Weekly Roundup
Weekly Roundup
Reading, watching, & listening list
The Examined Life
For FAIR’s Substack, FAIR Advisor Robert P. George writes about the deepest purposes of a true liberal education.
Abandoning the cause of liberal education, though, would be exactly the wrong response to these concerns. Instead, we should reform our colleges and universities by refocusing them on the purposes of liberal education: to form young men and women to be determined truth-seekers, courageous truth-speakers, and life-long learners.
Students formed in that way will lead an examined life, a life of critical—and self-critical—inquiry. People who lead examined lives are best equipped to fulfill their responsibilities as citizens of a democratic republic.
The Importance of Being Honest About Trans Language
For Reality’s Last Stand, FAIR Advisor Lisa Selin Davis writes about how we’ve lost a common language when talking about trans-related issues.
By the mid-1990s, to Prince’s chagrin, transgender had become an umbrella term for many different kinds of experiences related to sex and gender, and an academic field of transgender studies blossomed. Third wave feminism “queered” the field of women’s studies, which morphed into gender studies. By the end of the decade, we saw the emergence of transgender children, and by the 2000s, a focus on gender identity.
The problem is, we now have very little understanding of what any of these words mean. They are so imprecise, so subjective and personalized, that we’ve lost common language.
Michael Shellenberger: How Our Leaders Lost All Credibility
For John Papola’s podcast Dad Saves America, FAIR Advisor Michael Shellenberger sits down to discuss the collapse of trust in elite institutions and its implications for civilization.
Forging Early America’s Northeastern Backbone
For Quillette, FAIR Advisor Jonathan Kay writes a review of The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, the People, the History, the Region, by David Alff.
But as demonstrated by America’s fall from global leader to laggard in the field of rail-service operation, the national qualities that lend themselves to the creation of one-off mechanical marvels and architectural wonders are very different from those required to rationally plan, build out, maintain, and modernise sprawling systems of infrastructure (or, for that matter, health care, schooling, and public assistance) on a regional or national scale. The former project, corresponding to the Northeast Corridor’s early years, can be accomplished by scattered geniuses and deep-pocketed investors—of which America has always had plenty. The latter, corresponding to the Corridor’s postwar decline, requires an active corps of competent, widely trusted, well-resourced central planners—of which America has comparably few.
How ‘Tranny’ Became a Slur
For The Free Press, Kat Rosenfield writes about how a word frequently used by gay men and others in recent years has been rebranded as a slur.
It’s tempting to conclude that tranny became a slur because of young, hypersensitive activists, empowered by the 2010s intensification of “political correctness”; it’s also tempting to credit advocacy NGOs like GLAAD, which sided with the activists early on—and then became laser-focused on trans issues immediately after gay marriage was legalized, in a bid to maintain relevancy. And these things definitely contributed.
But what really made tranny a slur is human nature. The activists said tranny was a slur, some people disagreed, but most didn’t think it was worth losing their jobs or reputations over it. Tranny became a slur because people who had used it their entire lives eventually chose the path of least resistance.
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