Here’s a new one-hour interview of Steve Pinker by John Tomasi, inaugural president of the Heterodox Academy. Here are the YouTube notes: Are our higher education institutions still nurturing true intellectual diversity? Our guest today is Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist at Harvard, and today, we’ll be exploring the growing concerns within higher ed that […]
Pinker on “What’s wrong with our universities”
Pinker on “What’s wrong with our universities”
11 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
CHRIS TROTTER: Are you a leftist?
10 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, The fatal conceit, unintended consequences
Chris Trotter writes – THERE WAS A TIME when a leftist’s definition of “leftism” corresponded pretty closely to everybody else’s definition. The term identified a coherent worldview – to the point where knowing where someone stood on one issue enabled them to predict with surprising accuracy where they stood on a host of others. If […]
CHRIS TROTTER: Are you a leftist?
DON BRASH: NATIONHOOD, Orewa, 2004
09 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: constitutional law, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left

On February 1 Sean Plunket re-played the audio of Don Brash’s 2004 Orewa speech at The Platform. To listen to the entire speech, go here. Alternatively, the full text of the speech is reproduced below. Today Don reflects: “It’s very long – really far too long for a Rotary Club speech. I should have taken…
DON BRASH: NATIONHOOD, Orewa, 2004
BRIAN EASTON: Our understanding of Te Tiriti has evolved organically.
06 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, Internet, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Why try to stop that evolution? Brian Easton writes – In 1956, historian Ruth Ross presented her investigations of the treaty signed at Waitangi on 6 February 1840 to a seminar concluding, ‘The [Māori and Pakeha] signatories of 1840 were uncertain and divided in their understanding of [Te Tiriti’s] meaning; who can say now what […]
BRIAN EASTON: Our understanding of Te Tiriti has evolved organically.
Robot Racism: Pittsburgh Professor Sounds Alarm Over “Interacting with White Robots”
05 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture Tags: political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left

In today’s academic environment, there often seems a race to racialize common practices or terminology. Publications clamor for such articles and discovering another hidden racist element in society can bring academic accolades. However, others have already staked out many such areas such as mathematics, astrophysics, statistics, meritocracy, climate change, dieting, tipping, skiing, chess, and organized pantries. Most recently, the American Psychological Association declared that merit-based hiring may […]
Robot Racism: Pittsburgh Professor Sounds Alarm Over “Interacting with White Robots”
DON BRASH: WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY DO WE WANT TO BE?
03 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, discrimination, economic history, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Last Sunday, the Sunday Star-Times recalled on its front page the “fiery debate” triggered by my speech to the Orewa Rotary Club just 20 years earlier. Articles by several authors in the same paper brought the debate up-to-date and warned of the dangers of ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill, which the National Party’s coalition agreement with…
DON BRASH: WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY DO WE WANT TO BE?
CNN is confused about sex
02 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, health economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, gender gap, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination

Here’s a headline at CNN Health that is seemingly confused about what a “woman” is. Note that the word, which means “adult human female” appears blatantly in the headlines, but perhaps the headline writer was ideologically different from the authors: (click on screenshot to read) This is the gist of the article, and, indeed, […]
CNN is confused about sex
Māori official in New Zealand’s Coast Guard insists that prayer to a god is the key to reducing drowning
30 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of religion, transport economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Freedom of religion, political correctness, regressive left

This very short article appeared in Waatea News, which I gather is a purveyor of news related to the Māori of New Zealand. (It also runs, I believe, the country’s only Māori radio station.) I’m putting it up for one reason, and then we’ll get a break from the Kiwis and the iwi for a […]
Māori official in New Zealand’s Coast Guard insists that prayer to a god is the key to reducing drowning
A textual analysis of Enlightenment ideals
30 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Using textual analysis of 173,031 works printed in England between 1500 and 1900, we test whether British culture evolved to manifest a heightened belief in progress associated with science and industry. Our analysis yields three main findings. First, there was a separation in the language of science and religion beginning in the 17th century. Second, […]
A textual analysis of Enlightenment ideals
More from New Zealand, a nation whose science is circling the drain
28 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left

I’ve written a lot about New Zealand lately, in particular the schools’ and government’s attempt to force the teaching of “indigenous ways of knowing” (mātauranga Māori) into the science classroom as a system coequal in value with modern science. That means not only equal classroom time, but equal respect, treating indigenous ways of knowing as […]
More from New Zealand, a nation whose science is circling the drain
Spot on
27 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left

📸 Look at this post on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/share/ny4YzhWSbvAFW2wA/?mibextid=xfxF2i
GEOFFREY MILLER: New Zealand’s huge shift in the Middle East
24 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, politics - New Zealand, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
Geoffrey Miller writes – New Zealand is reshaping its foreign policy via the Middle East. A decision to provide intelligence support for future US and UK airstrikes on Yemen is highly symbolic. The Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, announced the deployment of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) troops to support the US-led military response to the attacks […]
GEOFFREY MILLER: New Zealand’s huge shift in the Middle East
Canadian university advertises for scientists expert in Indigenous “ways of knowing”
23 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left

The combination of Canadian wokeness and the migration across the Pacific of New Zealand’s “indigenous ways of knowing” trope has led to this ad by The University of Victoria. The U of V wants to hire three candidates in any branch of science with expertise “in either (a) working with Indigenous ways of knowing, or…
Canadian university advertises for scientists expert in Indigenous “ways of knowing”
Hitting The Houthis.
20 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
Action Stations: The New Zealand Left has conflated the ten UN members condemning Houthi attacks on vessels transiting the Red Sea with the six states involved in the air and naval attacks on Houthi military targets. Veteran leftist Robert Reid, like most New Zealanders, knows full well that the RNZAF possesses no aircraft even remotely…
Hitting The Houthis.
Going Flat? Bud Light Sales Still Down 28 Percent as Consumers Continue Boycott
15 Jan 2024 1 Comment
in industrial organisation, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left

Beer analysts are saying that Bud Light is still struggling with the boycott that has reduced its sale by a whopping 28% over the four weeks leading up to Dec. 9 — and heading to the all-important New Year’s sale period. The tragic irony for the company is that Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing…
Going Flat? Bud Light Sales Still Down 28 Percent as Consumers Continue Boycott
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