Separating Art from Propaganda
Fair warning: this article is propaganda. It was written to change your mind. I have a point to make and an argument to support this point, with the intended result…
Culture & Media
80 posts
The Algorithm Who Loved Me
One of the most fascinating episodes of House — “The Social Contract” (S05E17) — tells the story of Nick Greenwald, a well-respected editor at a prestigious press who suddenly loses the…
On Copyright Claims and Conceptual Integrity: Hypocrisies of the H&M Graffiti Case
While it certainly seems paradoxical that a corporation would appropriate graffiti, an art form conceptually associated with opposition to corporate interests, for commercial purposes, it is also paradoxical that an artist would seek to use the force of the law to prevent a corporation from appropriating work that he created in the public sphere evidently outside of law’s purview.
Letter from Sundance
Sundance likes to see itself as Not Hollywood. The magnificent Rocky Mountains are a perfect backdrop for an annual alternative to Big Hollywood. Small independent movies like Little Miss Sunshine…
Farewell, Esquire?
On a layover in Toronto en route to Phoenix several weeks ago, I purchased the latest issue of Esquire magazine at a news shop before boarding my plane and shuffling…
The Humanities Scholar as an Advertiser: A Reflection on Academic Language
In his famous 1999 essay “Authority and American Usage,” writer David Foster Wallace meticulously examined the politics of the English language. Amid more obvious analyses of political correctness, White English and…
L’Avenir: A Subtle Critique of Western Academia’s Anemic Inertia
In his book, The Strange Death of Europe, Douglas Murray presents this diagnosis of the state of contemporary Western philosophy: “A succession of philosophers and historians spent their lifetimes attempting…
A Letter From Hollywood: A Too Good to Miss List
Out of Hollywood this year has come The Big Sick, and the problem is you may not have heard about it. In this small, lovely film a young Muslim man…
Why Universities Have Shifted to the Political Left in the past 20 Years
University faculty ranks have long been thought of as bastions of the political left, and with good reason: sizable majorities of professors self-identify as modern liberal or left-leaning in their…
Audio Article — My Apostasy from the Church of Critical Theory
In virtually every class, I was told that all scientific knowledge, and even science itself was founded on Western cultural constructions and was to be regarded as hegemonic.
The Consumerism of Cute: How Merchandise Governs the Star Wars Franchise
Despite being the seventh feature film in the franchise, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the first one to debut in December instead of May. This proved to be a…
Our First Enemy is Silence
Silence has been enforced over the victims through threats to their persons, their careers, or the stigmas of culture.
Let’s Make Tomatoes Great Again
As we’re all aware, there’s some pretty heavy shit going on in the world. I’m pretty sure you’re all as exhausted with current events as I am, so let’s whisk…
Thoughts on Sexual Etiquette
Campaigns like the recent Twitter #MeToo initiative, together with the publicity generated by the allegations of sexual abuse against Harvey Weinstein and by Kevin Spacey’s confession, have placed the topics…
Time to Call a Truce in the Gender Wars
If you are a news and current affairs junkie like myself, you could quickly come to the conclusion that men and women are at war with each other across the…
Panicking about Sexual Harassment Is Bad for Women
What started with Hollywood women denouncing Harvey Weinstein has rapidly developed into a global movement decrying sexual harassment. The #MeToo stories of high profile women working in politics, the media…
For You, Postmodern Sympathizer
This is a continuation of Lawrence Belluci’s reflections on postmodernism, which he first wrote about here. In this article he addresses a criticism that defenders of postmodernist and post-structuralist thought…
‘Star Trek Discovery’ and The Slow Invasion of Streaming Services
Ten years ago, Netflix launched their online streaming service, effectively putting the nail in the coffin of Blockbuster and similar stores. Since then, streaming services have become almost ubiquitous. Nearly…
