Category: World Politics

Will The Real Jordan Peterson Please Shut Up?

Yet again, Jordan Peterson, the energetic academic psychologist cum profiteering alt-right blowhard, has put his mouth where he believes the money is. That is, since most of his paying audience — believe me, he has no interest in any audience that is not paying, and by god they certainly will pay — is comprised of young males who believe Donald Trump is infallible,...

The Panderers’ Tango

Ron DeSantis, who is planning to run for U.S. President in 2024, and must therefore suck up relentlessly to the Republican Party’s MAGA-QAnon base, which is in love with Vladimir Putin, has publicly adopted the standard position of all current Republicans who have need of gaining the favor of the grassroots, without necessarily being one of them. That is to say, he has...

Three Reflections On The War

Knowing all the facts in the world grants not the least bit of understanding of what is actually happening, let alone what is likely to happen, anymore than reciting the dates and numbers of history grants the least wisdom about why events transpired as they did. What is needed, rather, is an understanding of human nature, including its most common weaknesses, defensive postures,...

Tribes vs. Truth: Three Examples

Death counts, be not proud.– If you want to sound credible criticizing pandemic alarmists for padding the Covid death numbers and overstating the efficacy and safety of the vaccines, then it would be a good idea to stop shouting “Aha! The vaccine again!” every time an athlete, actress, or geriatric rock star happens to die. Reminder to both tribes: Dying was invented, and...

Three Reflections on What People Need to Believe [Updated With Trumpiness!]

You can make absolutely any factual claim you wish, supported with the boldest and most unflinching evidentiary assurances to back it up, by merely promising that this overwhelming supporting evidence will be made public very soon. How about not making any factual claim at all unless you are prepared to present the evidence at the same time you make the claim? But no,...

War and the Intellectual Wasteland

Skimming along the surface, gliding at speed over the tips of waves, blissfully unaware of the depths, is of the essence of this age. American businessman and self-appointed moral scourge Ben Shapiro, who is nothing if not of this age, is taking his usual fake-intellectual-for-profit routine to the subject of global conflict, specifically the war in Ukraine. His speed-talking schtick — skimming along...

A Passing Thought About Putin’s American Team

Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and dozens of other so-called Republicans are now, with increasingly obvious desperation, expressing open hatred and spreading obvious Russian propaganda about Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine, while deliberately ignoring the fact that they would never have heard Zelensky’s name, or have been able to locate Ukraine on a map, had Russia not invaded...

On Trump’s Watch

All the populists and ersatz conservatives who continue to claim, in response to every disaster unfolding today, “This wouldn’t have happened on Trump’s watch,” should be held to account to explain why, if Trump’s watch was so brilliant, all of this is unfolding so precipitously and unstoppably in the immediate aftermath of that wonderful period of the Trump presidency. Far more accurate and...

Defining Our Terms: Peace and Freedom

A simple question: Vladimir Putin, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tulsi Gabbard, Candace Owens, Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand, Nick Fuentes, Belarus, North Korea, Nicaragua, Syria — does this list embody the alliance for peace and freedom today? If it does, then I oppose peace and freedom with every fiber of my being, and wish to go to my grave as the...

The Devil Is In the Details

In this age of social media, social thought, and social truth, the richest man in the world, a pot-smoking cool kid with his hands deep in the government cookie jar, is now the controlling owner of the world’s dominant social discussion forum.  Meanwhile, in this age of ubiquitous internet addiction, online surveillance, and the dubious boons of universal interconnectedness, the most influential and...