Joe Biden’s racialist comment on black voters just before George Floyd took centre stage may have escaped the attention it deserved, but the attitude of the Democrats and the liberal left towards the black community has come under renewed focus. An email sent by a black member of the faculty at the University of California, […]
China seems to be on the march at the moment. It is tightening its grip on Hong Kong, conducting large scale exercises and manoeuvers near Taiwan as a warning, and in its standoff with India has killed a score of Indian soldiers. It is certainly taking its chances as the West, particularly the USA, tears itself apart. China also seems to […]
The newest nation on earth – and the left-wing hope of a new progressive way of peace, justice and racial harmony – lasted about 4 seconds before its liberating founders rejected most of the core tenets of anti-Trumpism. First thing on the agenda for this new nation was a wall (re-termed light fencing by friendly […]
The British newspaper, the Guardian, is possibly the most tediously woke media organ on the planet. It never found a progressive cause it didn’t like and constantly lectures us ordinary folk on our many failings including our “privilege” and our need for shame and for re-education. The past week, the paper has been unusually quiet on revelations that […]
With the cancel culture in full throttle, attention turned in recent days (again) to comedians as they were hauled over the coals for historical misdemeanours. Little Britain was one of the first to feel the impact, being pulled from Netflix, BBC iPlayer and BritBox. The Fawlty Towers episode The Germans has been pulled from UKTV […]
In Milan Kundera’s 1965 novel The Joke, the central figure is Ludvig Jahn who was consigned to a Czech work brigade for sending a postcard to a class mate containing the line “Optimism is the opium of the people,” and concluding with “Long live Trotsky!” Manchester band The Fall referenced the book on their 1995 album […]
A leading disabilities group in Britain has revealed a shocking rise in GPs and hospital staff issuing ‘do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation’ (DNACPR) forms for people with disabilities during the Covid-19 crisis – without consulting patients or their families. Their investigation shows that patients who had disabilities had ‘do not resuscitate’ forms issued for ‘blindness’ and even […]
What is it that makes a seat at the United Nations Security Council something countries spend hundreds of thousands if not millions of their taxpayer’s monies to secure? Is there not something deeply immoral about any process which involves staging shows with Rock Stars for the diplomats to try to convince them to vote for […]
Given the woke left and Black Life Matters movement’s obsession with the architectural vestiges of the vile slave trade that was abolished in the 1800s in the west, you would imagine that they might be exercised by the existence of modern slavery. It would appear not. Much easier to draw up lists of statues and […]
I have written elsewhere about how the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in dangerous and unethical responses like ventilator rationing, unilateral DNRs, and some states ordering nursing homes and other long-term care facilities to accept coronavirus patients discharged from hospitals. But the Covid-19 crisis has also spawned new ideas such as the American Clinicians Academy On Medical Aid in Dying’s policy […]
Like many others, I’ve been thinking about the recent race-related protests and riots. I definitely don’t have all the answers. Nevertheless, here are a few of my philosophical reflections, which I hope will be helpful. 1. I think a distinction should be made between (1) black lives matter (the claim) and (2) Black Lives Matter (the […]
The past two weeks have been been one astonishing exhibit of post-modernist tropes after another Somebody ought to frame the last two weeks of American life and exhibit them on a wall in the Museum of Post-Modern Landmarks. Ever since the appalling death of George Floyd on May 25, it has been one astonishing post-modernist […]