How Signaling Turns Virtue Into Vice

Brownstone Institute | 3 Apr 2022 n decades hence, historians will no doubt identify plenty of cultural developments that defined our age. Perhaps the most obvious to us, as we are living through it, is the ubiquity of social media and the extent to which millennials and gen-Zers live in that space. Not too far…

EU is forced to backtrack on ‘cancelling Christmas’ after outcry over message telling staff to say ‘holiday period’ instead because it is ‘more inclusive’

Daily Mail | 1 DEC 2021 EU Equality Commission issued inclusive language guide to ‘promote equality’  But Eurocrats were accused of trying to ‘cancel Christmas’ after suggesting staff say ‘holiday period’ to avoid offending non-Christians  Other suggestions included saying ‘send humans to Mars’ instead of ‘colonise Mars’ and ‘synthetic fabrics’ instead of ‘man-made fabrics’ Document…

Chinese Dissident Ai Weiwei Says ‘Dangerous’ Wokeness Truly Authoritarian, Not Donald Trump

Breitbart | 15 Nov 2021 Chinese dissident and famed artist Ai Weiwei has warned the current wave of “dangerous” political correctness has more similarities with Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution than former President Donald Trump. During an interview with PBS reporter Margaret Hoover on Firing Line, Weiwei was asked to comment on an excerpt from his book, in…

What Does It Mean to ‘Trust the Science’?

Mercola | 24 Sep 2021 STORY AT-A-GLANCE We’re told to “trust the science” and “follow the science.” But what science are we supposed to follow? There’s plenty of scientific evidence refuting everything we’re told to accept as “fact,” including the claim that masks work, that lockdowns slow down the spread, that school closures protect children,…

THE CURSE OF GOOD INTENTIONS

Matt Ridley | 19 Oct 2017 Politics is increasingly about motives, not results   My Times column on how intentions are taken to matter more than what works:   The curse of modern politics is an epidemic of good intentions and bad outcomes. Policy after policy is chosen and voted on according to whether it means well,…

Free speech and a gay horse

NZCPR | 12 Aug 2016 “The freedom to criticise or ridicule ideas – even if they are sincerely held beliefs – is a fundamental freedom of society. In my view the right to offend is far more important than any right not to be offended… because one represents openness – and the other represents oppression.”…