Areo
Free Expression. Humanism. Culture. Politics. Human Rights. Science. [email protected] Published, Edited by . Founded by .
Last synced from Twitter 936d ago
Dave Chappelle and Comedy
Areo 13h 2 tweets
While accepting the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the legendary Dave Chappelle recently made a firm defence of freedom of speech and the right to offend against what is often cal…
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Areo "The controversy over Chappelle is another episode in the battle within comedy, part of the wider culture war, which has been raging for the past few years over what the limits of comedy are and what subjects comedians should joke about" - 13h
The Rise of the Post-Religious Right
Areo 29h 1 tweets
The story of contemporary American history is intricately tied to the rapid secularization of a society that traditionally understood itself in explicitly Biblical terms. Once a devoutly Christian …
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Areo "The Trump phenomenon is a clear indicator that the American Right has not been immune to the broader national trend of secularization" - 29h
Culture, Politics and Shia LaBeouf
Areo 55h 1 tweets
In the upcoming biopic Honey Boy, about the life of child actor turned cultural phenomenon Shia LaBeouf, the line between reality and performance is blurred, as LaBeouf plays the role of his own fa…
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Areo "Amidst the histrionics and absurdity, there is clearly a depth and intelligence that attracts people to Shia and keeps them coming back, despite his repeated blunders" - 55h
Towards a Radical Hope: A Review of “Unfollow” by Megan Phelps-Roper
Areo 3d 2 tweets
Reading Megan Phelps-Roper’s account of living in and leaving the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, I kept thinking about Kurt Wise. Wise is a young-earth creationist, but he’s no fool. He st…
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Areo "The greatest lesson of Unfollow is that good faith engagement and disagreement, even with the most hateful ideas, can change things—and is far better than abuse and violence." Our own reviews Unfollow by 3d
When You Should Feed The Trolls
Areo 6d 1 tweets
Not that long ago, mainstream journalists scarcely ventured into the Internet’s darker corners, whether illicit or merely obscure. When social media finally collided with offline politics, not ever…
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Areo "If our concept of trolling extends to those spouting political views we don’t like, there is a clear risk of blocking dissent, disagreement and criticism, even when it is useful" - 6d
Why We Should Reject Diversity and Equity As Values
Areo 8d 3 tweets
The concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion have gained in popularity in recent years among the political left, including university administrations and corporate HR departments. To those who b…
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Areo "While inclusion is a good thing, valuing diversity and equity with regard to immutable characteristics is unethical" argues Kevin Butterhof 8d
Calm the F*** Down About Brexit
Areo 10d 3 tweets
Dear Fellow Brits, You are upset. I get that. I am hardly sanguine myself. Leaving the European Union is a massive undertaking that cannot help but have profound consequences for our country, our p…
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Areo "Please, Brits, calm down about Brexit. Calming down isn’t only a virtuous stance, but a practical one. We need to get through this..." - 10d
Realism, Righteousness, and the Need to Resist
Areo 12d 3 tweets
It isn’t easy being human. As neither beasts nor gods, we must figure out for ourselves how to live. Socrates describes this challenge, seemingly unique to us—in what must rank among the great unde…
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Areo "It isn’t easy being human. As neither beasts nor gods, we must figure out for ourselves how to live" - 12d
“Liberalism: The Life of An Idea.” Book Review
Areo 14d 1 tweets
Thirty years ago, few people could have predicted that liberalism would be in crisis a few decades later. Populist post-modern conservatives on the political right and democratic socialists on the …
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Areo "Fawcett’s presentation of liberalism is consistently appealing—which raises the serious question of why liberalism appears to be faltering." - 14d
The Dangers of Network-Based Education
Areo 15d 1 tweets
Over the past several years, universities have witnessed the expansion of extreme ideological movements, which have influenced policy and procedures, thereby exposing the points within academia tha…
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Areo "When the evolution of knowledge relies solely on internal, social validation, without ever being tested by external forces, not only is the knowledge vulnerable to ideological corruption, but one might ask: is it even knowledge?" - Nick Skildum 15d
The Humane Art: Why We Should All Read and Write Letters
Areo 22d 8 tweets
Scarcely any species of composition deserves more to be cultivated than the epistolary style—Samuel Johnson, 1751 Such [letters] as are written from wise men are of all the words of men the best —F…
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Areo Our own and 's waxes passionate and eloquent about why we should all be writing letters! 22d
An Argument Worth Having: “Outgrowing God” by Richard Dawkins
Areo 24d 2 tweets
The Battle for Truth and Reason “Oh, for goodness’ sake,” you might cry, “Richard Dawkins is banging on about God again! Hasn’t he already been there and done that? Why does he ke…
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Areo "Dawkins is specifically talking about the religious nonsense instilled into children by the faithful, but his point has broader relevance in an era that pundits have labelled post-truth" - Daniel Sharp () 24d
Mother Nature Is Not Maternal
Areo 28d 3 tweets
Breastfeeding is natural, therefore, it is better than bottle-feeding. A snack food with natural flavors is healthier than a snack food with artificial flavors. Non-genetically modified vegetables …
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Areo "The specious reasoning of the naturalistic fallacy—the idea that if something is natural, it must be good—remains prevalent, even though scientific understanding and literacy are more widespread than ever before" - Callen Inman () 28d
What Social Justice Gets Right
Areo 37d 11 tweets
Social Justice ideas and the postmodern thought that underlies them are extremely difficult to critique in a balanced way. This is largely caused by black-and-white thinking: many people wrongly be…
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Areo "Given the choice of believing that culture strongly influences what a society accepts as true and believing that it has no impact, rational people who value evidence and reason must conclude that it does" by 37d
Why Antitrust Laws Reduce Competitiveness
Areo 37d 2 tweets
It takes more entrepreneurs than lawyers to create and preserve competition and tech giants are in the eye of a hurricane. According to the Wall Street Journal, both the Federal Trade Commission an…
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Areo "Antitrust suits make a lot of noise, but what guarantees more intense competition is entrepreneurship acting within a market framework free from well intentioned interventions" - 37d
Why the Joker Has Provoked a Backlash
Areo 39d 8 tweets
On 4 October, an event transpired that, in some circles at least, seemed to provoke as much anxiety as the impending eruption of a volcano: a movie was released. The Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix…
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Areo "I suspect that all the pearl-clutching over imitative violence is a smokescreen for the real objection: the movie’s moral ambiguity and its subtle hints that society, on both left & right, is making things worse for people in pain" [email protected] 39d
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Areo Our most-read article of October was "Why the Joker has Provoked a Backlash" by 13d
Anti-Natalism: Moral Courage or Confusion?
Areo 40d 1 tweets
I think the honorable thing for our species to do is deny our programming, stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction, one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.—Rus…
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Areo "Over the course of a lifetime, many things can go right, but they also can—and surely will—go very wrong. Bearing this in mind, we must ask ourselves: When is it right to have children?" asks Tristan Flock () 40d
The Future of Democracy in the AI Era
Areo 42d 1 tweets
The dark forces of global politics—illiberalism, populist nationalism, protectionism—have again reasserted themselves and threaten to subvert liberal democracy and the rules-based world order. Even…
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Areo "[W]ith the advent of the digital revolution, unprecedented challenges are appearing that are disrupting some of the foundational ideas of democracy" argues 42d
Mandatory National Service Won’t Restore American Unity
Areo 42d 1 tweets
The kids are alright.
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Areo "Implementing a mandatory national service program would be deeply misguided... It’s both a misdiagnosis of a problem and a grave injustice of a solution—a cruel and unusual punishment of the sons for the sins of the fathers" argues 42d
Bad Psychology: Why Climate Change Won’t Be Solved by Better Decisions at the Supermarket
Areo 43d 3 tweets
Did you know that if we all recycled one plastic bag, we could use those materials to make 28,906 park benches? Did you also know that if we’re ever going to solve the climate crisis, we need to st…
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Areo "Did you know that if we all recycled one plastic bag, we could use those materials to make 28,906 park benches? Did you also know that if we’re ever going to solve the climate crisis, we need to stop thinking like this?" - 43d