By Selwyn Duke
“I was anxious. I felt guilty constantly. I couldn’t stop thinking about the whole white privilege thing.”
This is what Lucy Kross got for her money as a Stanford University student (yearly tuition, room, and board: $76,312). She would eventually realize she’d been deceived and, it could be said, intellectually abused — as would fellow undergraduate Kimi Katiti.
Katiti’s abuser was the Art Institute of California, where her indoctrination wasn’t quite like Kross’.
By Selwyn Duke
Back in 2005, while explaining why so few women occupied top science positions, economist Lawrence Summers suggested it could partially have to do with “issues of intrinsic aptitude.” It was one reason why he was forced from his Harvard presidency position the next year. And if this standard still holds today, a lot of little kids will have to be canceled, too. After all, by age six already, a large number of them embrace Summers’ theory.
That is, they believe boys are better at computer science and engineering.
That’s what a recent analysis of almost 100 studies found, anyway. And, of course, this is a major problem, the mainstream media warn. As they may put it, this means the kids “are internalizing gender stereotypes.” Yet there’s another reason children may think males are better at computing and engineering.
If that sounds like bias, well, there’s plenty to go around. Just consider that one of the studies analyzed found that by age eight, students believe girls possess greater verbal gifts. Other research has found that kids think academic success is “for girls.” But neither is what the media lead with (in fact, it’s hardly mentioned). It’s not something they say is a problem. It’s also not suggested that this could be the result of “internalizing gender stereotypes.” (And now we know why, increasingly, people are internalizing a certain mainstream-media stereotype. Hint: It’s the one that’s gradually putting them out of business.)
By Selwyn Duke
Philosopher C.S. Lewis once noted that it’s what slips from our mouths when we’re not thinking that reveals our hearts. This could come to mind with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s claim that those demanding an inquiry into child-abusing rape gangs are jumping “on a bandwagon of the far Right.”
Delivered at a Monday press conference, Starmer’s comments were in response to a firestorm of criticism ignited by entrepreneur Elon Musk. Musk had resurrected the rape-gang story via his X social-media platform mere days ago, as I reported this weekend.
The prime minister’s efforts at flipping the script appear to have backfired, however. That is, many critics say that implicit in his remarks is that child sex abuse is just a right-wing concern. History may inform that he’s not all wrong about that, either (more on this later). Also notable here is that this controversy is shaping up to be a classic Establishment/anti-Establishment conflict.
By Selwyn Duke
Most “mentally ill” people are on the political left, Harvard professor Arthur Brooks explained last year. In 2016, the American Journal of Political Science reported that liberal political beliefs are linked to psychoticism. A decade earlier, radio legend Dr. Michael Savage released his eyebrow-raising book Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder. But could it really be that there’s an association between ideological orientation and psychological disturbance?
Or does the impression that liberals are more “mentally ill” exist only because, well, they are?
By Selwyn Duke
It was a shocking revelation. U.K. authorities ignored a child-trafficking ring — and the beating, terrorizing, and sexual abuse of native British girls — for 16 years. It was for a very troubling reason, too:
The perpetrators were Muslim.
In fact, one whistleblower was actually warned, “You must never [again] refer to Asian [Muslim] men,” and your “awareness of ethnic issues” needs to be raised. Why, she was even forced into “diversity training.”
To H-1B or not to H-1B, that is the question. As is well known, and as is well loved by Democrats, there currently is an immigration battle among Republicans. Pitting the forces of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy against those of anti-immigrationist Laura Loomer and political strategist Steve Bannon, the dispute concerns H-1B visas, which are used to bring foreign high-tech workers into the U.S. The issue evokes deep passion, too, and for good reason. Musk himself came to America via an H-1B and declares that bringing new talent into the U.S. is necessary for our continued preeminence. His opponents counter that the program is actually used to replace American-born employees with foreigners who’ll work more cheaply. This is often true, too.
Also true, but rarely discussed despite being the most important issue, is that H-1B doesn’t just separate Americans from jobs. It also separates America from Americanism. That is, there’s a point that Musk, Ramaswamy, and most conservatives miss. (More on this later.)
By Selwyn Duke
It holds the distinction of being our most densely populated state. Now people may wonder, though, is New Jersey also our most dense state? The question is relevant with news that the Garden State has tacitly confessed that it’s no fertile garden of intellectualism. The issue? NJ is having trouble finding enough (qualified) teachers.
The “solution”?
Dumb down standards. To be precise, cease requiring teachers to pass basic reading, writing, and math for certification.
By Selwyn Duke
“This is the end of marriage, capitalism and God. Finally!” a 2016 Salon title jubilantly proclaimed. Religion has been in decline in the West, too. But “This Christmas Seems Different” (yes, it’s still Christmastime), says a writer — at The New York Times, no less. That writer, man of faith Ross Douthat, senses a religious revival, though one of an unusual flavor.
Douthat opens his recent article discussing a March trip his family took to Italy, during which they visited a community of Benedictine monks. Interestingly and apropos here, he mentions what I did in my last piece: How Italy, whose Roman Empire once spread Christianity throughout much of Europe, now doesn’t even abide by the biblical injunction “Be fruitful and multiply.” That its cratering fertility rate means Italians are disappearing could seem a sort of cosmic justice, too. After all, statistics show that the world’s religious people are its fecund ones; secularists extinguish their bloodlines via childlessness. So is the message, deviate from God and you disappear?
A religious resurgence being nigh certainly is counterintuitive for many Westerners. For they may take it as a given that modernity and its “science” obviate and refute religion. (“Follow the science” to faithlessness?) Moreover, while secularists aren’t big on having their own kids, they’re rather adept at converting other people’s to secularism. Yet there’s more to the story.
By Selwyn Duke
Dating back to the Middle Ages, the town of Semestene in Sardinia, Italy, has quite a history — one that could come to an end within a decade. With a population that has dwindled rapidly in recent years, 54 of its 126 residents are aged 65 or over. The town has just four children under 10 years old remaining. And its last birth, a 2023 report held, was eight years earlier.
Welcome to Ghost Town Italy.
Sound like exaggeration? Well, consider that the U.S. has approximately 3,800 ghost towns, with New Mexico having about 400 alone. Italy is about the size of that state.
And it has at least 6,000 ghost towns.
“At least,” that is, because that estimate was made in 2015 — and informed that another 15,000 localities were “on the brink.”
One could in fact wonder if this is the emptiest a European nation’s towns have been since the medieval black plague wiped out one-quarter to one-half of the continent’s population. The problem now is another plague, too.
The plague of low fertility.
Why worry about this? I mean, with pasta and pizza and the like having spread throughout the world, we needn’t worry about losing our favorite buonissima(!) Italian fare. What’s more, there are in excess of eight billion people on the planet. So shouldn’t we cheer this bambini bust? Perhaps not.
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