The Angle

The Angle: Oppositional Vernaculars Edition

Slate’s daily newsletter on Trump’s scariest actions, academic jargon, and Mary Tyler Moore’s legacy.

President Donald Trump arrives before delivering remarks during a visit to the Department of Homeland Security January 25, 2017 in Washington, D.C. 

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

And it’s only Thursday: “It has always been clear that Trump has authoritarian instincts,” writes Yascha Mounk. “Over the last week, any remaining hope that the highest office in the land might check those instincts has been dashed.” Mounk pulls the three scariest moments out of a week’s worth of shattered democratic norms.

White Americans don’t agree with Trump: White Americans may have ushered Trump into office—but they don’t support his attacks on immigrants, Muslims, and women. “The election wasn’t a mandate for chauvinism,” William Saletan argues.

Reterritorializing the oppositional vernaculars: Everyone loves making fun of the jargon academics use—and Rebecca Schuman gets it. But in an age of anti-intellectualism, humanities scholars’ need for a specialized vocabulary is more important than ever.

Mary Tyler Moore’s legacy: Without Mary Richards, there would be no Rachel Green, Liz Lemon, Carrie Bradshaw, Leslie Knope, or Hannah Horvath, contends Slate television critic Willa Paskin. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show stopped airing nearly 40 years ago, but it is still in conversation with so many contemporary issues, about feminism, women in the workplace, friendship, relationships,” Paskin observes.

For fun: The Vanity Fair Hollywood cover looks like a bunch of famous women in pretty dresses—but look closer, and you’ll see it’s a commentary on current events.

And for sanity: Can’t keep track of the onslaught of bad news coming out of the White House? Subscribe to Slate’s This Week in Trump newsletter to get a handle on the new administration’s actions.

You might just make it after all,
L.V. Anderson