ArcaMax

In "1984," one of George Orwell's characters explains that "doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." There's a less elegant, yet equally absurd, way to describe the behavior of a politician who expresses two contradictory beliefs at once. People do what they want,...Read more

People who support Israel, no matter what it does, tend to hang their hats on a series of familiar arguments. Israel, they say, is the only place Jews can live in security. Critics of Israel want to eliminate Israel. The abolition of Israel would render Israeli Jews homeless (ethnic cleansing), or they would be killed (genocide). Therefore, ...Read more

Democrats constantly accuse Donald Trump of constantly lying. Journalistic factcheckers, who work for Democratic-aligned media companies, back their claims with statistics. But it's the Democratic Party that's facing historically low approval ratings. In poll after poll about one issue after another, voters say they trust Republicans more.

A ...Read more

"Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, pulls from 200 interviews in order to expose Democrats' coverup of Joe Biden's cognitive and physical decline from his son Beau's death in 2015 through his presidency and into his misbegotten 2024 reelection campaign...Read more

"What did the president know, and when did he know it?" That was the iconic question posed by Howard Baker, the ranking Republican on the Senate Watergate Committee, during televised hearings in 1973, to former White House Counsel John Dean about Nixon's knowledge of and involvement in the break-in at Democratic HQ and the subsequent coverup. ...Read more

Antisemitism as we know it has resulted from a complex witch's brew of historical stereotypes, economic resentments, ignorance and political extremism. Antisemites believe that Jewish people "have too much power," "have too much control and influence," and "are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want."

A central, ...Read more

The philosopher Nigel Warburton shrugged: "Users of slippery slope arguments should take skiing lessons -- you really can choose to stop." But slippery slopes are a thing precisely because people often choose to keep cruising along until they smash into Sonny Bono's tree.

Critics from both parties describe Donald Trump's behavior and policies...Read more

My mom had an uncanny ability to size up current events and accurately predict their long-term effects. Fifty years ago, I sat in my mom's colonial dining room and watched the fall of Saigon on her black-and-white TV with two folds of aluminum foil dangling from the rabbit ears. America was not riding high. A year earlier, gas rationing went ...Read more

Wars end. Bombs remain. In December 2020, the crew of an English fishing boat was pulling in a string of crab pots 22 miles northeast of Cromer, a town in Norfolk, England, when they noticed a tug on the main line. An explosion blew the Galwad-Y-Mor into the air, injuring five crew members, one of whom lost an eye. The cause was a bomb dropped...Read more

People worry about generative artificial intelligence.

Some are afraid it will put them out of work. Others think AI could become too autonomous, like the drones programmed to select their own targets. It will almost certainly accelerate the spread and power of government surveillance. Deepfakes are already being used in efforts to impact ...Read more

France's shocking surrender to Nazi Germany in June 1940 left citizens stunned and unsure how to resist the German occupation and Vichy's collaborationist regime. Distrust was everywhere -- few knew whom to confide in without risking betrayal. Prewar political parties, blamed for the defeat, lay discredited; the French Communist Party, later a ...Read more

Is anti-Zionism antisemitism? Before Hamas attacked Israel, American voters had not arrived at a consensus. They hadn't thought much about it. Asked whether the two terms were synonymous, 62% of respondents to a Brookings Institution poll taken seven months earlier said they didn't know. Fifteen percent replied yes, and 21% said no.

For the ...Read more

American popular culture, ever promoting the myth that we live in the land of the free and the brave, wants us to believe that we stand up to bullying. Even if bravery is in short supply at times, like during McCarthyism, someone like attorney Joseph Welch ultimately comes to the rescue. Breaking the spell, the First Amendment hero stands strong...Read more