By Selwyn Duke
Much of what governs how people vote isn’t reality, but perception of it. Just consider the economy. We’re supposedly experiencing an “affordability crisis.” It is true, too, that Iran-conflict disruptions have raised oil prices. Yet there’s also much good economic news — though you wouldn’t know it listening to the legacy media.
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By Selwyn Duke
A story in the news some days ago held that Noah’s ark’s resting place had been “100% confirmed.” This wasn’t actually true. What is, however, is that science is proving something else: “New Atheism’s” ship has sailed — and maybe even sunk.
Almost a generation ago now, in 2006, biologist Richard Dawkins boosted the New Atheism with his book The God Delusion. This was followed the next year by late “anti-theist” Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great. Sam Harris, Lawrence Krauss, and Daniel Dennett were part of this fad, too. Now, though, their arguments are starting to seem a little stale.
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By Selwyn Duke
Would you pay for your child to be “educated” with “Is the Rectum a Grave?” or “Sex in Public”? How about “Trans, Feminism: Or, Reading Like a Depressed Transsexual,” “Homonationalism in Queer Times,” or “AfroQueer Art Worlds”?
No, this isn’t satire. The above are actual readings/courses in the University of Texas’ Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Yet they’re also now about to be something else: de-emphasized.
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By Selwyn Duke
Here’s a point to ponder: Why would the Indonesian government want to censor speech about the Great Replacement of Western peoples via suicidal (im)migration policies?
Because it apparently does, and I should know — the Jakarta regime just targeted my content.
I log on to my computer Monday morning and, as usual, check my email. Lo and behold, there’s a message from X’s legal department (twitter-legal@x.com). They’re notifying me that they’d received a complaint that some of my content violated “the law(s) of Indonesia.” They state that the complaint was filed by Kementerian Komunikasi dan Digital RI.
So I look that up and learn it’s Indonesia’s national Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs — “RI” means Republik Indonesia. I then say to myself, “OK, what did I post about Indonesia or its officials?” Some countries do, after all, have laws against criticizing their leaders.
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By Selwyn Duke
Well, “You can’t choose your family,” they say. This comes to mind with the plight of young Najya, daughter of Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the pseudo-historical “1619 Project.” Mother Hannah-Jones, you see, sacrificed Najya on the altar of her own activism.
That is, despite having resources, Hannah-Jones said that she and her husband, Faraji Hannah-Jones, purposely sent their daughter to a ghettoized public school, P.S. 307 in Brooklyn. She explained herself in a 2016 New York Times Magazine article. She told her husband she wanted Najya in “a segregated, low-income school,” she stated. She then elaborated:
If we removed Najya … from the experience of most black and Latino children, we would be part of the problem.
Oh, meanwhile, the Hannah-Joneses also decided to enjoy life in a $1.5-million-plus home in gentrifying Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. One could wonder why they didn’t share “the experience of most black and Latino” city dwellers and live in the hood.
This is all in the news again, however, because Hannah-Jones just wrote a follow-up article in the Times Magazine. “In Fighting for Every Black Child,” she asked in her title Sunday, “Did I Betray My Own?” Yet more fundamental questions may be:
“Was I actually fighting for every black child?”
“Or was it all just vanity and ego?”
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By Selwyn Duke
If a child “vegs” in front of a TV five hours a day, we’ll consider it problematic. But what about when that child is on other screens — i.e., electronic devices — five hours daily? Is that any less troubling? And what’s the ultimate result?
Are smartphones yielding stupid kids?
A childcare professional gleaned some insight into this recently after babysitting a couple of “no-screens” toddlers. These tykes have never watched a movie, used an iPad, or viewed pictures on a phone. Their parents don’t even own a TV. And, well, the babysitter’s experience wasn’t just eye-opening. It also aligns with the findings of a growing body of research. To wit:
Excessive screen time impairs children’s cognitive development and can cause emotional and behavioral difficulties.
In fact, some experts have called the high-tech devices “digital heroin.”
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By Selwyn Duke
“Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals,” wrote philosopher G.K. Chesterton in 1910. “They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back.” Really, though, what gives worthwhile “old ideals” their value is not that they’re old — it’s that they’re eternal.
So many in our time exhibit chronological chauvinism, the idea that something new is better simply because it is new. Of course, Covid-19 was new in 2019, and the Black Plague was new in 1347 Europe. In fact, it’s hard to think of anything new we can’t live without. Yet necessary for both life and health, physical and spiritual, are many ancient things, such as water, food, shelter, Truth, and love.
This could come to mind with a movement back toward the eternal in American education. That is, rejecting modern schooling, with its bells, whistles, and wokeness, many parents are embracing “classical education.”
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In the legendary 1957 film 12 Angry Men, one holdout juror initially prevents a conviction in a murder trial. “Juror 8” (played by Henry Fonda) says he’s just not yet convinced of the defendant’s guilt. Through persuasion, reasoned analysis, and a little shaming, he leads an effort that eventually results in a not-guilty verdict. He’s a quiet hero.
This comes to mind with the Lindsay Clancy trial, even though the latter is not quite the same. In it, there also was one holdout juror, now identified as Michael P. Desronvil, 48, of Bridgewater, Massachusetts. There likely was prejudice influencing the proceedings, too. There additionally was an 11-1 split — though favoring “not criminally responsible” and at the trial’s end, not beginning. Most significantly, while Desronvil may qualify, we don’t know with certainty if there’s any hero in the Clancy story. We do know this, though:
There certainly are villains.
We needn’t know precisely what happened during jury deliberations to say this, either.
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By Selwyn Duke
Feminist sports icon Billie Jean King is at it again, oblivious to economics and banging on about “equal pay” for female tennis players. It apparently never occurs to her that there’s one way to get the men’s money.
The same way the men do: Compete on the men’s tour and succeed.
Oh, that’s too much to ask? The women couldn’t cut it there?
Well, look at that: You just learned, Billie, why they’re not making the men’s money.
I know how the gals feel, too. A long-retired tennis pro, I also couldn’t cut it on the men’s tour (and in my day there was no such thing as donning a dress and identifying as Billie Jean Duke to cash in). So I didn’t get their money, either.
See how that works?
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By Selwyn Duke
“Inurement” is one of those lesser-known but interesting words. It references the process of accustoming people to a thing, generally something unpleasant. And what’s scary for many to contemplate — freedom lovers particularly — is that man can become inured to most anything. This includes tyranny.
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