March 2020

Human Responses to Contagion: Persecution, Blame, Compassion

On 26 February, it had already been several weeks since I’d started closely following the news of what’s been called the novel coronavirus (technically, the virus is SARS-Cov-2, and the…

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4 min

Politics

Covid-19: We Need to Be Smarter Than Ever

The coronavirus pandemic is imposing perhaps the biggest challenge of our time. How will we react?

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4 min

Culture & Media

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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6 min

Politics

Is Capitalism to Blame for Exploitation in Academia?

Academia can be a terrible place to work. A recent survey found that over 40% of researchers experienced bullying or harassment, over 20% felt pressure from supervisors to get specific…

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7 min

Politics

Israel: Toxic Church-State Relations and the Necessity of Secularism

When it was formed in 1948, Israel was declared a place for the world’s Jews to call home after almost two millennia of Jewish exile and persecution and the recent…

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8 min

On Politics and Time

For what is time? Who can easily and briefly explain it? Who even in thought can comprehend it, even to the pronouncing of a word concerning it? But what in…

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4 min

Politics

COVID-19 Should Alert Us to the Dangers of Apocalyptic Ideas

Image by Pete Linforth Let’s face it: some people are probably excited about COVID-19. I can envision some preppers happily telling their acquaintances, I told you so, as they stockpile…

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7 min

Labor Anomalies: The Absence of Small Business Owners in COVID-19 Relief Legislation

Karl Marx’s theory of the petite bourgeoisie was essentially about shopkeepers. At times, his theories have inspired utter contempt for and contributed to violence against that ubiquitous class. Although Marxist-inspired…

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5 min

Politics

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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11 min

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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7 min

Politics

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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5 min

Psychology

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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9 min

Politics

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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6 min

Science & Tech

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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By Bwsmith84 at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10541370

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8 min

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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5 min

Politics

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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8 min

Culture & Media

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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Human Responses to Contagion: Persecution, Blame, Compassion

Covid-19: We Need to Be Smarter Than Ever

South Park: Our Great Modern Satire

Is Capitalism to Blame for Exploitation in Academia?

Israel: Toxic Church-State Relations and the Necessity of Secularism

On Politics and Time

COVID-19 Should Alert Us to the Dangers of Apocalyptic Ideas

Labor Anomalies: The Absence of Small Business Owners in COVID-19 Relief Legislation

Why Do Conservative Students Self-Censor?

Socialized Healthcare, Coronavirus and the Ethic of Reciprocal Altruism

Land of Liberty, Still

Italians Singing from Balconies

What is Neoliberalism, Anyway?

Does Beijing’s COVID-19 Victory Prove the Superiority of the “China Model”?

The Firing of Bo Winegard: When Academic Freedom and Outrage Collide

Reconciliation Includes Sharing Toys

Scheherazade’s Heirs: “Sex and Lies” by Leïla Slimani

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