The Center

It’s a Somber New Year for K-12 Schools

“If the recovery effort is not expanded to involve all the resources that every community has to offer, our young people, especially the most vulnerable, face a diminished future.”

Woke Kids Are Speaking; Weak Adults Are Listening

“The university protest movement largely took shape at the same time when our society’s disproportionate valorization of youth and youthful opinion began in the 1960s, when our whole nation began to come apart at the seams, an unraveling that, despite brief periods of rollback, has continued apace t

Richard Kemp: Israel’s Existential Campaign to Destroy Hamas

“Hamas wants to maximize the death of its civilian population. The purpose is to get the international community, the United Nations, the United States, other governments around the world, to condemn Israel, to vilify Israel, to delegitimize Israel, and undermine the Jewish state in that way.”

The True Origin of Palestinian Suffering Was Not 1948

“However, there was one man who positioned himself very early on as an opponent to this growing Jewish presence in his homeland. This man was Haj Amin al-Husseini, who, in 1921, became the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.”

Phyllis Chesler: Modern Feminism’s Failure to Condemn Hamas

“The feminists have deserted Jewish women. And it wasn’t just Jewish women. There were Arab Muslim women, and there were Thai Buddhist women. No doubt many Christian women or some Christian women who were also raped, murdered, and kidnapped.”

Beyond Profit: The Value of the Humanities

“When privileging science and math in the curriculum at the expense of the humanities, education sacrifices what is most essential: the important civic function of the humanities. As a result, we produce ‘a nation of employees, not citizens.’”

What Elon Musk and Bill Gates Might Have in Common

“Musk still seems to have his wits about him when managing his other companies, when speaking on longform podcasts, or when staying conveniently on message with regard to China. So what is it about X that is specifically causing Musk to lose his composure and his business sense?”

How Scholars and Activists Have Reinvented Our Understanding of Racism

“In short, we have dogma, and from dogma, cognitive errors in reasoning inevitably ensue.”

Ireland Attempts to Silence Critics of Its Immigration Policies

“The Irish state will undoubtedly have one of the most extensive, if not the most totalitarian, hate speech laws in Western Europe if the bill becomes law, despite the government’s insistence that it contains a provision to ‘protect genuine freedom of expression.’”

The Legacy of Henry Kissinger

“If, as President Nixon and Secretary Kissinger rightly believed, it was in America’s interest to extract itself from the mess their predecessors had created in Vietnam, it was not necessary for them to keep fighting the war for so long.”

Geert Wilders: Yet Another Warning to the Center

“Many Europeans are waking up to the failures of multiculturalism and open-border policies and are demanding action. If the parties of the center left and center right continue to fail on this front, someone else will step in.”

Wessie du Toit: When a Society Decenters Leisure

“Meaningful work is as important to life as leisure, I think. I just think that we’ve lost the balance.”

The Failure of Multiculturalism

“We have a broken immigration system. Despite saying the right thing, [Suella] Braverman did not take much action to stop it. She ought to be judged similarly to what economists would call a revealed preference. In other words, actions speak louder than words.”

When a Different Standard of Morality Applies to the “Oppressed”

“The woke ideology does not merely advocate for redistribution of resources, but it also calls for (or at least allows for) different moral obligations according to one’s identity. This means that so-called oppressors are bound by a different morality than so-called oppressed identities.”

The Press Mustn’t Ignore America’s Gang Problem

“There is a formula—unfortunately, I have noticed—when it comes to many in the reality-denying national press: Make a few accurate micro-points but use them to arrive at a conclusion that no reasonable person should believe.”

The Problems with Diversity Training

“This is an admirable aim, but there is just one big problem: Diversity training is not working.”

Dr. Cheryl Green: What’s Ailing Young Women

“The most common precursor of gender dysphoria, though, seems to be intense social media use. The gender dysphoria more often seems to stem from that rather than from the home.”

Reflections on Martin Luther King Jr.’s Vision of the American Dream

“I was not there at the Memorial in the sweltering heat and humidity of Washington. I saw it through the magic of our black-and-white Muntz television set in my family’s Italian tavern in Cleveland, Ohio.”

How Jesse Singal Became the Symbol of Polarization on the Left

“Whether or not Singal is wrong in his conclusions does not matter. He dared to question the truisms, the sacred cows, and that brands him irredeemably transphobic.”

Harvard Needs to Be Consistent on the Virtue of Free Speech

“As my co-author Kai Whiting and I argue in an upcoming book…free speech debates have become not simply a matter of whether or to what extent certain ideas should be banished from the public domain, but why, how, and for whom they should be restricted.”

Barbarians in Our Midst

“It is safe to say that the Muslims who have been spouting anti-Semitic hatred and propaganda on our streets in recent days were socialized in a culture whose values are irreconcilably at odds with ours—a parallel society that sees itself not as part of Western civilization but in opposition to it.”

Mourning for Palestinians and Israelis—and the Possibility of Peace Ended

“After witnessing the events of the past few days, I admit that part of me is relieved that [my father] died before he had to watch Hamas take away his lifelong dream, slaughtering both it and Israeli civilians on video for the entire world to see.”

The Collapse of the Kabul Foreign Aid Bazaar

“The stated North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) objective in Afghanistan was nation-building, but what was created instead, over 20 years, and fell in days, was a heavily garrisoned foreign aid bazaar.”

Understanding Americans’ Rampant Dissatisfaction with Healthcare

“As a patient, I do not want to hold hands with a robot and confide my health problems to a faceless entity. As a doctor, a patient, and a human being, I reject the currently shattered doctor-patient relationship.”

Incurious: George and the Postcolonialists

“Schwartz-DuPre is dedicated to putting an end to the idea that Curious George is nothing more than an amusing story.”

On the Incoherence of “Decolonizing” the Academy

“Ideological pressure and political conformity in the workplace, professional organizations, industry, and public institutional life are so pervasive that identity politics has all but ruined social tolerance, meritocracy, and the pursuit of excellence.”

A Practical Approach to Career Education for K-12 Students

“America’s K-12 schools typically provide little information to young people on potential careers. They also generally do not provide work experiences that help them understand practical pathways to jobs and careers.”

What Socrates Can Teach Us about Political Discourse

“Rather than treating the other in a Socratic manner—which is to say, as a partner in the communal quest for truth—the polemicist roundly delegitimizes the other and reduces him to an ‘adversary, an enemy, who is wrong and whose very existence constitutes a threat.’”

Checking in on “Woke Europe”

“Like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, continental Europe would, therefore, do well to dial down the moralizing rhetoric associated with wokeness and return to the enlightened pragmatism, cultural liberalism, and scientific curiosity that gave us the modern world.”

Aliens and America’s Crisis in Meaning

“What gives? Why are people so eager to believe wild tales despite a lack of hard, clear evidence?”

The Atheist Movement Has One Job

“This is the atheist movement’s one job: to help people navigate the world and find meaning, purpose, and community in a society that has long depended on a god-belief for these ends.”

Plato and the Pursuit of Justice

“Those who do not make justice the central concern for Plato are not talking about Plato at all.”

Could AI Become Angry at Humans for Causing Environmental Destruction?

“With artificial general intelligence (AGI) likely just decades away, there is an urgent need to consider the extent of environmental harm we are causing. AGI will likely question if humans are good stewards of the planet and quickly come to the conclusion that we are not.”

Clay Routledge: Breaking Ground in Psychology, Outside of the Academy

“Regulating your own emotions is something most people are capable of doing…It doesn’t require you constantly expressing [a problem], thinking about it, [and] sharing it with everyone…There’s something about not fixating too much on your own problems and really dwelling on them but, instead, doing s

Why “Longtermism” Needs Anti-Aging Science to Succeed

“Assuming anti-aging science shows results, then all of those hypothetical people living way off in the distant future may include some of us. And if that is the case, then people alive today have a practical, personal reason to care how our current actions impact the future.”

Is the “Convenience Economy” Worth the Pain It Can Inflict?

“We live in a world where every conceivable product or service is instantly accessible.”

Stop Fearing the Best-Case Scenario with Artificial Intelligence

“What receives less attention but is equally consequential is the extreme scenario in which AI saves all of humanity by making us immortal. Just as we are unprepared for life-destroying AI, we are equally unprepared for our AI savior.”

Shawne Merriman: From the NFL to “Xtreme Fighting”

“One thing I’ve learned [from] being in combat sports is that it’s internationally watched everywhere, in every country.”

Heidegger and Nazism: The Philosophy of Being and the Politics of National Socialism

“I argue against the apologetics of the sycophantic defenders of Heidegger who claim that his involvement with National Socialism is wholly reducible to his political naïveté, which includes his gross overestimation of philosophy’s power to sway and influence the development of Germany’s ‘political’

Lawrence M. Krauss: The Fundamental Questions of Science

“The great thing is the universe is as amazing as it is without all of the fairytales. The universe is far more amazing than anything that has come up in any scriptural book because the imagination of nature is much greater than the imagination of human beings.”

Waller Newell: The Characteristics of Tyranny

“We will be nothing like the way we are now. It will be like a night and day transformation. And it always does require violence because, as you said, that class or race enemy that stands in the way of future bliss simply has to be gotten rid of.”

Review: “Crassus: The First Tycoon” by Peter Stothard

“Now, Peter Stothard has given us the final decades of the republic through the eyes of Crassus—Rome’s wealthiest man and former consul who famously embarked on a vainglorious and ultimately failed conquest of Parthia that culminated in his embarrassing death.”

Faisal Saeed Al Mutar: Iraq, 20 Years After the Fall of Baghdad

“There is a lot of hope. Every time I go there and meet with the new generation, I think that they definitely want for their country to be a successful one. And that’s the conversation in Iraq. Most people have now forgotten about the war.”

How Do They Still Have Jobs?

“By any normal definition of the role of a Cabinet member, Secretary Mayorkas would have either resigned voluntarily or have had his resignation requested by the President.”

How Ideological Addiction Drives Extremism and Undermines Civil Discourse

“It is made even more dangerous because unlike other addictions, which are widely accepted as harmful, ideological addiction is being constantly fueled by irresponsible members of the political class, the press, and many on social media.”

Democrats’ Endless Anti-Institutionalism

“However, it has now become clear that once in power, Democrats, with a few notable exceptions, have largely sought to remove any impediment to realizing their agenda regardless of how time-honored or important a given tradition might be.”

Excerpt: “Heal Your Daughter”

“As one example, some time in 2018 and 2019, many of the young people in my practice suddenly started reporting gender dysphoria and declaring themselves trans. Charismatic social media stars were effectively saying: ‘If you don’t fit in, if you don’t like your body, then you’re trans. Everything wi

Review: “Uncommon Wrath” by Josiah Osgood

“[Josiah] Osgood’s book is a welcome and exciting read about the rivalry between Caesar and Cato; Cato, in the process, finally receives some much-deserved due in the story of the republic’s final decades.”

Death Is Not Inevitable: Sitting Down with Zoltan Istvan

“I’d be very surprised if a super intelligent AI a thousand years from now cannot recreate everything. Also, like so many other people, including Elon, I believe there’s probably a 50% chance we’re in a simulation. So, that would defeat the idea of death as well.”

Gen Z and a New Relationship to Work

“In the long term, it is likely that the workplace will diversify and, in turn, settle into four or five different buckets on a continuum from traditional and non-traditional, with less representation at the extremes.”

K-12 Domestic Realists Chart an Agenda to Go Beyond Education’s Culture Wars

“K-12 education’s collective illusions divert attention away from the dogged fact that most Americans, including policymakers and young people, agree on important K-12 issues.“

Tabia Lee: What Happened at De Anza College

“There [are] ways to teach about the past that are humanistic; that are agency-focused; and that are focused on generative things rather than destructive things—rather than dismantling things and tearing things down with no plan forward of what happens after the destruction.”

Elon Musk’s Bad Take on Longevity

“Zoltan Istvan, an advocate for life extension, has observed in his longevity writings that each human mind is a unique library of information. Every time a person dies, it is like losing the Library of Alexandria.”

A Government Is More Than Capable of Addressing Multiple Crises At Once

“So, to be clear, I largely favor reducing the power of the very federal government being discussed in this piece, but that is quite different from arguing that, at its current scope and scale, it is somehow incapable of addressing multiple priorities at once.”

Would Socrates Be Anti-Woke? A Stoic Critique of Identity Politics

“For the Stoic, however, personal identity is not a fragmented life of intersecting cultural identities but rather a holistic and unified embodiment of rationality endowed by nature.”

John Cribb: What We Can Learn from Abraham Lincoln

“All of the sudden, I was on the phone with Mike Pence… ‘I just finished Old Abe last night, and I had to track you down and tell you how much I loved it, and it’s the best book about Lincoln I’ve ever read.’ And, for ten minutes, he just wanted to talk about Lincoln.”

Review: Waller Newell’s “Tyranny and Revolution: Rousseau to Heidegger”

“Beginning with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, proceeding through the luminaries of German Idealism and Romanticism—climaxing with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel—then marching beyond Hegel to Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Martin Heidegger, Newell gives a reading of philosophy gone wrong. Horribly wrong

Internet Censorship: Democrats, Remember You Could Be Out of Power One Day

“The mainstream media has largely ignored the unsettling censorship tactics of the Biden administration, and Democrats—all the while—clearly cannot imagine a future Republican administration following this administration’s lead and censoring content that does not support the new administration’s pol

A Happy Retirement: A High Bar for High Achievers

“I had lost my ambition and with it my identity. Without CEO status, who was I? If I was not leading a company, what was my purpose? How would I find contentment without that all-encompassing fixation on achievement?”

Lance Morrow: “The Noise of Typewriters”

“You could read my book…as a kind of homage to the magazine.”

Review: Bowen Blair’s “A Force for Nature”

“Nancy Russell was one of those great heroines whose quest to save the Columbia Gorge in Oregon serves as an inspirational tale that embodies the best of American grit and determination.”

How Enmity Imperils Liberal Democracy

“Rather than calm debates about policy and its implications, both good and bad, we now live in a political era defined by emotion, where political discussions mutate into threats to our personal and group safety.”

Arguments Against School Choice Presume We Have Options

“In short, if public schooling on average is so woefully inadequate, how can we take seriously the argument that if a family cannot afford or otherwise access private or home schooling, public schooling is a perfectly sufficient choice?”

Free Speech: An Eternal Struggle

“While Americans and other Westerners may be living in a golden age of free speech, there are still billions of people in the world who have yet to enjoy its blessings.”

Philadelphia Schools Have Replaced Critical Thinking with “Criticality”

“Like so many school districts in a post-George Floyd America, Philadelphia’s is rushing to embrace anti-racism.”

Understanding Why Netanyahu Won

“Whatever else one may think about the unholy trinity of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, and Bezalel Smotrich, they are, among other things, willing to discuss the serious internal security concerns that much of the country outside of Tel Aviv faces.”

What Is a Human?

“In fact, heterosexuality and the male-female binary can be observed across countless species. The onus of proof, therefore, is on those who claim that we are an exception.”

Work Is About Knowledge That Pays and Relationships That Are Priceless

“And both wages and relationships advance worker opportunity, the essential elements of which are what individuals know (i.e., profitable knowledge) and whom they know (i.e., priceless relationships).”

On the Inevitability of Racism

“As psychoanalysis long ago has perspicaciously demonstrated, prejudice is universal to human nature and is evolutionarily informed.”

Russia Will Pursue Desperate Strategies After It Exhausts Its Missile Supply

“Aside from the fact that history shows that rockets are far more useful at inflicting damage against military than civilian targets, their misuse may indicate an underlying strategic desperation in the Kremlin.”

The First Metaverse Nation

“What is new, in this case, is that the people of Tuvalu are hoping their future metaverse-based civilization will continue to function as a state and will be recognized internationally as a proper nation.”

No, Let’s Not: Perpetrators of Pandemic Authoritarianism Cannot Be Forgiven

“It must become embarrassing to admit one ever supported uninformed and nonconsensual participation in a medical experiment or mass house arrest and coerced isolation.”

The Complexity Paradox

“We are great at handling complexity until things get really, really complex.”

Putin’s Nuclear Threats Show that Jacinda Adern is Wrong About Nuclear Weapons

“[Prime Minister Ardern] is correct that nuclear weapons arsenals carry with them great risks of widespread destruction. However, the greatest risk lies in committing not to use them.”

Iran’s Uprising: Precursor to a New Revolution

“The unrest that flared up in response to [Mahsa Amini’s] death has been virtually unprecedented and provides the international community with perhaps the clearest reminder that the Iranian people abhor authoritarianism.”

The NatCons v. Ukraine

“At least Hazony recognizes that the democratic world should defend Ukraine. Other nationalists do not agree.”

Dr. Stanley Goldfarb: The Activist Class Takes Aim at Medicine

“It’s career ending, really…Anybody who tries to [speak out] will be shunned.”

The Second Elizabeth, a Life Appreciated

“From that distant day when I saw her ride down Poonamallee High Road in Madras, the epitome of regality and restraint, Elizabeth II did her best in balancing the demands of tradition, the weight of history, the requirements of society and culture both at home and abroad, and also attended to her fa

No Longer Running: An Interview with Felicia Heath

“And, later in life, when I was dealing with my father coming out of prison and perhaps rekindling that relationship, I started to look at my experience slightly differently. I started sharing bits and pieces of my story with people and, to my surprise, found that some of the reactions were positive

Friendships as Pathways to Upward Income Mobility

“For example, if poor children grew up in a neighborhood where 70% of their friends were wealthy, their future income on average will increase by 20%, similar to the effect of going to a four-year college.”

Salman Rushdie: The Antithesis to Moral Cowardice

“Leading by example, Rushdie refuses to be intimidated into silence.”

When It Comes to Iran, Say “No” to Appeasement

“Without an enemy to demonize, the Islamic Republic would have to answer for its many and grave failures.”

Excerpt: Jason Pack’s “Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder”

“And hell, if General Haftar was going to win, President Trump would happily give him some tips about where to buy vacation properties in Virginia Beach. His steering of the private ‘confidence building’ chit-chat with General Haftar to real estate matters was not actually as ridiculous as it might

Peter Buxtun, the Hero of Tuskegee, 50 Years On

“In later interviews, Buxtun would shrug off the accolades he later received for his whistleblowing. ‘I don’t want to be embarrassed by an oversupply of compliments. I am who I am,’ he would tell bioethicist Carl Elliott in 2017.”

NBC New York’s Jen Maxfield: Telling the Rest of the Story

“Sometimes, I would even dream about some of the people I had interviewed on the stories. And, so through the years, I had the idea to write a book and put it all together and try to return to some of the stories.”

Stephen Hicks: Challenges in Contemporary Education

“The ten out of a thousand entrepreneurial ideas that are amazing—we’ll find out what those are. And they will be the ones that dominate [in] the next generation.”

Review: Barry Strauss’s “The War That Made the Roman Empire”

“Barry Strauss, America’s foremost popular classicist, brings the story of Actium to life in ways that rival and surpass Shakespeare’s tragedy Antony and Cleopatra and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra…”

The Acute Danger of Iran’s Belligerence

“Our collective inability to push back against such a hateful worldview by holding Tehran accountable for the terror it is has funded and weaponized could soon prove to be a costly mistake.”

If the Horseshoe Fits: Illiberalism Across the Political Spectrum

“While far-right ideologues make no secret of their illiberalism, their counterparts on the Left tend to cloak theirs in the language of equality.”

Will Marshall: Where Are the Moderates?

“I don’t see a full, vigorous pivot by this President (and this White House) back toward the themes and approaches that Joe Biden articulated in his 2020 presidential race.”

The Oversimplification of the American Founding

“Devotion to reading non-politicized history and putting it into context is necessary and something to which we should diligently commit.”

What Type of Religion Is Wokeness?

“As we might expect, the Woke, often well educated and articulate, have generated their own convoluted and comprehensive ‘theology’ replete with saints and sinners, priests and heretics, and even their own kind of Heaven and Hell.”

The Greatness of Ronald Reagan

“With bloated bureaucracies and top marginal tax rates at 70% when he entered office, President Reagan also carried in his mind a basic script about overreach of the federal government that resonated with Americans after a decade of stagflation and presidential scandals.”

A Decent Level for All: Economic Justice and Universal Basic Income

“Instituting UBI could help us to transcend traditional distinctions between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor that have shaped poverty policy for far too long.”

Why We’ll Always Be Talking about George Orwell

“It is a shame, though, that whenever Orwell reappears it is almost always in the context of his dystopian political novel.”

Like in Ukraine, We Must Recognize Iranians’ Right to Resistance

“Political leaders in the United States are increasingly recognizing the vitality and capabilities of the Iranian resistance movement and are looking for ways to empower it.”

The Great American School Tragedy: The Coronavirus and Students

“So while parents are generally satisfied with what schools did under trying and unprecedented circumstances, they have good reason to be worried about the pandemic’s effects on their children’s academic and emotional well-being.”

Let Them Fight: The Case for Leaving Syria

“If the United States and its NATO allies consider Turkey to be a partner worth keeping—and both the size of its military and its contributions to NATO’s budget suggest that it is—then a situation placing Turkey in conflict with Russia is to their benefit.”

Narrative Ethics: A Modest Proposal

“I wryly refer to the universal adoption of narrative ethics as a ‘modest proposal’ because while telling stories is a fundamental part of human nature, telling stories in perfectly ethical ways is, unfortunately, too often alien to our nature.”

Karl Marx’s Theory of Primitive Accumulation Is Wrong

“It is a win-win situation—not the zero-sum world of Marx’s gloomy dystopia. Institutions that reduce transaction costs and enforce well-defined property rights provide an environment in which incentives to economic initiative can thrive.”

On “The Diversity Paradox”

“Similarly, while professional hockey is considered to have an under-representation problem, the same is not considered true for the National Football League or National Basketball Association, in which African Americans are very over-represented.”

When Anti-Israel Bias Finds Its Way into Coverage Choices

“Our media’s acceptance of anti-Semitic narratives is eroding Israel’s standing in the world and, in turn, the nation’s ability to defend itself against an enemy that has long ago broken its borders and used its very liberalism against it.”

To Win Wars, Cut the U.S. Defense Budget

“It is time to slash the United States defense budget. The money wasted on weapon systems designed to win last century’s wars is staggering, as are the opportunity costs.”

Harris Poll’s Will Johnson: Why Polling Still Matters

“At the end of the day, it’s a pretty simple business that we’re in: We want to understand culture, we want to understand consumers’ thinking, and we’re just trying to answer why’s.”

The Pandemic Is a Chaos Narrative 

“Chaos narratives, however, defy our narrative expectations. There is no order, sense, or logical chronology but, instead, suffering without an apparent purpose or meaning.”

Why Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China Are Cozy Bedfellows

“Why is there this close bond? Why does China do nothing in response to President Putin’s bloodlust?”

The Many Problems with Race Reparations in the United States (Part Two)

“The analyses attempting to quantify reparations, cited above, will likely encounter strong and ongoing resistance, if only based on the price tag alone.”

Rediscovering “Third Place” Friendships in a Post-Pandemic World

“By taking part in ordinary activities like visiting a bar or restaurant or a park or library, we are doing something which is important to the health of our neighbors, neighborhoods, and communities.”

Yemen and the Weaponization of Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid

“A country on the brink well before war arrived, Yemen’s humanitarian crisis has been labeled the worst of our generation.”

The Many Problems with Race Reparations in the United States

“What accounts for the gap between scholars and activists who advocate reparations and broad public resistance to the idea?”

Nuclear Iran—Why the Islamic Republic Is Not the Actor We Think It Is

“As the only Western journalist allowed to enter Iran prior to its presidential elections back in 2017, I followed then-candidate Ebrahim Raisi on the campaign trail. Whatever illusions I had about Iran and its ambitions melted under the sheer brutality of his war rhetoric.”

Blame Putin, Sure, But Also Blame Biden

“The fact—one that should surprise no one—is that the same folks who gave us the grossly mismanaged withdrawal from Afghanistan have also taught a master class on how to bungle our crucial relationship with an already insecure nuclear superpower.”

A Better Way to Promote Equality of Opportunity Through Education

“Now is no time to double down on a crumbling status quo. Instead of universalizing college and directing young people through a single pathway to opportunity, we should be multiplying pathways to opportunity.”

​​A Millennial Technologist’s View on Jaron Lanier’s “Who Owns the Future?”

“Lanier draws a straight line from the idealism and optimism that ‘information wants to be free’ to the dystopian problems facing today’s world, including but not limited to a declining middle class, filter bubbles, and dysfunctional politics.”

A Response to Cathy Young: Let’s Be More Dispassionate When Discussing Ukraine

“Young knows all too well what a chilly climate for dissent can devolve into, regardless of good intentions. This can undermine the West’s moral high ground more than any Russia-backed stooge could.”

Drivel’s Advocate: Why Nonsense Is Necessary

“To us it should be plain that bad information accompanies the good: that it is (as death is to life) the necessary dark background against which one might see any light at all.”

Gods and Beasts: An Aristotelian View of the “Corona-Years”

“Yet, today, what seems most poignant about this story of just a few years ago is not so much that the young man had the opportunity to meet his friend in person as that meeting face-to-face was still considered an essential requirement by either him or his community—the consummation, if you like, o

Kids and the Coronavirus: Unintended Consequences Two Years Later

“So, we have been living in two pandemics, but only one has dominated our public health discussions.”

Ukraine and “The Fog of War”

“Amid the memes and rhetoric, there has been much in the way of propaganda, unverifiable information, and outright lies that seem, at times, not to be appreciated for what they are.”

Stephen Hicks: Lessons from the Canadian Trucker Protest

“Every generation, we need to learn and relearn how thin the line can be between having a basically liberal society and a basically authoritarian society.”

Bring Back “Bums”…and Then Kick the Bums Out

“And we very much do need to start telling ourselves and these street people the hard (but ultimately more humanizing and compassionate) truth again: We need to call the bums by their rightful name.”

Dr. Fauci and Our Pandemic of Distrust

“To challenge Dr. Fauci is, thus, to challenge a kind of revealed truth. Those who question Dr. Fauci are not merely expressing differing opinions; rather, they are apostates, ‘science deniers,’ ‘anti-vaxxers’ spreading dangerous ‘misinformation,’ and they are worthy of ridicule, censorship, and, of

What Whoopi Goldberg Got Wrong about the Holocaust—and Why It Matters

“Only days before Goldberg made her ill-informed comments, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) changed its definition of racism to ‘The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.’”

No to Money for Hostages

“When I was imprisoned in Iran, I made it clear to the Swiss ambassador to let the Trump administration know not to offer any money in exchange for my release.”

If the Pendulum Doesn’t Swing Back

“The implication is that culture and politics can be thought of as the bob of a pendulum swinging back and forth mechanically between the political left and the right, and that, at the moment, we are simply at the leftward amplitude of such a process.”

James Lindsay: “Counter Wokecraft” and Responses to Institutional Takeover

“You have to have a steel spine in your liberalism. ‘What kind of government did you create, sir?’ ‘We created a republic, if [you] can keep it.’ The ‘if you can keep it’ part requires a steel spine.”

In Reply to “Jesus Mythicism Is About to Go Mainstream”

“As a former graduate student in religious studies and writer of the classics, it is deeply regrettable that the scholarship of the academy does not reach further and that century-old myths no longer of any substantial prominence in academic study still hold public sway.”

The Great American Disconnect

“A disconnect ensues: Even as the American public has indeed polarized, our elected representatives have fled to the extremes to an even greater degree.”

Finland, Russia, and the NATO Question: An Interview with Risto Penttilä

” I think that we are, as always, pragmatic idealists.”

Jesus Mythicism Is About to Go Mainstream

“So, yes—my friend has a point: To someone who has never given a moment’s thought to whether Jesus was a real person or not, he does seem like an entirely fictional character.”

Peter Boghossian: On the Purpose of Education

“It’s not that there’s anything wrong with debate. In fact, debate, in certain circumstances, can be good, but we can often solve the problems…through conversation.”

Remembering Sir Roger Scruton, Two Years On

“At the time, I would not have guessed my encounters with Roger through YouTube and a handful of books would lead me to studying with him just prior to his death.”

When It Comes to Medical Aid-in-Dying, We Must Protect the Vulnerable

“Many such persons will have internalized the idea that they constitute an inconvenient and expensive burden on loved ones, as well as the healthcare system. Legalizing MAID risks reinforcing that message.”

Magatte Wade: The Power of Free Markets for Africa

“Eventually, I had an emotional crisis because I could no longer reconcile the life of abundance that the U.S. afforded me. I made a pact with myself that from here on, I’m really going to try to see what needs to happen for [Africa] to thrive.”

The Failed Attempt to Rescue Marx’s Labor Theory of Value

“Without the notion of socially necessary labor time, nothing in Marx’s value form or overall theory of exploitation makes sense.”

The Power of Facing: A Review of “Christopher Hitchens” by Ben Burgis

“One of the causes of tension with Noam Chomsky, for example, Burgis observes, was Hitchens’ recognition that the forces of anti-imperialism today are dissimilar to ‘Ho Chi Minh or the Sandinistas.’”

Frank Vogl: Understanding the Kleptocrats and Their Enablers

“Too often, people think of corruption as something that happens somewhere else: in Russia, in authoritarian regimes.”

What Karl Marx Got Wrong About Value

“As a matter of economics, scarcity is the source of all value, even if it is a combination of ‘manufactured’ scarcity via monopoly control and relative scarcity due to the costliness of extraction and the preferences of consumers.”

Editor’s Choice: The Best Interviews of 2021

Here are our editor’s choices for his favorite interviews of this past year.

Why I Oppose the JCPOA

“As a former political hostage in Iran, I oppose the efforts to revive the current agreement as it stands. I will explain my reasoning and what I believe is the best path forward.”

Editor’s Choice: The Best Articles of 2021

“As is tradition at Merion West, here are our editor’s choices for his favorite Merion West articles of this past year.”

Video: Merion West Co-Founders Speak at Alma Mater

Henri Mattila and Erich Prince tell the story of Merion West.

Excerpt: “Setting the Bar”

“I pedal away with an all-too-familiar question bouncing around my head: ‘What are we doing to these kids?’”

“Is Nothing Sacred?”

“And this is exacerbated by a situatedness in a contemporary culture that has removed the sort of guardrails that would tell a would-be troublemaker that to defile something like a grave or a tribute to those lost in a mass casualty terrorist attack is unacceptable…”

Libya, Syria, and the Future of Intervention

“No country, even the most powerful, can save lives in every conflict, but if it judges itself to be able to and its conscience is sufficiently moved by the killing, it should step in.”

My Generation Is Afraid to Live

“We are inheritors of incredible cultures, yet we have no appreciation or understanding of them. We have more informational resources than any generation prior, yet we are as ignorant as ever.”

A Question for Frances Haugen: Who Decides?

“The question, however, remains: Would politically motivated government officials make better decisions than executives at these companies, and would these decisions be fairly applied to all users?”

What Punk Rock Has Taught Me about the Radical Left

“The question, of course, is why an underground counterculture known for its outspoken, contrarian, and anti-authoritarian attitude would toe the woke party line, disavow empiricism, and do the bidding of elite ideologues rather than admit that the emperor is naked.”

“Heroism” and the “World Soul” at Jena

“The flattering portrait Hegel wrote of Napoleon to his friend has subsequently spiraled into mythic legend. Why did Hegel have this seemingly lofty view of Napoleon?”

Roberto Calasso: A Man Possessed

“Roberto Calasso passed away this year at the age of 80. There is no one quite like Roberto Calasso; perhaps there is no one remotely like Roberto Calasso.”

The Mirage of Media Objectivity

“Writing becomes a contest between mutually incompatible conceptions of public life. We do not simply have varying prescriptions for social ills; the afflictions we observe are fundamentally different.”

It’s Time to Move Away from Outward Markers of Jewish Belonging 

“One thing I chose not to do was circumcise my child. While many of my secular compatriots still feel an affinity for this practice as a ‘tribal marking,’ I find it intellectually and ethically difficult to defend.”

Andrew Sullivan Invites Us All Out Onto the Limb

“That commitment to truth seeking made Sullivan one of the earliest advocates for gay marriage and one of the most potent and consistent critics of ‘wokeness’ today.”

If Anything Is Sacred, the Human Body Is Not It

“The body is certainly something we should appreciate, but it is not the most obvious thing to be considered sacred. A far better candidate would be consciousness.”

The Political Import of Jonathan Rauch’s “The Constitution of Knowledge”

“Rauch takes as his subject how we know what we know in public life, and what the greatest contemporary threats to our shared public knowledge are.”

A Culture War Worth the Fight

“The predictable consequence is that instead of striving together toward the ethereal glow at the top of the highest peak, we are coming apart and stomping each other and ourselves further down into the abyss…”

Why We Should Love Democracy, with a Few Caveats

“But even if we should accept and defend democracy as an ideal, we should not make the mistake of forgetting that anti-democratic—or, at least, non-democratic—procedures and institutions are necessary for sustaining a liberal democratic society like our own.”

The Psychology of Critical Social Justice

“Adherents of the Woke worldview disallow this more complex approach to social issues (psychologically, an ambivalent position) and, instead, succumb to the simplistic and often pleasurable permission to demonize entire categories of people according to immutable traits.”

Can Australians Trust the Americans after Kabul?

“As a result of this debacle, it now seems reasonable to question whether Washington is competent enough to assure Australia’s security.”

Fixing California’s Housing Crisis: An Interview with Nolan Gray

“To understand how land use regulation can help save California from the dystopian future it is currently facing, I spoke with Nolan Gray, an urban planner and outspoken land use policy wonk.”

It’s Time for a Two-State Solution…for America

“If a nation is an ‘imagined community,’ to invoke Benedict Anderson’s metaphor, then how can we live together when the communities we imagine are, at every level, incompatible?”

Politics: Not an End in Itself

“As such, politics has eclipsed its primary purpose—namely, to provide the means by which people can seek out and, in turn, live good lives, lives that have nothing to do with politics.”

City of Thugs

“If, on the other hand, we as a society make excuses for thugs and use pretextual claims of racism to emasculate law enforcement, we will promote the continuation of our rapid race to the bottom.”

Tunisia and Egypt: Two Tests for Biden and Democracy

“The Biden administration has not yet decided whether to call Saied’s power grab a coup.”

How Things End

“As Joshua Foa Dienstag reminds us, the essential tragedy of being human (or being anything, for that matter) stems from the passage of time.”

Letter to the Editor: In Reply to “Buy Out the Settlers”

“Therefore, what possible reason is there to believe that simply bribing a few Jews out of a few homes in the West Bank will result in Hamas and Fatah making peace with Israel?”

The Eviction Ban: A Case Study in Congressional Dysfunction

“Our members of Congress—no matter how extreme their ideological predilections—have a duty to quit using the institution as a performative stage and begin working within it to actually forge policy solutions to our most pressing issues.”

Unleashing the Hounds Upon America

“How did it happen that the Wolves came to wield such power here, infiltrating academia, journalism, and other segments of society that were supposed to be high-minded bastions of truth and light?”

Withdrawal Symptoms

“Dear doves and hawks and other feathered brethren: It is already over.”

When Tolerance Goes Too Far

“Implicit in this choice was the belief that tolerance of all values was more important than inculcating any particular set of values and, thus, that tolerance was the most important aim of society.”

Kay Hymowitz: The Devaluation of Higher Education

“This brings in the status issue again, doesn’t it? Because there are so many careers that people just wouldn’t consider because how would they tell their friends?”

Propaganda Art

“Yet now the Enlightenment too, like ancient thought before, finds its enduring legacy threatened by a fundamentalist competitor.”

Edward J. Watts: Dissecting the Rhetoric of Decline

“But one of the dangers is it’s very easy when there is change that makes someone uncomfortable to immediately say that this is a society that’s in decline and to blame somebody for causing it.”

From Revolting Masses to Revolting Elites

“Although reaching immense influence in the 20th century, the mass man is the ‘spoiled child of history,’ and when he goes in search of bread, says Ortega, he always does one thing, ‘He wrecks the bakery.’”

Review: Robin DiAngelo’s “Nice Racism”

“One thing that sets Nice Racism apart from her other books is the depth of its cynicism.”

Kai Whiting: Clearing up Misconceptions about Stoicism

“The other fans that have a dangerously inaccurate idea about what it means to be Stoic are the ‘Broics.’”

Liberal Democracy Lives on the Page, Not the Screen

“Here, I would like to reflect on the optimal mechanisms for sustaining the rational mindset that undergirds liberal democracy.”

In Reply to Tomasz Witkowski: To Foster a Culture of Common Sense

“What is needed is a return to a culture of common sense and personal well-being, in which one is judged according to what kind of person one is and how one conducts one’s life.”

The Power of Stories to Tear Us Apart

“In his TED Talk ‘Be suspicious of stories,’ Tyler Cowen explains that, when we create stories, ‘We’re imposing order on the mess we observe.’”

The Press and Violence against Asian-Americans 

“It seems as though they will do anything to avoid actually backing approaches that would begin to remedy these problems, all of which start with taking a harder-line on those who routinely commit violent crimes.”

A Rocking Chair with a Fan? Parallels with Psychotherapy

“This modest and inconspicuous doctor published a 2018 guide for lay people, describing simple methods for helping people with mental health problems, entitled Where There Is No Psychiatrist.”

Patriotism: The Supreme Political Virtue

“Here, Smith steps in, and he admirably makes a case to both the Left and the Right that patriotism is a worthy political virtue in need of resuscitation here in the United States.”

In Support of Snobbery

“The work of totalitarianism takes a lot of muscle, but most of it is done by just one: the wooden tongue.”

Review: Chris Bail’s “Breaking the Social Media Prism”

“To explain why the echo chamber corrective flopped, Bail puts forth an alternative theory of how today’s social media is helping drive polarization and mutual contempt between partisans.”

In a Future Driven by Artificial Intelligence, “Career Adjacency” Offers Humans Agency  

“However trendy this new semantic shift, the word is more relevant than ever: “Career adjacency” is now the future of human work.”

Buy Out the Settlers

“The United States can offer a very innovative solution to a seemingly intractable conflict: Pay Israel to withdraw its settlers.”

Beware of False Humanists

“At the same time, I cannot find a single discovery in the history of science that has been made by following the conviction that everybody is different.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Immigration, Islam, and Christopher Hitchens

“What I have found in the book is strong enough to suggest that there is a correlation between mass migration from Muslim-majority countries and the increase in sexual violence.”

How the “New Atheists” Deradicalized Me

“New Atheism had taught me always to demand evidence; and the evidence revealed that, historically, political radicalism had been a major source of violence and inhumanity…”

Stoicism Offers an Antidote to Cancel Culture

“From a eudaimonic well-being perspective, the act of cancelling those we do not like—more often than not—leaves us worse off, precisely because it robs us of an opportunity to create the best version of ourselves.”

To Prevent Politics and Reality from Breaking Up, Keep It Local

“Therefore, if we want to ward off a divorce between our political narratives and reality, perhaps the best thing we can do is bring political affairs as close as possible to our lived, everyday realities.”

Time To Get Vaccinated…Against Propaganda

“To these people, lockdown has been a raging success. To everybody else, it has been an unmitigated disaster.”

George Orwell’s Vision for a Socialist Britain: What Did He Actually Want?

“But every now and again, it is worth looking at his own vision of an ideal society. Interestingly, this is where this sharp-eyed critic comes across as short-sighted.”

George W. Bush’s “Out of Many, One”: A Message of Gratitude

“And at a time when so many, on both the Left and Right, seem intent on tearing everything down, President Bush reminds us how much we have.”

Antje Ellermann: What Drives a Country’s Openness to Immigration

“Interest group pressure typically opens up immigration.”

The Facebook Oversight Board: How to Make It Actually Work

“Accordingly, we believe that Facebook could streamline its appeals process by following the guidelines suggested above.”

Independent Wealth: a Prerequisite for Speaking Up?

“This point deserves all the more consideration today, at a time in recent history that has become uniquely critical of concentrated wealth, both of the inherited and earned variety.”

A Big, Bad Word

“But the thinking man ought to deploy le mot juste—the precise term—because of the heartburn it gives petty tyranny, as all truths reliably do.”

Review: John Boehner’s “On the House”

“On the House does not provide a clear answer, but, if one reads carefully, one might find that Boehner’s short-term pessimism and long-term optimism are both warranted.”

A Brief History of Nothing (Part IV): Wars of the Spirit

“Lewis observes that young people are no longer being taught to experience a unity with greater powers but, rather, to accept themselves as separated from greater reality.”

Review: Jamal Greene’s “How Rights Went Wrong”

“Greene uses abortion jurisprudence as a real-world example of how American law’s approach to rights has gone wrong—and has helped split us up into warring tribes competing for a zero-sum rights pie.”

Why We’ve Committed Ourselves to Fighting Online Censorship

“We believe this question of censorship is a non-partisan concern that will deeply affect the ability of our country to achieve fairness and progress going forward.”

DEI: a Trojan Horse for Critical Social Justice in Science

“As a result, the time has come for scientists to place themselves on the right side of history and reject Critical Social Justice in science as well as its Trojan Horse, DEI as it is currently justified and conceived.”

Preparing for the Work Only Humans Can Do

“Merisotis has written extensively about higher education and the future of work, but Human Work is a departure from much of his past writing.”

Growing Up with the Intellectual Dark Web

“It was around that time that I, a decidedly aimless and apathetic 15-year-old, would stumble upon a still somewhat blossoming The Rubin Report, along with The Joe Rogan Experience and Sam Harris’ podcast Making Sense.”

Where Race and Language Meet

“Dropping one term in favor of another will not, by itself, solve any great problem, but it can make finding a solution a bit more likely.”

Understanding the Mind of a Rioter

“This tendency to equate nuanced thinking and nonviolence with a lack of political conviction is typical of radicals.”

When They Say Abortion and Capital Punishment Are One and the Same

“One cannot help but wonder if this is little more than a tactic adopted by supporters of abortion to seek to discredit pro-life activists by implying that their entire worldview rests on a contradiction.”

Everybody’s Getting the Filibuster—and the Senate—All Wrong

“But let us be clear: It is not fair to claim that the filibuster is a ‘relic of Jim Crow,’ either.”

Rialpolitik: The New Iranian Dealmakers

“Policy towards Iran must be suited not to religious ideologues who happen to be flush with petrocash but, rather, to racketeers who happen to be religious ideologues.”

The Civic Moment

“Instead, we should follow President Biden and Gorman’s lead and frame our political debate and public discourse within an overarching language of civic virtue.”

Age Quod Agis

“From Saint Ignatius, this short phrase’s message is straightforward yet powerful: Do what you are doing.”

Is Joe Biden the Future of Liberalism? Let’s Hope So

“Will the Democrats prove captive to cultural grievance, identity politics, anti-racism, and the like? Or will they throw their lot in with Biden-style moderates…”

Flexible Government Is Good Government

“When to allow discretion on the part of public servants is not an easy question to answer.”

Is Gen Z Really So Different?

“Coming of age in the 1990s, the state of the world seemed every bit as dire to me as it does to many ‘Zoomers.’”

Local Decision-Makers and Keeping Kids Active During the Pandemic

“Yet, paradoxically, it appears as a nation that our collective response to the pandemic has exacerbated the pre-existing epidemic of physical inactivity amid efforts to protect people’s health.”

Europe’s Descent into Wokeness

“In Austria, for example, police have shot a dozen people since 2008; none of them were black.”

Let’s Make the Founders Less Unique

“If our halls of power are rife with mini Aaron Burrs, what does that say about us?”

Confessions of a High School English Teacher

“Because of the comments I had heard from people in the department and from our department head, I was scared my contract would be not be renewed if I revealed my political preferences.”

Who Qualifies for a Second Chance?

“Can their good works ever balance out any of the harm they have caused?”

When John F. Kennedy Saved the World (Part II)

“Kennedy no doubt considered his relations with Khrushchev in making his decision. He had been groomed by his father to be a ruthless competitor.”

Robert Orlando: Bending Genre in Filmmaking

“If you look through the films, it’s a propaganda machine, where identity politics is always featured. There’s no space there for just a common universal story, which is the appeal to human frailty or common ground.”

A Brief History of Nothing (Part III): From Dada, to Dachau, to Davos

“While seemingly contrary in ‘theory,’ the great totalitarian systems—fascism and communism—would have a great deal in common in practice. Both are manifestations of the human Ego flailing about in a world reduced to Nothing.”

James Madison, Greg Weiner, and What to Do about the Filibuster

“Patience ‘is the central constitutional virtue—and it is, by all signs, a lost one.’”

When John F. Kennedy Saved the World

“Kennedy proved his mettle in response to a Soviet breach of the Monroe Doctrine, defusing a crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster.”

When Reading about Abraham Lincoln, in 2021

“As historian James Oakes writes in his new book, The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution, the Republican Party was once home to a tight union of moral principle and constitutionalism.”

How to Harness Tribalism to Unify Americans

“To the contrary, we can take advantage of certain aspects of our tribal nature to ease tensions between groups and, critically, to pursue common goals that are important for human flourishing.”

On the American Economy Being “Rigged”

“The evidence is overwhelming; the American economy is rigged in favor of the government-business elite and has become more so over time.”

Cutting Through Identities: to Alter the Body or to Heal the Mind?

“But this article is not actually about cutting. If one has not yet guessed what it is really about by now, it is time for me to pull back the curtain.”

The Foe We Need Is the Foe We Have

“At a time when we are losing a grip on the fundamentals of the American Experiment, a powerful foe has arisen that stands in direct opposition to those fundamentals.”

Forgiving All Debt Is a Step in the Wrong Direction

“In financial markets, the basic unit of cost is risk.”

A Fatal Convergence: What Led to the Storming of the U.S. Capitol 

“They persuaded 138 Republican members of Congress to vote against the certification of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, the most significant demonstration of no confidence in American democracy since the secession of the Confederate states.”

Review: Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay’s “Cynical Theories”

“…it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the authors might have profitably started with an opening chapter dedicated to early American identity politics as well as postmodernism.”

Immanuel Kant: a Conservative Philosopher as Much as a Liberal One

“This suggests that Kant’s Copernican turn in metaphysics, in both the theoretical and practical spheres, has the potential to be interpreted in both liberal and conservative directions.”

Jonathan Church: Getting to the Bottom of the Robin DiAngelo Craze

“I go through a whole analysis of that and why—statistically speaking—you’re basically making a very broad statement about white people in general based on one observation in one Jeopardy! episode.”

Finding Value in Diversity Training: the Case of Microaggressions

“That is why in my work with schools and non-governmental organizations I try to model an open and judicious approach to CSJ orthodoxies, one that sifts through the kooky stuff in order to highlight the important parts.”

What Is the Intellectual’s Duty to Society?

“In his new book, Hope & Scorn: Eggheads, Experts, and Elites in American Politics, historian Michael J. Brown adeptly probes questions such as these as he delves into ‘the uncertain role of intellectuals in a democracy.’”

Contra Bridget Phetasy, We Should Not Abandon Partisan Politics

“Given the fact that humans are competitive by nature, how could politics not become some version of a team sport? It is true that hyper-partisanship is not great, but the game is what it is.”

Francis Fukuyama: Making Identity Politics Work

“One of the core conclusions of Fukuyama’s Identity is that identity politics—the ‘demand for [political] recognition of one’s identity,’ whether that be a racial, ethnic, religious, or national identity—is here to stay.”

In Response to a Worthy Critic

“I will close here by thanking Senatore for his thoughtful critique of my review. I hope that this response convinces him that my ‘sweeping statements and feel-good-isms’ are not wholly without merit!”

“After Trump”

“In what ways can we further immunize our governing institutions from the political malaise of today and tomorrow?”

A Brief History of Nothing (Part II): Something for Nothing

“We presumed to be no longer worshipping anything, but were we not actually worshipping Nothing?”

Desperately Seeking Consistency

“And, as Michael Lind pointed out in Tablet, Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill was not the only Capitol Hill taken over by extremists thanks to a lax police presence—witness ultra-progressive Seattle.”

Transgender Rites: How Trans Activism Manipulates Public Opinion

“The notion that gender identity is a matter of self-identification, separate from biological sex, not only flies in the face of science but also leads to circular reasoning.”

Mr. President, Please Consider Following John Adams’s Example

“So, if President Trump sticks to his plans not to attend the inauguration of President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, he has a remaining option that still very much respects the peaceful transfer of government set into place by our nation’s Founders.”

The Woke Mob vs. the Trump Mob: the Real Double Standard

“There is a real double standard at work. It is a glaring one, not the one President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris claim exists but, rather, the one they want to gaslight us into accepting.”

What Ails Us?

“The loss of faith in America, its promises, and its constitutional and democratic ideals augurs not only American decline, but American collapse.”

The Trump Putsch

“While I am happy to endorse some of President Trump’s policies, I am not willing to endorse his self-serving legal maneuvering simply for the sake of these policies I support.”

The Historic Unifying Potential of the U.S. Constitution

“Professor McConnell’s extensive study of the substance and scope of presidential power under the Constitution has convinced me that the unifying capacity of the Constitution could perhaps be revived.”

Editor’s Choice: the Best Interviews of 2020

As has become something of a tradition each year at Merion West, here are our editor’s choices for his favorite interviews of this past year.

H. R. McMaster: How He Sees China, and the World

“And so I think we have to resist the tendency to try to define a new administration’s foreign policy mainly as an opposition to the administration that came before it.”

Walter Lippmann and the Dilemma of Democracy

“In his 1922 book, Public Opinion, Lippmann notes that in a representative democracy, members of the public are expected to form opinions regarding public affairs with which they have no direct contact.”

A Janus-faced America

“Yet, despite the extremes we have confronted this year, there might be a way of turning away from this ‘great divide.’”

Editor’s Choice: the Best Articles of 2020

“As is tradition at Merion West, here are our editor’s choices for his favorite Merion West articles of this past year.”

An Enchanted Christmas with John Wesley

“Wesley’s hymns remind us of all that is good in the world and all that is true about the human condition.”

Kristof and WuDunn’s “Tightrope”: an Essential Book

“Whether one agrees with none, some, or all of their policy prescriptions, Tightrope approaches the status of a must-read.“

Slavoj Žižek, Leszek Kołakowski, and the Ontological Gap

“I would argue that we must vigilantly guard against viewing ourselves as gods or otherwise infusing and inflating our fallible natures and politics with a divine authority.”

Escaping Tumblr

“I was also on Tumblr with an agenda. Over the past ten months, I had stumbled deeper and deeper into the neurodiversity movement, which frames autism as an identity as well as a disability and blames society for ‘oppressing’ autistics.”

A Brief History of Nothing

“Historically, human beings worshipped gods or God; modern secular man worships Nothing.”

Blowing Up “The Big White Ghetto”

“Williamson puts his finger on a certain, pervasive resignation that hobbles so many lower-class Americans—a resignation that must be explicitly attacked if our nation is to live up to its promises…”

Can a Constitution of Genius Work for a Nation of Imbeciles?

“Ricks writes: ‘In a nutshell, Washington was sensing the limits of virtue as a driver of the new country. He is not often seen as a political philosopher, but in his own quiet way he was ahead of most of his peers.’”

Review: H.R. McMaster’s “Battlegrounds”

“As citizens, though, thankfully we can do more than just hope. We can engage in the sort of good-faith, learned analysis which General McMaster has provided us in Battlegrounds.”

Grant McCracken: Why We Need to Bring Back Honor

“I studied Elizabethan England as a graduate student. It was a society governed by ideas of honor, and I thought, ‘Wow. Maybe some of those ideas could be returned to usefulness.’”

Casting Spells: The Enduring Allure of Leftist Mysticism

“In the case of leftist mysticism, the greatest obstacle to this transformation appears to be human nature, which, in part, explains the bloody reality of socialism and communism.”

The Center Must Hold

“Having engaged with Schlesinger’s thinking, readers should ask themselves: Here in the 21st century, what are the greatest threats to the liberal democratic project at home and abroad?”

The Monstrosity of Gnosticism

“Milbank is perhaps correct, then, in seeing that Žižek is so heterodox in his reading that he has crossed the Rubicon into something detached from the stream of Christian thought.”

Is the American Economy Significantly Different than Europeans Think?

“Do you realize how strange it is that professionals can move around Europe more freely than they can in the U.S.? And that overall, Alabama has more autonomy over its regulations than France does?”

What Is a Cult, Anyway?

“The word ‘cult’ is tossed around quite frequently in media, but few can offer a precise definition.”

Review: Carlos Lozada’s “What Were We Thinking”

“Lozada’s book provides a comprehensive, incisive analysis of the intellectual debates that defined the Trump-era. As we plunge forward into a post-Trump presidency politics, it is a must read.”

Finding Hope When All Seems Lost

“The alarming juxtaposition is that on the other side of this brick wall were patients dying from malaria and children being born with HIV. However, the sheer joy and optimism of this village was unbreakable and, in every sense, unexplainable.”

I Voted for Trump, and I’m Not a Racist

“But I had never voted in a presidential election until this year. So why did I vote in 2020?”

Review: Ted Cruz’s “One Vote Away”

“One Vote Away serves as a useful primer on some of the great constitutional issues of our day, while also proving that legal judgment and political judgment are separate matters.”

Meritocratic Tyranny: Big, If True

“But Sandel’s critique of meritocracy runs deeper than lamenting the obvious gap between meritocratic ideals and reality; Sandel takes issue with the ideal of meritocracy itself.”

Ibram Kendi’s Thesis Could Use a Lot More Rigor (Part II)

“In short, Kendi’s consequentialist view of racism as rooted in policy (which, however unpredictably and unintentionally, results in racial disparities) does not explain everything.”

“Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children”

“By becoming so concerned about the plight of children, we have become child-like ourselves.”

We’re Divided. But Will We Fall?

“French dedicates his book to James Madison, saying, ‘May we remember that you were right.’”

Ibram Kendi’s Thesis Could Use a Lot More Rigor

“For Kendi, it is policy first and racism second. Debatable? That is a racist question. Maybe a presentist interpretation of history? Also racist.”

Is the West “at War with Islam”?

“This becomes painfully clear when it is one’s own city that is being attacked. I had cycled through the neighborhood a mere 30 minutes before the attack commenced.”

America: Strained But Strong

“Hopefully, the reality of neither party being dominant will translate into a shared recognition that virtues like tolerance must be rediscovered and resuscitated in our political life.”

To Resist Participating in the Great Lie

“Solzhenitsyn observed through incredible hardship and deep reflection, that, in his country, the lie had ‘become not just a moral category but a pillar of the state.’”

“A Cry from the Far Middle”: Lots of Laughs, And a Few Important Insights

“If there is an underlying argument here, though, it is that Americans ought to quit taking themselves—and their own tribe’s political convictions—so darn seriously.”

To My Fellow Catholics, Just Before Election Day

“We must face the reality that the prevalence of abortion is a manifestation of our distressed sociality and corrupted sense of mutual responsibility.”

Rep. Denver Riggleman: Reflecting on His Two Years in D.C.

“And I’ll have to say this: This was the worst job I ever had, but it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

A “November Surprise”? History Shows That’s Possible

“The following examples remind us that no presidential race is over until the votes are counted.”

Stop Saying Biden Is “A Lot like Trump” on China

“All the headlines about how we will see a continuation of President Trump’s China policies under a potential Biden administration ignore their radically divergent views about the United States’ role in the world.”

Appreciating the Legacy of James Randi

“The Canadian-born James Randi, who passed away this past week at the age of 92, will surely be remembered as a modern-day Lucian.”

What Struck Me Watching the Final Presidential Debate

“Our public discourse must turn away from retrospective litigation and verbal crossfire and, instead, shift towards real politics…”

Paging Mr. Moynihan

“We can only hope that Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s approach to politics will be rediscovered. Books like American Burke should function as essential guides in this most necessary search.”

Ethnic Diversity and Social Trust: a Discussion with Merlin Schaeffer

“Policies that try to tackle diversity problems make it always salient in people’s minds. And that can backfire, even if well-meant.”

That Day

“Ten years ago I received a call from my father, Mario Vargas Llosa, telling me that he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.”

America at the End of History

“The universal end-state society, Kojève argued, was the society in which any individual could attain what he desired with ease and without opposition…”

The Problems with Porn

“And whether or not one believes that sex is sacred, it is hard to deny that the porn industry has commodified sex in ways that rid it of all that made it human.”

Boredom: a Double-Edged Sword, for Individuals and Society

“Compared to these other negative emotional states, boredom might seem like a trivial complaint. However, boredom can cause real problems if not directed towards healthy and constructive behaviors.”

How to Be a Non-Racist

“Non-racism, thus understood, implies colorblindness, not in the sense of literally not seeing skin color, but in the sense of treating it as insignificant.”

The Politicization of Psychiatry

“Given the numerous historical antecedents, it is likely that—probably sooner rather than later—politics would get in the way of such clinical assessments.“

Gangs Drive Surging Homicide Rates

“Gang violence is not ‘gun violence.’”

What Ever Happened to Answering the Question?

“These were not typical evasions regarding policies; they were evasions regarding principles.”

Assuaging Conservatives’ Fears about a Biden Presidency

“The former option is President Trump; the latter is politics.”

Members of Congress Should Live Together, But Not in Dorms

“…I propose the Republican Party and the Democratic Party collectively raise money from private donors to build a 535-unit townhouse neighborhood in Washington, D.C., where all of our elected representatives will live together along with their families…”

A Vision for Human Flourishing

“Just like we would not accept the transportation technology of the 1800’s, we should not compulsorily accept archaic attitudes toward work, education, possessions, and leisure.”

When Identity Politics Meets the Punk Scene

“But to me, an observer with intimate knowledge of punk’s radical history, much of today’s woke rhetoric feels like a throwback.”

Tax Evasion and the Catholic Church’s Plank in Its Eye

“But the hard fact is that the Vatican’s vast untaxed riches—and the Church’s tax-exempt status in many countries—make it impossible for [Pope Francis] to avoid charges of hypocrisy.”

“The American People”—a Phrase Worth Discarding

“…there are perhaps a few other aspects of the phrase that ought to make it first on the chopping block when considering which expressions really out to be expunged immediately from our national discourse.”

Power Over Principles: the Dual Dangers of Trumpism and Anti-Racism

Donald Trump rode the politics of power and emotion to the White House. If his opponents continue to respond in kind, he might have killed the politics of principle in the process.

George Orwell: from Hell to Salvation

“Leaving behind a bucolic past, the engine of modernity has nature on the run as it speeds towards an uncertain future.”

Science: Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea

“It bears to repeat, however, that our genes do not directly decide the actions we take in life—as fatalism would like one to believe. They are not the means to our destiny but, rather, are the keys to our hypothetical reality.”

The Grift That Keeps on Grifting: the Troubling Issue on Campus

“One of the most common questions posed by those trying to fight this is: What can we do to stop this? As someone who works in education and higher learning, I can provide three potential options…”

Rep. Susan Wild’s Bipartisan Initiative for Pandemic-related Child Care

“For Rep. Wild, this bill might also provide a foundation for downstream economic normalization; if child care is more accessible, the argument goes, then it becomes less burdensome for parents to return to work, seek out new potential employment, or continue their own education.”

Do Americans Vote Too Much?

The United States does not have low voter turnout; Americans actually are asked to vote too much, and this hurts our democracy.

Searching for Common Meaning in the Age of Polarization 

“It is not between Red and Blue states; it is a battle about whether there is meaning outside of politics.”

The Case for Civic Nationalism

“If carefully constructed, civic nationalism in the United States can take both conservative and progressive forms.”

Interview with Ruud Koopmans: Understanding Muslim Immigration to Europe

“[Historically,] Islamic societies were actually more advanced, more liberal, and more tolerant than Western societies. So, there is nothing intrinsic to Islam that explains these problems.”

“Holding the Powerful Accountable”—Empty Words?

“The holding the powerful accountable phrase resonates as it does—and, presumably, is chosen by the news media’s back-patters—because it is, indeed, precisely what a news media should be doing.”

The Ideological Takeover of British Psychotherapy 

“The problem with this conception is that access to truth or objectivity becomes something not open to universal access but, instead, becomes something distributed on the basis of social position.”

How Looting Destroyed Venezuela: a Cautionary Tale

“And one particular author, Vicky Osterweil, has shamelessly written a book entitled In Defense of Looting.”

Interview: Robert Orlando on His Film “Citizen Trump”

“Once the stage is the thing, ideas don’t matter as much as performance.”

Augustine of Hippo: Patron Saint of Political Criticism

“In a brilliant stroke of irony, Augustine’s reading of Roman history not only reveals the many falsities of the Roman imperial mythology but also points the way to Christ and the Heavenly Jerusalem.”

A.B. Stoddard on the Current Moment in Politics—and What Is to Come

“Doing things like eliminating the filibuster is just going to put us on the path to more gridlock and anarchy at this point.”

Anti-Racism Is Weird

“Weird is the only word available to describe the implicit rules, rituals, and taboos that surround the issue.”

On Robert Orlando’s “Citizen Trump”

“To do so, he tells President Trump’s life story in the cinematographic style of Citizen Kane, incorporating the iconic snow globe, the campaign poster, and even the mysterious word (‘Rosebud’) that is central to Orson Welles’ masterpiece.”

Partisan Identity and the Death of Representative Governance

“Importing these ideas into your sense of self—to think of yourself as a liberal or a conservative—is irrational and corrosive. It is a recipe for error.”

White Jesus and the “Other” Jesus: When Activists Come for Gods

“A civilization that worships at such altars is one that no longer believes in itself, that considers itself irredeemably guilty, sinful or evil…”

Why Cancel Culture Won’t Last

“This is the thing about moral panics—while threatening, they can be illuminating.”

Blackface: When Nuance Meets Taboo

“One of the first lessons my students of undergraduate literary studies learn about text analysis is to distinguish between internal and external communication.”

How We Can Finally Put the Reparations Question Behind Us

“With that in mind, what I want to do below is to advance a proposal that, I think, lets everyone concerned out of this conundrum gracefully.”

Innocence, Guilt, and Living with a Disability

“This puts me in a strange position as someone who can be unequivocally categorized as a victim and yet who has always had a difficult time seeing myself as one.”

Psychologist Dr. Katherine Kinzler: the Role of Speech in Polarized Times

“In polarized times, think of the other person as an individual and not member of the other group.”

Leave Lincoln’s Statues Alone but Engage with His Legacy More Critically

“Indeed, Michael Scharf reports that ‘Milošević saw himself as a modern-day Abe Lincoln, employing force in a valiant effort to hold his crumbling Yugoslavia together.’”

How Sam Harris Changed My Opinion of Jordan Peterson

“This is why Peterson genuinely believes in Dostoevsky’s eminent saying in The Brothers Karamazov: ‘Without God all things are permitted.’”

Jorge Luis Borges and the Philosophy of Memory

“For this reason, Borges’ short story reveals that the human mind is intelligent precisely because it does not recollect too much.”

The Harper’s Letter: When the Boring Becomes Incendiary

“Since the response to the letter was far from boring, two things can be asserted. First, a growing minority no longer believes free speech to be valuable. Secondly, those who do believe in free speech no longer believe that it is fully operational.

The Land of Lost Content

“As we move forward in the present struggle, where the question of race and religion becomes an endemic part of our theaters of division, we must strive to reject the retributive impulse and embrace what Martha Nussbaum keenly called the ‘rational faith.’”

James Lindsay: How Critical Studies Led to Today’s Turmoil

“This is an attempt at a social, cultural, and political revolution.”

Synecdoche, New York and Synecdoche, Croatia

“Something very similar—and, only slightly less surreal—is currently happening in the Republic of Croatia.”

The Pernicious Influence of Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s Sophistry

“In one of the great exercises of academic sophistry in our times, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva wants to persuade us that color-blindness is racism, and color-consciousness is anti-racism.”

What Is the “Real Deal” at Jordan Peterson’s Thinkspot?

“However, in this piece, I will explain precisely why Thinkspot was created. The story starts shortly after the turn of the millennium, with crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.”

The Foundational Integrity of Imants Ziedonis

“In other words, Ziedonis, knowingly or not, recognized that for a state to be free, its people must recognize a shared tradition and must be themselves free to build upon it.”

The Dangers of Politicizing the Coronavirus

“It is not often that everyone in the country faces the same towering life-and-death challenge all at once, which is why we should drop the cheap partisan smears and start talking honestly about the greatest threat we have confronted in a generation.”

Interview with Oliver Strijbis: Swiss Lessons on Identity and National Unity

“Political ideas are too abstract. They are not enough to make people emotional about identity. Swiss identity has a cultural element.”

Anti-Racism Demonstrations That Are Just Too Much

“Those doing things like reenacting a slave raid may have noble intentions, but they are sending the wrong message.”

The Puppet Masters of Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis

“The question worth asking is: Who stands to benefit from the continual fueling, participation, and organization of a war that threatens to destabilize Yemen irreversibly?”

Allan Bloom at Harvard, a Lesson Reverberating through the Years

“ The university is nothing less than the institutionalization of Socrates. So the end of philosophy in the university portends the subversion of democracy itself.”

Herodotus and the Human Quest for Justice

“Herodotus, as we can begin to see, is a theorist of human action—and a theorist of justice. Justice, according to Herodotus, is the chief force of human action.”

Bo Winegard on Events Taking Place Across Academia: “I Am Terrified”

“I have never been more depressed about the state of truth in the world.”

And They’ve Come for the Founders

“However, as one watches the Founders find their way into the crosshairs of so many, perhaps the obvious needs to be restated.”

Interview: Elika Ashoori on Her Father’s Ten Year Prison Sentence in Iran

“His interrogators were telling him that we have gangs who could ‘stab your daughter or wife in London.’”

Liberate the Other Half: Empowering the “Back Row” of America

“Rather than cracking down on higher-income Americans, it is past time to liberate the other half.”

Against the Concept Creep Of “Racism”

“This is why I was dismayed by a recent essay published at Arc Digital (on June 9th) by Akiva M. Cohen, entitled ‘Systemic Racism Is Real. We Need To Fight It, Not Deny It.’”

Columbus Belongs Not Only to History

“And one example of this—among others—is how prominently he features in a particular tradition of philosophy: that of philosophical pessimism.”

No, Antifa Is Not Synonymous with “Anti-fascism”

“So, in the same way that a country with the word ‘democratic’ in its name tends to be anything but, Antifa appears overwhelmingly to be anti-fascist in name only.”

The False Dichotomy in Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Intersectionality

“Why is this important? Because grammar shows that Crenshaw’s distinction between identity politics and liberal universalism is artificial.”

Interview: Curt Jaimungal, Director of “Better Left Unsaid”

“They reject ideas of the extreme, so that’s why there needs to be a delineation between what’s extreme and what’s not extreme.”

In Place of Columbus’ Statue, Build One for Francisco de Vitoria

“Perhaps the strongest argument considered by Vitoria relied on what today we might call “humanitarian intervention.”

The Fuzzy Logic Behind the Movement

“But this discrepancy makes perfect sense if we consider the tone of racial discourse in the United States for half a second.”

When Josh Hawley Overplays His Hand

“But that is no reason to allow Senator Hawley to misrepresent history in the service of a political narrative that will cause even greater damage to an international system that is already under immense strain.”

Navigating Whiteness: Between White-Shaming and White Indigenous Rights

“White-shaming is a political tactic aimed at invalidating the opinions and experiences of people of European descent. Premised on a belief in collective guilt, it judges white folks not by the content of their character but by the color of their skin.”

Where Is Spike Lee?

“Lee has already proven that he is one of the greatest film directors of all time; now is his time to prove that he is also a responsible influencer upon society at large.”

The Dangers of Campus Speech Codes: Revisiting the Water Buffalo Affair

“The history which preceded the magazine’s shutdown and resurgence involved a controversy sufficient for the Red and Blue to be ‘expelled from the Student Activities Council (SAC)’ and to have ‘archives…trashed by the University.’”

The Cultural Imperialism of Protest

“Yet I see it more as yet another form of cultural imperialism. It takes an American victim to be brutalized in order for the whole world to come out and protest.”

Colin Kaepernick and a False Dichotomy

“It probably also guarantees he will not be standing anytime soon, given that these are highly charged social issues which are deeply complex and are probably not going to be ‘fixed’ in the foreseeable future.”

Why Trust Prevents Nations from Tearing Themselves Apart

“The last time a leading Danish politician was murdered was 1286. It’s not war with your foreign enemies [that matters]; it’s internally, in political stability.”

These Are Not “Peaceful Protests”; Their Violent Rhetoric Incites Violence

“If that is the result of George Floyd’s killing, he will have not only died in vain but, more, died as a critical girder supporting the enemy’s battlements.”

The Protests Are Not About Police Violence

“Racism and racial inequality are barriers for many non-whites, but viewing these disparities as a morality play between powerful whites and enraged minorities is a recipe for untold conflict.”

As the Word “Racism” Loses Its Meaning

“Ambiguity, however, is the name of the game when it comes to defining racism, while Whiteness Studies is similarly plagued with ‘critical’ obfuscation.”

Amid Widespread Unrest, Conservatives Must Respond Correctly

“When criticizing this violent upheaval, will [conservatives] go for the low-hanging fruit and come up with absurd, cheap explanations for what is going on? Or, will they engage in serious reflection to prevent this from happening again?”

Will Words Win the Day: Jargon and the Pandemic

“So, how do doctors, scientists, and everyday people traverse the COVID-19 landscape, where each passing day seems to provide new information and new “theories” about our current predicament?”

A Few Questions for My Social Justice Colleagues

“What I left out of that piece are the many questions my immersion has raised whose answers, if I could find them, might help what I’ll call the reasonable unwoke better assess SJ/DEI claims. I would like to air those questions here.”

Excitement about the Coronavirus’ Effect on Emissions Obscures the Big Picture

“Should individuals collectively decide to make radical changes to lower their carbon output, they—and the economy at large—will suffer. As a result, individuals won’t. And, their individual choices would not be enough, regardless.”

Joe Biden’s “You Ain’t Black” Comment Is Deeply Concerning

“I can only hope that in this election African American voters cast their ballots on the basis of what each candidate proposes—and not on the basis of what they think their racial essence ought to be. That is what real liberation is all about.”

To “The Last Dance’s” Critics, At Least Michael Jordan Isn’t a Hypocrite

“Basketball fans endlessly discuss whether Michael Jordan or LeBron James is the greatest basketball player of all time. The jury may still be out on that one, but in my book, off-court James is definitely the lesser man.”

The Plague in New York, the Pox on America 

“With our political and cultural situation having deteriorated far beyond where it was two decades ago, it is my hope that the long-overdue national cleansing and cultural revitalization this pestilence brings in its wake will last.”

The Limits of Political Reasoning

“However, regardless of it being mathematically the same task, the politically-charged task’s results came out in a polarized fashion…”

Lessons from Antiquity for Our Current Pandemic

“Thucydides subsequently goes on to say, ‘In other respects also Athens owed to the plague the beginnings of a state of unprecedented lawlessness.’”

Psychoanalytic Darkness and Reflections on the Coronavirus

“The ‘viral’ aspect of the Coronavirus pandemic and the disproportionate effect on the aged similarly suggests a Jungian reading of systemic breakdown and a lurch towards either symbolic or literal death.”

Why Jordan Peterson Is Worth Defending

“And, in the midst of it all, a Canadian psychologist told people to clean their rooms before trying to change the world and has not ceased to be excoriated for his efforts years later. History will be kinder to him than his opponents.”

Is the Recent Coup Attempt in Venezuela Just the Beginning?

“So, it may seem as if the recent failed expedition against Maduro is a major blunder. However, I would like to think that this is only the beginning, and that those Rambo wannabes may have actually sparked a greater desire for liberation among Venezuelans.”

If There Were Ever a Time for Bipartisanship, It Is Now

“COVID-19 presents a unique opportunity for governments to build trust. According to a recent update of the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in government around the world spiked by 11 points between January and May 2020.”

Lacan’s “Real,” Jung’s “Psychoid,” and Jordan Peterson’s “Dragon of Chaos”

“It may hearten aggrieved fans of Jordan Peterson, whose status as representative of Jungian thought I took umbrage with in a previous article, that I recognize some value in this aspect of Peterson’s work from a psychoanalytic or psychotherapeutic perspective.”

The Book-Length Critique of Jordan Peterson Isn’t Perfect, Either

“The authors have done well in providing the substance for a critique of Jordan Peterson, but they need someone to spice up their style, which is precisely what Jordan Peterson, himself, did in his own career.”

Review: Bart Ehrman’s “Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife”

“Bart Ehrman, ever loyal to his engaging style, approaches this topic in Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife. As expected, he delivers the goods, covering religious texts from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the writings of Augustine.”

Viral Truths and the Mouthpieces of Unreality

“What I want is to praise Hunt because what he had done has been incredible—and to praise those whose truths Hunt was in a position to make go viral.”

Palmar de Troya and a Broader Question: Cult or Religion?

“A religion becomes mainstream simply because of its sheer demographic power—not because of the reasonableness of its beliefs and practices.”

Speaking with Bo Winegard: from the State of the Academy to the State of Twitter

“My sense is that most people—even people who truly abhor a lot of the stuff that I write—were supportive and were sort of horrified by the decision and by what happened.”

Jordan Peterson and Carl Jung’s Worldviews Have Been Greatly Oversimplified

“With respect to McManus and Hamilton, who have admittedly produced a very interesting article, there are characterizations and theoretical points within their article that I feel need to be addressed.”

Herodotus and Long-Standing Problems in Anthropology

“Regrettably, in more recent times, anthropology (and the humanities in general) has placed excessive, imbalanced value on emic.”

Interview: Georgia State Rep. Vernon Jones on Endorsing President Trump

“And I have a choice right now: Do I vote for Joe Biden, a white guy who locked black people up? Or do I vote for President Donald Trump, a white guy who happens to be a Republican, who let black people out of jail and gave them a second chance?”

The Coronavirus Response Does Not Take Place in a Vacuum

“Similarly, University of Zurich researchers in 2015—using data from the time of the Great Recession—estimated that unemployment causes 45,000 suicides per year.”

Why the Inequality Debate Just Goes ‘Round and ‘Round

“And here, perhaps lies the problem: the single tax’s indiscriminate generosity is its undoing. You cannot offer both sides what they want without dissolving the distinction between them.”

Has the Media Been Partner to a Widespread Mishandling of the Coronavirus?

“Reports about do-not-resuscitate orders being contemplated by hospitals began overwhelming the airwaves until Dr. Deborah Birx directly and publicly disputed these claims.”

The New York Times’ “1619 Project” Was a Long Time Coming

“More recently, The New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones has gone on an antiracism crusade by coming up with the 1619 Project.”

Coronavirus Blood Tests May Bring a Reckoning

Antibody testing will soon clarify how many have contracted COVID-19, and its real mortality rate. Those results could determine who survives the political fallout.

Moral Behavior When No One Is Watching: an Interview with Jillian Jordan

“For the ‘Signaling When No One Is Watching,’ basically what we were interested in was motivated by previous research suggesting that people are strongly motivated to signal to others that they’re morally good.”

The Many Problems with Marxism

“I recently met up with an old friend, a staunch Marxist, at a traditional Viennese café to catch up and talk about our political differences. After hours of discussion, he admitted, ‘Well, ultimately, it’s a question of faith.’”

The Coronavirus and a “Coup d’état” of the Brain

“Today, we are witnessing the medical equivalent of the Manhattan Project or the Apollo Moon Mission.”

A Good Friday Reflection: Who Killed Jesus?

“In telling their foundational story, the evangelists sought Rome’s favor by portraying Pilate and Roman authorities in a more benevolent light, thus representing Jews as the real culprits in Jesus’ death.”

Reading in the Age of Coronavirus

“Notably, during these times of self-isolation, it should be a near-requirement to use our time to delve into certain subjects.”

Pandemic Pandemonium: Has America Gotten It Wrong?

“Since a vaccine is years away, natural herd immunity is the only remaining feasible route. But current governmental actions are directly preventing the development of widespread immunity, thus guaranteeing the prolongation of the pandemic.”

What Søren Kierkegaard Can Teach the Left About Ayn Rand

“The view of Rand as a self-absorbed, even solipsistic, apologist for the greed of nefarious capitalists…was always a myopic misreading of Rand, at least if one pays close attention to her novels.”

Free Lunch as the Key to a Free Market: a Reply to Jonathan Church

“Thus, in respect to buildings and services, the landlord is selling his or her labour. Part of the rent he or she charges constitutes wages. So far so good, but what about the land component of real estate?”

How the Coronavirus in Mexico Is Exacerbated by Inequality

“A governor declared that the disease was for rich people only and that it did not affect the poor. As such, how could we possibly expect Mexican citizens to react seriously to this pandemic when its government was behaving like this?”

There Is No Free Lunch: Landlords Are Not Leeches

We should support rent moratoriums—but not because landlords are ruthlessly exploiting a pandemic.

What Netflix’s “Tiger King” Teaches Us about Race and Class in America

“The United States needs a reality check. Yes, race has been a major issue in the country’s history. But class matters, and we must never forget that.”

On the Passing of Albert Uderzo (And What Postcolonialists Might Learn from Him)

“Uderzo’s approach to postcolonial criticism was much more nuanced and effective. Perhaps it takes a simple comic book illustrator to accomplish the job that overly sophisticated scholars fail to do.”

To Slow the Coronavirus, We Need Messages of Egoism—Not Altruism

“In the time of a silent but dangerous virus, we need to rely upon the individual’s self-preservation instinct to save other lives.“

In Reply to Ben Burgis: Capitalism, Socialism, and Marx

“…one can go into business with the long-term goal of instituting a worker co-op. But the first and most fundamental aim is to supply the market with something consumers want, in as profitable a way as possible.”

Glamorizing Disease: Then and Now

“In yet another display of his famous vanity, Lord Byron once wrote: ‘How pale I look!—I should like, I think, to die of consumption…because then the women would all say, ‘see that poor Byron—how interesting he looks in dying!’”

Balance Is Needed in the Fight Against the Coronavirus

“Since there is no vaccine coming anytime soon, the only way to properly handle this pandemic at this time is to allow the population to develop natural immunity to it in a controlled manner that avoids overloading the healthcare system.”

Robin DiAngelo Is Correct about the Psychic Weight of Race

“Although one empirical study indicates that whiteness may not be as invisible to white people as is assumed, DiAngelo is not widely off the mark about the psychological advantages of being white.”

Margaret Thatcher, Libertarianism, and the Etherization of the Single Tax

“Margaret Thatcher was a self-described libertarian from that era. She did something quite different with the single tax problem; she altered the class structure of the country.”

Where Social Justice Activists Persuade Me—and Where They Don’t

“What follows are examples of topics where SJ/DEI activists have persuaded me, where they haven’t, and where they have led me to fresh, if heterodox, insights.”

The Fraught Relationship Between Religion and Epidemiology

“Recently, renowned essayist Thomas Chatterton Williams has taken some heat for mocking a prayer session headed by Vice President Mike Pence in the White House amid the coronavirus outbreak.”

Three Lessons from Nine Years of Conflict in Syria

“However much Americans and their leaders may want to turn away from wars and atrocities geographically far away, sooner or later they will be impacted by them, usually in a jarring and harmful way.”

The Coronavirus: Exacerbated by Cultural Pathology

“Make no mistake; we are in a war, and wars tend to be easier to win when it is generally acknowledged that they are happening.”

Going Deeper Than a Famous Quotation or Two

“By inviting further exploration of a quotation’s origin, we might re-discover great and complicated thinkers, who, it turns out, have far more to offer than a single phrase.”

The Coronavirus and Modern Malthusians

“One important aspect in controlling the coronavirus and saving patients’ lives will be the use of ventilators in hospitals. How are these produced? They sure as hell cannot be produced in Unabomber-style cabins.”

A Vision for Transhumanism: an Interview with Rachel Haywire

“Human nature is to seek power; we’ve had that since the Stone Age. That’s just part of human behavior. But, as transhumanists, we seek to go beyond that kind of thing.”

When We Oversimplify Darwin

“Charles Darwin himself was quite wary of the metaphysical or religious implications of his discoveries.”

Bernie Sanders’ Cargo Cult Approach to Scandinavia

“People do run the extra mile to leave something to their children, even if said children happen to be spoiled brats. Bernie fails to understand this.”

The Coronavirus: On Risk and Idiots

“As I have no skills to help with the virus, I would like to at least try to help in this small way instead. In any case, take precautions, stay calm, do not listen to dangerous idiots, keep yourself and your family safe, and good luck.”

“Post-Truth” Politics Comes Far More from the Left Than from Kellyanne Conway

“But, I still think that—in balance—the Internet has contributed far more to truth than to non-truth.”

Sanders, Trump, and the Decline of the Policy Wonk

“Today, we tend to hear more about how ‘health care is a human right’ with comparatively less talk about the economic or health impact universal health care might have on the nation.”

What Leap Years Teach Us about Social Justice Warriors

“Ultimately, the Gregorian calendar had been rejected by Protestants, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims. The rejection was not because of a scientific claim but because of opposition to its origin.”

Coronavirus Outbreak Must Not Morph into Anti-Chinese Stereotyping

“Yes, China could do better in terms of public hygiene. But, moral panic over the foods the Chinese eat is more about cultural prejudices than anything else.”

The Other Aspect of Castro’s Cuba Bernie Should Praise

“Just as Martin Luther King deserves praise for the ‘content of their character’ quote—Castro also deserves credit for his colorblind approach to race.”

Shakespeare and Social Justice Ideology: Othello Is Not About Racism

“Unfortunately, I don’t think it simply comes down to the location of a portrait. In recent years, social justice ideology has infiltrated many of our institutions, especially the universities and, particularly, in the humanities.”

The Sanders Campaign Is More Establishment Than You Think

“While he rails against the Democratic establishment as corrupt, the highest levels of his campaign are made up of Democratic Party insiders and staffers with controversial pasts.”

Jordan Peterson: the One Who Helped Me When I Most Needed It

“I’m not a disciple of Dr. Peterson’s. But he has inspired and helped to heal me with his words, and I admire him most for the example that he’s set with his own life: the courage to stand up, with shoulders back and face the darkness.”

Bernie Sanders: a Hypocrite?

“He must not antagonize millionaires, but, rather, he must acknowledge that voluntarily giving away wealth is hard to do even while you know that inequality is a problem; and precisely for that reason, we need taxes.”

“People of Color” Do Not Exist

“Looking at the highest income Americans by ethnicity, we likewise find a hodgepodge of people of many colors, with peoples largely from East and South Asia, Europe, and the Middle East at the top.”

Lord Heseltine Holds Up the Georgist Lens

“Michael Heseltine was a minister under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and was heavily involved in urban regeneration (i.e. had direct contact with the economics of infrastructure and land).”

Is Jordan Peterson the New Ayn Rand?

“I compare Peterson with Ayn Rand because—as I read this book—her name constantly came to my mind (she is mentioned only once in the book).”

The Human Impulse for Tyranny

“Reading Pericles’ Funeral Oration as a standalone speech—independent of the whole work to which it belongs—makes us prone to falling for the seduction of tyranny which Thucydides so subtly investigates and rebukes in his work.”

How to Create a More Inclusive Left

“Viewpoint diversity, when it treads on certain progressive articles of faith, is scorned, and the ideas considered within the bounds of respectable discourse on contentious issues is increasingly narrow.”

I Was Born in Venezuela, so I Have Something to Say about Bernie Sanders

“With the benefit of hindsight, we know that many lives could have been spared in bloody revolutions, if only these reformers were taken more seriously.”

Why Is Iowa a Purple State?

And why is Iowa so important in presidential contests?

In Praise of “Self Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race”

“With the benefit of distance—writing from the other side of the Atlantic—Williams came to understand how poisonous the concept of race is in the United States.”

Merion West: Why We Do What We Do

“Just as some married couples renew their vows, we, as a publication, will take a moment to do the same and explain why we’re still doing what we’re doing.”

The Holocaust Mustn’t Be Used as a Political Talking Point

“Some in Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have been manipulative enough to claim that activists protesting against settlements in the West Bank were akin to Nazi architects of genocide.”

Dear Jordan Peterson Fans, Try to Actually Be More Like Him

“Peterson is neither sacrosanct nor untouchable. He would agree with that statement himself.”

Three Simple Rules for Discussing Politics

“I would also add that it is best to avoid the tendency toward what I would call know-betterism, where we take the role of a parental figure trying to guide our political opponents to the light.”

Nietzschean Thirst

“Those known as ‘the rabble,’ whom Zarathustra describes as fit only to be slaves, ultimately dwell within every human soul. It is that lowly thing in each of us which must be pitilessly overcome.”

For Trump 2020, There’s More to the Story than Just the Stock Market

“But basing a campaign strategy on acceptable headline economic numbers while some parts of the nation are already in a recession is nothing short of tone deaf.”

Listen, Jordan Peterson: Marx Is Your Friend!

“Peterson should also reconsider his antipathy towards Marx because—perhaps surprisingly—if properly read, Marx would come across more as Peterson’s ally, rather than the origin of everything that is wrong with modernity.”

“Megxit” and America’s Exportation of Identity Politics

“American cultural imperialism is not just about McDonald’s or Disney; America also exports identity politics.”

Enough Empathy: the Case for Punching Down

“…because heedless empathy for the worst among us is currently leading us on the downward-sloping path to mediocrity and beyond.”

Writing about Jordan Peterson for the First Time

“Nevertheless, The Rise of Jordan Peterson comes to me as a relief. Prior to Peterson, the position of the hip professor loved by college students (with all sorts of memes and merchandises using his image), was occupied by Slavoj Žižek.”

Why Greta Thunberg Should Go Back to School

“As a fellow person with autism, I hope to make clear why educational support—and going to school—is so essential to the lives of people with autism.”

The Killing of Qasem Soleimani, as Seen from Latin America

“One may criticize U.S. imperialism, yet, at the same time, it must be acknowledged that Iran is becoming an increasingly toxic influence in Latin America.”

Greta Thunberg and Misunderstanding Childhood

“The ‘Greta phenomenon’ tells us far more about our cultural approach to childhood than about global warming.”

Editor’s Choice: The Best Interviews of 2019

As is tradition at Merion West, here are the editor’s choices for our favorite Merion West interviews of 2019.

Editor’s Choice: The Best Articles of 2019

As is tradition at Merion West, here are the editor’s choices for our favorite Merion West articles of 2019.

Pope Francis, the Consummate Politician

“From its very beginnings, Christianity has been fond of buddy tales, i.e. stories in which two great defenders of the faith become close friends.”

Sitting Down with the Director of “The Rise of Jordan Peterson”

“I would say the social aspects of making the film were really difficult for me because a lot of my network and friends and social circle is progressive, and, obviously, progressives are not a fan of [Peterson’s].”

A Few Thoughts on Christmas

“If historical debunking is waging a ‘War on Christmas,’ then we must fire our artillery because, indeed, the story of Christmas has no historical basis whatsoever.”

When Neuroscience Interjects Itself into Debates on Sexuality

“The concept is called ‘reverse inference.’ It’s both neuroscience’s greatest ambition, and the origin of its most frustratingly breathless overstatements.”

The Best Kept Secret of Our Political Divide

“At present, each identity sees the other as its enemy and justifies its own excesses with the excesses of the other, but living in a diverse multi-ethnic democracy means tolerating a certain degree of difference.”

Maziar Ghaderi: to Truly Know Jordan Peterson (Part II)

“…what I’ve noticed with Jordan is that his interactions with this polarization of the Left and the Right—it’s actually kind of hardened him. It’s made him a little bit more radical. It’s made him a little bit more hard-skinned.”

On the Distributions of Education Scores around the World

“In that manner, intelligence may have a genetic base, but, still, differences in intelligence observed among different groups may be environmental in origin.”

Understanding the Great Divide in Our Politics

“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?”

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.”

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 monoga

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.”

Halloween Moral Panics, on Both the Left and Right

“Despite the absurd views of evangelical pastors, college diversity officers, and Latin American leftist nationalists, Halloween is unstoppable, and this is for the good of humanity.”

Franco’s Exhumation: An Opportunity to End One-Sided Narratives

“In fact, many of the generals who participated in the 1936 rebellion used the 1934 rebellion as an excuse: if the Left was not willing to give recognition to a legitimately constituted government, then now the Right was not under the obligation to do so, either.”

Somewhere Between the Marquis de Sade and the Twist

“…nor could [Houellebecq] have emerged from the hundreds of wallet-siphoning creative writing MFA programs, whose grasp on the American literary world has sanitized literature to an unreadable degree.”

Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, and the Left’s False Anti-Imperialist Crusade

“Through rallying anti-war movements and opposing any Western intervention (including humanitarian missions), many Western socialist intellectuals have, in fact, turned themselves into foot soldiers for authoritarian and undemocratic regimes.”

“Things We Pretend Not to Know”: Douglas Murray and the Futilitarian Paradigm

“Mill is pointing to a driver, perhaps the chief driver of inequality in our economic system. The ‘capital’ that young people today are unable to accumulate is, in fact, land (i.e. location) value.”

Sorry Noam Chomsky, the World Needs the United States

“The United States has no other option but to, as Niall Ferguson phrases it, cease to be an empire-in-denial, and come to terms with the fact that, for now, the world needs a global policeman, and the United States is the one country that can play that role.”

The Similar Artistic Appeal of Jordan Peterson and Ta-Nehisi Coates

“In a media environment where heady intellectuals spray the air with heady jargon, it is a joy just to have people who keep the spirit of human aspiration alive through art and creative representation.”

The Left Is No Stranger to Conspiracy Theories Either

“Matt McManus analyzes conspiracy mongering in the United States by focusing on President Donald Trump and Dinesh D’Souza (a right-wing nut), but he neglects to mention Oliver Stone or Louis Farrakhan, conspiracy theorists who sing to the tune of the Left.”

Enduring Lessons from Early 20th Century Neuroscience

“More importantly to Cajal, however, is that theorists care more about telling a good story than giving it to us straight. When the current state of knowledge is disorganized and uninteresting, according to Cajal, that’s exactly what we should be saying.”

Coleman Hughes and Critiques of the Left: An Open Letter to McManus

“Although the line seems quite clear as to when right-wing ideas have gone too far, the same clarity just isn’t there for when left-wing ideas go bad.”

Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility Theory Falls Prey to Logical Fallacies

“Unfortunately, in so blithely dismissing individualism, DiAngelo hinges her theory so heavily on collective, rather than individual, identity and experience that it dies on the sword of a logical fallacy.”

Shakespeare, a Political Theorist Too

“That they are tragedies also reveals Shakespeare’s pessimistic outlook on politics. Politics is a tragic necessity. But it comes with a cost. Namely, the forsaking of love.”

The Most Important Thing to Understand about Putin’s Russia

Vladimir Putin may be President of the Russian Federation, but, for all the talk about the various events since he came to power, perhaps the most significant change to have taken place under Putin’s tenure is the elevation in power of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The $1 Per Day Issue

“Given the endless current debates on immigration-related topics, the ‘$1 Per Day Issue’ issue has, at times, arguably been lost amid other questions that are frequently raised about our current immigration policies.”

Napoleon Chagnon and the Myth of the Noble Savage

“Two hundred years later, Venezuelans speak of natives as a national asset—and sometimes even a touristic attraction—that enhances their national pride, very much like oil fields, beauty queens, Miguel Cabrera, or Angel Falls.”

“Give Them An Argument: Logic For The Left”—A Review

“Give Them An Argument, at times, reads like an instruction pamphlet on how to use logic to defeat our political opponents, a social democratic version of Sun Tzu’s Art Of War, and, in that sense, Burgis might have more in common with his overzealous conservative opponents that he might realize.”

Jordan Peterson, Nietzsche, and Avoiding Living for Happiness Alone

“The resistance displayed towards these important thinkers is most regrettable, and for all the Complacent Men quick to criticize them, doing so makes you no closer to achieving your ever so desired—and elusive—’happiness.’”

Urging Restraint for the Transgender Community

“It is not overwhelmingly different than when I, as a gay man, criticize the gay community for taking things too far by, for instance, bringing both borderline and actual nudity to public Pride Parades, especially in places where children are often present.”

Having Lived in the Marshall Islands, I Understand Greta’s Concerns

“In 2016, fleeing Venezuela’s socialism, I took a teaching job in Majuro, the capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.”

Edward Snowden: Courageous Whistleblower or Useful Idiot?

“Sadly, Snowden suffered from a syndrome that is too typical among activists in the West: in their zeal for criticism of their own country or civilization, they end up favoring other countries or civilizations that are far worse.”

Basic Errors? Winston Churchill Deconstructs Andrew Yang’s UBI

“The outcome of Andrew Yang’s UBI would be higher rents and, most likely, a property bubble.”

Soccer and Remembering Women in Iran

“Since women are banned from stadiums in Iran, a girl there was arrested for dressing as a boy in order to attend a soccer match. While awaiting trial, she incinerated herself to death.”

Interview: Rep. Jeff Van Drew on Getting the Two Parties to Work Together

“America is an experiment in democracy like none other. I do believe in American exceptionalism. They spoke about many things, but one of the things that they spoke about was the fact that we should never be overly reliant on political parties.”

Better Understanding Plato’s Republic

“Plato’s Republic is not, primarily, asking the question ‘what is justice?’ as much as it is asking what kind of city do we live in? Before we can address any political issue we must first know whether we are living under a regime of tyranny or liberty.”

On the Death of Immanuel Wallerstein

“For that reason, I hold that Wallerstein’s ideas are very questionable, but his work is still worthy of consideration.”

The Amazon Fire and Phony Environmentalism

“As with the opposition to GMOs and nuclear power, Morales’ free pass sadly proves that most environmentalist groups are not really about the environment. They are more about identity politics and, more importantly, about the hipness of being feel-good activists.”

Sophocles and the Necessity of Family

“Instead of the gods being our deliverance, the family is the instrument of salvation and the bulwark against tyranny in his surviving plays.”

Euripides: Oracle of Modernity

“Euripides’ gods are the gods of Hesiod given a new, cunning, and manipulative makeover. Furthermore, they are depicted as clear threats to the human social order.“

Getting Consistent on Collective Blame

“The Left cannot get enough of sociological explanations for all sorts of violence. It is never about individual responsibility; it is always about social structures.”

The Real Truth of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter

“To DeSimone and his acolytes, two cold-blooded murderers were freed. To our system of justice, two persons, their innocence always in question, were unfairly tried and convicted.”

Ricardo Rosselló Resigns, But There is Nothing to Celebrate

“With this standard, if the private diaries or WhatsApp conversations of people were opened, prisons the world over would be swamped with inmates, and companies would fire half of its staff on a daily basis.”

What Popular Culture Gets Wrong about “El Chapo”

“Almost one hundred years after his death, Villa’s image enjoys the allure of a romantic Robin Hood in Latin American imagination.”

What Happens to Those Who Investigate Government Corruption

“I knew the consequences of looking into public corruption. You’re not going to make many friends, and you’re certainly going to make many enemies.”

The Downsides of Subsidizing Sports

“If history is any guide, subsidies (not just in sports, but in all spheres of economic life) do not usually work.”

I Love a Black Ariel, But I Hate Identity Politics

“So, all those people that tweet #notmyariel are probably arguing that if Black Panther necessarily has to be black, Ariel necessarily has to be white.”

Is the Apostle Paul Relevant in the 21st Century?

“Famously, Nietzsche despised Paul for distorting Jesus’ original message and bringing forth an obsession with sin. The result, in Nietzsche’s view, is Christianity’s unhealthy emphasis on guilt and renunciation.”

Burke’s Aesthetics Formed the Core of His Politics

“Those who deal in political aesthetics have long noted that Burke’s aesthetics is the core ground of his outlook.”

A Closer Look at Simón Bolívar

“Insomuch as the historical figure of Bolívar still has considerable influence in contemporary Latin American politics, some demythologizing and criticism is in order.”

The Secular Age Fails to Escape Its Roots

“These transformations in understandings of sacrifice culminate in what today we think of as our ‘liberation’ from centuries of naïveté and superstition.”

Pope Francis’ Change to the Lord’s Prayer: Another Cheap Applause Line

“His purpose seems to be diverting attention from these real concerns, by projecting a revolutionary image of a kind Pope who preaches a loving God, far removed from the deity who destroys Sodom and Gomorrah with sulphur.”

When Superstitions Govern World Leaders

“Maduro claims communication with Chávez via birds, but let us recall that George W. Bush once said that God told him to invade Iraq.”

We Will All Be Banned

“TechCrunch uses the word ‘hate’ so many times—and so without any obvious meaning, that it strikes me as likely a form of attempted Pavlovian conditioning.”

Interview: Nicholas Christakis on His Latest Book

“When I’m speaking of a good society, I’m not necessarily speaking of a good society in the 21st century. I’m speaking of a kind of good society that we have a blueprint to make, that is, in turn, written in our genes.”

A Reasoned Approach to the Abortion Wars

“Nobody can say with confidence exactly what a court will do. What is visible from our analysis is that it is likely not a slam dunk either way.”

St. Peter and St. Paul: A “Bromance” That Never Was

“Yet, Christianity is a more complicated religion, because in its traditions, fact and fiction intermingle, and it is not always  easy to determine which is which.”

Interview with Senator Isakson: Putting Veterans First

“One thing is for sure in Washington is, no matter how tight or tough times are, veterans are a class to themselves; they are an issue to themselves. Partisanship rarely ever creeps into the VA.”

When We Make Political Pawns of Children

“Every January, toddlers hold signs with messages that they cannot possibly understand. But children also hold signs they might passively understand, and teenagers hold signs they probably understand, if only imperfectly.”

When Marx Attacked The Single Tax

“Georgism dissolves socialism; it is pro-worker and pro-capital at the same time. This is impossible for the socialist who believes to his core that labor can only win if capital loses.”

Modi and the Erosion of Critical Thinking in India

“Postcolonial and post-modern scholarship criticize science as a Western construct with no real legitimate claim to truth or objectivity, thus paving the way for Hindu nationalists to come up with their wild theories.”

Interview: A Pulitzer Prize Winner’s Advice to Young Journalists

“Photojournalism—and photography in general—is based on a trusting relationship: the relationship between the photographer and the subject. And, in order to really get several layers deep, the photographer needs to reveal their sensitive side.”

A Deep Dive into Ben Shapiro’s Book

“That ‘conservatives’ today celebrate the book speaks volumes of the leftward drift of conservatism and the confused state of existence conservatism is in.”

The Perennially Difficult Debate Around Tyrannicide

“It is, for the most part, a taboo, presumably because of how morally outrageous it seems—and because no sensible person wants to go down as proposing assassinations.”

Nietzsche’s First Man: Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Nietzsche has little unqualified good to say about individual modern philosophers—save one: Ralph Waldo Emerson.”

“The Mirror Test”: A Way to Assess Philosophies?

Is “The Mirror Test” a new tool by which to evaluate philosophies?

What Netflix’s Caligula Teaches Us about Trump and His Critics

“If we are willing to be mildly skeptical of a historian who wrote about an emperor removed by one century, then we should also be skeptical of psychiatrists who are too eager to diagnose Mr. Trump with some mental disorder.”

On Nihilism and the Power of Nothing

“While the mass man is the product of his history, the mass man recognizes no necessary connection or debt to his past. He is ‘the spoiled child of human history’ with a, ‘radical ingratitude to all that has made possible the ease of his existence.’”

On Trump Hatred: A Plea from the Heart(land)

“Many features of this region have stood out—but few more prominently than the generosity of its people. They are devoted to their churches; they volunteer their time; they give to charity; they start charities; they adopt children.”

Mercenaries Actually Have a Long History in Venezuela

“As monstrous as the Blackwater plan may seem, we must not lose sight of the fact that Maduro is the only real employer of mercenaries in Venezuela, and that his 19th century heroes were doing the same thing.”

Beyond Ideology

“How alien this experience of total control is to our everyday existence in the chaotic, inexplicable universe. For just this reason, we fashion ideologies to live out our fantasies of control.”

Slavoj Žižek, Jordan Peterson, and Atheists Who Believe in God

“Peterson’s importance is his powerful and influential insistence that religion is not arbitrary or malevolent—that in every developed form we encounter it, religious stories are archetypal of the human condition in a way nothing else can or ever will be.”

The Cinnabon Made Me Do It: Surprising Influences on Moral Behavior

“These factors seem to have a demonstrable impact on our behavior, and yet are morally irrelevant in the sense that they should not matter to what a morally virtuous person would do. What should we make of results like these?”

An Age-Old Question: Why Would God Allow Notre Dame to Burn?

“Ultimately, it seems to me that the Notre Dame fire may indeed prove that that particular place of worship is not the abode of God.”

Three Lessons from the Rwandan Genocide, 25 Years Later

“The 1994 tragedy proved that the concept of sovereignty must have limits, and that major powers do have a duty to intervene to alleviate humanitarian crises, such as genocides.”

The Racism Dialectic

“In the contemporary political landscape, racism seems to be an indefatigable issue. I have noticed that those who advocate anti-racism, ironically, have a tendency to fight fire with fire—that is, racism with racism.”

A 30-Year-Old Trial Still Speaks Volumes about Castro

“While Eastern Europeans were celebrating the arrival of democracy in 1989, Cuba went through one of its darkest episodes.”

What Can Thucydides Teach Us About China’s Rise to Power?

“The problem with America as a maritime power in Asia is that, like the United Kingdom of yesteryear, the United States is not an Asian power.”

Norman Ornstein Joins Erich Prince: “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks”

“It’s harder to demonize somebody if your kids are playing on the soccer field together, and you’re out there on a weekend afternoon.”

When the Lights Go Out in Venezuela

“Socialists frequently tell us that in their ideal system, private property of the common man is to be respected; only major industries are to be seized…Well, that is exactly what socialism did in Venezuela, and it has not been pretty.”

Interview: Greg Lukianoff on “The Coddling of the American Mind”

“On campuses so far, I have been pleasantly surprised that I have been invited to talks that have been well-received and civil.”

Editor’s Choice: The Best Political Speeches of the Past 55 Years

A few recent political speeches worthy of the history books.

Interview: Rick Ungar on His New Project “The Daily Centrist”

“My reputation is, ‘Every conservative’s favorite liberal.’ That’s because I don’t hate people because I disagree with them.”

Our Conversation With Berny Belvedere, Founder of Arc Digital

“People who read us will gain a better perspective overall of the issues that we produce. Why wouldn’t we want to be as influential as possible?“

When Debating the Border, Let’s Remember Gangs

“With well over one million gang members criminally operating in the United States…Terms like ‘occupation’ come to mind.”

“Feminism”: A War Against Women?

“I am a single college student with jobs but no set career. Unlike Newman, I cannot speak for anyone else, but I can say that I did not appreciate her representation of our sex.”

In Defense of Jordan Peterson’s Religious Beliefs

“However, [Peterson’s] general statements about God do, or would, find a home in Catholic and Orthodox theological dogma and tradition.”

Religion and the Left: A Reply to McManus

“The ideas of the Right are more powerful precisely because they are more primitive. Fraternity between differing religious, racial, and linguistic communities is of greater abstraction than fraternizing with one’s co-religionist and inter-linguistic community.”

What Is an Intellectual?

“What is it, then, that intellectuals should do? In order to answer this question, it is first necessary to return to a claim made earlier, namely that the telling of truth cannot be the responsibility of an intellectual because being an intellectual, in its very definition, is truth-telling.”

Interview: Jonathan Haidt on What Underlies Polarization in America

“In a sense, the Founding Fathers feared democracy because of the tendency of people to be carried away by their passion and easily led astray by demagogues, and I think that our modern polarization, augmented by social media, could well bring their worst fears to reality.”

Venezuela Provides an Unlikely Investing Lesson

No one usually looks to Venezuela for investment advice, but there is one thing the South American country can teach us.

Interview: Kate Leaver Talks Friendship

“I think reciprocity is a very important part of a friendship or, in fact, any type of relationship. I think having a balance where both of you are investing equal amounts of time and energy and love and attention into that relationship is really important.”

Helen Pluckrose Joins Erich Prince to Tell Areo’s Story

“…Areo is bipartisan; it doesn’t take a side. I personally find that I agree with about 25% of the pieces I put out. The other 75%, I think they’re good, but I’m not convinced by their arguments ultimately.”

One and Done? Studying the First Step Act’s Lone Anti-Gang Restriction

“Will the First Step Act protect against the release of gang members?”

Should Congress Revise Federal Laws Against Lying?

“When Justice Ginsburg reviewed his case, her concurring opinion warned that the federal false statements statute arms government agents with authority to generate felonies.”

The First Step Act Doesn’t Do Enough about Gangs

“Communities do not have ‘gang problems.’ America has a gang crisis.”

Editor’s Choice: The Best Articles of 2018

A look back at our editor’s choices for our favorite Merion West articles of 2018.

Editor’s Choice: The Best Interviews of 2018

A look back at our editor’s choices for our favorite Merion West interviews of 2018.

Why Edmund Burke Would Oppose Originalism

“Burke’s place in the American conservative pantheon is peculiar if not paradoxical.”

Progress and Poverty at Amazon HQ2

“As has sometimes been noted, one can buy a castle in some parts of Europe for less than a modest condo in San Francisco.”

A Reply to Matt McManus: The Last Man

“There appear then to be two kinds of people: those who presume history has ended and those who do not presume history has ended.”

Trump’s Real Victory Is Redefining the Republican Party

“Johnson understood that winning an election was much less important than winning a party. Elected offices came and went every couple of years; parties were institutions anchored in place by their coalitions and organizers.”

What Can Machiavelli Teach Us About the Midterms?

“For it is through political conflict that greater representation is born, more interests come to the table, and the expansion and development of liberty and order comes about.”

Interview with Nassir Ghaemi: Can Mental Illness Make More Effective Politicians?

“One of the basic concepts I had was that if there are some benefits to having some depression manic symptoms; the corollary is that there are some limitations to being normal and mentally healthy.”

U.S. Attorney: A Plan to Curb the Opioid Epidemic

“Through persistent and coordinated action by federal, state, and local authorities, together with the assistance of medical professionals and other leaders in our community, we can put a stop to the spread of opioids and their wake of destruction.”

Anderson Cooper Is Wrong; Journalists Should Vote Too

“I hope that on Tuesday, Anderson Cooper—and all journalists wrestling with the same question—show up to the polls.”

Mobs, Jobs, and the Need for a National Gang Prosecution Law

“Putting Georgia gang membership calculations into chilling context, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia Bobby Christine imparted, ‘Think about that. At its height, ISIS probably didn’t have 35,000 members.’”

This Former Drug User Is Committed to Helping Others Get Clean

“People are going to use, so let’s teach them how to use and limit the use correctly. This limits the damage and harm they can do to themselves until they reach a path of recovery.”

Can Carl Schmitt Explain How We Got from the Cold War to Trump?

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States and the West lost their common foreign enemy. Would the sense of rivalry that characterized these tensions abroad then turn inwards, once no common enemy remained?

Feminists of the West, Women Are Hurting in the Middle East

Instead of worrying about “manspreading” or subtle displays of sexism, feminists in the West need to focus on major problems affecting women in the world, like being shot going to school or female genital mutilation.

When Facebook Spills Blood

“There is no debate about whether social media might fuel genocidal violence. It already has. The question is how best to meet our moral responsibility.”

Winning the Sanctuary City Debate Through Passage of a National Gang Prosecution Law

“Most Americans would be astonished to discover that, despite the devastating size, scope, and magnitude of gang crime, no federal statutory framework specifically designed to prosecute gangs exists.”

Georgia Attorney General: It’s Time to Stand Up to Gangs

“In America, nearly half of all violent crimes are gang-related.”

Interview: How Dollars and Cents Propel Sensational Media Coverage

“I suggest that the ebbing of polarization has already been occurring. We’re just not aware of it because of what’s presented to us in the media. If you look at the polling numbers, Democrats and Republicans are minorities; the plurality of Americans identify as independents.”

Joe Lieberman: Staying above Partisanship

“The last four or five years I was in the Senate, there was simply no Democrat more conservative than any Republican and no Republican more liberal than any Democrat. And that’s just wrong. It’s unnatural.”

How Attorneys May Attack Future Mueller Prosecutions

“Rarely do media reports focus on the political leanings of prosecutors, investigators, or witnesses. It is, however, often a highly relevant consideration in cases where selective prosecution claims are made.”

What Wordsworth and Kanye West Have in Common

It was Wordsworth who wrote in the language of the common man, thereby giving a microphone to those on the edges of society. Are the rappers of today following in his footsteps?

Better Angels: The Organization Out to Fight Polarization

“Even if you continue to disagree on 90% of the issues, if you have a little bit of trust, understanding, and empathy, you might find common ground on that 10% or wherever you do have some agreement.”

Life After Hate: A Conversation with a Former Skinhead

“You can’t be a Neo-Nazi and be happy in life. It’s 100% impossible to be those two things at the same time.”

What is Virtue? A Talk with Professor Christian B. Miller

“I have no desire to be president for example. But in that one aspect, I’m motivated or inspired to have my character better reflect [Lincoln’s] character. Not bring him down to my level but bring my character up to his level.”

The Biggest Problem When It Comes to Polarization

“As Mayor Koch used to say: ‘If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.’”

What Feminism Means Today: Speaking with Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers

“[Feminism today sometimes] sees the world as a zero-sum struggle between Venus and Mars. But most women want equality, not war. Men aren’t their adversaries. They are their brothers, sons, husbands, and friends. We are in this together.”

Philadelphia’s Homeless Are Finding New Hope Thanks to This Organization

Now a year has passed from that day at St. John’s, and all Kreuzburg can think about is running and the effect it’s had on his life.

Has Modern Society Left Honor Behind? An Interview with Prof. Tamler Sommers

“When we look back on honor cultures like the Mafia…They embrace values that are precisely what are lacking in our lives—like that fierce, passionate loyalty that Sonny has. He’s not thinking about his own self-interest. He’s thinking about the fact that that guy beat up his sister, and he needs to

Can a Photograph Change History? Sitting Down with Ron Haviv

A photograph Ron Haviv took at age 23 would be cited by George H.W. Bush when the President called for the American invasion of Panama. Since then, Mr. Haviv has traveled from conflict to conflict zone, producing photographs of some of the late-twentieth century’s most difficult periods of violence.

Sparing Women and Children from Violence: Speaking with Dr. Samantha Nutt

“[People] want to give back, they want to help out, and the mistake is in presuming that the most effective and transparent way of helping is to do the work ourselves—to get on a plane to see and participate in it being done.”

What a Recent Supreme Court Ruling Means for Employment Law

“As with all matters legislative, right now our partisan polarization stands in the way. But hope springs eternal that our better angels, and our ability to compromise—on this and other matters, will eventually return.”

“No Labels”: An Interview with Joe Lieberman

“The last four or five years I was in the Senate, there was simply no Democrat more conservative than any Republican and no Republican more liberal than any Democrat. And that’s just wrong. It’s unnatural.”

Investigative Journalism Today: New Mexico’s Scott Armstrong

“Rather than going for the stories that are most easily obtained, which are also often the ones people want to leak, you ask yourself what is going to be permanent.”

Interview: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographer of Seton Hall Dorm Fire

“It was critically important to me then, and it’s still critically important to me now that I do not take advantage of the subject of any photograph…for my benefits or for my agenda. We saw some really tough things, and it could have become gratuitous.”

Interview: The Man Who Photographed Tiananmen Square

“To tell you the truth, I am drawn to these dangerous events even though they scare the hell out of me. I am sure a shrink would have a field day with that…I guess there is an adrenaline rush in trying to capture images under dangerous situations and making it out alive.”

Interview with Charles Wheelan: Let’s Get More Independents in American Politics

“You cited the race between Romney and Obama and that the Independents seemed to choose one or the other. My question for the political scientists would be: ‘Who was the Independent in that race?’”

On Marxism, Post-Modernism, and “Cultural Marxism”

The attempt to conflate Marxism and post-modernism under the label of “cultural Marxism” is, at the very least, highly problematic.

Leisure: When It Becomes an Unexpected Curse

“It’s what Irving Babbitt meant when he wrote that happiness is to be found in work if at all. Or why John Adams would write that he was happiest on days he felt most purposeful.”

Interview: Jay Bahadur, The Man who Chronicled the Somali Pirates

“My point was always, ‘Look, this is the hook.’ Piracy is the hook, if you want to get people interested in Somalia’s problems and the region’s problems; you’re not going to get them to read a World Food Programme treatise.”

Interview: Jewish Activist Rebecca Wald is Working to End Circumcision

“I think it’s awful. It’s shocking what people are willing to accept just because everyone else in their community goes along.”

Political Journalism: Rarely Scratching the Surface of Life

“But the columns that stick with us most of all rarely touch on the polls or the name-calling. Instead, they might be retired Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Bill Lyon’s ‘viewpoints’ columns, which chronicle the dissolution of his memory as he suffers from Alzheimer’s.”

Interview with Sen. Isakson: Combating Veteran Suicide and Addiction

“I’m a Vietnam era veteran myself. The stigma of suicide today is only a fraction of what it was back then…Times are changing, and we are trying to meet those changes to get people taken care of in a timely way.”

Polling is Alive and Well: An Interview with Gallup’s Editor-in-Chief

One pundit said that “data died” after the 2016 presidential election. Gallup’s editor-in-chief doesn’t think so.

What It Means to be a Historian in the 21st Century: An Interview with Dan Carlin

“I want to tickle a certain part of your brain, a thinking person’s part of your brain. We don’t really like giving answers on our podcasts. I ask questions.”

Addiction Specialist: The Real Cause of the Opioid Crisis

In an attempt to fix the stigma, my field started overpathologizing normality in an unconscious attempt to make everybody feel more empathy towards people who are mentally ill.

President of Civil War Museum: Similarities Between the Elections of 1860 and 2016

The American Civil War Museum president S. Waite Rawls discusses how both 1860 and 2016 witnessed fractured political parties, anti-immigrant sentiments, and clear divides in voting patterns between different geographical factions of Americans.

You’re Probably Not Actually a Libertarian

Most college students claiming to be libertarians are actually just traditional conservatives misidentifying themselves. It’s because universities still take libertarian arguments seriously.

Atlanta Area DA: We Need to Do Something about Gangs

Criminal street gangs are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions, yet the mainstream media gives almost no attention to the issue.

An Interview with Dave Rubin: We Need to Listen to One Another

Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report discusses the left’s opposition to free speech, polarization, third party candidates, and finding common ground in an interview with Merion West.

How One Organization Is Taking on Partisan Polarization

Unite America is on a mission to bring the moderates back to government.

In Defense of Two Parties

Although it may be a pastime to bash the two-party system, it is probably better than any of the alternatives.

The Ranging Responses to Trump’s Now Infamous “S–hole” Comment

While many condemn President Trump’s alleged use of such vulgar language, some question the validity of said reports. Others agree with the President’s sentiment.

An Interview with Anti-Aging’s Pioneer

“This field is still considered by most to be something that is not really science, something that is not really possible, and we really have to change that.”

Interview: Rep. Jason Altmire on Being a Congressional Moderate

“It’s been proven that the more centrists there are in Congress, the more bills get passed and are enacted into law.”

I Served in a Foreign Military, and It Was Perfectly Legal

As my family swore an oath to pledge allegiance to the United States, a year later I was swearing allegiance to the Republic of Finland.

This Yale Startup is Changing the Job Recruitment Game

Job-matching sites Internships.com and WayUp have a new competitor.

Editor’s Choice: The Top Five Merion West Articles of 2017

A look back on our editor’s choices for their favorite Merion West articles of 2017.

Want to Help Disabled People? Treat Them as Individuals

Our human nature, something that is capable of cruelty or goodness, is something we all have in common, whether able or disabled.

The Speech That Would Have Been Read If the Moon Landing Failed

Did you know the Nixon Administration prepared a speech that would have been delivered if Apollo 11 had ended in disaster?

Zoltan Istvan: Why Are We Not Investing in Anti-Aging?

We have a healthcare system that does not believe that the normal human lifespan can or should be extended.

Can Polarization Be a Good Thing?

A final positive consequence of polarization is that it slows down the government.

Forever in Vogue: Corruption in the Capitol

From the Abscam days to the present, political corruption in America appears to be all but inescapable. It is a societal problem in need of correction. However, it must be solved on an individual level.

Trump’s America: Anything But a Banana Republic

Political repression is commonplace across the developing world. To maintain power, authoritarian rulers intimidate and imprison their competitors. Comparing Donald Trump to someone like Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is inaccurate and unwarranted.

Reasons to Be Skeptical of UBI

While the idea has attracted fervent support from across the political spectrum, practical constraints keep it from being anything other than a utopian pipe dream.

From Crisis to Conspiracy: The 1979 Iran Hostage Situation

The Iran Hostage Crisis introduced America to political Islam and helped usher in a new era of conservatism, but the lasting legacy of the ordeal remains linked to a fictitious scheme and human fallibility.

Pepe the Frog: The Roots of a Symbol

Opinion: This frog is the banner of the forgotten young male, with no place in the world.

It’s Time to End the Epidemic of Sexual Crime by Men in Power

Ailes is dead. Weinstein is in rehab. Yet, the culture they thrived in remains intact.

Let’s Require Constitutional Study in Public Schools

The Constitution is still relevant today. We should expose more people to it, so they can make up their minds how they want it to be applied, rather than addressing government with minimal knowledge of how it works.

A Conservative and A Liberal Agree on Ending DACA

Might ending DACA be a first step toward immigration reform?

Rethinking Vocational Education

Why a vocational education might be worth it

Censoring Spencer Only Makes Him Louder

As an increasing number of universities take a stand against alt-right figures, perhaps it’s the wrong approach.

Confederate Memorials Endorse Treason And Racism

Remember, we are all one country now. Dismiss from your mind all sectional feeling, and bring them up to be Americans.

Is it Fair To Call Antifa ‘The Real Fascists’?

They hope to attach to Antifa the same stigma as is attached to fascism.

The Danger of Donating Clothes

While charity is often considered the highest virtue, donating used clothes has the power to destroy the economies of developing nations.

The Pundits and Politicians Are Wrong about Healthcare

Opinion: A change in perspective is necessary if we wish to get a handle on America’s healthcare problems.

Is Foreign Aid Actually Effective?

Image via DVIDSHUB Foreign aid has lifted millions of people out of poverty and tremendously improved diplomatic relations around the world.

The United States is No Longer a Government “Of the People”

Businessmen, career politicians, and lawyers are incapable of effectively representing the interests of all Americans.

Merion West Interviews Zoltan Istvan, Candidate for Governor of CA

Transhumanist and libertarian, Zoltan Istvan, discusses his vision for the state of California and why he believes he should be its governor.

We Can (and Should) Legislate Morality

We can legislate morality. We do it all the time.

Keep Money in Politics 

Despite its critics, money in politics is a good thing. Campaign ads, especially negative ones, help voters make better-informed decisions.

Yes, Mr. President, Foreign Intelligence is Different

Former Congressman Bob Barr’s take on our current intelligence climate.

North Korea: The Iron Curtain of Our Generation

Can we do anything about the horrific human rights violations in North Korea?

Harvard Memes Incident is a Lesson for All of Us

To loosely quote Babe Ruth from the movie The Sandlot, “Heroes get remembered, but screenshots never die.”

Rep. Jason Altmire: We Need Moderate Voters to Reduce Polarization

Centrist Democrat Jason Altmire (D-Pa) outlines his vision for a less polarized future in which moderate voters participate more in primaries to ensure that fewer hardliners make it to Congress.

Terrorism Cannot Become an Excuse for Creating a Police State

As scary as terrorism is, a war on civil liberties in the name of catching terrorists is not the answer.

Is India Really the “Rape Capital of the World”?

Sexual assault is indeed a problem in India, but is rape actually more common in India than in the West? Social pressures, however, are a big factor in whether or not rapes are reported.

Why Won’t the United States Recognize the “Armenian Genocide”? Blame Geopolitics

Both the United States and Israel refuse to say the words “Armenian Genocide.” Is this because they doubt whether the killings constitute a “genocide” or because of deference to Turkey, a crucial ally in the Middle East?

Why Are there No Skyscrapers between Midtown and the Financial District?

Is there a better explanation than the traditional answer of bedrock? Some experts claim the origin of the gap in the skyline actually is more related to demographics and discrimination.

Does the TSA Go too Far?

Has the federal government not yet overstepped its boundaries when it uses radiation to strip-search its citizens each time they fly and frisks them as they go to football games?

The Power in Photographing Tragedy

People often want to help others in the abstract but never quite get around to it. Can we use photography to encourage them to start helping?

Enough with Knee-Jerk Evaluations of History

If you ask someone for his favorite president, odds are he’ll tell you Lincoln or FDR. These are reasonable answer of course. But American history is interesting and complicated, and we should make an effort to look beyond the obvious.

The Loss of Intellectual Humility

It’s amazing how unwilling people are to reconsider their beliefs, even in light of persuasive new evidence to the contrary. Here’s one answer of why.

The Liberal Case for Markets

If liberals actually care about making poor people better off, then there is no better system for accomplishing this than the free market. Life expectancy in capitalist countries is much higher than in socialist or communist ones.

Billy Joel is Right. Stop Telling Fans How to Think

Fans are tired of celebrities assuming they can’t make informed political decisions for themselves.

The Dangers of Yale Renaming Its History

The Trump-Trudeau Sit-down

Is Bitcoin the Future?

We ought to harness the unique features of bitcoin to serve us more completely than traditional currencies have done in the past.

Mr. Bush, Please Stop Charging $100,000 to Speak to Vets

It’s Easy to Be Generous with Other People’s Money

From the Archives: Writings by Hans Riess at Merion West

The writings of Hans Riess at Merion West.

Reflections at the End of Election Season

Will History See Another “New Nixon”?

Where Are the Flags in U.S. Universities?