Group dynamics, the definition of politics, and why politics is so unpleasant — The new online party game my friends and students have been playing during lockdown is called Among Us. A social deception game in the mold of the classic Mafia (also called Werewolves), Among Us involves a spaceship’s “crew” which has been assigned a set of tasks along with one or…

Does a tendency to reflexively empathize with the feelings and failures of men explain the structure of society? — In 2017, Cornell philosopher Kate Manne’s book Down Girl, an academic treatise on misogyny, was published to great acclaim. Manne had become well-known for her non-academic writing analyzing sexism in the 2016 election, which she saw in the way Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was treated and talked about by everyone…

Review of Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay — Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay’s new book Cynical Theories proposes to outline the relationship between the “postmodernism” of the 1960s and what they’ve called elsewhere the “grievance studies” of contemporary academia. In so doing, it aims to explain the perspective of “woke” activism. The authors think such activism is based…

The public meaning of what “canceling” refers to may be more a fuzzy web than a precise definition. It’s still bad. — We’ve all been writing a lot about “cancellation” and “cancel culture” recently. But defenders of certain practices of public critique have suggested that it’s ill-defined. And not unjustifiably. When has someone been “canceled”? What’s the difference between “canceling” and simply criticizing or even just disagreeing forcefully? …

On open letters, open debate, and how the arguments against illiberalism could be even stronger — On July 7th, an open letter appeared in Harper’s signed by many of my friends (including some Arc contributors and my college professors Roger Berkowitz and Ian Buruma). The open letter is about the increasing danger to social and professional prospects that one faces when one engages in public debate…

On “White Fragility” and the psychology behind the critical reception to anti-racist reading lists — All over the country, people are putting together “reading lists” and “study guides” about race in America. On every list, and at #1 on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list, is the book White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo. DiAngelo is white and writes, as I understand it, about white…

Oh my — Public health experts, on their own as well as through our media and our government, asked a lot from Americans during the coronavirus pandemic this spring. …