Politics and the English Language’s Failures
The words we speak influence how we see the world both figuratively and literally, psycholinguists tell us. Certain words even trigger involuntary eye movements.
Dispatches
In Case These Are the Endtimes
The endtimes is just one more stage in deep time.The phrase is all over the place these days, and it is well chosen. Deep time is mysterious; it implies the sort of reflection one does in a hammock on a lazy Sunday.
Reaching the Climax at CPAC
A superfan at CPAC Texas 2022 waits for the speech by Donald Trump. Photo by John Griswold Protestant services this morning at the Hilton Anatole marked the end of CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference ) Texas 2022, which was held in Dallas. The conference itself appeared to…
Why We Love to Kill Wolves
Wolf hunters rationalize the bloodlust as pragmatic, saying they are protecting their livestock or avenging their slaughter. The facts seldom bear this out. Instead, the electric thrill of the hunt comes from the archetype of the wolf as sworn enemy, sinister and sometimes supernatural.
CPAC and Technology
Metaverse, conservatives, CPAC, paranoia, technology, wireless, Trump, cult
CPAC Day 1
CPAC, Dallas, Sean Hannity, Viktor Orban, conservative, conference, Donald Trump
Loyalty Tests
You cannot use biased humans to design a bias-free system. You cannot feed vast databases filled with biased or distorted information into a computer program and expect a clean and pure result. And you cannot hand off the responsibility of judging human nature to a nonhuman entity. Why do we keep trying?
The Night Before CPAC
CPAC, McCloskey, Trump, GOP, Dallas, elections
The Common Reader at CPAC in Dallas
CPAC in Dallas, 2022, unites Donald Trump and a cast of MAGA characters for a big show in the year of both January 6 and the midterm elections.
Village Gossip, Daily Paper, Metaverse
Usually I need coffee, pastry, and an uninterrupted hour to properly read one of L.M. Sacasas’s essays in The Convivial Society, a newsletter about technology, culture, and morality. They are dense, brilliant, and provocative, and they refuse to be skimmed. But recently Sacasas…