"Conspicuous consumption" is the use of luxury possessions to signal to one and all your high social status. Now a writer has studied "luxury beliefs"--particularly the tenets of political and cultural progressivism--which have become status symbols, both for the cultural elite and for those who aspire to belong to that social class.
Second jobs; women as closet conservatives; and why does it take so long to build things anymore?
A new book entitled "White Rural Rage" calls rural Americans the biggest threat to democracy, due to their racist, sexist, xenophobic attitudes. A political scientist tears the book apart, showing how actual research refutes the charges and explaining why rural Americans resent the liberal elites.
"War is no longer a concept from the past," said Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland. "it is real. . . . I know it sounds devastating, especially for the younger generation, but we have to get used to the fact that a new era has begun: the pre-war era." Do you agree? What does this mean for the United States?
American conservatism has been described as "fusionist," an alliance of traditionalism and libertarianism. But the New Right, according to one writer, is based on a different fusionism: between Catholic Integralism and Nietzschean Vitalism. Both are anti-American and anti-evangelical.
The conventional wisdom is that church affiliation is plummeting because Christians hold to other culturally conservative beliefs. Those are surely factors in many cases, but the churches that are showing the biggest exodus are the denominations that promote progressive politics, support the LGBTQ agenda, and are culturally liberal.
Adult baptisms are surging in France. As many as 10-20% of those are reportedly coming from former Muslims who are converting to Christianity. But sometimes the legacy of interfaith dialogue, in which Christians are urged to accept Islam as an equally valid religion, is driving away them away!
Cosmic coincidences and the total eclipse; adult baptisms soaring in France; and more evidence that most children with gender dysphoria grow out of it.
To help us think through the implications of Artificial Intelligence, Trevor Sutton cites a parable--or thought experiment--offered by futurist Nick Bostrum: the parable of the sparrows and the owl.
We have "the elephant in the room" and "black swan events." To that menagerie Michele Wucker adds the "gray rhino": a highly probable high-impact event that we have plenty of warnings about. And yet we ignore it. Until the rhino lowers its horn and charges. What are some examples of gray rhinos?
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