First Derivative [41]
free speech — psychohistory — racism — cake speech — India stack — Russia investigation — classics — Vegas shooting — psychology
The Two Clashing Meanings of ‘Free Speech’ by Teresa M. Bejan (The Atlantic): “Understanding that there is not one, but two concepts of freedom of speech, and that these are often in tension if not outright conflict, helps explain the frustrating shape of contemporary debates, both in the U.S. and in Europe”
Prolegomena to Any Dark-Age Psychohistory by Venkatesh Rao (Ribbonfarm): “If human history can be construed as the record of actions of a coherent collective agency… the act of anticipating and steering our future becomes… more tractable. We can simply ask ourselves: Where are we going? Can I make a different suggestion?”
When Racism is Disguised as Anti-Racism by Any Ngo (Quillette): “Since continuing my education, I’ve come to quickly learn that on campuses today, racism no longer means what I understood it to be all my life”
The Christian Baker’s Unanswered Legal Argument: Why the Strongest Objections Fail by Sherif Girgis (Public Discourse): h/t I.I. I thought this was a very comprehensive and persuasive argument, although the piece I think, leaves the difficult answer to the strongest objection unsaid. — TK
Why America could miss out big time on India’s fintech revolution by Pranav Deshpande (TechCrunch): Great focus on the opportunities presented by India Stack, maybe the most important story this year relative to how much coverage it got. — TK
Michael Flynn’s Guilty Plea Sends Donald Trump’s Lawyers Scrambling by Jeffrey Toobin (The New Yorker): Lawfare piece below has a good analysis while this article does a great job of summarizing the scope and history of the affair. — TK
Flynn’s Plea and the Significance of the Lying in the Russia Investigation by Bob Bauer (Lawfare): A very level-headed, measured analysis. The right question is, given all these lies, what is the likely explanation? Not, assuming he is guilty of bribery/conspiracy, do the lies make sense?— TK
Crisis in the Classics by Michael R. Jackson Bonner (The Dorchester Review): “No such racial distinction would have been comprehensible to ancient inhabitants of Italy and the other Mediterranean peoples who surrounded them.. to reimagine the classical world as a prefiguration of modern multiculturalism is a total misunderstanding”
WALSH: 58 People Were Killed In Las Vegas, We Still Don’t Know Why Or How, And Nobody Cares by Matt Walsh (Daily Wire): “ It is now two months later and we know as much today as we knew six hours after the shooting. But nobody is talking about it anymore. It’s as if it never happened.”
Psychology’s Favorite Tool for Measuring Racism Isn’t Up to the Job by Jesse Singal (The Cut): “The IAT, it turns out, has serious issues on both the reliability and validity fronts, which is surprising given its popularity and the very exciting claims that have been made about its potential to address racism.”
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