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Why Beauty Might Be the Antidote to Our Modern Malaise
For FAIR’s Substack, Julian Adorney writes about how AI slop, a lost appreciation for nature, and endless distractions are starving us of the beauty that makes life worth living.
The good news is that we don’t have to transform society. Instead, our experience of the world is in our hands. Modern society may make it harder, but we can absolutely still fill our lives with the kinds of transcendent beauty that rejuvenates our souls and that buffers us against the aches and pains of modern life.
For one thing: no matter how bad the ratio of slop to beauty gets, true art will still keep being made, and that means that we can seek it out. All that’s required is for us to be conscious about the media that we consume.
The Myth of the Anti-American Teacher
For The Next 30 Years, FAIR Advisor Robert Pondiscio writes about why it shouldn’t surprise us that most teachers think schools should teach that America is a good country.
Despite the noise, the civic consensus remains surprisingly intact. For all the heat surrounding public education, teachers remain close to the American mainstream. They may lean slightly left, but they are not radicals. They are far more representative of the country than the people who claim to speak for them—professors in education schools, union leaders, and political activists.
In the final analysis, you don’t teach that America is good; you show it. You do so by maintaining institutions that work—schools among them—that give young people a sense of agency, competence, and belonging. When schools function well—when they are orderly, demanding, and fair—they model the virtues of a free society better than any civics lesson ever could.
Lawrence Krauss: The War on Science — How Ideology Is Undermining Academia and Research
For Quillette, FAIR Advisor Jonathan Kay speaks with Lawrence Krauss about his explosive new book, The War on Science, featuring essays from 39 leading scholars—including Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, and Sally Satel.
In this in-depth conversation, Krauss explains how progressive ideology, DEI mandates, and academic cowardice are threatening the foundations of scientific inquiry in universities across the West. He also addresses the political right’s war on vaccine science and funding cuts under the Trump administration.
8 senators caved. This California Democrat has had enough.
For The Washington Post, FAIR Advisor Shadi Hamid speaks with Ro Khanna about how the guardians of institutions are out of touch with a populist moment.
Ro Khanna: So they are viewing things as sort of guardians of institutions as opposed to responding to the populist moment we’re in. And that populist moment is saying institutions have failed us. The younger generation gets that. And that’s why, you’re right, this was building with Schumer. We need a total makeover of the Democratic Party. And it’s doable. There is no establishment. The powers that be are weaker than they’ve ever been before. It’s a total open field running for the Congress, the Senate and the presidency.
Ford needs workers, but American schools aren’t giving them the education needed
For the New York Post, FAIR Advisor Robert Pondiscio writes about why students still need the same baseline skills for trade schools.
Today’s auto technicians work with computer software, advanced sensors, high-voltage systems, and digital schematics. Servicing an electric vehicle requires interpreting data flows, troubleshooting electronics, and following precise, multistep instructions. That demands literacy, math, and the ability to solve complex problems. So the real question isn’t “what happened to trade schools?” It’s whether America’s K–12 system is any more capable of producing a workforce that is career-ready than it is at producing a generation that’s college-ready.
NEW HIGH: 3/4 of Americans say free speech is headed in the wrong direction
FIRE’s Newsdesk shares its latest poll showing that a record number of Americans now believe that freedom of speech in the country is headed in the wrong direction.
To test support for academic freedom in the aftermath of the Kirk shooting, the October NSI also asked respondents about four politically charged — but constitutionally protected — remarks made by a professor on social media following the shooting. For each statement, majorities of Americans said the professor should not be fired. But their level of support varied by the statement, and substantial minorities in each case reported that the professor “probably” or “definitely” should be fired.
45% say a professor who posted “It’s O.K. to punch a Nazi” should probably or definitely be fired from their job.
37% say a professor who posted “These fascist Bible-thumpers want to drag us back to the Dark Ages” should probably or definitely be fired from their job.
24% say a professor who posted “Our colleges and universities are progressive indoctrination centers” should probably or definitely be fired from their job.
14% say that a professor who posted “We are going to make America great again” should probably or definitely be fired from their job.
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The key word in the free speech bit is 'now', as in, " a record number of Americans *now* believe that freedom of speech in the country is headed in the wrong direction." Why not last year? Or the year before? Or five or ten years before? Where the hell were all these free speech lov---oh, turning a blind eye to left-wing censorship until Trump started going for their own free speech.