South Park: Our Great Modern Satire
Image by Joel Ormsby My introduction to South Park came in second grade. The episode was “It Hits the Fan,” in which the citizens of South Park began to overuse…
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Why Do Conservative Students Self-Censor?
Conor Friedersdorf’s recent article in the Atlantic, “Evidence That Conservative Students Really Do Self-Censor: Is Free Speech Imperiled on American College Campuses?” discusses the recently published findings from the research…
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Socialized Healthcare, Coronavirus and the Ethic of Reciprocal Altruism
When my American husband became part of my British family it was necessary for him to be trained up on tea. He took to the subject matter well, and is…
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Land of Liberty, Still
Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash The mood in the Bernie Sanders campaign headquarters was grim in the early morning hours of Wednesday 4 March. A diverse array of signs, boasting of the…
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Italians Singing from Balconies
Murray Siskind, a character in Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise, once remarks that human beings form crowds as a “shield against their own dying” because “to become a crowd is…
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What is Neoliberalism, Anyway?
There are few words in today’s political lexicon as simultaneously popular and misunderstood as neoliberalism. The term has become a rallying cry for the left, used to signal one’s political…
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Does Beijing’s COVID-19 Victory Prove the Superiority of the “China Model”?
The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked debates as to whether centralized governing systems, i.e. authoritarian regimes, are inherently more effective than decentralized liberal democracies. Are authoritarian governments better equipped to successfully…
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Do We Really Need to Choose Between Being “Race Conscious” and Being “Colourblind”?
You could be forgiven for thinking that we have a momentous decision before us as a society. More and more passion and energy are building around the question: are we…
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The Firing of Bo Winegard: When Academic Freedom and Outrage Collide
Image by Bwsmith84 at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10541370 The recent firing of Dr Bo Winegard, psychology professor at Marietta College, has sparked widespread debate in academia. His predicament…
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Reconciliation Includes Sharing Toys
As we drove up, I could already imagine the headline. Two Middle-Aged White Men Drive Onto Indian Reservation and Steal Mountain Bike in Broad Daylight. The truth is far more…
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Scheherazade’s Heirs: “Sex and Lies” by Leïla Slimani
Most countries contain contradictions. Scotland, for example, was central to the Enlightenment, but it also has plenty of gangs and high rates of drug use and obesity (facts well known…
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The Endless Culture War in the Pacific
My Hero Academia is one of the recent breakout hits of Japan’s anime and manga industry. Created by Kōhei Horikoshi and inspired by Western superhero comics, it’s been ongoing since…
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Educating for Intolerance: Universities and the New Elitism
It almost feels wrong to raise the issue of free speech in universities now. Last March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to cut federal funding for colleges…
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Emotional Intelligence: An Inadequate Measurement of Performance
Lately, numerous voices haven spoken out about the educational crisis (see this magazine, Quillette and Merion West). These articles cover many Western educational systems in particular and highlight both their differences and…
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Three Diversity Initiatives and Why They Failed
As a person of color, racial discrimination and minority representation, especially in the arts, are important issues. Everyone deserves a voice and the arts provide a valuable medium for genuine…
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There Are No “Good” or “Bad” People
After Kobe Bryant’s shocking death, many people publicly expressed their grief over the loss of someone they loved, respected—even idolized. But others used the moment to remind the world of…
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Freeman Dyson: In Memoriam
Image by ioerror – Flickr Freeman Dyson passed away this week at the age of ninety-six. His passing has left a massive hole in the scientific establishment, which we are…
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Chomsky vs. Foucault, Revisited
The year was 1971. Thomas Pynchon had published his first two novels, the Pentagon Papers were published and Richard Nixon was withdrawing troops from the massively unpopular Vietnam War. In…
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