt arisen here.

I can say with 100 percent confidence that Wright City is not being confronted with that to the level, Berger said.

He credited the board of education as a big reason why.

I think our board is sensible to those things, Berger said.

He also believes that people may be moving out of St. Charles County to get away from those issues, and that the community doesnt want to see them come up in a place like Wright City.

Im optimistic that people coming to our community are looking to get away from that stuff, Berger said. Wright City, for example, just has a history of being above the fray on some of that stuff.

Berger was thankful for that because he said the culture war issues at hand can do serious damage to school districts.

Some of our schools in the area are just torn apart with those types of things splitting their board, he said.

About the author: Jason Koch is the editor of The Warren County Record, and covers local news and government for the newspaper. He has won multiple awards from both the Indiana and Illinois APME and from the Illinois Press Association. He can be reached at 636-456-6397 or at jason@warrencountyrecord.com

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Wright City schools manage to 'stay above the fray' of culture wars - Warren County Record

Is there any cultural kerfuffle that the venerable British Museum cannot escape? Last month it was a packed fashion show in front of ancient Greek sculptures that touched off a firestorm. This week it is a collision of ancient Roman soldiers with the humorless hordes of Instagram, and results are not pretty.

To promote its new exhibition, Legion, museum marketers posted a message that read in part, Girlies, if youre single and looking for a man, this is your sign to go to the British Museums new exhibition, Life in the Roman Army, and walk around looking confused. Youre welcome. Ha ha, maybe.

As if the mere use of the word girlies by one of the worlds preeminent cultural institutions was not enough to get the ranks of academics and humorless Zoomers crying sexism, the cheeky suggestion that female museum-goers could be looking for something other than historical edification was enough to get them strenuously clutching at their pearls.

Londons Telegraph newspaper reported that the post was simply meant to poke fun at last years TikTok trend wherein, as the Daily Mail reported, women shared clips of themselves expressing bewilderment at how often the men in their lives think about the Roman Empire in some cases, more often than sex. Yet not everybody found it funny, though and (mercifully) not everyone uses TikTok.

A visiting research fellow at Kings College London, Claire Millington, commented on social media, Unrelenting fascist imagery and sexism dolloped on top.

The British Museum, recognizing a bad publicity move when it sees one, deleted the post and apologized: We are not actually suggesting that women need to look for dates or pretend to be stupid. Apologies to anyone who wasnt aware of the wider context who felt offended by this meme, a museum representative said.

That is something it did not do for what many consider to be a much greater cultural faux pas staging a fashion show in front of the Elgin Marbles, which Greek officials lambasted as demonstrating zero respect for Greek culture.

The Instagram post teasingly conflating Roman warriors with romance has as yet provoked no similar ire from Rome.

Under the stewardship of George Osbourne, a former chancellor of the Exchequer, the British Museum has been no stranger to controversy. Last year, say, the museum was found to have lost 2,000 items in its inventory. Mr. Osbourne has also come under fire for discussing a possible return of the Elgin Marbles to Athens discussions that apparently transpired without the sanction of Downing Street. What in the world was he thinking?

In respect of the outrage over the marketing of the ancient Roman show, should the scions of British culture really care? They might have no choice. A student at Londons prestigious Saint Martins School of Art told this correspondent: You would not believe the level of political correctness in this country right now, and its not only about what you can say or write. We are even coached on how we should frame sociologically the way we express ourselves artistically.

Freedom of expression appears to be having a better run in sunnier climes. The University of Florida has shuttered its chief diversity office and halted DEI-focused vendor contracts.

Far from Britain and a growing number of European countries that are flirting with the imposition of new rules on use of language in the name of gender equality, Argentina is pushing back against an overdose of political correctness as it applies to the Spanish lexicon.

Last week the Argentine president, Javier Milei, ordered the prohibition of so-called inclusive language by the national government. At a press conference his spokesman, Manuel Adorni, said that steps will be taken to prohibit inclusive language and everything related to gender perspective throughout the national public administration. He specified that the letter e, the @, and x will not be used along with the unnecessary inclusion of the feminine variation of a word in all public administration documents.

All nouns in Spanish have a gender, typically designated by the -o ending for masculine and the -a ending for feminine. Advocates of language inclusivity have concocted gender-neutral endings to make masculine words cover both sexes for example, todos (a masculine generic meaning everyone) would be made by such advocates into the gender neutral todxs, todes, or tod@s.

Mr. Milei will be having none of it. Last month, the ministry of defense stated that the use of so-called inclusive language did not correspond to the linguistic rules of Royal Spanish Academy and the Argentine Academy of Letters.

What do creeping curbs on truly free speech in Britain or for that matter, America have to do with the winds of change in Argentina? Not enough, at least not at present, boys and girlies.

Originally posted here:
London Fidgets in the Culture Wars as Buenos Aires Reframes the Game - The New York Sun

I spent over an hour scrolling through posts about Sydney Sweeneys SNL appearance on social media, and based on my findings, brain worms are a serious epidemic.

Sydney Sweeney has two Emmy nominations under her belt and starring roles in a couple of recent commercial Hollywood releases, making her an extremely normal pick to host SNL over the weekend. Online, the conversations about Sweeney are anything but. Unsurprisingly, the majority of posts about her appearance on SNL have more to do with her physical appearance than with her performance. Its something that Sweeney herself would acknowledge, as she did in her SNL monologue, and gamely laugh off to let you know shes in on the jokethe joke being that she is both conventionally attractive (i.e., hot) and a professional actor. And because having large breasts requires acknowledging them so that everyone (mostly heterosexual men) can shut up and move on. Except that a lot of people are not shutting up about it.

While Sweeney was experimenting with sketch comedyplaying a Gen Z social media savant, a server at Hooters, and a version of herself who lusts after Bowen Yangshe was being adopted by far-right conservatives and straight-up fascists as their new mascot. On the hellsite formerly known as Twitter, conservatives are hailing Sweeneys SNL hosting gig as a return to normalcy and a sign that society is ready to once again embrace traditional values. Some are less subtle than others in equating Sweeneys whiteness with traditional beauty, but the posts are all uniformly repulsive.

When one verified usera self-proclaimed journalist whose recent content consists of Michael Jackson apologia and an appearance on Alex Jones showposted that Sweeneys SNL episode has some of the most views in recent history (sure, but: citation needed?), the conservatives weaponized this non-news as proof that what real American people want is hot white ladies with big honkers, not fat women, transgenders, and circus freaks. And I am really sorry for retyping those words, but I promise you that after wasting more than an hour of my precious time on this planet searching Sydney Sweeney on X, its one of the least offensive versions of that particular sentiment.

Sweeneys SNL gig is also, according to multiple men who openly identify as white supremacists, proof that wokeness is dead. Whatever that means. Mostly it makes me think of a hypothetical progressive hetero teen boy writhing in agony as he attempts to reconcile his attraction to Sydney Sweeney with his belief in dismantling the prison industrial complex. And to that boy I say: you can like boobs and hate cops. These are not mutually exclusive. It also makes me think that Sweeney will soon be forced to issue a public statement denouncing white supremacy, not unlike Taylor Swift, who was also unwittingly adopted by neo-Nazis obsessed with her traditional features.

Meanwhile, in the left corner, the discourse is only slightly less brain-numbing and largely boils down to: SNLand by extension, society as a wholeneeds to stop objectifying hot actors, who are so much more than their looks. I agree that being hot isnt the only reason that most actors are famous, but unfortunately, we live in a society that prizes conventional beauty and actors are, like, 90% famous for being hot. There are plenty of people who are good at acting and will probably never be publicly recognized for it because audiences generally prefer when Hot People do it. The Sydney Sweeney Problem, as far as reasonable people are concerned, islike most thingsa systemic issue that needs to be addressed at the highest levels of Hollywood. If SNL wasnt the type of show to regularly platform racists, bigots, and ultra-conservative presidential candidates (sometimes all three!), I might expect them to Do Better.

Whether or not Sydney Sweeney was good on SNL (she was okay) isnt even a consideration in this discourse. Like her most recent filmsthe superhero misfire Madame Web and the off-base rom-com Anyone But YouSweeneys episode of SNL is popular for all the wrong reasons.

(featured image: NBC)

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Britt Hayes (she/her) is an editor, writer, and recovering film critic with over a decade of experience. She has written for The A.V. Club, Birth.Movies.Death, and The Austin Chronicle, and is the former associate editor for ScreenCrush. Britt's work has also been published in Fangoria, TV Guide, and SXSWorld Magazine. She loves film, horror, exhaustively analyzing a theme, and casually dissociating. Her brain is a cursed tomb of pop culture knowledge.

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Sydney Sweeney's 'SNL' Stint Has Become an Unlikely Focal Point in the Culture Wars - The Mary Sue

St Patricks Cathedral, New York City. Photo: OSV NEWS/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ

A few weeks ago, a funeral was held for Cecilia Gentili in New Yorks St Patricks Cathedral.

The funeral was a cause of scandal and great controversy for several reasons.

First, Gentili was a publicly professed atheist whose stand-up comedy acts included jokes about blasphemous sex acts far too vulgar to put in print.

Second, Gentili spent a great number of years lobbying in favour of laws that the Church opposed, includingat the time of Gentilis deaththe full legalisation of prostitution and solicitation.

Third, one of the many eulogies at the funeral proclaimed Gentili (in Spanish and English) to be this whore, this great whore, Saint Cecilia, mother of all whores, and this was met by rapturous applause and a standing ovation from the congregation.

During the same eulogy, two male speakers engaged in a kiss while still on the sanctuary. Fourth, and I want to say least importantly in terms of scandal, Gentili was a biological man who had, for many years, identified as a woman.

In the days following, the cathedral dean, Fr Enrique Salvo, issued a statement saying that the cathedral only knew that family and friends were requesting a funeral Mass for a Catholic, and had no idea our welcome and prayer would be degraded in such a sacrilegious and deceptive way. He also confirmed a Mass of reparation had been offered.

Some have suggested the cathedral staff either must have known of Gentilis notoriety and did not think it a problem or were completely negligent in doing basic preparation for a funeral, such as meeting with the family and asking about the life and faith of the deceased. Whats more, an obituary published in the New York Times three days before the funeral would have given the cathedral enough information about the deceased. Those organising the funeral insist they were not deceptive, and simply wanted to hold the funeral for an icon in an iconic venue.

I imagine the truth of the situation lies somewhere in the middle. But rather than focusing what happened in this particular case, I think Gentilis funeral should be an invitation to the church more broadly to consider whether it is time to come up with some specific protocols and procedures in the event more funerals are used as the next frontier in the culture wars.

Even if a priest does his due diligence prior to a funeral, there is no guarantee that he isnt going to show up on the day to a church full of activists who are there not in prayer, but protest.

Like Gentilis funeral, it could be about transgender rights and sex work. Given the state of end-of-life laws here in Australia, it could be used as an event to reject church teaching on euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The priest celebrating Gentilis funeral realised something was amiss prior to the funeral commencing and made the decision that there would be no funeral Mass, just a simple funeral liturgy. It was prudent thinking on his part, but perhaps bishops should also speak with their priests about strategies they might use in such situations and give them the confidence that they will have his support if they need to use them.

Perhaps, like in Gentilis case, a short liturgy might be used. This would not prevent a private Mass for the repose of the soul of the deceased being offered later.

Maybe Mass might still be celebrated but Holy Communion not distributed if things seem amiss or go awryif such a thing is allowed under liturgical and canonical norms.

Maybe, when a funeral is requested and the deceased or their family is not known to the parish, some additional questions might be asked, or eulogies omitted, minimised or pre-submitted. This might especially be necessary for funerals requested at the diocesan cathedral or other places of significance.

This isnt about denying people the graces of a funeral Mass. I think the church should be generous with funerals because we are all sinners in need of Gods mercy. But this generosity shouldnt extend to those who reject the existence of God and who instead want to use our churches and clergy as props in a narcissistic pantomime, nor for those who want to co-opt our liturgies as weapons in the culture wars.

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Are funerals the new culture war frontier? - The Catholic Weekly