Overcoming Our Anthropomorphic Fears About Artificial Intelligence — When asked about the possibility that human beings might one day be visited by an advanced alien civilization, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking once famously replied that “the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.” And though the search for…

White Supremacy and the Core of the Conservative Movement — Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them…. We should therefore claim…

Washington Plays Politics While the Republic Burns — Last Saturday, in a predominantly black neighborhood in East Buffalo, an eighteen-year-old white supremacist armed with an assault rifle walked into a crowded supermarket and savagely shot thirteen people, ten of whom died. …

(Why Ilhan Omar Was Right) — On Monday, June 7th, Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar tweeted “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.” Almost immediately, accusations of anti-Semitism and cries of false…

The Problem with Zero-Sum Politics — It’s a phenomenon long known to fisherman. When trapped in a barrel, rather than cooperating to escape, crabs expend their energy sabotaging their fellow captives, repeatedly pulling them down and thus ensuring the group’s eventual demise. So prevalent is the behavior that these prisoners require neither lock nor lid to…

Three Takeaways from Trump’s Most Recent Trial — Like so many liberals and constitutional conservatives, I was disappointed by the outcome of the former president’s recent impeachment trial. …

Trump’s All-Too-Familiar Defense Strategy — In a recent interview on Philadelphia’s KYW NewsRadio, newly hired Trump impeachment lawyer Bruce Castor previewed the following defense for his client’s upcoming Senate trial: “The president deplores the violence at the Capitol, and those people should be punished, aggressively, as I would have done as if I was the…

While much is currently being made of the shock and dismay voiced by QAnon conspiracy theorists in the wake of Wednesday’s peaceful transition of power, we, the American public, must be careful not to confuse temporary disappointment with long term disillusionment. The fact that the QAnon allegations (“that a cabal…

America’s Cult of Ignorance is Now a Death Cult — Forty years ago, Isaac Asimov wrote a column for Newsweek in which he complained that “there is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. …