By equating good language with good people and bad language with bad people, we trick ourselves into believing that we (that is, people who use language well) could never fall for someone like Hitler.
Category: politics
Why is Trump Covering Up Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder?
Jamal Khashoggi is dead. The journalist was murdered on October 2, 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Turkey. The available evidence suggests with increasing certainty that it was plotted and carried out by members of Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman’s, coterie of advisors and confidantes. The scandal over Khashoggi’s murder has only grown over … Continue reading Why is Trump Covering Up Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder?
Is Brett Kavanaugh a “Good Man”? Does it Matter?
Brett Kavanaugh's "goodness" was treated by his supporters as more relevant to his qualifications to be on SCOTUS than his experience and/or judicial record.
The Revolting Logic of Joseph Epstein’s “Unpromising Title”
Doctor Jill Biden wrote and defended a doctoral dissertation in 2007—the crowning achievement of an advanced educational process that entitles a person to the professional title, “Doctor.” Hence, her title. On December 11, 2020, noted literary arbiter and cultural critic, mister Joseph Epstein, declared Biden’s professional distinction “fraudulent, not to say a touch comic” in … Continue reading The Revolting Logic of Joseph Epstein’s “Unpromising Title”
The Russian Trolls Are Hard at Work: Progressives and Leftists Edition
At the beginning of September, Facebook announced that they suspended five accounts affiliated with “Peace Data,” a news website launched by Russia’s social media propaganda wing, the Internet Research Agency. The IRA, of course, was instrumental in the Russian disinformation campaigns in the run-up to the 2016 election. This year, they even hired unwitting American … Continue reading The Russian Trolls Are Hard at Work: Progressives and Leftists Edition
No, You’re Hitler!: A History and a Proposal
In 1953, famed political philosopher and Jewish-German exile, Leo Strauss, coined a term to describe a trope that he increasingly saw circulating in public discourse: reductio ad Hilterum. Reductio ad Hitlerum is a fallacy used in arguments to discredit anything that can be associated with or compared to Hitler. Hitler liked dogs? Then liking dogs … Continue reading No, You’re Hitler!: A History and a Proposal
The Russian Trolls Are Hard at Work: Democrats/Liberals/Centrists Edition
There has been a veritable flood of new information this week about Russian interference in American elections, including the release of a Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee report confirming the Trump campaign’s coordination with Russian operatives before the 2016 election. In a press release issued upon the full release of the Intelligence Committee report, House Speaker … Continue reading The Russian Trolls Are Hard at Work: Democrats/Liberals/Centrists Edition
The Russian Trolls Are Hard at Work, and It’s Working
A little over a week ago, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, William R. Evanina, released an update in the organization’s ongoing investigation into foreign efforts to influence American elections. Among its conclusions was the following: We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden … Continue reading The Russian Trolls Are Hard at Work, and It’s Working
The Rhetoric of Sacrificing [Grandma] for the Greater Good
About three weeks ago, archetypal vanilla milkshake, Tom Cotton (R.-Ark), introduced a bill in the Senate to prohibit federal funds from going to support the teaching of the “1619 Project” in public schools. If you haven’t seen it, the 1619 Project is a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles, poems, photographs, fiction, and more published in … Continue reading The Rhetoric of Sacrificing [Grandma] for the Greater Good
Rhetoric, Inevitability, and the Behavior of Voters
On November 5, 2016 — just three days before Election Day — the Princeton Election Consortium at Princeton University released results from a survey indicating that Hillary Clinton had a 99% chance of winning the presidency. The survey results raised doubts among some esteemed pollsters, but they also reinforced a lot of common sense about … Continue reading Rhetoric, Inevitability, and the Behavior of Voters
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