Weekly Roundup
Reading, watching, & listening list
The Dangerous SSRI Experiment on Developing Brains
For FAIR’s Substack, Dr. Roger McFillin writes part 1 of our 3-part investigation into the dangers of SSRIs for adolescents.
The absence of these approaches from clinical guidelines isn't an evidence problem, but rather a profit problem. Pharmaceutical corporations don’t employ representatives to promote problem-solving skills or emotional intelligence when they visit doctors' offices. Billion-dollar campaigns don’t market the “evolutionary” concept of using non-medical means to support teens through developmental challenges. Instead, we've abandoned generational wisdom for a pill that transforms normal development into pathology requiring lifelong chemical management.
As millions of developing adolescent brains are subjected to profound neurochemical alterations during their most critical formative years, we face profound ethical and scientific questions that demand immediate scrutiny.
Does Higher Education Need “Saving”?
For the Cato Institute, FAIR Advisor Erec Smith writes about Utah’s Republican Sen. John Johnson’s bill SB334 that establishes a new Center for Civic Excellence at Utah State University.
Regarding the attack on academic freedom, I understand Graham’s concern. This bill aligns with the anti-DEI legislation put forth by the Trump administration. Still, like that legislation, the bill ironically sounds like an infringement on academic freedom and free expression. With DEI, the problem was never discussion about Critical Race Theory or Critical Gender Studies; it was the compelling of students and faculty to embrace such ideologies as truth and the moral high ground. Yet, the legislation’s lack of specificity and clarity opens the door for all discussion of things related to race and sexual orientation, which would be a disservice to all students’ ability to acquire a well-rounded education in Western Civilization.
Podcast #276: On Book Banning
Quillette podcast host and FAIR Advisor Jonathan Kay speaks with author Ira Wells about the censorship demands emanating from both sides of the political spectrum.
Can America’s universities survive the Trump era?
For The Washington Post, FAIR Advisor Shadi Hamid speaks with his colleagues Megan McArdle and Perry Bacon Jr., about free speech on college campuses under the Trump Administration.
Shadi: It’s more than a bit ironic. Under Biden, Republicans portrayed themselves as champions of free speech, criticizing universities — rightly, in my view — for adopting “woke” speech codes that empowered administrators to silence faculty who didn’t toe the line on progressive interpretations of transgender rights and racial equity. It raises the eternal question: Does anyone really believe in free speech or do they only use free speech as a cudgel against their opponents?
Megan: Some people are consistent, Shadi. But too few.
Jonathan Haidt: Taking Back Childhood from Phones—Finally
For The Free Press, FAIR Advisor Jonathan Haidt and Zach Rausch write about something all Americans agree on: kids belong in the real world.
In America, left and right often disagree on how kids should be educated, but there is universal agreement that they should be educated. There is also agreement that kids who are texting, playing video games, and watching TikTok videos in class are not being educated. Phones are distraction machines.
Why censorship is making us all dumber
For The Eternally Radical Idea, Julian Adorney writes about how the more we censor ourselves as a culture, the farther our ideas drift from reality and the more trouble we cause.
All of this censorial behavior is bad for a few reasons.
First, it's making us all more scared of each other than we should be. In the runup to the 2024 presidential election, over 80 percent of partisans on both sides feared for democracy if the other team won. Surely some of that is because both parties have a track record of punishing ideas (and people) with whom they disagree. This is tearing at the roots of our historically-free culture. When our opponents censor us, we're tempted to censor them in turn, leading to a retaliatory cycle of tit-for-tat that erodes our culture of free speech, breeds fear and distrust, and breaks down the foundations of civil society.
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