Recently, I finally watched Disney’s 1989 masterpiece “The Little Mermaid” and was so enthralled that I decided to research academic analyses of it in order to fathom its awesomeness more deeply. To my dismay, I soon came across sundry feminist critiques decrying it as sexist. Here, I examine one which was published soon after the film’s release, but for simplicity and entertainment value, I will adress (many of) its arguments as though I were talking directly to the author.

[…]Walt Disney’s 1989 film version of “The Little Mermaid” eliminates the values that affirm femininity in the original story. Disney’s changes…

Noam Chomsky Obfuscates the Leftist Domination of Academia

Noam Chomsky has claimed that Jordan Peterson’s diagnosis of academia as being dominated by the political left is false. It is actually the right, Professor Chomsky claims, which dominates universities.

The absurdity of Professor Chomsky’s assertion can be easily witnessed by anyone who cares to spend any even somewhat prolonged period of time reading recent publications in social-scientific journals.

One example which I have just experienced — and can still not quite bring myself to believe is real — is the paper “ ‘White Genocide’ and the Ethics of Public Policy Analysis”…

Dear Dr. Balfour,

I read with no small amount of concern your recent piece in Carnegie Europe titled “Against a European Civilization: Narratives About the European Union”. What follows is a rebuttal of much of it, with less important elements left out.

In your article, you take exception to the idea “that there is something specifically European that underpins the European Union” and to President Macron’s appeal to “rebuild . . . a collective narrative and a collective imagination”. In this context, you mention “the risk of European-ness becoming equated with whiteness”. To me, this suggests a misguided set of…

It has been eleven years, yet the public’s interest in the film “Coraline” does not seem to be flagging. A recent CinemaCins video may attest to the continued interest, and to the work’s masterliness, as even a channel dedicated to nitpicking films offers hardly any criticisms of this one, and still fewer valid ones. Accordingly, this post endeavours to present fresh insights into, and perspectives on, this singular property. Unless otherwise specified, I refer here to the film, not the novella.

After some engagement with the material, I was intrigued by a hinted connection of of Coraline to the magical…

There have lately been attempts by many commentators to deny the existence and value of Western civilisation. This post is an attempt to dissect and refute this tendency.

1) Who denies that Western civilisation exists and why?

Somehow, civilisation denialism seems to be largely a phenomenon of the political left. Objectivists are generally regarded as right-of-centre, but they are conspicuously anti-traditionalist, anti-religious, and anti-collectivist. Yet they recognise the importance of Western civilisation as the chief source of the values which they prize: individualism, private property, and, above all, rationalism¹. Thus, the disparaging stance towards Western civilisation comes almost exclusively from the Left. Why is this? …

German culture has long been stereotyped as inherently illiberal, as though there had been no long and significant tradition of liberal thinking in Germany. The stereotype is not only wrong, but pernicious, which is hy I shall attempt to challeng it. In times past, Germans were given the derogatory label “Huns”, the implication being that to be warlike and aggressive was in their blood (this still continues to some extent). Recently, the prejudice has been exemplified by the ingrate “artist” Ai Weiwei’s absurd (one is tempted to call it “counterfactual”) apparent opinion that Germany is now more intolerant than Britain.

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When people talk of the faults of Obama’s foreign policy, they mainly recall the drones he dispatched to Pakistan. I haven’t heard nearly as much discussion of his spineless manner of dealing with Russia, something I aim to rectify in this post. Obama failed to stand up to Russia in Eastern Europe and Syria.

I was reminded of the inadequacy of Mr. Obama’s work with Russia while reading the brilliant book “Truth Is The Enemy: Revealing Modern Russia”, which describes how the Obama administration pursued a “Reset” policy with regards to Russia, aimed at easing tensions and rapprochement. Part of…

To read the news about Ukraine is to observe an ongoing deluge of sad, upsetting and sometimes calamitous events. The seeds of development have certainly been planted through projects like the visa-free travel agreement with the EU, but it seems as though we never see their seedlings fully germinate, let alone flower. Odd, considering the country’s famously rich soil, but not surprising given that the waters of peace and stability seldom reach its ground.

Still, hope springs eternal, even in the most arid of deserts, and perhaps there is a case to be made for a more reassured outlook on…