This morning I was thinking back to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; back then, in the winter of 2020 and through March 2020, various right-wing personalities and influencers, particularly the “smart right”, the “mainstream conservatives”, and the like, were equivocating about lockdowns and restrictions … Continue readingFolkways From Our Past Return
The results of the 2020 United States Presidential election are well known by this point, and much analysis has been offered, including by myself on Twitter. For the first time on this blog I would like to offer some of the thoughts I’ve expressed in … Continue readingChecking in on American Politics: 2020 Edition
In recent years a perennial controversy has returned to the fore: namely, the issue of the state’s power to order the society it governs, of statecraft as soulcraft. “Liberalism” is usually the center of attention in such debates, but it’s recently struck me that the … Continue readingPost-Liberalism: An Echo, Not a Choice
Does conservatism have a future? It might seem a curious question to ask. After all, a political platform of fiscal restraint coupled with resisting social change, recognizably “conservative” to us, is applicable to so many times and places as to be veritably eternal. Yet many, … Continue readingThe Twilight of Conservatism
The past week saw the highest-profile online “deplatforming” yet: Twitter banning Donald Trump, with follow-up actions by other major online services. What does this mean? What are the implications for the future? What should be the response, if any, from those of us who are … Continue readingThe Rise of Deplatforming and the Decentralized Web
2020 will undoubtedly go down in history as the year “lockdown” was introduced into most people’s vocabularies, the year in which mass imprisonment by decree, without charge, trial, conviction, or even any evidence whatsoever of being sick, was introduced by ruling classes the world over … Continue readingLockdown, the Culture of Fear, and the Politics of the Future