I didn’t know such a Hitchens revival was happening until I read philosopher Andy Lamey‘s piece at Toronto Star. Lamey asks, “Is his brand of contrarian progressivism a welcome alternative to a Twitter-fixated, deplatforming Left?” Such a revival makes perfect...
cancel culture
As promised, Jon Meacham will lecture at Samford University
Back in November, I wrote a piece at Current titled “Canceling Jon Meacham.” Here is a taste of that piece: …I thought about Meacham’s visit to Messiah, a Christian university with strong ties to American evangelicalism, when I learned that...
Pope Francis says “cancel culture” is a form of “one-track thinking”
On Monday, the Pope had some interesting things to say about cancel culture and tried to offer a lesson in historical thinking. Here is the relevant part of his address to the Vatican’s Diplomatic Corps: The diminished effectiveness of many...
Words with no meaning
“Cancel culture.” “Wokness.” “Critical Race Theory.” “Socialism.” We are debating these issues and we have no idea what they mean. Here is a taste of Hamilton Nolan at In These Times: To attempt to have any kind of good faith...
Did Benjamin Franklin successfully thwart cancel culture?
Here is “presidential historian” Jane Hampton Cook yesterday on Fox News: Cook’s appearance follows this article at Fox News. What qualifies one as a “presidential historian?” Unfortunately, Cook doesn’t really know what she is talking about here. Cook comes from...
Michelle Cottle offers a “dictionary for these polarized times”
The premise of Cottle’s piece at The New York Times is that Democrats and Republicans no longer speak the same language. Take, for example, the phrase “fake news”: Pre-Trump, most folks thought of fake news as media sources that trafficked...
The history behind *Harper’s* “Letter on Justice and Open Debate”
Signers of the letter included Anne Applebaum, Margaret Atwood, David Blight, David Brooks, Noam Chomsky, Gerald Early, David Frum, Francis Fukuyama, Todd Gitlin, Anthony Grafton, David Greenberg, Jonathan Haidt, Michael Ignatieff, Gary Kasparov, Mark Lilla, Damon Linker, Dahlia Lithwick, Greil...
U.S. Congresswoman: Cancel culture began when “Cain cancelled Abel.” (“They” also “tried to cancel Jesus”)
Dennis Anderson, the publisher of the Delta County (CO) Independent, didn’t know if he was watching a political rally or a revival meeting. Lauren Boebert is a guns-rights activist and the owner of Shooters Grill, a restaurant in Rifle, Colorado...
Why did Kevin McCarthy read *Green Eggs and Ham*?
Watch the House minority leader: McCarthy could be more original. Ted Cruz has already read Green Eggs and Hand in public. Here he is back in the days when he did not look like a contestant on Survivor: I am...
Cancel culture? Who cares?
Joe Biden is trying to get a COVID-19 relief package passed. Conservatives, who barely mentioned COVID-19 relief at CPAC last weekend, are worried about the Muppets and Dr. Seuss. Here is a taste of Christopher Cadelago’s and Meridith McGraw’s piece...
The Dr. Seuss controversy
In case you haven’t heard, Seuss Enterprises will no longer publish six Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) books because they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” They are: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street...
The CPAC vocabulary. Defining terms.
I am teaching the American Revolution this semester. The other day, as we were reading and interpreting some primary documents, I asked the students to notice how the writers of these documents all seemed to use a similar political language....
A Princeton classics professor will not be investigated for his dissent
A classics professor at Princeton University got into some trouble when he “declared independence” from a petition championed by hundreds of his colleagues. Here is a taste of Joshua Katz‘s piece at The Wall Street Journal: Now is the time to...
What is cancel culture?
If you’re like me, you are still trying to figure out this whole “cancel culture” thing. Ross Douthat’s recent column is helpful. Here are his ten points: “Cancellation, properly understood, refers to an attack on someone’s employment and reputation by...
Thinking historically about Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech
A lot of conservatives liked Trump’s speech on Friday night. I am told that The Wall Street Journal gave it a positive review. I commented on the speech here, but I thought I would say a few more things about Trump’s...