"Until we make negotiation our default way of handling conflicts on campuses, debates are likely to remain static, with both parties attempting to gain ground through a shouting match of name-calling and demonization"

"From an evolutionary perspective the current domestic political crisis can thus be understood as an aftershock of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Conflict between the two major political parties was once set aside at the nation’s border because internal conflicts were less important than maintaining unity in the face of such a powerful enemy. The fall of the Soviet Union marked the end of the only existential threat to the United States, with the consequence that internal conflicts are no longer held in check. Today’s Russia is simply not enough of a threat to bring Americans together, and Americans increasingly see their greatest obstacles not in the actions of other countries, but in the competing goals of their domestic opponents."

"While social media driven superficiality is increasing, our education systems are becoming more degraded at the same time. In both the US and UK, universities have wound back the focus on factual knowledge, scientific inquiry, civics, history and ancient philosophy, and have started focusing on feelings, sociology, gender studies, post-colonial studies and other postmodern gibberish. This has naturally left a knowledge vacuum which has inevitably been filled by the superficial sound bytes gleaned from Facebook and Google."

"As a society, we’ve failed to confront a reality that has emerged time and again from psychological research. Two traits — general intelligence and self-control" — are perhaps our best individual level predictors of living a successful life"

"The biggest underlying problem with propaganda is not who is using it, but the extent to which it’s used to the diminishment or exclusion of reason, science, fact and truth. That is to say, if our camp wins by using propaganda, it will be no victory at all, because it means the people are gullible, and are vulnerable to the next skilled propagandist, who may well come from the other side. Only a people educated about the process of propaganda and adamant about not letting it override the processes of science will be truly civilized, liberated, and safe."

"If one is to enter the “marketplace of ideas”, then, one cannot be naive enough to think arguments sell themselves. One must make them appealing. One must use rhetoric: humour, irony, satire, flattery, bombast, eloquence, emotion and, yes, in the 21st Century, even memes."

"I fully sympathize with those who are outraged over Trump’s win, but I wonder if, in Arel’s case, a sense of culpability for this national disaster doesn’t fuel the petulant ire on display in his blog entry. A larger point transpires, though, about members of the regressive left: they stand in need of a patient reeducation in the value of free speech and other ideals of the Enlightenment. A unified progressive opposition to Trump can come about only via a return to true progressive principles. Unfettered free speech and criticism are the tools we need to achieve this."

"The rage against Milo bears the hallmark of impotence that comes from the loss of a narrative. The entire narrative of the Western left is one of structural, systemic exploitation by the forces of patriarchy, economics, and social-conservatism. Milo, regardless of how odious and abhorrent some of his views may be, is a living antithesis to this narrative."

"Those who urge educated and compassionate citizens in developed countries to have fewer children are missing their target. If their call were heeded, people around the world would be considerably worse off."

"[I]f we are passive in our moral outrage, only reacting to what happens to catch our attention, or our moral outrage only extends so far as our partisan politics, and we react to only what is allowed to pierce our partisan bubbles, or if our moral outrage is wielded disproportionately (e.g. reacting with the same fervor to a humanitarian crisis as to some Oscars controversy), we run the risk of both moral arrogance and sacrificing our moral credibility."

Carrie Pritt's recent article for Quillette now in the Wall Street Journal's Notable & Quotable.

"I’m bringing that year out of the darkness and into the light because it’s time for the conversation around women’s rights and responsibilities to change. It’s especially time for those of us who can claim elder feminist statesmanship to ask tough questions of younger women who are dragging bewildered men into court, all in the name of micro-regulating the sex lives of their generation."

A philosopher addresses the impasse reached in Sam Harris's recent podcast with Jordan B. Peterson.

In Carrie Pritt's recent article for Quillette, she exposed some of the unintended consequences of diversity training at American Ivy League universities. The Daily Wire covers her piece here.

Esquire covers our interview with Debra W. Soh, sex neuroscientist.