How Terrorists Are Creating a New Language
I have been stalking members of the terrorist group Tawheed Network (formerly al-Muhajiroun). I have spied on them over the Internet, and heard much gossip about them in my neighborhood of Bury Park, Luton. Unfortunately, I have uncovered something disturbing. The local jihadis have been cautious since December 2015, when their leader Istiak Alamgir was arrested. They […]
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Appropriating Confusion: A Reply to Briahna Joy Gray in Current Affairs
Earlier this year, Kenan Malik wrote an essay in the New York Times critical of the now-fashionable concept of “cultural appropriation.” The article caused some controversy. Briahna Joy Gray wrote a critique of Malik’s argument in the magazine Current Affairs. Malik’s response to that critique provides a useful way of thinking about the problems of […]
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It’s Not Hard for Conservatives to Be on Campus Because They’re Stupid, It’s Hard Because You Are
Leslie Green, professor of philosophy at Oxford, recently published a post on his blog called “Why it is hard to be a campus conservative.” I said elsewhere that I have rarely come across anything that was both condescending and stupid to the extent this post is, but that’s not exactly true, because I have already heard the kind […]
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Same-Sex Marriage: A Case for “Yes”
In its recent decision, the High Court of Australia cleared the way for a voluntary survey of the electorate to gauge community support for same-sex marriage. I don’t defend this idea: a voluntary survey is an unreliable instrument at best, and in any event providing for same-sex marriage is an issue that could be settled […]
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The Curious Case of Jordan Peterson
Few have reigned as steady and strong a champion of free speech as well as an opponent of political correctness as University of Toronto professor of psychology, Jordan Peterson. Over the years he has attracted a host of followers in his crusade against identity politics, postmodernism, and campus orthodoxy. Additionally he has been able to earn an impressively high honorarium through […]
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George Orwell Would Dislike You, Me, and Our Opinions
There is no historical figure — with the exception, perhaps, of Jesus Christ — whose legacy ideologues are keener to appropriate than that of Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell. The author of Animal Farm and 1984 is claimed by propagandists of the left and right as an ideological predecessor. “Orwell’s legacy,” writes Lee Wengraf of the Socialist Worker, “Is our […]
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Finger Size Does Matter… In Sports
Examine your fingers. Which is longer? Is it the index finger (the finger you use to point with — technically the second digit, or 2D, counting the thumb), or the ring finger (the fourth digit, or 4D)? The relative length of the index and ring fingers is known as the digit ratio or the 2D:4D. […]
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The Textual Roots of Islamic Violence
We’re all familiar with the routine by now. A terrorist attack occurs. Hours later, the world learns the identity of the attacker (or, the identities of the attackers). Then comes the inevitable question, “What was the motive for the attack?” Sometimes a general consensus is quickly reached. Few disagree, for instance, that Anders Breivik was […]
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The Unwinding: Thirty Years of American Decline
It is in the nature of things that they should rise and fall. The tide that laps against the coasts of the United States, from sea to shining sea, rises, falls. And so it is with empires, nations, peoples. “Complain not when you are cast down upon the wheel of fortune, for soon enough you […]
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