Review: “The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality”
“Now, given that genetics matters for these things, which, in turn, drive inequality, we should take genetics seriously if we are truly committed to egalitarianism.”
Néstor de Buen
An Alternative Take on Cancel Culture
“But this, in my view, has little to do with people being overly sensitive and much more to with the very economic system that conservative critics of cancel culture regularly prop up.”
Gad Saad’s “The Parasitic Mind”: A Reasonable Premise Gone Awry
“At the time the aforementioned Heterodox Academy report was published, firings of conservatives had doubled, yet left-leaning professor firings had spiked by 950%.”
A Better Way to Understand the Intellectual Dark Web
“In a different world where the culture war never happened, I might have seen myself as their ally in some areas.”
Clarifying My Comments on Lindsay, Pluckrose, and Boghossian
“The picture of science that they defend, however, is what merits the most attention.“
On the “Sokal Squared” Trio
“Now, this is not a review of the book, nor a critique of them personally but, rather, a critique of their function as public intellectuals.”
The Places Where Patrick Deneen and the Left Can Agree
“I agree with Deneen—and I suspect many others on the Left do too—that the local community is the optimal setting to pursue the good.”
Nathan J. Robinson’s Curious Critique
“If people’s convictions about those particular issues are weak enough that they could be changed by watching Rising, they surely could be changed in many other ways…”
Are Conservatives “Virtue Signalling” Too?
“Of course, virtue signaling from the Right regarding the protests has come in many forms other than writing.”
Liberty and the Left
“Prominent proposals by left-wing parties such as democratizing the workplace or introducing universal public healthcare (in the United States), they argue, are best framed as positions that further the cause of freedom.”
Has Dave Rubin Found His Intellectual Stride?
“I do want to give Rubin the fairest shake I possibly can. As such, instead of commenting on the book generally, I will look at some of the book’s arguments in detail and break them down…”
Given Tara Reade’s Allegation, the Left Should Reconsider Support for Biden
“It should be deeply disturbing for voters on the Left of the Democratic Party to vote for a candidate who, not only is likely to have sexually assaulted a woman—but who used a position of power to do it and get away with it for years.”
The Time Has Come for the Left to Sink the Democratic Party
“If the Left were to abstain from participating in this election en masse, the consequences would be deep.”
Michael Brooks’ New Book Hits the Mark
“Brooks argues that, far from this façade of ideological diversity, the IDW is built around a single and deep ideological commitment. This commitment is the preservation of presently established power hierarchies.”
When We Imbue the Stock Market with Religious Properties
“These things seem all too familiar when thinking about a somewhat abstract entity with arguably outsized power over billions of people’s lives when—on a whim—it decides to violently go ‘up’ or ‘down.’”
The Critics of “Social Justice,” from Jonah Goldberg to Jordan Peterson
“The conservative critiques of social justice are, therefore, wrong on two different fronts.”
The Biggest Issue with Richard Dawkins’ Tweet
“The latest of these Twitter controversies that I think warrants being addressed started with Professor Richard Dawkins expressing his opinion on the very delicate topic of eugenics.”
Actually, Howard Schultz, Unions May Just Be the Answer
“Howard Schultz famously state that unions ‘have a role to play’ but are ‘not the answer.’ But, are they not? Thankfully, there is an empirical answer to this question.”
From Ayn Rand to Amartya Sen: Using the Concept of “Rights”
“Again, there seems to be no ideological bias against the concept of rights; views on the subject come from various distinct standpoints.”
Fact-Checking the Tweet that Got Andy Ngo Banned from Twitter
“While both of Ngo’s claims are technically true, the proper context paints a widely different picture.”
Why the Left Should Take Hayek Seriously, Too
“As a student pointed out during a lecture on this subject, this Hayekian market is probably closer to the Open Source movement in software development than to what is commonly invoked with the words ‘free market.’”
Getting to the Bottom of Ben Shapiro’s Popularity
“Robinson’s article is both interesting and useful because it summarizes neatly and cogently almost every argument that those on the Left might make against Shapiro. However, it also begins to lay out a broad notion of why critiques of Shapiro usually fail.”
Slavoj Žižek, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the Philosophy of Climate Change
“It does not take an expert logician to deduce that if climate catastrophe were really upon us, we would also observe people giving extreme warnings, and it could even be the case that they still would not support, for example, nuclear power.”
Writing in the Tradition of Rawls—to Understand Trump
“McManus…is much closer to the analytic tradition represented by authors such as John Rawls and Martha Nussbaum. Yet, his work is much richer thanks to his engagement with Marxist class analysis and post-structuralist philosophy…”
The Spanish Philosopher Who Best Understood Populism
“For Ortega y Gasset, the elite has nothing to do with class or any other kind sociocultural factors. The elite are simply those who make great demands of themselves.”
Jordan Peterson, Noam Chomsky, and What We Mean by “Left” and “Right”
“For these reasons, I think it is not unreasonable to identify this nature-nurture or nature-history spectrum as the basic guiding principle behind the left-right spectrum.”
Slavoj Žižek and the Quillette Hoax
“But this just shows that Žižek is right in that there is no such thing as seeing the world as it really is. There is always something that mediates perception.”
Where Hayek and Marx Part Ways
“The most committed liberal would believe that perfection is unattainable, while the socialist would contend that it is not only possible but necessary.”
Slavoj Žižek, Music, and the End of Capitalism
“The basic thought is that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.”
Jordan Peterson’s Thinkspot and Public Utilities
“Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media platforms are much more like churches or clubs than they are like a public plaza, regardless of their size.”
When We Debate “Biological Differences”
“The framing of these arguments, I believe, is largely misguided. Right and Left are, after all, moral and political positions and not scientific ones.”
Jordan Peterson’s Thinkspot Probably Isn’t about “Free Speech”
“It makes sense to frame the issue as being about free speech, however, because it is likely seen as a much more worthwhile cause.”
Where Conservatives Go From Here
“While it may seem strange to some to see people on the Right express skepticism—and even disdain—for the free market, it is increasingly common.”
Nationalism: No Longer a Dirty Word, But Complicated as Ever
“If it is possible to have symbols and narratives that bind an imagined community of 300 million people or of one billion, it should be equally possible to imagine a community of seven billion and to construct a coherent narrative around it and create appropriate symbolisms.”
Is “Western Civilization” a Worthwhile Conceptual Framework?
“This exposes a basic problem of the conservative idealization of the Western tradition; it relies on an artificial, if not arbitrary construction that only makes sense in retrospect.”
Jordan Peterson and Equality
An investigation of how Jordan Peterson engages with the idea of “equality.”
“Democracy” and the Language of the Founders
“A republic that moves too close to an oligarchy would require democratization.”