The Artist’s Obligation is to the Work

By KJP Howes, Interim Director of FAIR in Arts, reflects on what FAIR has come to mean to her as an artist and why spaces that protect artistic freedom are increasingly important. Howes describes FAIR as a community where people can disagree, question, and debate while maintaining civility, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to art for art’s sake. She argues that artists should be free to follow their ideas wherever they lead, explore complexity, and tell the truth as they see it without having to make their work politically useful or conform to prevailing cultural expectations.

“There is enormous pressure today for artists to become activists and for works of art to affirm particular social or political perspectives. But activism is not the artist’s obligation.

The artist’s obligation is to the work. To follow an idea wherever it leads. To tell the truth as the artist sees it. To illuminate contradictions rather than conceal them. To explore the complexity of human beings rather than reduce them to categories. I believe that is the kind of art that needs to be protected and supported.”

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AGAINST SELF CENSORSHIP IN THE ARTS

Heather Shayne Blakeslee examines how cultural and political pressures can cause artists to censor themselves before their work is even made. Through her conversation with painter Charles Browning, Blakeslee explores how concerns over identity, representation, and who is “allowed” to tell certain stories can leave artists questioning whether they should create at all. She argues that artists need the freedom to follow their creative instincts, take risks, and explore unfamiliar territory without being constrained by the expectations of the moment.

“In the ’90s, Browning felt that he’d become stuck as an artist, and that maybe no one needed his voice, thinking to himself, “White men have had plenty of space to speak,” he told me. Other white male artists I’ve spoken with have also become so absorbed in a certain kind of progressive worldview about whose voice should be lifted and whose we don’t need to hear from that they considered not making art anymore. I find this a troubling phenomenon, not least of which because the amount of art that should be made is not finite, nor is there a finite number of souls who deserve to make it.”

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THE CASUALTIES OF THE CULTURE WAR

Angel Eduardo explores what happens to art when everything is expected to serve a political purpose. Eduardo argues that artists need the freedom to create work that is strange, challenging, beautiful, or simply human—not art designed to “further the cause.” When ideological conformity becomes the standard by which art is judged, we risk losing the experimentation, complexity, and dissent that make art valuable in the first place.

“We also need institutions that are viewpoint neutral, so that the rebels, nonconformists, oddballs, kooks, and contrarians have the chance to contribute something without having to tick identity boxes or fulfill ideological requirements. We need works that stir something in us, that cause us to stop and think, that get us roaring with laughter and seething with rage. It’s all valuable. It’s all necessary. It’s all human.”

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Civil Discourse, Civic Friendship, and Civil Liberties

This week, we highlighted Robert P. George’s reflections on the role of intellectual humility in preserving meaningful civil discourse and protecting civil liberties. George argues that recognizing our own fallibility is essential to genuine truth-seeking, particularly when engaging with people whose political, moral, or religious convictions differ from our own.

Rather than treating disagreement as a battle to be won, the essay encourages readers to approach opposing viewpoints as opportunities for dialogue, challenge, and deeper understanding. George ultimately warns against both relativism and dogmatism, making the case that a shared commitment to truth can help sustain civic friendship even amid profound disagreement.

“People of goodwill, intellectually and morally serious people of every shade of belief, have in common a desire to know the truth and to live by the truth. We want to avoid falling so deeply in love with our opinions, whatever they happen to be, that we prefer them to the truth. If something we believe, even if it’s a belief we cherish, is in fact false, we want to know that. We want to get ourselves in line with the truth, even if it means abandoning an opinion we had deeply held. Even when the truth is a hard truth, we’d rather know it than continue to embrace a falsehood, even a comfortable and comforting falsehood.”

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What Yale Law School Taught Me About Free Speech and Friendship

Jonathan Kay reflects on his time at Yale Law School, where political disagreements were often sharp but did not prevent students with very different beliefs from becoming friends. He contrasts that experience with today’s increasingly polarized, digitally mediated political culture, where ideological differences can become barriers to meaningful relationships and conversation. Kay argues that real-world friendships create an important incentive to listen, debate in good faith, and remember that the person on the other side of an argument may also be a colleague, neighbor, or friend. His essay ultimately asks what is lost when political identity becomes so central that it prevents us from engaging with people who see the world differently—and whether genuine friendship across disagreement can help preserve the open dialogue essential to a healthy civic culture.

“By today’s standards, however, these discussions were reasonably civil, in part because they were conducted exclusively in person, not on social media (which didn’t yet exist). YLS is a tiny place (a third the size of Harvard’s law school) and so you had to keep in mind that your debating opponent might also be your friend, law-journal colleague, roommate, softball-team teammate, or racquetball partner (yes, that sweatband-and-Tab sport was still a thing back then). These real-world social and civic connections kept your tongue in check.”

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What Happens When We Stop Trying to Win a Difficult Conversation?

Willow Paul explores how curiosity, empathy, and a willingness to listen can transform difficult conversations. Drawing from her own experience and work in public deliberation, Paul argues that understanding someone’s perspective does not require agreeing with them—it requires looking beyond conclusions to the experiences and values that shaped them. Ultimately, the essay offers a case for choosing curiosity over certainty and seeing disagreement not as a contest to win, but as an opportunity to learn from one another and build stronger communities.

“The goal, I discovered, should never have been agreement. It was understanding, the point where someone’s view makes sense to you as something a person could reasonably arrive at, even when reaching that point is hard. That was exactly what my father and I had never had a way to give each other. It showed me the path I wanted to take in life.

Even beliefs that look irrational on the surface usually trace back to a real concern or value underneath. Understanding that root does not mean every belief holds up equally against facts. Some do not. What it means is that curiosity about the person’s underlying concern is what makes deep value-based conversation possible. You can respect where someone is coming from and still hold the line on what is true.”

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I Am Not Your “Black Friend” — An Experience of Race.

This week, we examine race, identity, belonging, and the assumptions that can shape how we see ourselves and one another. In “I Am Not Your ‘Black Friend,’” offers a deeply personal reflection on growing up without rigid racial categories, confronting them later in life, and navigating the expectations placed on her because of her appearance and identity. From experiences with racial bullying and cultural erasure to confronting racism from different communities, Fox considers what it means to be seen as an individual rather than a representative of a particular group. Ultimately, her essay is about the freedom to define yourself beyond the labels others place upon you—and the importance of embracing the complexity of our own stories.

“As an adult, standing up still looks like calling out injustice even when it doesn’t immediately create change, and, more importantly, accepting myself. I used to hold firmly to the identity of multiracial. I would suck in my lips, copy trends in Eurocentric fashion and never wear my hair out. Being multiracial made others more comfortable, and I experienced much better treatment when I was “exotic.” I have since accepted the racial marker Black, partially for convenience, but also because if that is what others already see me as, then fine—I will be Black, but I will be my version of Black.

I will wear my afro. I will have a story that goes against stereotypes. I will see myself and others as human first. I am an artist, an author, Polish, American, Bahamian, French-speaking, human... and yes, I am also proudly Black.”

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White Guilt Releases on October 6

This week, we look at how ideas about race, identity, and history shape the stories we tell about ourselves and our society. In “White Guilt Releases on October 6,” filmmaker Eli Steele reflects on the long journey behind his new documentary, the ideas that inspired it, and his father’s decades-long examination of what he calls “white guilt.” Steele considers how these questions have increasingly entered public debate—and asks what happens when a society assigns permanent guilt to an entire race. The piece offers a look at the film’s origins, the cultural conversations surrounding it, and the broader questions Steele hopes the documentary will provoke.

“The one thing I admire about my father is that he took the blows for warning about white guilt when there was no reward for it. There was only a cost. This was in the 1990s and the 2000s, which were brutal, isolating times in the culture wars. CNN and the New York Times and the like iced him out completely. Universities stopped inviting him. If the left could not debate his ideas, they would isolate him to the margins. His books were dropped from bookstores and libraries.”

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Deracialization Now

Deracialization Now explores the possibility of moving beyond race as a defining category of identity and public life. Greg Thomas argues for separating race from culture and heritage, allowing people to embrace their histories without being bound by racial classifications or stereotypes. Drawing on thinkers including Glenn Loury, John McWhorter, Kmele Foster, and Charles Johnson, the essay asks whether a more individualistic, human-centered approach to identity could help Americans move toward greater pluralism and shared civic life.

“By definition and intent, race separates and divides. Conflating race and culture twists and tightens this division. Separating or bracketing culture from race tends toward appreciating human commonalities and differences in a more nuanced manner than judging and stereotyping groups of people based on skin color will allow.”

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Challenges in Navigating the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of American History

This week, we highlighted an essay by Matt Marsden examining how conflicting narratives about American history can shape our understanding of the country’s founding, Native American history, and ideals of liberty. Responding to a PBS video that he argues presents an overly simplified account of America’s past, Marsden calls for greater context and nuance when examining the country’s complicated history.

Marsden explores the dangers of replacing one revisionist narrative with another, arguing that difficult chapters of American history should neither be erased nor reduced to simple categories of good and evil. Ultimately, the essay makes the case for greater informational literacy and intellectual humility, encouraging readers to research competing claims, acknowledge historical complexity, and engage in good-faith dialogue about the past.

“Cycles of competition and cooperation are the norm throughout human history—an unfortunate aspect of our shared humanity.”

“But while American history has seen no shortage of bias, it must be maintained that replacing one revisionist history with another isn’t the answer. Such stark representations may instead create misunderstanding, confusion, distrust, or even resentment, while stunting efforts towards progress for all parties.”

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Ferguson at Twelve: The Lie That Divided a Nation

This week, Eli Steele revisits the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the competing narratives that emerged in its aftermath. Steele examines how the “Hands up, don’t shoot” account became a powerful cultural narrative despite subsequent investigations challenging key elements of the story, and argues that its legacy continues to shape how Americans understand race, policing, and justice.

Steele explores how the Ferguson narrative moved beyond the original event and into schools, universities, politics, and racial justice organizations, arguing that the reluctance to question an established narrative can have consequences long after the original facts have been established. Ultimately, the essay asks what happens when political and cultural narratives become so entrenched that challenging them is treated as a moral failing rather than an invitation to examine the evidence.

“On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown was eighteen years old when he was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson. Within hours of the shooting, Dorian Johnson, who had been with Brown prior to the shooting, told the world that Brown had his hands up in the air and said, don’t shoot. The “Hands up, don’t shoot” slogan spread across the world like wildfire…It became, to use my father’s phrase, a poetic truth, the kind of lie that a nation believes not because the evidence supports it but because it confirms what many Americans suspected of their nation.”

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Why Knowledge-Rich Curriculum Never Wins

This week, we highlighted an essay by Robert Pondiscio examining why knowledge-rich education remains difficult to implement despite growing evidence that background knowledge is essential to reading comprehension and critical thinking. Pondiscio argues that the barriers are not primarily scientific, but instead stem from competing educational philosophies, institutional structures, teacher autonomy, local control, and an emphasis on skills over shared knowledge.

Pondiscio explores the tension between educational pluralism and a common body of knowledge, as well as the challenges posed by AI, which can make information easier to access while making genuine understanding more important than ever. Ultimately, the essay argues that while the evidence for knowledge-rich education may have won the debate, the deeper cultural and structural obstacles to putting that evidence into practice remain.

“None of these obstacles are disputes about cognitive science. Most analysts and advocates now accept that knowledge matters. There is nearly universal acceptance that reading comprehension depends heavily on what readers already know. Said differently, the obstacles to knowledge-rich education are not scientific; they are ideological, professional, structural, political, cultural, and increasingly technological. That should be sobering for curriculum advocates. It is a profound misunderstanding of the current moment to assume that knowledge-rich education is merely a matter of implementation.”

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Is the Backlash Against Tech in Schools Going Too Far?

This week, we highlighted an essay by Lina Eroh examining the growing backlash against technology in schools and the need to distinguish between tools that hinder learning and those that genuinely support it. Eroh acknowledges legitimate concerns about excessive screen time, artificial intelligence, and the loss of deep thinking and human connection, but argues that treating all educational technology as equally harmful risks eliminating tools that can provide meaningful academic and accessibility support.

Eroh ultimately calls for a more evidence-based approach to ed-tech, asking whether a tool actually improves student outcomes, strengthens rather than replaces good teaching, and serves a clear educational purpose. Rather than framing the debate as technology versus no technology, she argues that schools should focus on understanding when technology helps students learn—and when it gets in the way.

“The past decade offers plenty of reasons for skepticism. Schools adopted lots of technology rapidly, often without clear evidence that it improved student outcomes. One study of tools built specifically for education purposes found only 1 in 5 showed any evidence of impact. It’s no wonder that teachers experienced firsthand how devices and poorly designed products could interrupt learning rather than support it and that parents watched children struggle with attention, social connection, and mental health in an increasingly digital world.

Those lessons matter. But another lesson matters too: Schools, teachers, and students continue to face real challenges, and technology can help address them.”

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The Case Against Andrew Tate, but For Free Speech

This week, we highlighted an essay by Michael Mohr examining the controversy surrounding Andrew Tate’s presence on Substack and the broader debate over free speech, censorship, and deplatforming. While Mohr makes clear that he does not endorse Tate or his views, he argues that defending free speech requires protecting the right to express even ideas that many people find offensive or objectionable.

Mohr explores the tension between private platforms and the increasingly important role social media plays as a modern “town square.” He argues that cultural censorship and deplatforming can have consequences beyond any individual platform, particularly as society’s definitions of what is acceptable, offensive, or harmful continue to change. Ultimately, the essay asks whether free speech can truly protect everyone if it only extends to ideas that are considered acceptable by the prevailing culture.

“Free speech has one main purpose: To protect citizens’ unpopular speech. The problem with people mobbing together and deciding who can stay and who must go is that we as a society don’t have agreed-upon understandings of what is ‘moral,’ ‘good,’ ‘safe’ and ‘right.’”

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The Cambridge Fabulist

This week, Eli Steele examines the controversy surrounding Cambridge professor Jason Arday and journalist Jack Grove, who investigated allegations that Arday’s doctoral thesis contained passages similar to those in an earlier dissertation. Steele focuses not only on the disputed plagiarism allegations—which Arday denies and which remain contested—but also on what followed when Grove raised questions about the thesis.

Steele argues that Grove’s inquiry raises broader questions about academic scrutiny, institutional accountability, and the consequences of invoking accusations of racism in response to criticism. He contends that legitimate questions about academic work should be examined on their merits, regardless of the identities of those involved, while acknowledging that the underlying allegations remain unresolved.

“…white guilt and the genius of this power is that it never has to argue. It only charges racism. It makes no offer to review and pick apart the evidence … and it makes the examination of the evidence itself the crime. Arday’s black skin in this culture of victimization gave him the power to flip the script on Grove and the accused became the accuser. And the terror of being seen as a racist strikes fear in the newly accused. Grove had committed the sin of asking the question of a black man who reached not for merit but the charge of racism in response.”

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Public university employees feel less free to speak out on campus, surveys show

We’re also highlighting a recent report from the Iowa Capital Dispatch examining free expression among public-university employees and students. New survey results suggest that while a majority of students do not feel their free-speech rights are restricted, more than two-thirds of university employee respondents reported feeling less free to speak openly on campus.

The findings raise broader questions about academic freedom, workplace culture, and whether professors and university employees feel able to express controversial views without fear of professional or social consequences.

“More than two-thirds of surveyed faculty said they worried at least a little bit about being reported inside their classrooms, Kysar-Moon said, and the more closely respondents pay attention to higher education policy, the more likely they are to self-censor. This could include avoiding certain topics in academic or research settings or changing their behavior or engagement with social media and public spaces.”

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2026 College Free Speech Rankings

This week, we’re also highlighting FIRE’s 2026 College Free Speech Rankings, which examine the state of free expression on college campuses across the country. Drawing on years of student survey data, the rankings explore how comfortable students feel expressing controversial opinions, engaging in political discussions, and disagreeing with their peers and professors.

The findings offer a broader look at the climate surrounding free expression and speech in higher education and raise an important question: Can meaningful intellectual debate exist when students are afraid to speak openly?

“After six years of surveying almost 300,000 college undergraduates nationwide, a sobering picture has emerged: students are reluctant to speak their minds, especially on controversial political issues. Many report that they self-censor regularly, avoid certain topics entirely, and doubt their administrators would defend free expression if controversy struck.”

“The 2026 rankings reveal a bleak picture: 166 of the 257 schools evaluated received an overall score below 60 — earning a failing grade for their campus speech climate. This group includes some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions: Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, and both the University of California at Berkeley and in Los Angeles. Notably, UCLA also holds the distinction of being the lowest-ranked “green light” school this year.”

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Where Are You From?

This week, we highlighted an essay by Vic Levitin reflecting on identity, immigration, and the search for belonging in an increasingly interconnected world. Drawing on his experiences growing up in Israel after being born in Ukraine, and later raising his family in Thailand, Levitin explores how moving between cultures reshaped his understanding of home, tribe, and human connection.

Rather than viewing identity as something determined by nationality or ethnicity alone, he argues that belonging is built through shared experiences, relationships, and the communities we create throughout our lives. Through deeply personal stories of family, travel, and parenthood, the essay asks readers to reconsider what it really means to answer the seemingly simple question, “Where are you from?”

“When everything from the money to the social codes becomes unreadable, your brain starts desperately scanning for any familiar anchor just to simplify things again. This is not to suggest one culture is superior to the other. As a multilingual, multicultural traveler, I have experienced the best and worst of many nations. Rather, in a world that often sends us out from our homes, away from our tribes and into places we can’t speak our mother language, familiarity becomes the ultimate comfort.”

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FAIR SCREENING - KILLING AMERICA

This week, FAIR hosted a screening of Killing America, followed by a live discussion with filmmaker Eli Steele, FAIR Executive Director Monica Harris, and Diana Blum, whose fight against antisemitism in one of America’s wealthiest school districts became the focus of the film.

In a companion essay, Steele reflects on the unexpected barriers the documentary faced before its release, recounting how organizations that publicly champion viewpoint diversity and combat antisemitism repeatedly declined to host screenings. The piece asks an uncomfortable but important question: What responsibility do institutions have to act on the values they publicly endorse?

“It raises a question the institutions should have to answer: What is the point of an organization that claims to fight antisemitism if it will not show up for the film, or even for the families, when it actually matters? And why do so many of these organizations refuse to address the underlying conditions that give permission to antisemitism such as liberated ethnic studies and other similar forms of indoctrination?”

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Cultural Misunderstandings: On the Misuses of the Term “Culture”

Dr. Doug Novotny, FAIR’s new Interim Director of FAIR in Medicine, explores how the term culture has becomee increasingly flattened in modern mental health discourse. Rather than treating culture as a static collection of demographic traits, Novotny argues for a richer understanding rooted in shared meaning, history, traditions, and lived experience.

Drawing on psychology and anthropology, he suggests that viewing people through the lens of dynamic cultural systems—rather than fixed identity labels—allows for deeper human connection, more effective therapy, and a fuller appreciation of individual complexity.

“True culture is fascinating and evocative, like a novel, the arts, or cinema. A person, an education, or the arc of a therapy can be fruitfully understood in this way. In contrast, fetishized culture diminishes anything or anyone viewed through that lens. No one should be regarded as a mere set of concrete traits, least of all by professionals, whose job it is to see beyond—not be bound within—dehumanizing tendencies.”

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Oh, Great Nation

This week, we featured an essay by Anisa Fox reflecting on America’s 250th anniversary through the perspective of a Bahamian-American immigrant. Drawing on her experiences growing up in the Bahamas and later moving to the United States, Fox argues that patriotism and honest criticism are not mutually exclusive. While acknowledging America’s flaws, she contends that they should not overshadow the freedoms, opportunities, and stability that continue to make the nation worth celebrating.

Fox’s appreciation for the everyday aspects of American life that are often taken for granted—from reliable infrastructure and educational opportunities to civic freedoms and public institutions informs her sense of gratitude and national self-reflection. She recognizes that America’s imperfections need not diminish its enduring greatness.

“I will never forget the first time a package arrived at my door after I moved to the United States. It felt like magic. I will never forget my first time in a Super Walmart. I thought it was a mall—I couldn’t imagine such abundance. I will never forget my first time riding a train or visiting a library or museum, many of which are free in America. Having police that respond in minutes, a court system that takes its cases seriously, and being able to vote in ways that bring about impact are all things that as an American I am thankful for and as a Bahamian am amazed by.”

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How to Raise a Grateful American

This week, we also recommend an essay by Robert Pondiscio examining the role parents can play in cultivating gratitude and civic responsibility as America marks its 250th anniversary. Arguing that schools alone cannot instill a love of country, Pondiscio encourages families to teach children not only about America’s failures, but also about the freedoms, institutions, and opportunities that generations have worked to build and preserve.

Rather than advocating for blind patriotism, the essay argues that gratitude and honest criticism are complementary civic virtues.

“For all our political divisions, cultural anxieties, and a litany of daily complaints, I suspect most of us would choose America. Not because America is perfect. Not because it is free from injustice, conflict, or disappointment. Simply because if you had to place a bet on which nation offered you the greatest likelihood of living your life in safety, prosperity, dignity, and freedom, you would be hard-pressed to make a better wager. Needless to say, this is not how many Americans think about their country. Nor, alas, is it the way many children learn about it.”

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Devon Akmon explores the unique role museums can play in rebuilding trust at a time of growing social division. Drawing on research showing that museums remain among America’s most trusted public institutions, Akmon argues that they are uniquely positioned to foster curiosity, dialogue, and meaningful engagement across political and cultural differences.

Akmon suggests that by encouraging thoughtful conversation instead of ideological certainty, museums can help strengthen the habits of empathy, curiosity, and civic trust that underpin a healthy democracy.

“At a moment when trust in public institutions is fragile, museums hold a rare and valuable position. They are places where people still expect to learn something new and to encounter ideas different from their own. When museums invite visitors to think together about complex issues, whether through exhibitions, conversations or community partnerships, they help nurture the habits of curiosity and empathy that democracy depend on.”

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The Publishing Industry Stopped Believing in Its Readers

This week, we featured an essay by exploring what the extraordinary success of Theo of Golden reveals about the modern publishing industry. Using Allen Levi’s bestselling novel as a case study, Libes argues that publishers have spent decades favoring minimalist, fast-paced fiction while increasingly assuming that readers lack the appetite for slower, more intellectually demanding literature. She suggests that Theo of Golden challenges those assumptions, demonstrating that ambitious literary fiction still has a broad audience when given the chance to reach one.

Looking beyond a single bestselling novel, the essay examines how editorial preferences, BookTok culture, and an industry-wide emphasis on accessibility may be reshaping not only what gets published, but also how readers engage with literature itself. Libes contends that publishing plays a powerful role in shaping culture and argues that if publishers once again champion complex, reflective fiction, readers may prove far more willing to embrace it than the industry has long assumed.

“Publishing shapes our culture more than we like to admit. The very books championed by our publishing professionals become the books that we not only read and discuss but also aspire to write ourselves. If year after year the publishing industry rewards simpler, faster, and more disposable fiction, then readers inevitably become accustomed to “fast-paced” books that require no afterthought.

If, on the other hand, publishers start championing ambitious, intellectually rich novels again, then there is every reason to believe readers would rise to meet them.”

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This week, we shared a tribute by Natasha Willowdale remembering educator and FAIR chapter leader Richard Bilkszto on the third anniversary of his passing. Reflecting on their friendship, Richard's unwavering commitment to fairness in education, and the profound impact he had on colleagues and students alike, Willowdale offers a deeply personal remembrance of a man who continued advocating for the principles he believed in long after his retirement.

The essay also reflects on the importance of preserving Richard's legacy by continuing the work he dedicated himself to throughout his career.

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What Killed Michael Brown?

This week, FAIR hosted a screening of What Killed Michael Brown?, the award-winning documentary by filmmaker Eli Steele and his father, Shelby Steele. Revisiting the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown and the national conversation that followed, the film examines how one of the defining events of the last decade shaped public discourse on race, policing, and systemic racism.

Ahead of the screening, Eli reflected on the making of the documentary, the climate in which it was released, and why he believes revisiting Ferguson remains important today. Missed the screening? You can still read Eli’s reflections on the film and explore additional resources using the links below.

“What makes us most proud is the impact the film had on so many Americans. It gave them the voice and the ability to push back against the narrative. We have many letters from people calling it “freeing” and “liberating.”

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Why Did We Let Big Tech Take Over Education?

Jonathan Haidt features a discussion by Sophie Winkleman on his After Babel Substack exploring the growing role of screens, educational technology, and AI in the classroom. Drawing on research from educators, neuroscientists, and learning scientists, Winkleman argues that the rapid shift toward device-based learning has come at the expense of children’s attention, imagination, handwriting, and critical thinking while weakening the essential relationship between teachers and students.

Rather than rejecting technology outright, Winkleman makes the case for a “paper-first” approach to education—one that reserves technology for situations where it genuinely enhances learning rather than replacing it.

“When we talk about children, social media, smartphones, iPads, we tend to frame the discussion around the issue of harmful material. But Justine’s pupils weren’t traumatized by harmful material, they were just dazed, glazed, and passive, their young minds deactivated by constant, low-level stimulation.”

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A cross-party UK parliamentary inquiry has called for the UK National Year of Reading to become a National Decade of Reading, arguing that reversing the decline in reading for pleasure will require sustained cultural change rather than short-term initiatives. The report recommends expanding access to school and public libraries, ensuring every child has regular opportunities to read for enjoyment, and addressing barriers ranging from increased screen use to unequal access to books.

“The rise of screen use is a “major factor” reducing the time children spend reading for pleasure, according to the report. Author, illustrator and teacher Onyinye Iwu told the inquiry that when she asked students why they don’t read, “a lot of them were like: ‘Miss, but we have TikTok. What is the point?’ That is it. You have TikTok, you have Netflix, you have the film coming out; why would you read the book?”

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How Librarians’ New Social Justice Mission Goes After the Privacy of Library Workers

This week, we featured an essay by Kristin Antelman examining how the library profession’s growing emphasis on social justice advocacy may be reshaping its longstanding commitments to institutional neutrality and intellectual freedom. Focusing on DEI training, employee privacy, and workplace culture, Antelman argues that ideological conformity within libraries can erode the trust these institutions have historically earned from the public.

Rather than dismissing libraries’ important role in advancing access to knowledge, the essay contends that their greatest strength lies in serving as neutral spaces where diverse viewpoints can coexist. Antelman suggests that preserving privacy, encouraging viewpoint diversity, and recommitting to the profession’s foundational values are essential if libraries are to remain trusted institutions for future generations.

“When a privacy-defending public service entity such as a library fails to protect the diversity of thought and privacy of its own employees, it has shown itself to have profoundly lost its way.”

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Report Finds Books Aren’t Vanishing From Schools. But That’s Not the Whole Story

FAIR Board of Advisors member Robert Pondiscio examined new research on the role of whole books in today's classrooms. While recent data suggests that novels have not disappeared from schools, Pondiscio argues that too many students—particularly those in underserved communities—are reading too few complete works and missing the unique cognitive and educational benefits that sustained reading provides. His essay highlights why cultivating deep reading habits remains essential for literacy, critical thinking, and meaningful engagement with literature in an increasingly fragmented digital age.

“The researchers’ most troubling finding is that teachers serving disadvantaged students consistently assign fewer books. Students in high-poverty schools or majority nonwhite schools, multilingual learners and students with disabilities all appear less likely to experience sustained encounters with complete works of literature.

That matters, because reading a book is not just an extended version of reading a passage. It requires different cognitive habits…”

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The Science of Reading Has Won the Argument. Has It Won the Classroom?

FAIR Board of Advisors member Robert Pondiscio explored the progress—and remaining challenges—of the science of reading movement. While evidence-based literacy instruction has gained widespread support in state policy and school districts, Pondiscio argues that meaningful reform depends on what happens in classrooms. He examines why teacher preparation, curriculum, and sustained implementation remain critical to ensuring all students receive effective reading instruction grounded in the best available evidence.

“The first phase of reading reform was winning the argument against bad ideas. Mission (mostly) accomplished. The next phase is harder: building systems where good ideas can survive contact with reality and resistance. That means better teacher preparation, curriculum selection, and coaching. It means less initiative churn and more consistency, follow-through and patience.”

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Public libraries have long served as trusted centers for learning, and today that mission extends beyond books. A new report from the Public Library Association examines how libraries are helping communities develop media literacy, strengthen digital skills, and navigate an increasingly complex information landscape while continuing to provide equitable access to reliable information. As misinformation becomes easier to spread and technology continues to evolve, these skills are increasingly important for helping people think critically, evaluate sources, and engage confidently in civic life.

“Among the report’s key findings:

• Public libraries are on the front lines of media literacy, helping patrons evaluate sources, navigate digital content, and access trustworthy information every day.

• More than 65% of respondents said patrons struggle to use digital resources, while staff training emerged as the top investment needed to help libraries meet growing demand for digital literacy support.”

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On this 250th Anniversary of American Independence, Try Gratitude Instead of Grievance.

This week, we reflected on America’s 250th anniversary with an essay by David King that argues for gratitude over grievance. Drawing on his experiences living abroad, the author suggests that a global perspective can help place America’s challenges in context while highlighting the freedoms, stability, and opportunities that are often taken for granted.

Rather than ignoring the nation’s shortcomings, the essay contends that acknowledging them should not come at the expense of appreciating what America has accomplished. King notes that we should all cultivate gratitude as a foundation for constructive civic engagement, arguing that a healthier national conversation begins with recognizing what parts of our nation are still works in progress alongside our many national successes.

“So on this anniversary of independence, if you feel compelled to say that we are inappropriately celebrating 250 years of oppression, imperialism, exploitation, racism, slavery, brutality, and warmongering, spare us the complaints. Take that energy and go make something better instead.

We here in the USA are so damn lucky. Yes, even you. And while things may feel dystopian at this particular juncture in our history, only by choosing to be grateful for what we have can we stave off those threatening to take it away from us.”

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How do public libraries select the wrong books for kids?

This week, we explored how children’s books make their way onto public library shelves and the often-overlooked process behind library collection development. Rather than focusing solely on individual librarians, the essay examines the broader publishing ecosystem—including publishers, reviewers, wholesalers, and acquisition practices—and argues that these institutions collectively influence the range of viewpoints available to young readers.

The author contends that ideological incentives throughout this pipeline can shape children’s collections in ways that narrow viewpoint diversity, particularly on topics such as gender and sexuality. The essay explores how libraries can better uphold intellectual freedom through more independent collection development, broader representation of perspectives, and greater community engagement in the selection process.

“Even if these elements are not always aligned, the process still results in library collections being stacked with books for kids on gender and sexuality that skew heavily toward a one-sided viewpoint. These views [are], presented as fact to an audience not yet capable of critical analysis…”

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Commencement 2026: Jonathan Haidt Address

Cradle Americans

Eli Steele’s essay reflects on America’s 250th anniversary by exploring what it means to inherit freedom rather than fight for it. Drawing on his family’s history—from segregation and the Civil Rights Movement to the Holocaust—Steele argues that many Americans have become “cradle Americans,” born into freedoms they have never had to defend and, as a result, may not fully appreciate.

Using personal history alongside philosophical reflection, Steele contends that freedom is not merely a legal or political condition but an individual responsibility that must be actively exercised. Rather than dwelling on America’s failures or idealizing its past, he encourages readers to honor the sacrifices of previous generations by embracing personal courage, accountability, and the freedoms they have inherited.

“I am the first male on my father’s side to be born free of any government-sanctioned racial oppression, and who knows how far back the line of unfree men runs behind me in America. That is the inheritance my converts left me. I did not earn it. I was the cradle American they made possible. I grew up in freedom but do I and the millions of others like me know what I was given? Or do I only practice it out of habit? What is the value of a freedom that has not been suffered for?”

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How Jack Became Black

This week, we announced the opening of FAIR's Summer Film Series with a screening of Eli Steele's documentary How Jack Became Black. Inspired by his experience enrolling his multiracial son in public school, Steele examines the role racial classification continues to play in American institutions and asks what it means to see people as individuals rather than members of racial groups.

Blending personal experience with broader cultural reflection, Steele questions the purpose and consequences of race-based categorization in education and public life. The film invites viewers to consider how concepts of identity, equality, and individual dignity shape the way we think about race today, followed by a live discussion exploring these questions in greater depth.

“This film is the record of one father trying to keep one boy out of a category, and finding a whole country built on the practice. FAIR has framed the night around the right questions. Will we ever see people as individuals rather than members of groups? Who belongs? How should we think about race?”

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Why Democracy Requires Renewal

Michael Dimock, Ph.D., “president of Pew Research Center, a leading source of nonpartisan, non-advocacy data”, reflects on America’s 250th anniversary and the future of the nation’s democratic experience. Drawing on public opinion research, he explores the growing challenges of political polarization, civic disengagement, and declining trust in institutions while arguing that these trends need not define America’s future.

Rather than dwelling solely on the nation’s divisions, the address calls on Americans to reclaim a sense of civic responsibility by engaging with one another, embracing democratic participation, and remaining open to institutional reform. It ultimately argues that the founders left behind not a finished system, but an ongoing project—one that each generation has both the opportunity and the responsibility to strengthen.

“In a way, what binds us is this very idea that this nation can be, hopes to be an inspiration to future generations and a beacon to the world. What we sometimes forget though is that this system was never meant to be static. The founders didn’t hand us a finished product. They handed us an ongoing project that requires engagement and creativity from one generation to the next. Right? So our responsibility is to carry that democratic imagination forward to make sure that this democratic republic doesn’t become static, right, or stuck or rigid or even cynical.”

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The American College of Surgeons Remains Committed to Ideology

Dr. Richard T. Bosshardt examines what he sees as the American College of Surgeons’ continued commitment to DEI initiatives, arguing that recent leadership decisions reflect an ongoing preference for ideological priorities over viewpoint diversity and merit-based principles.

Focusing on the organization’s decision to invite Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to deliver a keynote lecture at its 2026 Clinical Congress, Bosshardt contends that the invitation signals an enduring institutional alignment with DEI despite growing legal, scientific, and public debate surrounding these issues. His essay raises broader questions about ideological conformity within professional medical organizations, the role of open debate in scientific institutions, and how organizations can foster excellence while remaining open to differing perspectives.

“My suggestion to my fellow surgeons: boycott the Clinical Congress in September and make it the least attended in ACS history. Perhaps then, the leadership will get the message that we are not racists, that surgery is not racist, and that surgeons treat patients with the same care and competence, regardless of race or other immutable characteristics.”

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Running the DEI Gauntlet

This week, we featured Jim Condon’s firsthand account of his final years at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the legal battle that followed. After publicly opposing workplace DEI policies he believed conflicted with principles of merit, equal protection, and free expression, Condon says he was removed from the position he had held for decades.

Reflecting on that experience, Condon argues that institutional pressure to affirm particular viewpoints can have unintended consequences for employees who feel unable to support contradictory policies. His essay raises broader questions about compelled speech, workplace culture, and how organizations can pursue diversity while preserving viewpoint diversity, due process, and merit-based decision-making.

“The real issue throughout all of this ordeal was never about a truly diverse workplace where all are judged equally on their merits; it is about using diversity to justify compelled speech, bullying, discrimination, and retaliation by employers.”

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Commencement 2026: Jonathan Haidt Address

Jonathan Haidt’s 2026 NYU commencement address, is a reflection on attention, resilience, and human connection in an age of constant digital distraction.

Drawing on decades of research, Haidt argues that our attention has become one of our most valuable resources—and one of the most contested. He encourages graduates to reclaim agency over their lives by resisting technologies designed to capture their focus, embracing difficult challenges, and investing in meaningful relationships.

Rather than offering career advice alone, Haidt presents a broader vision of human flourishing: one grounded in intentional living, real-world connection, and the courage to pursue what truly matters. His message serves as a timely reminder that how we choose to spend our attention ultimately shapes who we become.

“I ask them to delete social media apps from their phones just for one week…They get back precious hours each day and a feeling of agency over how to spend that time. So treasure your attention more than the people who want to take it from you. Never forget what it’s worth. For Meta, it’s more than a trillion dollars. For you and your life, it’s priceless.”

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‘Disagreement itself has become morally legible’: Glenn Loury critiques self-censorship

This week, Stanford welcomed economist and public intellectual Glenn Loury for a conversation on self-censorship and the state of public discourse. Drawing on themes from his recent book Self-Censorship, Loury argued that fear of reputational consequences can discourage open inquiry, leading individuals to remain silent even when disagreement could improve public understanding. His remarks explored the relationship between free expression, institutional incentives, and the importance of candid conversation in a healthy democracy.

“Loury described self-censorship as “the equilibrium outcome of rational behavior,” and emphasized its compounding nature stating “silence today produces greater silence tomorrow.”

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“You Can’t Say That!”: How Speaking About My Experiences as a Woman Researcher Ended My Academic Career

This week, we highlighted a personal essay by postdoctoral researcher Sylvia B.

In the piece, Sylvia reflects on the professional fallout that followed her attempts to discuss the challenges women in academia face. What began as a conversation about career mobility and sex-based differences evolved into accusations, formal complaints, and ultimately her decision to leave academia altogether. Through her experience, she asks whether institutions that encourage employees to “bring their whole selves to work” truly make room for diverse perspectives and imperfect conversations—or only some of them.

“A healthy intellectual community should be able to tolerate imperfect conversations and different viewpoints. I am not rejecting inclusivity or efforts to make all people feel welcome in science. I am asking whether the exhortation to “bring your whole self to work” actually includes everyone. Instead of empowering the performatively self-righteous to demand ideological obedience, we should promote open communication and professional tolerance of different lived experiences—for all people, not just select groups.”

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Breaking the Spell: White Guilt from Belfast to Britain — with Jenny Holland

In a recent episode of Man of Steele, filmmaker and writer Eli Steele speaks with Belfast-based commentator Jenny Holland about the social and political tensions unfolding in the UK. Drawing on her proximity to recent unrest in Belfast, Holland discusses immigration, policing, identity politics, and the influence of what she and Steele describe as a culture of “white guilt.” Their conversation explores concerns about institutional ideology, the changing character of Irish republicanism, and growing frustrations among segments of the British public. Together, the pair argue that many of these issues are being overlooked or misunderstood by political and cultural elites.

“The younger generation aren’t seeing the benefit of the anti-colonial resistance narrative. In fact, they’re really getting it in the rear, to be crude about it. And they know they are. They know that they’re getting fucked, basically. And they’re like: no, we’re not going to endure this — so that you can pontificate in front of a microphone about how great and good you are, and how migrants are welcome. You’re not doing that off our backs. I think there’s more of that sentiment on the ground than has been reported.”

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Why We Should Listen to Robert Coles — and to Each Other

Shared by FAIR board advisor Nadine Strossen, this reflection by historian Jonathan Zimmerman revisits the life and legacy of psychiatrist Robert Coles, who died on June 4. Coles spent decades listening to Americans from across racial, social, and political divides. He resisted reducing people to stereotypes, insisting that understanding begins with curiosity and conversation. He was best known for his conversations with children, especially those who had faced racial violence. Through more than 50 books and hundreds of articles, Coles championed the idea that every person—and especially every child—has something important to say. His work offers a timely reminder that listening to one another as individuals, rather than caricatures, is essential to a more humane and less polarized society.

“…every individual you meet becomes exactly that: an individual. They’re no longer a category or a caricature. They’re a human being, trying to make sense of the world. Just like you, and like me.”

“I don’t look upon them as good or bad,” Coles explained. “I look upon them as human beings, strong and sensible, weak and full of faults.” He readily acknowledged “the blindness, the distortions, the racism, the meanness” among them. But he refused to reduce them to that.”

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Engaged citizens built America. Today, civics education is coming back.

Can a divided nation rediscover the habits of self-government? As America nears its 250th anniversary, a growing movement to strengthen civics education aims to do just that. Across the country, students are learning not only how government works, but how to wrestle with competing interpretations of history, engage opposing viewpoints, and participate responsibly in civic life. In an era of deep polarization, many see these efforts as essential to preserving a culture of pluralism and constructive disagreement.

“Nicholas Longo, director of the Rutgers Democracy Lab at Rutgers University, says young people want to be engaged, and when they have opportunities, they do great things. In these tumultuous and highly polarized times, teaching young people civics skills can have a profound impact on society, he says.”

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Wildcard: On Authorship and Refusing the Script

This week, we featured Johari Mayfield’s (M. Octavia Faulkner) reflection on Wildcard, an evolving performance project inspired by the life of Saartjie Baartman. What began as an attempt to confront spectatorship and objectification gradually became something more personal: an exploration of embodiment, artistic integrity, and the tension between inherited narratives and lived experience.

Drawing from years of research, collaboration, and recovery, Mayfield traces how Wildcard transformed from an intellectual exercise into what she describes as a “satirical séance” — a communal practice of integration rather than accusation. Her essay raises enduring questions about identity, historical memory, and the relationship between art and authenticity, suggesting that wholeness cannot be engineered or imposed, but must be continually practiced.

“Wildcard is evolving into a larger work — part satire, part embodied inquiry- and what I call a “satirical séance.”…Through movement, dialogue, and humor, participants explore what it means to remain whole — to resist fragmentation in their own thinking and bodies. The aim is not accusation, but integration. Wholeness is not achieved in isolation; it is practiced in relationship.”

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When the UK Betrayed Justice for White Guilt

This week, FAIR Board of Advisors member and filmmaker Eli Steele examines the cultural and historical forces that have shaped modern conversations about race, identity, and institutional responsibility in Britain. Reflecting on the legacy of anti-racism policies and the tension between group identity and individual dignity, Steele argues that societies flourish when they remain grounded in universal principles rather than inherited guilt or tribal divisions.

His essay explores how the pursuit of justice can lose sight of its original aims when institutions prioritize narratives over individuals, and asks what it would mean to renew a shared commitment to character, accountability, and common humanity.

“If we do not wish to be defined by tribes or condemned because of our skins, then we must accept that we are judged by what we do. That is what it means to be Western. We are judged by our character and actions and that includes protecting and defending the universal Western principles and values for all.”

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Kemi Badenoch: My Plan to Bring Back Common Sense

Kemi Badenoch, leader of the British Conservative Party, gave a powerful speech outlining her vision for restoring what she describes as common sense to public life. The speech provides a compelling case for the importance of free speech, institutional trust, and civic confidence. Addressing questions of national identity and political culture, Badenoch argued that democratic societies function best when they are grounded in shared values, open debate, and a willingness to engage with disagreement rather than suppress it.

“The answer to Black Lives Matter is not a white lives matter born of the same racial grievance. We will not defeat identity politics by building a mirror image of it.”

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Critical Social Justice and Its Cognitive Distortions: Diagnosing the Liberal’s Poor Mental Health

In a new paper, Arnoldo Cantú and Nathan Gallo explore the relationship between ideology and mental health. Drawing on concepts from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the authors examine how certain patterns of thinking embedded within contemporary social frameworks may reinforce cognitive distortions and shape psychological well-being.

Their paper offers an alternative perspective on rising rates of psychiatric diagnoses and invites further discussion about the connections between cognition, culture, and mental health.

"In addition to the distortions listed, a throughline that can certainly cut across the entire ideology is that of the certainty trap: “A pervasive cognitive distortion that leads individuals to treat their knowledge and beliefs as definitive and final rather than provisional, particularly regarding contentious social and political issues”

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When Conscience Meets Compelled Speech

This week, we highlighted the story of Laureen Boll, a Colorado fitness instructor who says she has been forced to choose between her job and her conscience. After her employer adopted a policy requiring the use of preferred names and pronouns, Boll informed her employer that she would treat everyone with dignity and respect — but would not be compelled to speak against her sincerely held beliefs.

Her story raises broader questions about free speech, freedom of conscience, and how society can balance inclusion with the rights of individuals to hold and express differing views.

“…two things can be true at once: every person deserves to be treated with fairness and dignity — and no one should be required by the government, or a taxpayer-funded employer, to affirm beliefs they do not hold. These principles are not in conflict. They are both essential to a free society.”

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White Guilt Silenced Henry Nowak

FAIR Board of Advisors member and filmmaker Eli Steele, reflects on the death of British teenager Henry Nowak and the public response that followed. Steele argues that the case raises difficult questions about race, media attention, and whether society applies the same standards of empathy and scrutiny across different groups. The essay explores how identity-based narratives can shape public perception and challenges readers to consider what a truly consistent commitment to justice would require.

“My father, Shelby Steele, has argued for years that white guilt is not merely a feeling but the accusation that whites are collectively guilty for the past racial sins of the West. The fear of this accusation drives whites to dissociate from these past sins by seeking ally-ship with people of color. Everybody is trapped in a script with whites eternally the oppressor, people of color eternally the oppressed.”

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Why You Should Be a Techno-Skeptic

Social psychologist and FAIR Board of Advisors member Jonathan Haidt argues that the growing role of technology in childhood raises important questions about early development, education, and human connection. Drawing from research on social media, educational technology, and AI, he makes the case for a more cautious approach—one that prioritizes children’s development, real-world relationships, and opportunities for independent growth. Haidt’s talk is a reminder that innovation and human flourishing are not always the same thing. New technologies should be evaluated not only for what they can do, but for how they shape the lives of the people who use them.

“...human beings are ultrasocial creatures who need to matter to one another in order to flourish. We are so brilliant that we’ve invented technologies that can replace us, that can take us out of each other’s lives. But human connection is not optional. It’s who we are.”

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Must U.S. and U.K. women be forced to change clothes in front of men?

Kara Dansky explores the case of Scottish nurse Sandie Peggie, who was suspended after objecting to the presence of a transgender-identifying colleague in a women's changing room. The dispute has become a focal point in the broader debate over sex-segregated spaces, workplace accommodations, and competing rights claims. As courts and policymakers continue to wrestle with these questions, the case highlights the challenge of balancing privacy, dignity, and inclusion while maintaining space for open and respectful public discussion.

"Eight years after “Me Too,” women are being…gaslighted into believing that if we have a problem with men in our intimate spaces, we are actually the problem. We are being told that we must simply deal with men’s indecent exposure and voyeurism if they call themselves women."

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The sudden death of literature — and why we must save it

In this week's featured essay, author Kimberley Tait traces a decade-long transformation in literary publishing, from the rise of sensitivity readers and identity-based gatekeeping to the unchecked infiltration of AI-generated fiction, and argues that both forces are symptoms of the same underlying disease: the displacement of beauty, truth, and the human voice by compliance and ideology. Tait founded Dogstar Press as a direct response, launching a 100% Human seal to authenticate fiction written entirely by people. Her essay is a passionate, personal defense of literature as a sacred and irreducibly human art form.

A lifelong believer that literature is the expression of the human soul — divinely inspired to illuminate the human condition and offer meaning and light in pain and darkness — I wasn’t willing to alter my work to meet external standards. Pitching my new novel, I ran straight into the brick wall of gatekeepers, who told me my writing didn’t honor the current political and social climate, lacking relevance and committing the ultimate crime of insensitivity. Yielding to others’ sensitivities, expectations, or ideologies betrays that enlightenment and puts a stranglehold on the creative process. This leads to more and more homogeneous and theatrical literature, with authors more concerned about offending people and saying the ‘right thing’ than producing beautiful and genuine art.”

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The Settlement That Admits Antisemitism Is Real

FAIR Board of Advisors member and filmmaker Eli Steele, whose documentary Killing America documented antisemitism at Menlo-Atherton High School in California, responds to a landmark settlement this week between a group of parents and the Sequoia Union High School District. The settlement requires the district to explicitly name antisemitism as a prohibited form of discrimination, adopt a definition that includes denying Jewish self-determination as a form of antisemitism, and designate the Israel-Palestine conflict as a “controversial issue” requiring impartial classroom treatment. For Steele, the settlement is a vindication — but an incomplete one. The ideology that enabled the antisemitism, he argues, remains embedded in the curriculum.

“This settlement is one of the clearest acknowledgments yet that antisemitism in our public schools is real, systemic, and can no longer be brushed aside with slogans about ‘equity’ and ‘inclusion.’ Ethnic studies, as implemented across California, pushes variations of this oppressor-oppressed model grounded in liberation ideology, and it has given antisemitism its intellectual and moral cover. Within that framework, Jewish students are placed in the ‘white’ box. Their history as a persecuted people is erased. Their ancestral identity is flattened into a racial category of convenience. But Jews are far from the only ones harmed by this. The American, the individual, is most harmed. Anytime you see the word ‘studies’ — black studies, chicano studies, ethnic studies — you are looking at the institutionalized study of victimization. The worthy victory of the settlement fixes the district. But the ideology still remains in the classroom and in the minds of many. That is the next fight.”

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Free Speech and Respect for Student Autonomy

Political science professor Ronald Den Otter argues, drawing on his new book, that the strongest case for protecting student speech is not merely constitutional but philosophical: restricting what students can say is fundamentally incompatible with respect for their autonomy as developing individuals. Den Otter contends that paternalistic censorship — the idea that school authorities know better than students what ideas they should be exposed to — stunts intellectual growth, undermines self-reliance, and treats teenagers as incapable of the very reasoning they are in school to develop. The piece is a timely reminder that free expression in schools is not just a legal question but a moral one.

"Simply put, censorship at a public school is incompatible with respect for the autonomy of each student. When you treat teenage students as children in junior high or high school, including policing their speech, they will act like children. Nobody learns how to become more independent and responsible by being told what to do. Restrictions on speech stunt intellectual growth, self-reflection, and the acquisition of knowledge, thereby undermining the development of the autonomous capacities that help to make us who we are."

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Greg Lukianoff: ‘The Worst of Both Worlds’ for Campus Free Speech

Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), delivered a sharp diagnosis of the state of free expression at American universities at a Dartmouth Dialogues event this week. Lukianoff argued that higher education is now caught between two illiberal forces: the "2020-style cancel culture" that punishes faculty and students for heterodox views, and the Trump administration's "unprecedented targeting" of universities for political purposes. The result, he said, is a "terrible mess" — the worst of both worlds for anyone who cares about open inquiry. His prescription: genuine viewpoint diversity among faculty, and a commitment to "radical open-mindedness" that treats even deeply offensive ideas as worthy of engagement rather than suppression.

"We're still seeing old school, as in 2020-style, cancel culture campaigns against students and professors who step out of line in some cases. But we're also seeing massive efforts from politicians on the right to go after professors and students who say things they don't like. Higher education absolutely needs reform, but any reform must comply with the First Amendment and academic freedom. This kind of group-think leads to less intellectual honesty and consequently less trust in higher education."

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Safetyism Has Made Society Terrified of Disagreement

Writing in Spiked, political analyst Stefano Gujon examines how "safetyism," the doctrine that intellectual discomfort constitutes harm, has spread from university campuses into companies, media, and public life, with measurable and damaging results. Citing FIRE data showing that 42 percent of American university faculty self-censor during classroom discussions, a rate roughly four times higher than during the McCarthy era, Gujon argues that the institutions meant to defend free thought have become breeding grounds for illiberal conformism. The piece draws directly on the work of FAIR Advisors Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, whose concept of "safetyism" is at the center of his analysis.

“We’re still seeing old school, as in 2020-style, cancel culture campaigns against students and professors who step out of line in some cases. But we’re also seeing massive efforts from politicians on the right to go after professors and students who say things they don’t like. Higher education absolutely needs reform, but any reform must comply with the First Amendment and academic freedom. This kind of group-think leads to less intellectual honesty and consequently less trust in higher education.”

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When Diversity Erases the Children It Claims to Include

For FAIR's Substack, FAIR lead curriculum developer Lisa Gilbert draws on her experience raising a multiracial son to examine how race essentialism in schools, and the DEI frameworks that drive it, erase the very children they claim to serve. Tracing the history of monoracialization from the one-drop rule to today's diversity metrics, Gilbert shows how multiracial children are routinely collapsed into a single racial category, their full heritage subtracted from view. She argues that the antidote isn't a better framework for sorting children, but instead an education that honors the whole of who they are, grounded in shared democratic principles and the skills of civil discourse. That conviction, she writes, is what led her to Many Stories, One Nation.

Race essentialism, mandatory affinity groups, and rigid oppressor/oppressed binaries do more than oversimplify the identity of multiracial children; they subtract from them. These children, and all children, deserve an education that does the opposite: one that honors every part of who they are, recognizes both America's failures and its successes, and cultivates the discourse skills needed to live in a diverse democracy.

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Treasure Your Attention

For his After Babel Substack, FAIR Advisor Jonathan Haidt published the full text of his NYU commencement address, the speech that sparked protests and a student petition calling for his disinvitation. Rather than a polemic, it is an appeal to the graduating class to reclaim their attention from platforms engineered to hijack it and to invest it instead in doing hard things with other people in real life. Invoking Mary Oliver's instruction to “pay attention, be astonished, tell about it,” Haidt argues that treasuring one's attention is the foundation of a flourishing life.

You have the opportunity to become the best, fullest, and truest version of yourself. Here's something else I can tell you: The world needs you to seize that opportunity with everything you've got. It won't be easy. You'll face the universal challenges encountered by all the generations who came before you, and you'll face the unique ones that have arisen for your generation. But if you treasure your attention, and then use it to do hard things, with other people, in real life, then — and trust me on this, as a social psychologist — your life is going to be amazing.

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Canada’s Newspaper of Record Asks: ‘What If They Ultimately Find Nothing?’

For Quillette, FAIR Advisor Jonathan Kay examines how the Globe and Mail — five years after helping ignite a nationwide panic over “unmarked graves” at Indigenous residential school sites — is now quietly hedging its coverage as the physical evidence fails to materialize. Rather than reckon honestly with what went wrong, Kay argues, the paper is floating a new narrative: that the absence of graves may not matter much anyway. He traces this as part of a broader pattern of Canadian media institutions protecting their own credibility at the expense of journalistic honesty — and at the expense of the Indigenous communities whose grief was instrumentalized to drive a story that may never have been true.

The Globe’s approach amounts to a kind of epistemic escape hatch: having promoted the graves narrative for years without adequate skepticism, the paper now suggests that the question of whether the graves actually exist is, in some sense, beside the point. This is not journalism. It is reputation management dressed up as nuance.

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What Jonathan Haidt actually said at NYU — and what The Coddling of the American Mind actually argued

For his Eternally Radical Idea Substack, FIRE President Greg Lukianoff defends FAIR Advisor Jonathan Haidt after Haidt was booed at NYU's commencement ceremony. Lukianoff rebuts the student petition misrepresenting Haidt's speech — which urged graduates to treasure their attention and do hard things — and defends NYU for not caving to demands to disinvite him. Invoking Frederick Douglass, he argues that preventing others from hearing what you find objectionable is "a double wrong."

You can object to a speaker. You do not get to decide that nobody else may hear him. Kudos to NYU for not caving to that pressure. The graduating class does not have one set of values. No large university does. Conservative students, religious students and, increasingly, Jewish students routinely sit through speakers, trainings, and institutional messaging that do not reflect their values.

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Texas Tech's New Limits on How Faculty Teach Gender Identity Challenge More Than Free Speech

Writing in The Conversation, law professor Henry Fradella examines Texas Tech's new policy, effective June 2026, barring faculty from teaching gender as a spectrum and prohibiting graduate students from writing theses or dissertations on gender or sexual orientation. Fradella argues this goes further than any other major public university and raises serious questions about academic freedom — a concern FAIR has long applied across the ideological spectrum.

When the state decides which questions may and may not be researched, it is doing more than shaping curriculum. It is regulating the boundaries of knowledge itself by determining what future scholars may study and what universities are permitted to discover. That — more than any single line in a memo — is what should concern anyone who cares about the integrity of higher education.

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Should It Be a Crime to Mock the Burqa?

Also in Spiked this week: at a 60,000-person "Unite the Kingdom" rally in London, three women took the stage in niqabs, then removed them to reveal themselves as protesters mocking a garment the author describes as a symbol of women's subjugation by Islamist hardliners. The response from politicians and media commentators was immediate: calls for condemnation, police action, and in some quarters, criminal charges. The piece argues that this reaction reveals something troubling about the state of free expression in Britain — that a segment of the left has become so protective of religious identity politics that it is willing to use state power to suppress lawful satire. The author warns that the demand for criminal sanction against political mockery is not a defense of pluralism but rather its undoing.

The response to this public mockery of the burqa — a symbol of women's subjugation by Islamist hardliners, let's not forget — has been depressingly predictable. "No condemnation from our politicians, no action by the police," fulminated Guardian journalist Owen Jones. This is what now passes for progressive politics in Britain: the demand that the state intervene to punish those who mock a religious garment associated with the oppression of women.

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The Neutrality Lodestar: Reclaiming the Library from Ideological Capture

For FAIR’s Substack, academic librarian Kyle Breneman argues that major library organizations like the American Library Association (ALA) have abandoned traditional neutrality and intellectual freedom in favor of ideological activism. He highlights the ALA’s 2021 resolution condemning “neutrality rhetoric” as complicit in “white supremacy and fascism,” along with its updated Code of Ethics that commits librarians to advancing social justice, DEI, and critical theory-inspired approaches. Breneman points to the Association of Library Professionals (ALP), as a counter-movement to reclaim neutrality as the “lodestar” of the profession, defending libraries as institutions serving all patrons through open inquiry rather than partisan advocacy.

Many librarians are recognizing that our profession has become heavily invested in one creedal idea: that social justice activism is the only way to be a librarian. Our professional associations issue resolutions inveighing against neutrality and calling on librarians to commit themselves to political and cultural activism in the service of social justice.

A steady stream of charged rhetoric (“book banning!”), and politically oriented professional development opportunities make it clear that librarians who disagree with the illiberal progressive political agenda (or who simply believe that libraries and librarians ought to be neutral instead of political), are either expected to either adopt these activist roles or remain silent. More and more librarians who are alarmed by these developments are making their way to organizations like ALP, which seek to return the profession to its first principles.

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The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal Just Declared Classical Liberalism Incoherent

For Culture War Musings FAIR Advisor Lisa Bildy writes about the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal’s dismissal of a complaint by political science professor Dr. Joshua Gordon against Simon Fraser University. Gordon alleged he was denied a tenure-track position due to his classical liberal beliefs, which clashed with the university’s activist DEI demands. The Tribunal ruled (without a hearing) that these views lacked the “cohesion and cogency” to qualify as a protected political belief, while treating DEI ideology as the default neutral position.

Classical liberalism emerged during the Enlightenment as a political philosophy centred on individual rights, freedom of conscience and expression, equality before the law, and limits on state power…It is the only political philosophy that treats the right to free speech as inviolable. These principles became foundational to modern Western institutions and offered a way to restrain our tribal impulses by grounding political order in universal legal equality rather than in the claims of groups or castes.

But group rights are all the rage today, and along with them an intolerance for any expression to the contrary. Despite Dr. Gordon’s strong teaching evaluations, his “responses with respect to EDI” were deemed insufficient by the activist Faculty Group – five faculty members who opposed his appointment and held enough votes to sink it. Their concern? Gordon’s statement indicated that he treated people equally, without regard to race, gender, or sexual orientation. That is no longer acceptable. Under activist EDI, one must not treat people equally; one must treat them unequally, according to a shifting hierarchy of “marginalized” identities.

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Gad Saad’s “Suicidal Empathy” Is the Misdiagnosis

For Man of Steele, FAIR Advisor Eli Steele reviews Gad Saad’s new book Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind, arguing that Saad correctly identifies self-destructive Western policies, but misdiagnoses the root cause as excessive empathy. Steele contends the true driver is “white guilt” masquerading as empathy, which leads to performative compassion, racial essentialism, institutional self-sabotage, and policies that prioritize absolution over reality or individual humanity.

This distinction exposes the flaw in Saad’s framework. Empathy is an individual emotion, triggered by a face, a voice, a wound, a human being standing before us. In America’s racial politics, what often triggers the public display of “empathy” is not contact with suffering but the pressure of guilt. When whites took to the streets after Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and George Floyd, the driver was not “I feel your pain.” It was, “I fear being on the side of the racists, and I must prove my innocence.”

Genuine empathy flows outward toward another person. What white guilt produces flows inward and toward releasing one’s own moral distress. This is guilt-alleviation dressed as compassion. Look at the protestors and their signs after Floyd’s death, many of them self-referential performances of innocence that improved the lives of blacks not one iota. What Saad calls “suicidal empathy” is not empathy corrupted by excess or “misfiring.” It is white guilt masquerading as empathy from the start, never really about the victim, but the performer’s need to be seen as innocent.

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Does DEI Strengthen or Harm Intellectual Freedom?

For Heterodoxy in the Stacks, Michael Dudley and Kyle Breneman critique an American Libraries Association post claiming that “Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility” provide the foundation for intellectual freedom in libraries. They argue that DEI fosters ideological conformity, self-censorship, and speech restrictions, ultimately harming intellectual freedom. The authors instead advocate institutional neutrality, viewpoint diversity, and treating patrons as autonomous individuals.

The greatest misunderstanding in this debate is that neutrality demands that the librarian actually be objective and unbiased. Not at all: it only asks that the librarian recognize that their users will hold a wide range of views, such that they should (as an ethical commitment) not permit their own biases to prevent them from making available in their collections a diverse range of perspectives, many of them with which they may personally disagree. As such, far from conflicting with the needs of a diverse, pluralistic society—replete as it is with people representing many different racial backgrounds, ethnicities, faith groups, and belief systems—library neutrality (we would argue) is the necessary ethical framework for recognizing and serving this diversity…and for granting individual library users from these backgrounds the freedom and autonomy to pursue their queries and meet their informational needs.

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Author Discussion: “Black Women Speak on Gender Ideology”

For her blog, 2026 FAIR Artist Grant Winner N3VLYNNN hosts a discussion with two co-authors of her newly released anthology, She Holds The Line: Black Women Speak on Gender Ideology. The three women share their essays, poetry, and personal journeys of “waking up to the harms of queer & trans ideology as LGB and detrans black women.”

Join us for an incredibly vulnerable and thoughtful, yet loving and lighthearted discussion… This amazing project [She Holds The Line] was made possible by an Artist Grant from FAIR in the Arts. Thank you Fair For All for believing in this project and investing in my vision!

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Schrödinger's Race

For FAIR’s Substack, high school sophomore Maitreya Kershner writes a reflective essay on biracial identity, perception, and the limits of categorization. Her piece explores the tension between social labels and individual identity, questioning whether people can ever truly be reduced to fixed categories.

We long for the binary, for simple categories that can be easily explained. We long to understand one another, so we create an array of boxes to place ourselves in. And still we don’t understand. We just create smaller and smaller, ever more specific boxes, hoping we will one day be able to summarize all the perfect complexities of a human being.

Much of this comes from the dualism that runs through our society. We see things as one or the other — right or left, good or evil, black or white — and we deny the gray areas that are always there. We are slowly learning to escape these patterns, but their hold is hard to release. The issue lives not only in the systems we’ve built but in the way we interpret and express our reality. Most of us can’t pull ourselves out of our day-to-day perceptions long enough to see past them. And even when we glimpse a deeper truth, we struggle to put it into words.

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Ten Arguments Against Free Speech

For the So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, FAIR Advisor, and former ACLU President, Nadine Strossen joins FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff to discuss their new book, “War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail.” These arguments include: Words are violence; Words are dangerous; Hate speech isn’t free speech; Free speech is outdated; Free speech is right-wing; Misinformation and disinformation; About the Holocaust and Rwandan genocide; and more.

Nadine Strossen: “‘Oh, you defend free speech because you take the ridiculous position that words can cause no harm.’ No, no, no, we acknowledge words can do harm, but you pro-censorship people never acknowledge the greater harm that giving the government greater censorial power will do.”

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“The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Does Not Include Whites”

For Man of Steele, FAIR Advisor and filmmaker Eli Steele argues that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 no longer functions as a neutral protection against discrimination, but has instead evolved into a broader system of ideological and institutional enforcement.

I saw an X post by New York Magazine that featured the headline, “The White Man Suing the New York Times for Discriminating Against White Men.” The piece described how the plaintiff, a longtime Times editor, claims that he was passed over for a deputy editor job so the paper could meet its diversity and leadership targets. He alleges that, despite his experience, he was excluded from final‑round interviews because he is a white man and the role went to a less qualified candidate.

I thought, good for him. Discrimination is discrimination. Whether the case has merit or not, he should be allowed to exercise his American rights and have his day in court. Then I thought about why this was a story at all. The headline made news for one reason only: the plaintiff is white. A black man suing for racial discrimination today would not be treated with the same level of curiosity. His case would be seen as routine, not remarkable.

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Many of the Problems AI Creates for Democracy Can Be Solved With This Basic Change

For The Certainty Trap, FAIR Advisor Ilana Redstone writes about the convergence of AI and democracy, arguing that both AI systems and their users gravitate toward answers that appear definitive, even when reality is more uncertain and contested.

When an AI summarizes a policy debate, it makes choices — based on whatever its training data treats as mainstream — about which framings count as reasonable and which count as fringe…

This isn’t a bug in any particular AI platform—it’s a structural feature of how they work. They take in language, which is saturated with contested moral and causal premises, and produce output that inherits those same premises. This means the question isn’t whether AI systems will encode contested commitments as facts. They already do. It is whether we will teach it to make those commitments visible to the people using them.

Right now, they’re not. And that’s devastating for democracy…

Democracy doesn’t require that citizens agree on contested questions. It requires that the institutions mediating public life — including, now, AI systems — remain legible enough that citizens can see what they’re being asked to accept. The danger isn’t that AI takes positions. It’s that AI takes positions invisibly, at scale, in the voice of neutral authority and factual claims.

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Women Terrorized By ‘Trans’ Male Inmate Launch Massive Lawsuit Against Prison System

For the Daily Wire, Megan Brock reports on FAIR’s lawsuit, in partnership with the America First Policy Institute, regarding the Washington State Department of Corrections (WSDC) policy of housing men in women’s single-sex prisons. Our lawsuit asserts that WSDC’s policy violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.

The lawsuit highlights public data showing that over 50% of males in federal prisons who self-identified as transgender between May 2024 and January 2025 were sex offenders…“The housing of these male inmates with females — including as bunkmates in the same cell — has led to multiple instances of violence and sexual abuse against the female inmates, persistent harassment, and the routine intimidation of female inmates in violation of their fundamental constitutional rights to serve their sentences in safety and without further punishment,” states the lawsuit. “[Washington] DOC’s Transgender Inmate Policy exposes female inmates to a population statistically more likely of having committed a sexual offense, and only females can become pregnant as a result of these offenses.”

The plaintiffs, the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism, Inc. [Fair For All], and Faith Booher-Smith, are suing the Washington DOC and Tim Lang in his official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Corrections.

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The Fraying Tightrope: When Medicine Abandons the Individual

For her Substack, Dr. Diana Blum reflects on the erosion of trust, judgment, and human connection in modern medicine. Drawing on her experience as a physician, she argues that healthcare systems increasingly prioritize bureaucracy, metrics, liability, and ideological conformity over individualized care and the doctor-patient relationship.

This clinical battle for the individual is a microcosm of the crisis facing the profession itself. Medicine has always required a delicate balance between two distinct poles: the measurable precision of science and the intuitive, often messy, art of human connection. To practice medicine is to walk a tightrope stretched taut between these two anchors, relying on the hard data of biology while never losing sight of the unique human soul it inhabits.

But today, that tightrope is fraying. I find myself fighting a systemic adversary far more insidious than a failing nervous system: a collapse of the moral foundation upon which the healing arts were built. We are witnessing a terrifying disconnection where the individual is being sacrificed to the collective. In our rush toward corporate efficiency and ideological conformity, we have abandoned both the rigorous pursuit of science and the sacred art of the relationship, leaving a hollowed-out system that values the metric more than the human.

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“Can We Mute the Hate Speech, Please?”

For FAIR’s Substack, recounts a California school board meeting where a parent’s policy concerns were interrupted by a board member labelling her remarks “hate speech.” This incident highlights a broader concern: when policy disagreement is reframed as inherently “hateful,” it can shut down legitimate democratic participation and weaken accountability for elected officials.

Reasonable people will disagree about which path to take, but that is the point of public comment. Yet in that moment, one side of that debate wasn’t treated as a position, but as a voice to be “muted.”

People take note when this happens. Speaking in front of a school board can be daunting — not just for the person speaking, but also for everyone else listening. That was certainly true for me. Whether they are on Zoom, physically in the room, or watching the event later, participants learn which arguments are safe to express and which ones carry a cost.

Some people will choose to keep speaking anyway. But many will not.

Over time, the range of acceptable viewpoints narrows not by formalized rule, but by signal. The meeting still looks “open.” The microphones are still there. But the boundaries have shifted, and that has consequences. You lose the parent who came to ask a budget question and decides it is not worth it next time. You lose the observer who has a similar concern but chooses to stay silent. The community loses the expectation that public officials will engage with criticism rather than deflect it. Once that expectation erodes, effective governance suffers, as well.

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AFPI Files Suit Challenging Washington Policy That Houses Men in Women’s Prison

For the America First Policy Institute, Leigh Ann O’Neill shares a press release regarding a new lawsuit filed in partnership with FAIR, challenging the Washington State Department of Corrections’ policy of housing male inmates who identify as women in the state’s prison for women, a policy the complaint alleges has led to violence, sexual abuse, intimidation, and ongoing fear among female inmates.

The lawsuit asserts that Washington’s policy violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. It argues that female inmates are being subjected to foreseeable and preventable harm while the state prioritizes accommodations for male inmates who identify as women over the safety, privacy, and dignity of the women already housed there.

“Fairness begins with telling the truth,” said Monica Harris, executive director of Fair for All. “Women in custody are wholly dependent on the state for their safety. When officials ignore reality, ignore repeated warnings, and ignore the women living with the consequences, the law has to step in. No woman should be told that her safety, privacy, and dignity matter less because the state prefers ideology to common sense.”

The complaint describes the August 7, 2025, attack on Booher-Smith and alleges that prison officials had advance notice of the risks posed by certain transferred male inmates, including through prior complaints and litigation. It also alleges ongoing harm to additional Fair for All members at the facility; the nonprofit is involved as a plaintiff to advocate for an entire class of women who are threatened.

Read the Full Legal Complaint

Let’s Return to Teaching Students How to Argue

For The Coddling Movie, Gregory Roper argues that education has drifted too far toward emotional protection at the expense of resilience and intellectual growth. He suggests that shielding students from discomfort, such as avoiding challenging ideas, leaves them less prepared for real-world adversity.

We hear all the time that America is hopelessly polarized, that the electronic landscape allows us to stay in our own hermetically-sealed communities, and that no one can speak with anyone across the aisle. For decades now, the Left has believed that those who disagree with it are not just wrong but evil; in the last three election cycles, we have seen those on the right taking on the same position.

What if the problem is not our politics but the way we are taught to argue?

For four decades, American students have been taking misconceived “rhetoric and composition” classes, which now are almost completely under the ideological control of the woke. We need to fix that so we can return to a republic of vigorous, fair, thoughtful, and productive discussion.

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Is There Life After Being Cancelled?

For his Substack, former Seattle principal Ed Roos reflects on the personal and professional fallout following his cancellation in 2020 amid a public controversy. He describes how his career path has shifted and shares his ongoing struggle with PTSD linked to what he terms “revenge culture.”

It has been almost six grueling, at times hopeless, years since I lost my livelihood due to cancel culture, which I prefer to call revenge culture. In the immediate aftermath, I made a vow to not let this destroy me. I committed to staying as mentally and physically strong and healthy as possible. I embarked on a healthy dose of endorphins through a healthy diet, exercise, ‘live in the moment’ meditation, sun exposure, hikes, snowshoeing, skiing and walks in nature. Even during the isolation of COVID, I forced myself out of bed and into the elements. I wouldn’t allow myself to wallow in the wreckage; I was determined to overcome it.

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Why Substack Is Right Not to Ban Andrew Tate

For The Overflowings of a Liberal Brain, Helen Pluckrose makes the case that Substack should restrict bans to clear cases of incitement to violence, rather than policing “harmful” or offensive ideas. She warns that expanding moderation based on subjective notions of “acceptability” risks ideological bias and inconsistent enforcement. Instead, Pluckrose defends a “marketplace of ideas” approach, where users — not platforms — decide what to engage with, ignore, or block.

Once a platform begins moderating speech on the basis of content rather than direct incitement to violence, it enters an inherently subjective moral terrain. It must then justify which ideas are “acceptably” horrible and which are unacceptably so. This requires increasingly complex rules of moderation, heightening the risk of political and cultural bias. It also becomes difficult to prevent the boundaries of allowable speech from steadily contracting.

If Substack justified banning ideas on the basis that they are simply too objectionable, it would then have to contend with the implication that it implicitly endorses those that remain. It would voluntarily abandon the principled defence of free speech as a system in which ideas compete and bad ones can be challenged and defeated as the basis for which it declines to moderate content. This gives activists, fuelled by moral outrage, ammunition to make endless demands using the precedent of already banned ideas, and defences against that will necessarily be subjective and give the appearance of ad hoc rationalisations.

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Rejecting the Rejection of Empathy

For FAIR’s Substack, argues that empathy is being unfairly dismissed in today’s polarized politics. He contends that empathy is not just a feeling, but a practice of understanding those we disagree with, and warns that abandoning it risks dehumanizing our opponents and weakening democratic culture.

[Empathy] requires us to listen across differences, to sit with the discomfort of perspectives that unsettle our own, and to resist the temptation to dismiss what we haven’t yet tried to understand. Empathy, in this sense, is the foundation of deep listening, and deep listening is the foundation of democratic life.

The skills that make this possible — perspective-taking, active attention, the willingness to be changed by what we hear — are not mere instincts. They are practices. They can be learned, and they can be lost. Empathy does not require agreement. But empathy does require our love for our country to be reflected in our concern for our neighbors. Empathy requires us to take seriously the reality of the person across from us — their hopes, their fears, and the experiences that shape their convictions. That seriousness is what transforms a conversation into a community, and a community into a democracy.

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We invite you to join us on Monday, April 27th, at 4pm PT/ 7pm ET for a webinar discussion with FAIR Advisors and , moderated by FAIR Executive Director .

Documenting a Decade of Academic Meltdowns

For Quillette, FAIR Advisor Jonathan Kay interviews Canadian filmmaker Ric Esther Bienstock about her new documentary Speechless, which explores the past decade of campus culture wars and their impact on free speech and civil discourse.

As I was watching Speechless, I realized that campus “cancel culture”—a term that now seems somewhat antique—has been around long enough that it has a history. And Speechless tells that history thoughtfully and fairly by focusing on a handful of major case studies—no fewer than five of which center on figures who will be well-known to loyal Quillette readers and podcast listeners: former Evergreen State biologist Bret Weinstein; Erec Smith a former professor at York College of Pennsylvania; philosopher Kathleen Stock, formerly of Sussex University; former Harvard evolutionary biologist Carole Hooven; and right-wing warrior Christopher Rufo, whom Ric and her producer accompanied as he was leading the teardown of DEI programs at New College in Florida, on behalf of his political ally, Ron DeSantis.

In our conversation, Ric discusses why she devoted so much of her life to this project—almost a decade in the end; and how she successfully sold her two-part documentary to the CBC, the BBC, and a number of non-English markets in Europe as well.

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They Championed D.E.I. Now They’re Divided.

For The New York Times Opinion, FAIR Advisor Erec Smith joins a panel discussion to share his perspective on how DEI is practiced in universities and institutions. He argues that many DEI programs rely on rigid ideological frameworks — especially oppressor/oppressed narratives — that can oversimplify complex realities and discourage open discussion.

In recent years, diversity, equity and inclusion policies have shifted from an internal workplace initiative to a public reckoning. Critics argue that it has strayed from its original purpose, reshaping institutions in ways that are performative at best and discriminatory at worst… In this episode of “Divided,” we bring together four former D.E.I. leaders to reflect on their accomplishments and failures. Bo Young Lee, a tech executive, and Michael Yassa, a university professor, still see D.E.I. as a worthwhile endeavor and a set of ideals to strive for. Desiree Fixler, a finance executive, and Erec Smith, a professor, once shared that view, but have come to believe D.E.I. is counterproductive.

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Welcome to the Nebuchadnezzar: Forecasting a human future

For Heterodoxy in the Stacks, Sarah Hartman-Caverly shares the written interview between FAIR board member Heather Shayne Blakeslee and evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein, who share their “thoughts in-progress” on coexisting with AI while carving out a distinctly human niche.

[Blakeslee:] Ultimately, if you want to argue that humans are special, you have to get real religious real quick. You’re talking about a soul, I think—and that’s really uncomfortable for atheists or even rationalists, but I’m not sure how you avoid that path. I supposed that because I don’t think we have souls, that I’m more inclined to give moral status to non-humans, period, whether or not they have a human-type consciousness.

Our cultural norms and ethics are all over the place on whom and what we grant moral or legal status to. Over our history, some people have been given moral status but not others; we’ve granted legal status to some rivers; the Citizens United ruling granted personhood status to corporations. We give very narrow and limited consideration to other mammals, or non-human animals generally, which has never made sense to me: a great ape can be held against its will and basically tortured, but a corporation’s speech is protected by the first amendment? We have to sort this out, because this big AI tsunami is already in motion.

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John Tomasi on the Diversity We Don’t Discuss

For Lean Out with Tara Henley, Tara Henley interviews John Tomasi, president of Heterodox Academy, about the new book, Viewpoint Diversity: What It Is, Why We Need It, and How to Get It, which he co-edited along with Bernard Schweizer. Tomasi discusses the importance of institutional openness to ideological disagreement and the role of viewpoint diversity in strengthening academic and civic life.

Listen to the interview or read the transcript here:

Lean Out with Tara Henley

John Tomasi on the Diversity We Don't Discuss

In recent years, viewpoint diversity has become a loaded term. But my guest on the program today says it is vital that we renew our commitment to dialogue, especially across lines of difference. He has edited a new book that brings together prominent professors and journalists to make the case for free speech, intellectual humility, and societal plurali…

Listen now

5 months ago · 24 likes · 2 comments · Tara Henley

Note to readers: We have paused the FAIR News podcast. If you prefer listening, rather than reading these Roundups, an audio version is available directly on the Substack app. Thank you for tuning in!

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