Now that we correctly understand Hsieh-Moretti’s results, let’s put them in context.
Tag: writing
Gender Inequality Isn’t the Problem With the Draft
While draft registration does involve unequal treatment of men and women, the larger issue is Selective Service registration itself.
Moral Relativism and Moral Fanaticism
What exactly is moral fanaticism? Like moral relativism, moral fanaticism is a meta-ethical theory – a theory about moral facts and moral reasoning. Moral relativism says, roughly, that there are no moral facts, and moral “reasoning” is just thinly-veiled emoting. Moral fanaticism, in contrast, affirms that there are moral facts, but pretends that thinly-veiled emoting is ironclad moral reasoning.
How Three Women Sought to Sway Americans Away From Socialism
In 1943, as collectivist policies were ascendant, an extraordinary thing happened. Three women published three books that year that would jolt Americans from their socialist stupor and remind them of the fundamental American values of individual liberty, limited government, free-market capitalism, and entrepreneurship. This Women’s History Month is an ideal time to reflect on how Rose Wilder Lane, Isabel Paterson, and Ayn Rand helped to catalyze the 20th century libertarian movement.
You’ll Always Offend Someone
The Righteous and Holy Arbiters of What is Acceptable now seek to cancel Dr. Seuss. This may be my final last straw with “cancel culture.”
Blockchains and Bitcoins
Record-Keeping Technology People have been making records as long as they have been writing. Money serves as a unit of account, which makes the consistent tracking of finances and business …
Orwell for Socialism
In a reflective moment, George Orwell wrote, “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.” Yet if you actually read his oeuvre, you’ll find a striking disparity: Orwell’s anti-totalitarian writing is massive, but his pro-socialist writing is wafer thin.
Woke Classrooms Show Why US Parents Should Be Free to Choose on Schools
Families that value liberalism over critical theory should be free to choose different educational options.
Bioethics: Tuskegee vs. COVID
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Bioethics is to ethics as astrology is to astronomy. If bioethicists had previously prevented a hundred Tuskegees from happening, COVID would still have turned the existence of their entire profession into a net negative for humanity. Verily, we would be better off if their field had never existed.
Relaxing with Chaos
There’s a big part of us that doesn’t like chaos: we want order and simplicity and feeling like we’re on top of things and doing things the “right” way.