“How could a movement predicated on free expression and identity-blind principles come to be associated with the Right and described as reactionary by smart progressive critics like Vox’s Ezra Klein?”
Category: The Center
University Professor: the Reason Academia Is Useless
“Socrates and all the other great Greek masters emphasized the importance of leisure as part of education. In our Calvinist world, this has become a major sin.”
Maziar Ghaderi: to Truly Know Jordan Peterson
“Yeah, there’s not a lot of lying in Jordan. That’s part of what I was trying to say with the fact that he doesn’t do small talk. If he wants to talk to you, he’ll talk to you. And sometimes the first thing he’ll ask you is something kind of serious.”
Why Karl Marx Is Wrong
“Running a profitable enterprise is not the same thing as Smaug guarding a pile of gold.”
In Reply to Geoffrey Miller: Polyamory Becomes Polygyny
“Miller is a bit naïve here. He does not seem to notice that, as a general rule, polyamory eventually becomes polygyny.”
Why Yasmine Mohammed Is Speaking out Against Islam (Part II)
“Actually, the two things that ex-Muslims let go of—the very last two things that they let go of—are eating pork and anti-Semitism. It’s because both of these things are so ingrained in us from such a young age.”
Aeschylus’ “Prometheus Bound”: Where Is Meaning to be Found?
“Aeschylus’ tragedy represents the most elemental aspects of our human condition: all human flourishing comes with a cost.”
What Share of Socialists Want to Abolish Families?
“John Rawls, surely the most relevant philosopher of justice in the 20th Century, was aware of this problem and notoriously asked if the family should be abolished, with no clear answers.”
Why Yasmine Mohammed Is Speaking out Against Islam
“What I was not prepared for was the tsunami of just hate and pushback and disdain that would come from people I thought were my people: people that believed in enlightenment values, Western values, and liberal values.”
The Particular Discomfort Neurodivergents Have with Speech Codes
“The patterns of behavior that characterize a broad part of the autistic spectrum are indirectly viewed as a hindrance towards the 21st-century diversity and inclusion goals.”
The Solution to the “Incel” Problem
“A State that hopes to mingle in the bedroom is one step closer to totalitarianism, and that is why sex redistribution is a horrifying prospect. But, while not enforcing it, the State, and most importantly, leaders of civil society (most crucially, intellectuals), should send the message that monogamy is a good thing.”
When the Left Doesn’t Like Science Either
“At the time when postcolonialist scholars were saying these silly things (starting in the latter half of the 20th Century), some philosophers of science were also developing some strange ideas.”
Thomas Friedman, Barack Obama, and the Longstanding Tumult in Syria
“Had Obama intervened strongly enough in 2013, Syria could have been his Bosnia, a long-running humanitarian disaster that a U.S. president halted after initially dragging his feet.”
Pope Francis and “What Is Idolatry, Anyways?”
“And Pope Francis himself is wrong for, once again, being a populist and refusing to call a spade a spade; he wants support from the Left and thus defends Pachamama, but he also wants support from the Right and thus condemns idolatry.”
Augustine and the Politics of Love
“Compared to the other classical political philosophers, Augustine stands apart from not articulating a preferred political order or what the ideal order would be. And that is the point.”