The political purity spiral as experienced by the Instagram knitting community
I cannot knit and I am not on Instagram, but as someone who sews and is into politics, I cannot think how I came to miss this article from Gavin Haynes when it came out in January of this year. After...
View ArticleDiscussion point – was Churchill right about the atomic bomb?
There was never a moment`s discussion as to whether the atomic bomb should be used or not. To avert a vast, indefinite butchery, to bring the war to an end, to give peace to the world, to lay healing...
View ArticleWelcome to our horrible racist university
Heather Mac Donald has written an important essay for City Journal, Conformity to a Lie. (Hat tip to Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.) The essay contains much that saddens and enrages me, but in places it is...
View ArticleWhat is driving the current policy
Janet Daley is on splendid form today, in the Daily Telegraph (£). Some choice paragraphs: The establishment of social democracy as the prevailing governing system in the advanced nations of the West,...
View ArticleI wonder what future generations may say?
People in years to come will speculate on the reasons why so many developed countries went for lockdowns, and on such a scale and for so long. The economic, social, cultural and psychological damage is...
View ArticleThe “differend” is not just a difference of opinion
Perhaps the most stark form of differend lies in what philosophical logicians call ‘The Fallacy of Many Questions’. When, in the court dock for instance, a wily prosecutor asks a witness for the...
View ArticleIdeas are more powerful than armies – a tribute to Brian Micklethwait
I have often disagreed with Steve Baker as of late, but I must say this is good to see.
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
“Totalitarianism depends on the enforcement of false beliefs. Postmodernism admittedly and purposively leaves us no way to adjudicate beliefs. Likewise, postmodernism lends itself to totalitarianism.”...
View ArticleHave you ever changed anyone’s mind?
Libertarians often like to tell their own “conversion story”, perhaps with just a touch of “humble-bragging” about their own open-mindedness. It seems impolite to boast of having changed someone else‘s...
View ArticleEducation and rights
Contemporary experience and history demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that virtually all parents in a free society will take full responsibility for the education of their children (in varying...
View ArticleThe more anti-carbon governments become, the madder protesters are
Seen on a friend’s Facebook page: I’ve regularly said that Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil types are the most ridiculous people in society right now – their combination of intellectual...
View ArticleThe inadequacy of political “kindness”
In response to a Times article called “How I watched the halo slipping from Jacinda Ardern”, a commenter called Iain Thorpe made a very good point: There are deep problems with “kindness” as a...
View ArticleThe power of studying humanities
I like the following comments by Adrian Wooldridge, the journalist, writing in Bloomberg ($ paywall) a week ago: The humanities at their best are also perfectly equipped to provide an education in...
View ArticleYou are wrong about the number of people who agree with you
Vlad Vexler noticed that nearly everyone online was certain that Putin sent a body double to Mariupol rather than visiting himself. Then he ran a poll, which revealed that most people weren’t quite so...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
“We often read critics of either ideological stripe bemoan the lack of originality in our art, our music, and most certainly, our movies. Old franchises suffer from Woke narratives smuggled into...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day – unsurprisingly totalitarians support...
“The kinds of people who are willing to justify, minimize, or deny the slaughter of millions by the likes of Stalin and Mao are unlikely to blanch at Hamas’ much smaller-scale atrocities. If you are...
View Article‘¡Afuera!’– Presidente-elegido Milei on the Pope, the murderous Castros and...
Probably the most important man of the 21st Century, if only for his potential to do good, Argentine President-elect (as I write) Javier Milei sat down with Tucker Carlson for an interview, (excerpt...
View ArticleHelp me make an inspirational poster
Taking a Christmas break from my customary snarkiness, I mean this without irony. I would like to make one of those motivational posters with an inspirational quotation or slogan on it. The slogan...
View ArticleToo late, Ms Starbird. Trust, once lost, is not so easily regained.
I hear the faint chink of the penny dropping at Guardian. This profile of misinformation specialist – read that job description as you will – Kate Starbird is predictably fawning, but they seem...
View ArticleWanjiru Njoya on the feminist double standard
"The feminist double standard was born. Women could invade men’s spaces, but men could not do the reverse. Girls could play for the boys’ high school soccer team if they were good enough, but boys...
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