Hey folks,
We’re still figuring out what our regular / daily formats for posting will be, but in the meantime, I’ve got a couple of great articles to share this week to at least kick off discussion.
Nathan J. Robinson of Current Affairs has been doing consistently good work since the magazine launched, but lately he’s stepped up to another level. In particular, his criticisms of the supposed rising intellectual titans of the right have been on point and thorough.
The kick-off for the two articles here is Bari Weiss’ New York Times article on the “Intellectual Dark Web,” the right-wing thinkers who have supposedly been marginalized despite their large fanbases, growing popularity, and being increasingly featured on major platforms such as the New York Times, because their ideas are just considered too hot for the mainstream. Weiss is a supposed advocate of “free speech” who cares about it so much she tried to get a pro-Palestine professor’s tenure revoked when she was an undergraduate.
Robinson looks at this article and the people profiled in it in a two-part series. In the first part, Pretty Loud for Being So Silenced, he examines what I just discussed– that these people are not in any way silenced, that getting criticism on Twitter is not the same thing as being deplatformed, and, just as importantly, despite all their claims that they really just want vigorous intellectual debate on the issues, none of them actually take up any offers to debate leftists, preferring to resort to arguing with strawmen they invent, and otherwise lashing out or even threatening violence toward their critics.
The second part, The Real “Dangerous” Ideas, covers a long list of ideas and observations that are actually marginalized from mainstream discourse, salient criticisms of our culture and sociopolitical structures that you certainly won’t find on any mainstream outlet. The list is long, well sourced, and it’s a doozy.
I wanted to highlight these articles and get people to read them because I think they’re very strong and well-written and also crucial to both understanding and turning back the tide of people turning to these supposed intellectuals on the right wing. Please read and discuss here.
While we’re still trying to figure things out, if you want to use this space to discuss any other news or op-eds you’d like, feel free.