Weekly Roundup

Reading, watching, & listening list

Democrats Really Are for They/Them. Who's for Us?

For her Substack BROADVIEW, FAIR Advisor Lisa Selin Davis writes about why liberals need stop trying to be seen as good people, and start trying to do the right thing.

But I don’t think so for the latter. I think most Democrats suffer from a disease I like to call “liberalitis”—the fear of being seen as a bad person. They want to be on the right side of history, and they don’t yet realize that they’re not. They don’t want to have their worlds turned upside down, and have lost too much perspective to realize that it already has been: they are living in the upside-down, trading science for dogma, caring more about men’s rights than women’s, endangering children—doing all the things they accuse Republicans of doing. And we, the dissenters, are infected, impure—they don’t want to soil themselves by association. Even listening to us in good faith could taint them, and imperil their chances of seeming good.

Michael Shellenberger on Climate Panic, Safetyism, and Gen X Resilience

For Dad Saves America, FAIR Advisor Michael Shellenberger shares his critique of the apocalyptic narratives that dominate modern environmentalism, arguing that they have more to do with nihilism than objective science. Drawing on his Gen X upbringing, he explains how climate hysteria reflects a broader cultural decline and the loss of traditional religious and ideological frameworks. As an unapologetic optimist and a believer in human potential, Michael makes the case for embracing resilience and rejecting narratives that undermine civilization’s core values.

Catholicism and the American Civic Order

For the American Enterprise Institute, FAIR Advisor Robert P. George writes about the Catholicism, America, and religious freedom.

On the other hand, the Constitution explicitly protects the freedom of religion. The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The Constitution also protects religious liberty by banning religious tests for public office. People are free to be — and may not be discriminated against by government officials for being — Catholic; but people are equally free to be, and protected from discrimination for being, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, agnostic, atheist, or anything else.

And, of course, the United States of America is a democratic republic. We resolve our differences of opinion in the broad realm of politics by engaging with one another, by petitioning our elected officials, and by voting, not through coercion by political or religious authorities.

Keeping BDS Out of Academia: A Canadian Case Study

For Quillette, FAIR Advisor Jonathan Kay writes about the tactics that anti-Israel activists use to co-opt ostensibly neutral academic institutions.

This tale focuses on just one university. But in many respects, I believe, it serves as a stand-in for similar internal fights going on at many schools—and it comes with important lessons. For all the abuse they take in the public sphere, academics (Canadian or otherwise) tend to be busy, just like everyone else. And so it’s understandable that most lack the time to closely monitor the activities of the unions, administrators, and trade bodies that purport to protect their professional interests. But unless a critical mass of academics do take care to regularly scrutinize the politics of these organizations—and push back against those seeking to co-opt them in order to prosecute parochial geopolitical grievances—their profession will remain associated with extremism.

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METACOMMENTARY: Why Meta’s move to community notes is good

For his Substack The Eternally Radical Idea, Greg Lukianoff and Adam Goldstein write about Meta’s recent u-turn on censorship is a good thing.

Meta’s changes are not the death of speaking from authority; it just means the authority will have to be cited by someone sitting as a co-equal voice in a system that doesn’t censor based on the all-too-frequently imperfect perspective of an insular group — which, like all of us, is subject to its own biases and blind spots. A censor being wrong about something is much, much worse than any of us individually being wrong. Getting rid of that moderation is a step in the right direction, because it means we can at least hear each other out, however wrong we individually might be.

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