Where Have All the Cultures Gone?
The homogenisation of culture begins with the loss of language.
Tristan S. Rapp
· 10 min read
Language
A collection of 42 posts
How Words Influence Us
With its thousands of problem-solving, information-discarding, thought-terminating conventional categories, a language is a great collection of off-switches for the mind.
Nick Enfield
· 8 min read
Podcast #244 : Language vs Reality with Nick Enfield
Iona Italia interviews linguistic anthropologist Nick Enfield about why language is good for lawyers and bad for scientists.
Quillette
· 37 min read
The Rise of a Mega-Movement
We have lost the words that we could once call upon to justify diversity of thoughts, desires, viewpoints, and policy preferences, as opposed to a diversity of demographic groups.
Russell Blackford
· 8 min read
Words Don’t Matter
We have power over words, not vice versa.
Lawrence M. Krauss
· 6 min read
A Conspiracy Theory of Connotations
The obsessive policing of language in the name of progress relies on magical thinking.
Oliver Traldi
· 7 min read
The Society of Cultural Anthropology’s Campaign to Present American Populism as Fascism
The January 6th riot does make for a visually dramatic backdrop to an exploration of the fascistic strain in modern populist politics.
Matthew Porter
· 8 min read
The Incoherence of Gender Ideology
To understand the coherence and moral import of transgender rights claims, we must first define what it is that we mean by “transgender.”
Michael Robillard
· 21 min read
Rescuing the Radicalized Discourse on Sex and Gender: Part Two of a Three-Part Series
Our choice of words affects the way we think. That’s why we spend so much time fighting over which terms to use, whether it’s “undocumented immigrants” versus “illegal aliens,” “foetuses” versus “unborn babies,” or “militants” versus “terrorists.” In recent years, the question of word choice has figured prominently
Allan Stratton
· 17 min read
Sorry, Demi Lovato: You Can't Fight Sexism by Opting Out of Womanhood
It’s true that hair is a definitive socially-constructed characteristic of femininity (and masculinity) in many cultures.
Mary Kate Fain
· 9 min read
The Misguided Campaign Against Journalistic Objectivity
Even historians, who have many years to consider the object of their study, inhabit “the twilight of probability.” How can those journalists tasked with writing “history’s first draft” imagine that they know which way true “harm” lies?
Lorraine Clark
· 7 min read
At the NHS and BBC, Important Steps Toward Restoring Balance in the Gender Debate
The fierce onslaught she received has served as a wake-up call, even for those who have not been following the debate closely.
Julian Vigo
· 10 min read
Publicly Shaming a Musician for Calling a Composition by Its Name
The silencing of a voice does not lead to discourse, in art or in politics.
Kurt Gottschalk
· 7 min read
How the 'Underground Grammarian' Taught Me to Tell Reason from Rubbish
Clear language engenders clear thought, and clear thought is the most important benefit of education.
Mark Andre Alexander
· 13 min read
On Its 70th Anniversary, Nineteen Eighty-Four Still Feels Important and Inspiring
Nineteen-Eighty Four, whose first publication took place 70 years ago today, is itself a sort of anti-novel, one that undermines its own dramatic tension in a way that might now be described as postmodern.
Jonathan Kay
· 15 min read