I don't buy your claim that your articles on JK Rowling are in any way 'definitive'. They present her view of the argument, and only her view, which is a highly illiberal one.
A lot of hyperventilating has taken place against Rowling's views, which have been strongly and perhaps excessively (and ad feminem) condemned in some quarters. This does not, however, mean that her views are beyond criticism, and cogent criticisms can be made, especially against her more recent and harder-line comments.
For a title that claims honesty, you seem unable to see that Rowling's continual harping about threats to 'Women's Rights', without defining what rights she refers to or what threats actually exist, is intellectually dishonest. You would not let any other commentator get away with that.
Space naturally forbids me to give a nuanced analysis of the debate, but one is possible. (And I'd be happy to write one if you're willing to print it.) The FP in general adheres to praiseworthy standards of objectivity - except where Rowling is concerned. Your readers deserve better.
I checked out the WaPo OpEd by Willick, which seemed like a pretty normal “be careful what you wish for” take on the Trump trial. Then I looked at the comments. WOW! There are tons of them that literally say “I never read this guy’s material; I just go to the comments.” I was blown away. They don’t even read the articles! They just read the comments! I couldn’t find even one that actually gave a counterargument.
Not usually a fan but Ben hit a homerun on gendered and racialized architectural spaces. What total nonsense, and what a bunch of non-answers from the guy Ben was interviewing.
"""Ramaswamy also wants BuzzFeed to address head-on the issue of public distrust of the media and build a bold, distinctive brand committed to telling the truth. Here, too, Ramaswamy has a good point. But while Americans are understandably fed up with partisan media, is a party politician really the guy to fix the problem? It’s bad when Jen Psaki goes straight from the White House to a cushy gig hosting her own show at MSNBC. It’s also bad when a presidential candidate tries to fix the media ecosystem. A healthier political and media environment would be one in which politicians are politicians and the media is the media. Vivek—which team do you want to be on?
"""
Vivek's team is the political Right, and the Right is the side that believes that lying is bad. The Left, by contrast, holds up sophistry as a sign of merit and virtue, praising the "noble lie", and screeching that "truth is subjective" and "words are power constructs".
So go ahead and pretend that "media vs politician" is the dichotomy that matters, but we've all seen that both media and politicians lie egregiously when they affiliate with the Left.
Regarding the story of N. Korea floating balloons of excrement into S. Korea, I am reminded of a Swiss joke from the days of WWII. One day the Germans threw a bag of excrement over the border fence into Switzerland. The next day the Swiss threw a bag of butter over the fence into Germany. In the Swiss bag was a note reading: "Each gives what he has". How appropriate!
Wowza. The American Affairs piece by Jonathan Ireland on the nonprofit industry. I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize just how much rot there is in many major West Coast cities... Excellent article.
It’s so funny when the humanities nuts pretend that the math they can’t learn is gonna be irrelevant. For one, it takes only about 2 months to learn to code. For two, learning STEM is what allows you to think critically in ANY field.
In her brilliant TED talk Bari Weiss cited Aristotle for the idea that courage is the First Virtue, the virtue that makes all others possible.
Secondarily, she said that the people who characterize certain words as violence are undermining the prospect of debating contrasting viewpoints, which is the way true social progress is always made; in other words, true progress isn’t achieved through violent acts, and if words are treated as “violence” there can be no productive conversations because the person who believes that will simply adopt a defensive stance.
This was my long-winded way of paraphrasing and endorsing Bari’s views. Agree with her on every point or not, she is a blessing.
Commenting on my own Comment, I wish to raise a challenge provoked by Bari’s assertion, borrowed from Aristotle, that courage is the foremost virtue.
As background, everybody knows that just about every newspaper endorses political candidates, the presidency included. The Free Press is an online newspaper.
My challenge: Does the Free Press editorial staff have the courage to endorse a presidential candidate as we get closer to this year’s election? Or will they wimp out, fearful of losing subscribers because of their endorsement? If courage is the first virtue, I want to see it in action rather than merely expressed as a platitude. How about it, Bari?
Re: Censorship, and whether Bari knows and approves or doesn't know. Someone commented that the change in which comments are shown first is Substack-wide. Is it possible that the new censorship is also a Substack thing, and not just TFP?
I don't buy your claim that your articles on JK Rowling are in any way 'definitive'. They present her view of the argument, and only her view, which is a highly illiberal one.
A lot of hyperventilating has taken place against Rowling's views, which have been strongly and perhaps excessively (and ad feminem) condemned in some quarters. This does not, however, mean that her views are beyond criticism, and cogent criticisms can be made, especially against her more recent and harder-line comments.
For a title that claims honesty, you seem unable to see that Rowling's continual harping about threats to 'Women's Rights', without defining what rights she refers to or what threats actually exist, is intellectually dishonest. You would not let any other commentator get away with that.
Space naturally forbids me to give a nuanced analysis of the debate, but one is possible. (And I'd be happy to write one if you're willing to print it.) The FP in general adheres to praiseworthy standards of objectivity - except where Rowling is concerned. Your readers deserve better.
I checked out the WaPo OpEd by Willick, which seemed like a pretty normal “be careful what you wish for” take on the Trump trial. Then I looked at the comments. WOW! There are tons of them that literally say “I never read this guy’s material; I just go to the comments.” I was blown away. They don’t even read the articles! They just read the comments! I couldn’t find even one that actually gave a counterargument.
Bravo, Bari!
Not usually a fan but Ben hit a homerun on gendered and racialized architectural spaces. What total nonsense, and what a bunch of non-answers from the guy Ben was interviewing.
"""Ramaswamy also wants BuzzFeed to address head-on the issue of public distrust of the media and build a bold, distinctive brand committed to telling the truth. Here, too, Ramaswamy has a good point. But while Americans are understandably fed up with partisan media, is a party politician really the guy to fix the problem? It’s bad when Jen Psaki goes straight from the White House to a cushy gig hosting her own show at MSNBC. It’s also bad when a presidential candidate tries to fix the media ecosystem. A healthier political and media environment would be one in which politicians are politicians and the media is the media. Vivek—which team do you want to be on?
"""
Vivek's team is the political Right, and the Right is the side that believes that lying is bad. The Left, by contrast, holds up sophistry as a sign of merit and virtue, praising the "noble lie", and screeching that "truth is subjective" and "words are power constructs".
So go ahead and pretend that "media vs politician" is the dichotomy that matters, but we've all seen that both media and politicians lie egregiously when they affiliate with the Left.
It was not a 'sash' but an academic hood.
Just keep those Norh Korean excrement balloons away from the South Korean wind farms.
When the s--t hits the fan ...
Regarding the story of N. Korea floating balloons of excrement into S. Korea, I am reminded of a Swiss joke from the days of WWII. One day the Germans threw a bag of excrement over the border fence into Switzerland. The next day the Swiss threw a bag of butter over the fence into Germany. In the Swiss bag was a note reading: "Each gives what he has". How appropriate!
Wowza. The American Affairs piece by Jonathan Ireland on the nonprofit industry. I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize just how much rot there is in many major West Coast cities... Excellent article.
Brilliant, passionate TED talk, Bari!
It’s so funny when the humanities nuts pretend that the math they can’t learn is gonna be irrelevant. For one, it takes only about 2 months to learn to code. For two, learning STEM is what allows you to think critically in ANY field.
In her brilliant TED talk Bari Weiss cited Aristotle for the idea that courage is the First Virtue, the virtue that makes all others possible.
Secondarily, she said that the people who characterize certain words as violence are undermining the prospect of debating contrasting viewpoints, which is the way true social progress is always made; in other words, true progress isn’t achieved through violent acts, and if words are treated as “violence” there can be no productive conversations because the person who believes that will simply adopt a defensive stance.
This was my long-winded way of paraphrasing and endorsing Bari’s views. Agree with her on every point or not, she is a blessing.
Commenting on my own Comment, I wish to raise a challenge provoked by Bari’s assertion, borrowed from Aristotle, that courage is the foremost virtue.
As background, everybody knows that just about every newspaper endorses political candidates, the presidency included. The Free Press is an online newspaper.
My challenge: Does the Free Press editorial staff have the courage to endorse a presidential candidate as we get closer to this year’s election? Or will they wimp out, fearful of losing subscribers because of their endorsement? If courage is the first virtue, I want to see it in action rather than merely expressed as a platitude. How about it, Bari?
Bari 2028!
Bari’s TED speech is awesome. I’m a hard core southern conservative and I would vote for her for president.
City walls that pee back...THIS is hostile architecture: https://newatlas.com/st-pauli-pee-back-super-hydrophobic-walls/36424/
That's prejudicial against people with urinary tract dysfunction
Re: Censorship, and whether Bari knows and approves or doesn't know. Someone commented that the change in which comments are shown first is Substack-wide. Is it possible that the new censorship is also a Substack thing, and not just TFP?
nope. get on over to Racket. no hall monitors there
I signed up today for the free subscription. I'll read a few articles and see what I think. I don't like podcasts, which Racket seems big on.
agreed. but he usually has transcipts
I thought the same--it's coming from outside TFP.