A Response to Portland State’s Vanguard’s Anonymous Letter.
Prof. Boghossian and co-authors’ reception of the letter. On November 9th, Vanguard, Portland State University’s student newspaper ran a very strange article written not, it claims, by students but by…
A Persian Popinjay. A Review of the Film Bohemian Rhapsody
Warning: contains spoilers. The Demands of the Narrative The film opens with a close-up of star Rami Malek’s eye, a circlet of pale blue-grey iris clearly visible around a wide…
Britain’s Social Media Problem
For people under the impression that the UK takes its civil liberties seriously, the past two years’ parliamentary debates around social media make for a frightening read. A recent spate…
Why Political Correctness Is Self-Defeating
We generally think of critiquing political correctness as a conservative talking point. This is a grave mistake. There is much to dislike about haughty individuals telling us what to think,…
The Case Against Mental Health Awareness Raising
In the wake of World Mental Health Day and Theresa May’s appointment of a suicide prevention minister, this might seem like the least propitious time to make a case against…
How Coercive Is Polygyny?
Every society has certain socially prescribed rules that regulate mating and marriage, yet those rules can vary substantially. Understanding how cultural traditions differ can help us understand behavioral differences between…
Star Wars Politics
A few years after the Star Wars prequel trilogy came out, after we had all had time to digest just how unsatisfying it had been, an independent filmmaker named Mike…
When Islamic Double Discourse Meets Western Liberal Double Standards
It is not uncommon to perceive that which is alien to us through an exotic lens. It is easy to idealize that which we have no direct access to, but…
Why Progressives Don’t Have a Foreign Policy (and Why They Need One)
One of the more curious things that happened on the way to Donald Trump’s election in November 2016 was that a number of both mainstream newspaper commentators and left-wing figures…
What the Left and Right Can Learn From Each Other
It’s no secret that we’re living through a period of widening political polarization. Social media and social fragmentation have secluded us in our own political bubbles, where we rage against…
“Cultural Marxism” is a Myth. The Threat Comes From Elsewhere.
This is a lightly edited transcript of Helen Pluckrose’s opening statement on the panel “Cultural Marxism: Threat or Myth” at the Battle of Ideas. “Cultural Marxism” in common usage is…
Narcissism and the New Politics of Identity
Our political discourse is increasingly dominated by psychological vocabulary. From safe spaces to triggering, public life is made sense of through the application of ideas that originated within psychological thought…
A Dirty Word: Why Capitalism’s Bad Reputation Is Largely Undeserved
Despite its undeniable importance as a mechanism for human progress and flourishing, capitalism is widely associated with mass poverty, social inequality and a host of other negative externalities. Capitalist is…
“Good Intentions Gone Awry”: Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s The Coddling of the American Mind. Book Review.
There has, in recent years, been a significant change in the way in which many left-wing activists—especially student activists—express their complaints against their ideological opponents on the right. In their…
What The Coddling of the American Mind Fails To Spell Out. Book Review.
I agree with Steven Pinker that The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure is “among the most important…
Political Hubris: The Problem With Failing to Admit When Our Shit Stinks.
It’s human nature to attempt to defend our beliefs to the bitter end, even if that means we struggle to recognize when we or the ones we love have made a mistake. It’s…
Bridging the Left: Democratic Socialism and the Democratic Party
The specter of democratic socialism is (sort of) upon us. At the very least, candidates communicating the Sanders narrative, and advocating his main policy positions, have become more prevalent and…
In Defense of Distinctions, or What Ezra Klein Gets Wrong About the IDW
In a piece for Vox, Ezra Klein attempts to explain the rise of what he calls “YouTube’s reactionary right.” Klein’s definition of reactionary YouTubers encompasses a wide range of figures:…
