Social-Media Oligopolists Are the New Railroad Barons. It's Time for Washington to Treat Them Accordingly In American First-Amendment jurisprudence, Brandenburgâs name is now a byword for the test that is used in assessing the validity of laws against inflammatory speechâespecially speech that can lead to the sort of hateful mob activity that played out at the US Capitol last Wednesday. Quillette 11 Jan 2021 · 11 min read
To Expower the People Expowering is a transitional measure since you cannot fire your way to equity. Theodore Gioia 10 Jan 2021 · 12 min read
What Is #DisruptTexts? The disrupters rely on rhetorical devices such as replacing the passive âunder-representedâ with the active âmarginalized,â âerased,â and âexcluded.â Lona Manning 9 Dec 2020 · 9 min read
The Flawed Reasoning of the Techlash and Progressive Movements But painting the world as a struggle between victims and oppressors leaves little room for a careful discussion of costs and benefits, the unforeseen consequences of intervention, and potential government failure. Dirk Auer 3 Dec 2020 · 7 min read
Why Do Progressives Support the Unfettered Use of Private Property? Tech companies are not equipped to rule on messy and complex disputes over truth. Samuel E. Miller 3 Dec 2020 · 7 min read
Race and Social Panic at Haverford: A Case Study in Educational Dysfunction Not so long ago, one might have been able to count on the naturally oppositional reflexes of young adults as a counterbalance to this kind of crowdsourced social panic. Jonathan Kay 1 Dec 2020 · 24 min read
Relearning How to Read in the Age of Social Media People who donât actively seek out books or articles inevitably lead more restricted lives because extended prose remains the most effective means of communicating complex ideas. Joe Nutt 30 Nov 2020 · 8 min read
The Life and Death of Unus Annus The project provided a unique and occasionally profound experience and a new perspective with which many of its fans had not engaged beforeâand all that from a YouTube channel! Nathan Eatwell 22 Nov 2020 · 7 min read
How Availability Cascades are Shaping our Politics Two components make up an availability cascade: an informational cascade and a reputational cascade. Vincent Harinam and David Kopel 26 Oct 2020 · 11 min read
Philosophy Is Being Hijacked by Woke Twitter Mobs Van Leeuwen and Herschbach wrote a statement on Facebook reiterating that the review process had been carried out properly, and declaring, âEfforts to silence unwelcome opinion⊠are doing a disservice to the community.â Nathan Cofnas 21 Oct 2020 · 6 min read
Lessons of the Pinker Affair: The Problem with the Academy is False Beliefs, Not Intolerance The correct response to the cancellers is not simply to say that they should respect free speech. Rather, one must say to them that you are attacking people for stating things which are true, while you are stating things which are false. Richard Hanania 16 Sep 2020 · 7 min read
Will Corporate Social-Justice Initiatives Be More Than Just a Fad? Whatâs different now is that the current strain of social-justice ideology presents itself as a totalizing creedâwhich means that it isnât enough for CEOs to accede to the idea of social justice as a mere boundary check on the companyâs profit-seeking activities. David Weitzner 31 Aug 2020 · 9 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 5 Aug 2020 · 10 min read
Journalism's Death by a Thousand Tweets Perhaps journalists donât in fact like using Twitter any more than the average person, and their heavy use of the platform is simply a reflection of professional pressure coupled with its highly addictive nature. Thomas Moller-Nielsen 31 Jul 2020 · 12 min read
The Ever-Shrinking Transistor and the Invention of Google The developments of the search engine and social media follow the usual path of innovation: incremental, gradual, serendipitous, and inexorable; few eureka moments or sudden breakthroughs. Matt Ridley 15 Jun 2020 · 14 min read