Will Rogers' lessons for political smarts – and healthy skepticism

+ who would benefit from 'Lithium Valley' in California? US Edition - Today's top story: View politics critically but charitably and with good old common sense: cowboy commentator Will Rogers' wisdom for 2024 [View in browser]( US Edition | 28 September 2024 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( When was the last time you laughed about politics? Will Rogers wrote and spoke about politics and politicians with humor and a degree of skepticism that manifested itself not as vitriol but as wry observation. I wish I had his skill when I was covering the Maine State House − it would have been so much fun to be able to say, as he did, “I don’t make jokes. [I just watch the government and report the facts](.” Historian Steven Watts just published a new biography of Rogers, who lived from 1879 to 1935. Watts writes in a story for us this week that the Oklahoma-born Rogers “had risen to fame as a cowboy humorist in vaudeville, the Ziegfeld Follies, Broadway shows and silent movies, and he earned public acclaim with his shrewd, folksy and witty observations on American life and values.” Watts relates some of Rogers’ funniest – and wisest – lines from a career that also included writing a syndicated column in the 1920s for over 300 newspapers in which he “gleefully skewered the ‘bunk’ of American politics, his favorite word for politicians’ shameless hypocrisy, bombastic rhetoric, inflated egos and shady deal-making.” But Rogers didn’t write only about politicians and their world. He also wrote about regular Americans, whose judgment he trusted: The average citizen, Rogers believed, “was not simple minded enough to believe that EVERYTHING is right and doesn’t appear to be cuckoo enough to believe that EVERYTHING is wrong.” This week we also liked stories about the [malleability of people’s personality](, a new video game [based on a 16th-century Chinese novel](, and [preserving photos in the digital age](. [ [The Conversation has no ads or paywalls, thanks to support from our readers](. ] Naomi Schalit Senior Editor, Politics + Democracy Will Rogers made a career out of making fun of politics and politicians − with a generous spirit. George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images [View politics critically but charitably and with good old common sense: cowboy commentator Will Rogers’ wisdom for 2024]( Steven Watts, University of Missouri-Columbia Humorist Will Rogers spent decades gleefully skewering what he called the ‘bunk’ of American politics − hypocrisy, inflated egos, shady deal-making. Both parties stood guilty of peddling bunk. The edge of the Salton Sea, a heavily polluted lake with large geothermal and lithium resources beneath it. Manuel Pastor [Big lithium plans for Imperial Valley, one of California’s poorest regions, raise a bigger question: Who should benefit?]( Manuel Pastor, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; Chris Benner, University of California, Santa Cruz The promised ‘white gold rush’ would extract lithium alongside geothermal power production. The mineral is used in EV batteries, but even this less-polluting mining raises local health concerns. Disney has long promoted a sanitized and nostalgic view of American history. Bettmann/Getty Images [Inside the collapse of Disney’s America, the US history-themed park that almost was]( Jared Bahir Browsh, University of Colorado Boulder 30 years ago, the company had grand plans to build a history-themed park in Virginia. But efforts to ‘Disneyfy’ American history met staunch opposition, even in the halcyon 1990s. - [Can you trust companies that say their plastic products are recyclable? US regulators may crack down on deceptive claims]( Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law & Graduate School As concern about plastic pollution mounts, the federal government is revising its standards for calling products recyclable. A recent fine against Keurig could be a sign of things to come. - [How to archive your photos in the digital age]( Wasim Ahmad, Quinnipiac University A media scholar and photographer walks you through the options for archiving all those photos you’re collecting on your phone. - [How the US government can stop ‘churches’ from getting treated like real churches by the IRS]( Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, University of Notre Dame New developments, including the increasing diversity of faith communities and the advent of worship through streamed services, have rendered the IRS definition of a church outdated. - [Gun violence in Philadelphia plummeted in 2024 − researchers aren’t sure why, but here are 3 factors at play]( - [A video game based on the Chinese novel ‘Journey to the West’ is the most recent example of innovative retelling of this popular story]( - [What White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf can learn from the last team to lose 120 games]( - [Sri Lankans throw out old guard in election upset: What nation’s new Marxist-leaning leader means for economy, IMF loans]( - [Goodwill created a new high school for dropouts − it led to better jobs and higher wages]( - [Can you change your personality? Psychology research says yes, by tweaking what you think and do]( - [The audacity of Kamala Harris’ laughter – and the racist roots of Trump’s derision]( - [Airdropping vaccines to eliminate canine rabies in Texas – two scientists explain the decades of research behind its success]( The Conversation News Quiz 🧠- [The Conversation U.S. weekly news quiz]( Fritz Holznagel, The Conversation Here’s the first question of [this week’s edition:]( Current vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz was elected governor of Minnesota as a member of what political party? - A. Republican Party - B. Democratic Party - C. Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party - D. Communist-Socialist-Marxist Party [Test your knowledge]( - - More of The Conversation Like this newsletter? 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