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For UnHerd, FAIR Advisor Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote about the dangers of attempting to fit all struggles into simplistic narratives of good versus evil, or “as a battle between light and darkness.” While it is still possible to rationally choose sides in a conflict, Ali explains that “when it comes to war, sweeping generalisation is the tool of the despot.”
Ignoring the enormous complexities of life, politics, and war is a necessary and evolved aspect of human psychology, but ignoring too much of this complexity “clouds our understanding of who is fighting and, ultimately, can prolong and intensify a conflict.”
For Heterodox, FAIR Advisor Jacob Mchangama wrote about America’s free speech problem and the “too-narrow lens” through which many have come to view and value free speech. While most Americans view the concept of free speech in relation to the First Amendment, which only protects against government censorship, he explains that “the roots of free speech are ancient, deep, and sprawling.”
According to Mchangama, “the introduction of free speech sets in motion a process of entropy” where even the most enlightened leaders “inevitably convince themselves that now freedom of speech has gone too far.” This is a natural human tendency to preserve power, which is why free speech protections must be vigilantly defended.
Those of us who have benefited from the unprecedented advances in human affairs — brought about by the 2,500 years of this counterintuitive, revolutionary, and deeply consequential idea — must resist the impulse of free speech entropy and contribute to keep alive a vibrant culture of free speech.
Oh his Substack The Weekly Dish, FAIR Advisor Andrew Sullivan wrote about the circumstances leading up to his recent “debate” with Jon Stewart about “race.” Sullivan agreed to the show under the assumption it would just be him and Jon, and that it would be a cordial and productive conversation. However, moments before the show, Sullivan became aware that there would be two other guests, and that title of the episode was “The Problem With White People.”
According to Sullivan:
At that point, it became clear that Stewart was not conducting a televised debate, but initiating a struggle session. The point of the session was not to discuss anything, but to further enforce the dogma he had pronounced. So I found myself in the equivalent of one of those workplace indoctrination seminars — in which any disagreement is regarded as a form of “hate” or “ignorance.”
For Heterodox, Kyle Sebastian Vitale wrote a piece about “how recent events in higher ed have highlighted our dire need for more courage on campus.” According to Vitale, the kind of courage most frequently displayed on campus is “a mistaken notion of courage” where students heckle and disrupt speakers, believing by doing so they are defending oppressed minorities.
Defining courage as an act requiring “a noble goal, personal risk and choice,” Vitale says that these types of disruptive acts don’t qualify, as “hecklers rarely face up to the reality that they may not be entirely right or that their ‘enemy’ may not be entirely wrong, both of which involve personal risk to one’s ideals.”
To counter these wrongful notions of courage, Vitale believes we need “better models of courage” that demonstrate a willingness to share beliefs with “confidence, authenticity and flexibility.”
On his Substack, Cambridge University doctoral candidate Rob Henderson wrote about a common misunderstanding of “propaganda” as a method “to brainwash the masses.” If this is the case, why is it that regimes “often broadcast silly, unpersuasive propaganda” that clearly “contradict reality”?
In a paper titled Propaganda as Signaling, political scientist Haifeng Huang explains that the reason propagands often seems absurd is because “instilling pro-regime values and attitudes” isn’t the only aim of propaganda:
Alongside the desire to brainwash people, the regime also wants to remind people of their power. When citizens are bombarded with propaganda everywhere they look, they are reminded of the strength of the regime. The vast amount of resources authoritarian regimes spend to display their message in every corner of the public square is a costly demonstration of their power.
For Areo, journalist and lecturer Jacob Nazroo discussed the importance of open-mindedness and how to cultivate it despite our psychological tendencies to use “heuristics and other mental shortcuts” that “hinder us from seeing things clearly as they are.”
One obstacle to open-mindedness is the difficulty in resisting “privileged conclusions”—conclusions that are unreasonable yet compelling. Such a conclusion is easy to adopt because “it suits us emotionally or because it takes less cognitive effort, or because it fits in with a pattern that is familiar to us.” According to Nazroo, in order to remain open-minded one must possess humility, courage, and be motivated to find the truth.
The more a person cares about truth, the more she will be motivated to work past a privileged conclusion—indeed the fewer and weaker her privileged conclusions are likely to be in the first place. This suggests that any attempt to become more open-minded should begin with a reflection on why you want to know what the truth is—what it is worth to you.
For Newsweek, Senior Reporter Brendan Cole wrote about a new law struck down in California that mandated corporations to include board members from “underrepresented communities” including LGBT, Black, Latino, Asian, Native American or Pacific Islander. Noncompliance with the mandate could result in fines between $100,000 and $300,000.
Advocates for the law described it as “a big step forward for racial equity” and claimed that “ethnically diverse boards have shown to outperform those that lack diversity.”
However, the law has recently been ruled unconstitutional by a Los Angeles judge following an argument from the legal group Judicial Watch claiming the law violated California’s constitutional equal protection clause.
For Quillette, nurse and women’s rights advocate Amy Eileen Hamm wrote about her ongoing situation with the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) after they informed her that she was under investigation for her “off-duty conduct.”
The “conduct” in question had to do with Hamm’s public criticism of “gender identity ideology,” which she describes as “the claim that one’s self-asserted gender identity should trump biological sex in all areas of service provision and policy-making.” Hamm states:
Centuries ago, scientists were sometimes persecuted by the church for rejecting holy scripture. These days, it’s secular ideologues who demand that science yield to dogma. And while the phenomenon has become common enough, it’s still something of a shock to see a nursing organization reject plain truths about human biology.
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