Category: Culture
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By Selwyn Duke Someone close to me had a great friend who lived through the Stalinist times in Ukraine. She said that when she was a little girl, her father made the whole family go to bed every evening fully clothed, coat, shoes, and all. One night she found out why. Secret police came to…
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By Selwyn Duke “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.” So said George Washington during his Farewell Address on September 17, 1796. They’re powerful parting words, but also, today, controversial ones. They’re met now with protestations such as “Whose God?!” and “You can be moral without God!” Well,…
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By Selwyn Duke “Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians,” warned intellectual Thomas Sowell, “who must be civilized before it is too late.” And much we’ve seen for many years now raises a question: Is it already too late? With video-recording devices everywhere today, we get to witness…
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By Selwyn Duke Are we seeing a return to the days when “gay” meant happy? While I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that, a societal transition is afoot. Sexual devolutionary (“LGB”) identification, once all the rage among young people, is now diminishing. The group leading the decline is, too, the same group inordinately responsible…
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By Selwyn Duke What would you say upon hearing that 43 percent of a young demographic in America views Sharia law positively? Perhaps you’d complain about the rate of immigration exceeding the rate of assimilation. Now consider this: That 43 percent is young likely American voters in general — not just Muslim Americans. Now, perhaps…
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By Selwyn Duke It’s common, and tempting, to dismiss one’s political opponents as “stupid.” Liberals may call conservatives “mouth-breathers” or “MAGA-billies,” while conservatives may hurl pejoratives such as “libtards” or “Dumbocrats.” This can be emotionally pleasing and sometimes, perhaps, even rhetorically effective. But does conservatives’ “stupidity” narrative blind them to darker realities and deeper dangers?
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By Selwyn Duke It was 20 years ago now that three Duke University lacrosse players were indicted on rape and other charges after a stripper, Crystal Mangum, claimed she was attacked at a team party. It became a real media cause célèbre, with pseudo-elites everywhere condemning the male undergraduates. But the case blew up in…
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By Selwyn Duke “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” a woman asked Ben Franklin in 1787, at the Constitutional Convention’s close. “A republic, if you can keep it,” he sagely replied. This exchange has been quoted widely. So has a line written in 1798 by our second president, John Adams.…
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By Selwyn Duke About 10 years after I graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, I drove by the old place to see how it was doing. The kids were out for lunch, and a profound difference was apparent. Asian-descent (AD) pupils, well represented already when I attended, appeared to be at least 50…
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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…
