by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ I was almost eight years old when the American Bicentennial Hit, and I remember it well. It was all over children’s television and especially, Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and Schoolhouse Rock. The latter devoted an entire season to American history and government for the bicentennial, with the “I’m Just... Continue Reading →
by Robert Gressis ____ In this dialogue, Hugo Mercier (French National Center for Scientific Research, Not Born Yesterday) and I discuss how human belief and manipulation work, and Hugo's research about why people aren't as manipulable as we sometimes think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NcMWlU6jzA&list=PLFBaXJ7yNOYERObvjSkJfoDOgtMWVhWse&index=2&ab_channel=ElectricAgora 01:24 Hugo’s thesis: When it comes to communication, people are not easily manipulated, but... Continue Reading →
by E. John Winner ___ Let's begin with a prediction (likely, but not the only option so, given the unpredictably of the Reality TV President in the White House as I write): On January 20, 2021, two inaugurations for the Presidency will take place. One will happen in Washington, the legally determined official inauguration of... Continue Reading →
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ 2020 will be remembered in the US for three things: the Covid-19 pandemic; racial unrest, rioting, looting, and vandalism across a number of American cities; and the defeat of Donald Trump by Joe Biden in the US presidential race. Beyond their qualities as spectacle, notable enough in their own right,... Continue Reading →
Kevin Currie-Knight and I debate the issues raised in his recent essay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwHPHxqrrrk&ab_channel=MeaningofLife.tv
by Kevin Currie-Knight I became eligible to vote when I turned 18, in 1995. I first cast a vote for President in 1996 (I can say with some shame that I voted for Ross Perot, a misguided protest vote). I’ve voted in every Presidential -- and most other -- election(s) ever since…. except this one.... Continue Reading →
by E. John Winner ___ The presidency of Donald Trump has revealed two truths, not merely inconvenient but tragic. These truths are only hinted at by pundits on the contemporary political scene, for they violate long inculcated beliefs and assumed norms that allow us to communicate and share living space – however uncomfortably – with... Continue Reading →
by Robert Gressis ___ I suspect that there’s a displaced desire for conflict animating a lot of political junkies: we can’t very well go and raid another tribe anymore, so we settle for destroying them in discourse. This is a rather preferable arrangement: both sides can leave a political debate telling themselves they have destroyed... Continue Reading →
by Mark English In the lead-up to the last presidential election, I saw Hillary Clinton as a more dangerous prospect than Donald Trump. As Marc Faber put it so succinctly (if hyperbolically) at the time: Trump would destroy America but Clinton would destroy the world. The logic went as follows. Hillary Clinton took, as her... Continue Reading →
by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ To his credit, Joe Biden has been running a brilliant campaign…by not running one. Other than for a brief moment at the Democratic National Convention, one rarely ever sees or hears from the man, which is ideal for two reasons: first, Biden can barely put together a coherent sentence and... Continue Reading →
