Author: Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig
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Charlie Kirk once declared, “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that does a lot of damage.” It is a stunning line—not just for its cold dismissal of compassion, but for what it reveals about the worldview he helped mainstream. Empathy—the ability to recognize another’s pain, to…
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Tariffs have triggered splits between the UAW and Canada’s Unifor, while former President Trump has increasingly pitted police unions and Teamsters against teachers’ unions and federal government unions. These dynamics are a textbook example of the divide-and-conquer strategy: breaking groups into smaller, more manageable pieces, addressing each piece individually, and leveraging that fragmentation to achieve…
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Today, on September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, the ultra conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot in the neck while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University as part of his “American Comeback Tour” an he remains hospitalized, with no further updates yet on his condition. This is not just an attack…
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Over the past year, many of you have asked why I chose to step down as provost and what comes next. The Western Herald captured that journey with care: the moment that tested my values, the exchange program I proposed to help students and scholars displaced by war, and the larger lesson I keep returning to, failure…
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You’ve probably heard about the Supreme Court’s latest decision: being visibly Latino (and working at a car wash, speaking Spanish, etc.) can now count as a legally “relevant factors” for harassment from law enforcement. The right-wing majority on the Supreme Court LOVES to proclaim “colorblindness.” When it struck down race-conscious college admissions in Students for…
Cloaking Inequity 