Areo - Culture & Media

Notes on Jihadism: “The ISIS Reader,” edited by Haroro J. Ingram, Craig Whiteside and Charlie Winter

Islamic State (IS) has been territorially destroyed and its first leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, killed while cowering in a suicide vest the detonation of which killed two young children alongside…

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8 min

An Apology to JK Rowling

JK Rowling recently published an eminently reasonable, heartfelt treatise, outlining why it is important to preserve the category of woman. There’s only one thing wrong with it: it assumes a…

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7 min

Beware A World of Marble Trumps: On Campaigns to Remove Statues

Iconoclasm is back. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, progressive activists have pivoted from a narrative that most could unite around—police brutality is wrong and, in the…

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6 min

Postmodern Conservatism: A Conversation

In this open letter posted on our partner platform, Letter, Matt McManus first outlines the central thesis of his recent book, The Rise of Post-Modern Conservatism: Neoliberalism, Post-Modern Culture and…

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7 min

The Faceless Ones: “Should a Liberal State Ban the Burqa?” by Brandon Robshaw

Photo by ‏🌸🙌 فی عین الله The question of the Islamic burqa has tortured liberal societies in recent years. Are the burqa, niqab and other religious face-coverings—I’ll use burqa to mean…

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7 min

Culture & Media

Is History Cliometrics or the Story of Great Men?

History is biography. Pick up any book about the past and you will find names of individuals. Some names are accompanied by a lot of narrative detail, others by not…

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7 min

Ross Douthat’s “The Decadent Society: How We Became Victims of Our Own Success.”

Photo by Alexander Popov Waste, decay, elimination need not be condemned: they are necessary consequences of life, of the growth of life. The phenomenon of decadence is as necessary as any…

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7 min

Culture & Media

The Unbeliever Knows His Qur’an Best

Photo by Masjid Pogung Dalangan The Koran! well, come put me to the test Lovely old book in hideous error drest Believe me, I can quote the Koran too, The…

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9 min

Culture & Media

Thomas Piketty’s “Capitalism and Ideology.” Book Review.

Thomas Piketty is a French economist and former wunderkind, who obtained his PhD from the London School of Economics at twenty-two. He is also that rarest of things: a bestselling academic author.…

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5 min

Culture & Media

Tiger King: Our Own Private China

Image by Swapnisha Joshi The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Americans have retreated indoors, where we are bored out our wits, and obsessed with the idea of either an…

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7 min

Culture & Media

We Contain Multitudes: A Review of “The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity” by Toby Ord

Photo by Joseph Chan Imagine the last group of humans, a few billion or trillion years from now. Let’s imagine two different versions of this group, representing two different outcomes for…

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5 min

Culture & Media

“Lying Bastard” by Clint Margrave. Book Review.

Grim, uncouth, and hilarious: these are the adjectives I’d use to describe Lying Bastard, the upcoming debut novel of prolific poet and polemicist Clint Margrave. The story follows the mindscape…

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4 min

Culture & Media

Yes, We Should Fund the Arts During a Pandemic

Photo by Igor Miske Artistic experience often necessitates the gathering of crowds in museums, galleries and theaters. During the coronavirus pandemic, this has obviously posed a unique challenge to artistic institutions…

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6 min

Ezra Klein’s “Why We’re Polarized.” Book Review.

Donald Trump once famously said that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and he would not lose a vote, and a significant proportion of the US…

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10 min

Apple Pie Holy War: “Incitement: Anwar al-Awlaki’s Western Jihad” by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens

Image by Muhammad ud-Deen The attacks of September 11th, 2001 reshaped the world by introducing a new brand of terrorism: global jihad. And there is one man in particular…

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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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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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Culture & Media

Notes on Jihadism: “The ISIS Reader,” edited by Haroro J. Ingram, Craig Whiteside and Charlie Winter

An Apology to JK Rowling

Beware A World of Marble Trumps: On Campaigns to Remove Statues

Postmodern Conservatism: A Conversation

The Faceless Ones: “Should a Liberal State Ban the Burqa?” by Brandon Robshaw

Is History Cliometrics or the Story of Great Men?

Ross Douthat’s “The Decadent Society: How We Became Victims of Our Own Success.”

The Unbeliever Knows His Qur’an Best

Thomas Piketty’s “Capitalism and Ideology.” Book Review.

Tiger King: Our Own Private China

We Contain Multitudes: A Review of “The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity” by Toby Ord

“Lying Bastard” by Clint Margrave. Book Review.

Yes, We Should Fund the Arts During a Pandemic

Ezra Klein’s “Why We’re Polarized.” Book Review.

Apple Pie Holy War: “Incitement: Anwar al-Awlaki’s Western Jihad” by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens

South Park: Our Great Modern Satire

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

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