Nadia Murad and Yazidi Sex Slavery Under ISIS
Stories of those forcefully taken from their homes by ISIS militants and sold into slavery are haunting reminders of the tyranny that Daesh (ISIS) has wrought on so many during its seizure…
What Science Has to Say About Gender Identity
A few days ago, President Trump announced that transgender individuals would not be allowed to serve in the U.S. Military. This follows a previous Trump reversal of guidelines put in place by President…
Why Your Friend’s Political Opinions Shouldn’t Make You Mad
Logging into Facebook, I see Corbyn memes jostling for space with videos warning of the Islamization of Europe; petitions in support of transgender rights alongside disdainful cartoons about “SJWs.” I have…
Hot Take Culture in the Age of Social Media: Emmanuel Macron, Racism, and Civilization
Emmanuel Macron has just become one of the most powerful individuals in the world, at the age of 39 and more or less out of nowhere, and has five or…
The Strange Death of Europe
“A calm, dispassionate and long overdue look at the facts that too many elected officials have either not yet seen or conspired to overlook.” Well-intentioned but woefully misguided politicians, Angela…
Truth Doesn’t Depend on “Power”
In one debate after another on any issue with regards to religion, race, gender, or fairness, there is one maxim of faith you’ll hear repeated over and over again with…
Why I Admire Richard Dawkins
Yesterday I learned that Richard Dawkins was de-platformed from a speaking event at liberal radio station KPFA in the town of Berkeley, where he was scheduled to talk about his…
Stop the Generation War
Now that the election has come and gone, we can see the large swell in the youth vote. Much of it went to Corbyn. Once seen as puffed up lazy…
Against Secular Blasphemy in Australia: The Liberal Case for Repealing 18C
“People do have the right to be bigots, you know.” The public response to the above statement, made by Attorney General George Brandis three years ago in his proposition that…
Evergreen College, Free Speech, and the Meaning of Social Justice
“Identity politics” rises on all sides. Identity politics are commonly attributed to the political left, where they are a response to the original, historical identity politics – male, and, in…
What We Forgot To Remember, Part 3: The Slow Crush
We can focus better on tasks that are urgent or pressing than those that seem distant and far away. Even the laziest of students seem somehow able to drag themselves…
Taking out a Patent on Culture
Calls to destroy a painting by a white artist, Dana Schutz, of a black victim of a lynch mob hanging in the Whitney Museum illustrates that for many, even artistic…
The Fate of Conversation in an Age of Mechanical Chatter
Conversation, of the natural, face-to-face variety evolved by our ancestors, is said to be an endangered species. The growth of texting, especially among the young, has already lowered the frequency…
Debate Ideas, Not People
There’s a particular rhetorical maneuver which is often used to discredit specific arguments which is especially popular on Twitter. It’s an approach which effectively shuts down dialogue on important but…
Eternal Trump Supporters: Gold Medal Winners in Mental Gymnastics
Donald Trump’s brand of populism carries with it a deeply ingrained aversion to unpleasant information; the President will sound the war cry FAKE NEWS across social media as a casual…
The Cultural Relativism of the Christian Majority
A faith which still celebrates its lonely, martyred forebears two thousand years later is fertile soil for persecution complexes, and they have indeed developed. But a persecution complex is a little…
My Stealthy Freedom: The Hijab in Iran and in the West
In 1979, after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, more than a hundred thousand woman took to the streets to protest the compulsory veiling that was to be enforced under the…
The Sam Harris Outrage Industry
It started for me (and for many) with the angry words frothing out from above that famous cleft-chin. The one which now resides — at least cinematically — under Batman’s…
