“…It’s better to ask for the earth than to take it,” observes the mysterious Inspector Goole in J. B. Priestly’s An Inspector Calls. The rhetoric of…
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Diagnosing the “mental health” of political opponents is dangerous and a form of intellectual bullying. It is name calling under the guise of “research.” Across…
Comments closedImmigration debate? Stalled out on February 15. Infrastructure spending? Tax reform? No matter the issue, it seems reasonable compromise isn’t only impossible but also not…
Comments closedDemocracy in Chains by Historian Nancy MacLean was worthy of a few online posts earlier this summer, when I first read a loaned copy and was…
Comments closedFilm is capital intensive, in the economic sense. The making of a movie involves individual human capital, social capital, natural capital, manufactured capital, and financial…
Comments closedMemes simply purify our social circles; they are partisanship intensifiers. It is a shame, but this is how humans create their communities. The internet allows…
Comments closedMy colleagues in rhetoric study logical fallacies and reasoning. Yet, over the years many of them have dismissed the extreme hyperbole of fellow elites on…
Comments closedThe last decade has demonstrated the power of social media in mass revolutions, even if those revolutions fizzle or come to disastrous ends. The Arab…
Comments closedI remind students that reading and composing are acts that reflect our biases. There is a long essay in the New York Times supporting my…
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