The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘The Idioms of Non-Argument’

Harvard-educated totalitarian Moira Weigel. Longtime readers know I’ve never been a fan of Conor Friedersdorf, who made himself obnoxious by his pro-Obama “conservatism” circa 2008. Friedersdorf’s basic problem is excessive sincerity — he was guilty of “insufficient cynicism,” as I said, and seemed to be engaged in a campaign to obtain the Most Serious Intellectual […]

Darren Beattie: Guilty of Intellectualism

Sunday, I wrote about Darren Beattie, the former Trump speech-writer who got hounded out of his job by CNN because he spoke at a 2016 conference attended by “white nationalists.” Beattie has now published the text of his speech, “The Intelligentsia and the Right,” and as anyone can now see for themselves, he said nothing […]

The Butler Did It: ‘Gender Trouble’ and the Academic Roots of the #Transcult

  When I began researching feminism in 2014, one of the first controversies that came to my attention was the conflict between radical feminists and transgender activists. Initially, my impulse was to point and laugh at what I called the Competitive Victimhood Derby, but after further investigation, it became apparent to me that the radical […]

Progressive Perversion: Poet’s Daughters Describe ‘Brothel Without Payment’

Australian poet Dorothy Hewett in 1982. Shocking news from Australia: Stunning revelations of an Australian paedophile ring involving celebrity arts figures have been laid bare by the daughters of a prominent playwright. Rozanna and Kate Lilley, the daughters of playwright and poet Dorothy Hewett, say they were forced into sex aged 15 by men including […]

NY Times: ‘Motherhood Is Hitler’

  The New York Times has a distinctly weird article, written by a British graduate student, smearing traditional stay-at-home mothers with the taint of “white supremacy.” The writer is able to find actual examples of neo-Nazi racialism in the online “tradwives” community, but it is always possible to find examples of anything on the Internet, […]

The Tyranny of Bright Normal

  Why do the media hate President Trump so much? Well, to begin with, he’s a Republican, and they’re Democrat operatives with bylines. Beyond that, however, the media think of themselves as members of what Richard Florida calls “the creative class,” and Trump’s a bright normal. Readers familiar with The Bell Curve understand that cognitive […]

Chomsky on Foucault (and Also, Exactly What Was Judith Butler Trying to Say?)

Michel Foucault and his very wrong book, ‘The History of Sexuality.’ It’s not my habit to quote Noam Chomsky, whom I despise, but I happened upon something he once said about Michel Foucault: You can make things look complicated, that’s part of the game that intellectuals play; things must look complicated. You might not be […]

MURRAY-MANIA! Why Are College Kids Going Wild for the Latest Sensation?

      Not since The Beatles played Shea Stadium, perhaps, have mindless mobs of hysterical youth made news by going wild the way Middlebury College kids did last week. It’s not a pounding backbeat or lovable moptops singing four-part harmony that’s driving them crazy these days, however. No, it’s a 74-year-old policy analyst named Charles […]

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