Tag Archives | racism

The Theory of Wokeness Relativity

Feature Article by , June 20, 2018

The problem with people who lived in the past is that they were not completely perfected in their enlightenment and progressive values, like we are. So obviously they have to be taken down a peg, and the “woke” brigade is on the job. George Washington may have been the Father of the Country, but his […]

Comments are closed

The High Road of Hope and Prosperity

Commentary by , June 20, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. Did Monticello Just Evict Thomas Jefferson? Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, has just completed a restoration of the house’s outbuildings and slave quarters. The way the New York Times describes it, this is being used as an excuse to evict Jefferson from his own house. The […]

Comments are closed

“Why Can’t We Hate?”

Commentary by , June 11, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. The Geopolitics of Resentment Donald Trump’s so-called “populism” is a euphemism for a politics that is primarily about venting your resentment, sticking a finger in somebody’s eye without really caring about any other consequences. Consider Trump’s handling of the latest G-7 Summit, which is supposed to be […]

Comments are closed

Progressives Against Enlightenment

Feature Article by , June 6, 2018

One of my concerns about the Trump era is that it signals a wave of anti-intellectualism on the right, a collapse in concern for basic ideas. It has also triggered something of an anti-intellectual response on the left, because Trump is the bogeyman who justifies blind, frenetic “resistance” in place of thoughtful criticism and reasoned […]

Comments are closed

“Roseanne” and Donald

Feature Article by , May 31, 2018

Roseanne Barr has been fired, causing ABC to cancel the rebooted version of her self-named TV show, “Roseanne,” because of a tweet with arguably racist implications. The whole debacle is a microcosm of the way we live now, and in ways that are not comforting for either side. Sure, it’s a warning about the hair […]

Comments are closed

A Giant Effigy of Marx

Feature Article by , May 15, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. Jaw-Jaw Is Better Than War-War I recently responded to a claim, reflecting the conventional wisdom of the Trump-era right, that “ideas and persuasion are insufficient” for the pitched culture war we are currently in. This is often expressed in the conviction that scribblers like me are useless […]

Comments are closed

The Art of Balkanization

Feature Article by , May 11, 2018

I argued a while back that the increasingly dominant character of the art championed by our cultural elites is didacticism: “an absence of substantial or profound artistic content, compensated for by loud, didactic political messaging. We know what we’re supposed to feel, whether or not the work of art actually makes us feel it.” By […]

Comments are closed

Adult Supervision

Commentary by , April 19, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today Here is your latest update, for subscribers only, recommending five stories that are worth catching. 1. What Democratic Party Rule Looks Like I recently directed your attention to an article arguing for California as a model of one-party rule, which is to say Democratic Party rule. Among the […]

Comments are closed

Donald Trump’s Anti-Regulatory Legacy

Commentary by , April 2, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today Here is your latest update, for subscribers only, recommending five stories that are worth catching. 1. Donald Trump’s Anti-Regulatory Legacy The Trump administration’s anti-regulatory agenda continues (at least, for things that don’t directly involve international trade, which is going to be regulated like all get-out). The latest: the […]

Comments are closed

Five Things You Need to Read Today

Commentary by , March 27, 2018

I’ve been doing weekly updates on Sundays, for subscribers only, recommending five stories that are worth catching. But I’ve been finding too many interesting stories, so I’m now going to start experimenting with doing several of these updates per week. Today, the main theme is what you discover when you read beyond the headline. 1. […]

Comments are closed