The recent Munk debate on whether the mainstream media can be trusted was, in my view, a missed opportunity. Despite the participation of four seasoned journalists from across the political spectrum, all of whom have reflected on and written about the media, what ought to have been an insightful discussion…

When I first came across the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW) in a New York Times article in 2018, I dismissed it as nothing more than a clever marketing exercise. I didn’t give much thought about what exactly was being sold. I now think this is worth reflecting on, thanks largely…

Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs recently wrote a scathing review of the satirical documentary “What is a Woman?” by right-wing provocateur Matt Walsh. I haven’t seen the film, but from what I gather it consists of Walsh interviewing academics and activists working on transgender issues, and asking them to define…

Psychophobia “Mass formation psychosis” is a term coined by vaccine sceptic Dr. Robert Malone. Sounding for all the world like a recognised psychological disorder, it was apparently made up by Malone in an effort to discredit public health messaging around the pandemic as something akin to mass hypnosis. First employed…

There are many on the right who view Herbert Marcuse’s essay “Repressive Tolerance” as something of a Rosetta Stone for understanding the left. It promises to decode everything from the radicalism of the late sixties, during which Marcuse was celebrated as a minor celebrity, to the “cultural Marxism” of academia…

Nathan J. Robinson’s essay “The World’s Most Annoying Man” ought to be the last word on Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now. It comes after many other articles have thoroughly discredited key aspects of Pinker’s book, on topics such as poverty, neoliberalism, environmental issues, war and existential threats. What Robinson does is…

I recently rewatched The Matrix (1999), and since I also happened to be reading through the work of René Girard, I couldn’t help but notice a number of Girardian themes running throughout the film. The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that what in the film…

Why is the idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) embraced by elements of both the right and the left? I think the answer lies in the predominant conception of individual freedom in modern liberal societies: i.e. the freedom to choose how one wants to live, without having to justify…

After listening to a hilarious send up of conservative contrarian Jordan Peterson and his book Twelve Rules for Life by the Chapo Trap House team, I thought I would check out a debate they reference between Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson on the topic of truth. It’s something of a…