Five themes to shout about at Christmas

It’s Christmas and you’ve had a bad year. You don’t like football, you get RER B every day, you caught Covid three times while you had an unfaithful wife, nothing. In short, you really want to scream at yourself, stretch your glottis. In addition, there will be a cousin who woke up with offensive piercings and first glances, an uncle with bruised hands and racist opinions, and your daughter’s pretend boyfriend. merchant and he likes to show you things on his computer, in short, all these stereotypical characters that the media brings out every year, to try to slowly give a little push to their documents, yes, this is no exception, and it even annoys you. more.

Don’t panic, we’ve got something to trigger the fry. Articles that can help you prepare for the worst, read at the station while waiting to find out if your train has been delayed despite the holiday.

1. Vokism

He was already the winner in 2021, but he is coming back for a second season because he has proven his strength with his waves and options (and he is included in the dictionary).

Our woke-French dictionary “This singer calls herself woke, but she’s not really an SJW; he is an unconstructed cis-hetero who has made his mark on cultural appropriation. » If you don’t understand this sentence, this lexicon is for you.

What is happening in American universities? American campuses are easily depicted as places exposed to postcolonial, feminist, and minority movements. French academics who teach there paint a more contradictory picture. Inquiry.

Where does the word wake up come from?“Stay awake” permeates the culture and psyche of the black community in the United States. Erykah Badu via Marcus Garvey against slavery, a look at the origins of the term.

Is identity a new dictatorship? In a polemical essay, Laurent Dubreuil discusses the growing influence of identity claims in the United States. And for worrying about it “To set the individual in an immutable place is to strengthen the dominance he claims to be fighting for”.

‘Race and the social sciences’: an investigation into the controversy that has divided the university, when the French minister of higher education asked for an investigation into the “Islamo-leftism” in the faculties, it was based on the controversy over the “obs” faculties. concepts of race, gender, and intersectionality.

Yes) “woke up” You ? Take our quiz at cocktail hour to find out if your attitude to discrimination and inequality is making it hard for you to think…

Sample topics: Should Adrien Quatennens return to the Assembly? Is having blue hair the end of civilization? How can we reconcile the idea that the patriarchal system will be ruled by the fact that men live less than women?

2. Naturopathy

Your aunt swears by alternative medicine, detox treatments, fasting every summer in the Basque Country, and above all… her naturopath. When you bring the cheese plate and dare to pronounce your cousin Irene Grosjean’s name after the first vaccinations…

The excess of naturopaths: from detox to intoxication More and more French people are turning away from traditional medicine in favor of alternative methods. This sparsely regulated universe nevertheless harbors a large number of pseudo-therapists who can prove dangerous.

Pseudo-syndrome, delays in diagnosis… The excess of pediatric osteopathy Helpful, useless or downright dangerous? Osteopathy for babies worries a section of the medical profession. A study of the rise of an uncertain and poorly managed discipline that thrived on the misery of French care.

Irène Grosjean explores the methods of a star of naturopaths. At 92, the doyenne of naturopaths, a follower of raw food mixed with New Age spirituality, is the epitome of environmental excess at its worst. relatives of elders “patients”, some of whom have died, speak of his methods. And he was able to carry out the catch on them.

Sample topics: Are there veils in traditional medicine? Is nature always right? Sugar granules, are they medicine? Can you beat cancer with juices and mindfulness meditation? Is Covid a gaiaesque divine punishment for our civilization’s industrial excesses?

3. Onfray-Houellebecq-Zemmur

According to the classic biblical interpretation, there are four horsemen of the Apocalypse, but because France is in decline, it settles for three. This year, like every year, we talked about Eric and the two Michelles.

The Houellebecq-Onfray dialogue: the big break The latest issue of Front Populaire magazine, published on Tuesday, November 29, features Michel Onfray and Michel Houellebecq’s “End of the West? “. “The Obs” read it for you.

Anéantir, Houellebecq’s most politicized, most Catholic, and… most unsuccessful novel.In Anéantir, published at the beginning of the year, the writer imagines the presidential campaign of 2027 and wonders about the end of his life as he announces his death. West.

By our count, Zemmour and Onfray agree on 92.7% of the issues. We watched three debates between the reactionary columnist and the libertarian philosopher. Both mourn the decline of our civilization, our lost sovereignty, and the Machiavellianism of Pope Francis. They disagree with Voltaire and refrigerators.

Is Houellebecq far right? Five traveling companions analyze his political evolution As the author of “Presentation” collects his “Interventions” in the press, we asked five writers and journalists, from Frederic Begbeder to Aurelien Bellanger through Nelly Kaprielian, to talk about his relationship with politics. .

According to Eric Zemmur: deciphering a deadly ideology His idols are the far-right theorists who emerged in the late 19th century.^e century: Barrès, Maurras, Bainville… Despite the lessons of history, the polemicist revived ultranationalism, xenophobia and even anti-Semitism. In declaring the inferiority of woman.

Sample topics: When did Michel Onfray start spinning, before or after his book on Freud? Is Houellebecq a troubled prophet or an aesthete? To say that it has a soft band is to indulge in a virilistic imagination carried by Eric Zemmur? Was the Reconquest candidate just a media bubble?

4. Trance movement

Surprise: cousin texted all guests at Christmas dinner. “Now I want to be called Ivan. Please respect my gender identity. » No one dared to answer him, but everyone has questions on the family WhatsApp channels.

Trans Explained to Your Parents The trans movement challenges evidence that is well-anchored in our societies, including the idea that the world is divided between men and women. Explanations.

How Covid put us in a trance In Dysphoria Mundi, Paul B. Preciado describes the effects of the pandemic on our existence. For the Spanish philosopher, we have all become bodies politic and begin the transition to a not so dark future.

“I wanted to be King Fergus” : The complicated journey of trans children in France Born a girl, 14-year-old Ruben has always felt like a boy. Born a boy, 7-year-old Lily claims to be a girl. Like them, more and more minors in France say they were born wrong.

“Sex avoiders are the only people who see the world from both sides of the gender line” Trans people experience an evolution in their social status: trans men experience some degree of promotion and trans women experience a decline. This is one of the lessons of sociologist Emmanuel Bobati’s first book.

“We condemn Wikipedia’s treatment of trans, non-binary and intersex people” A column signed by forty personalities, including Jul Maroh, Paul B. Preciado, Virginie Despentes, Céline Sciamma, Rokhaya Diallo, and the National Transgender Association, condemns the stigmatization of trans, non-binary, and intersex people in the online encyclopedia.

Trans, homos, feminism: another psychoanalysis is possible After feminists and homosexuals, now psychoanalysis is attacking trans people. A group of philosophers and psychoanalysts condemn this shift and remind that “The unconscious consists of single threads, not general laws”.

Sample topics: Aren’t trans MTFs men who want to take advantage of the symbolic advantages now given to women? Do you have to have a vulva from birth to claim to be a feminist? Can a director make a film about a trans story without being trans himself? What is trance anyway? Shouldn’t we follow the advice of Dionysius the Areopagite and “stand up in silence” because any category expressed is violence and reality is trance? Should we ask for pronouns?

5. Sandrine Russo

She lost the congress but not the war, so let’s bet Sandrine Rousseau will find a way to light up our conversations later in the year. Christmas dinner – with or without meat – will perhaps be an opportunity to test the law that now bears his name: any conversation that lasts more than fifteen minutes, the probability of his name being mentioned reaches 100%.

Sandrine Rousseau, constant flash Feminism, barbecue or Bayou, her every intervention incites passions. For his opponents, the Paris member is the face of radical and exceptional environmentalism. A pioneer who rightfully shook up society for his supporters. Vanguard or subversive? A study of the political phenomenon.

“We need a push like we saw during the war” Emmanuel Macron? “Complete fraud. » Ministers? “They live in a parallel world. » The ecofeminist MP who assumed the goal “Social and ecological utopia”In a blunt interview with “Obs”, he revealed his view of things to us.

What is ecofeminism? Could there be a connection between sexism and global warming? We explain to you where the current of thought claimed by Sandrine Rousseau came from.

Androsene, the right to be lazy… Are you talking to Sandrine Rousseau? The Green MP is often at the origin of topics that ignite public debate. A small dictionary of very political vocabulary.

So why did we torture and burn witches? For witch rehabilitation philosophers and ecofeminists, these persecutions were a key step in the advent of capitalism. Explanations.

What are you going to tell your sister-in-law at Christmas that we are passing by? “Serious crisis of masculinity” ? Francis Dupuis-Déri, ​​professor of political science, deconstructs “Solid Myth” who wants men to make mistakes.

Sample topics: Rousseau or Bayou? Rousseau or Russel? Red meat: should you eat it, yes, or less (hint: say you eat “good” meat from now on)? Isn’t the rotten weather we have right now a sign that we’re doing a little too much with the climate? Does Sandrine Rousseau have a sense of humor? Is humor dominance? Is Sandrine Rousseau a media presence? Can you be an ecofeminist and go to Greece every summer? Won’t feminists distort the witch hunt story?