For being the largest generation in American history, the Millennial generation inspires a ridiculous degree of overgeneralization.
— Ben Domenech
Gawker thrived on embarrassment and shame, seeking to demolish not just celebrities or politicians but average random people whose sins it would expose for traffic and commenters who gloried in its actions.
When I was much younger, my siblings and I would routinely tune in to watch 'Bill Nye the Science Guy' on PBS. He was a fascinating instructor bent on helping kids achieve a basic understanding of science. When he engaged in politics, it was only very briefly if at all.
One of the frequent blind spots for economic libertarians, speaking as one who has personally dealt with this log in the eye, is a tendency to allow principles of how economies work and the beauty of trade to make us ignore perceived threats animating people who value more than just the power to buy and sell.
One of the things I endeavor to remind people of consistently when I am asked to speak to groups around the country is to consider the possibility that we are led by a pack of idiots. This is not out of any animus toward our leadership class, but borne out of experience.
In a time of fractured politics, our need for unifying cultural events is more acute, and particularly our need for creators who do not deny the people their art because of the votes they cast.
In a healthy republic, there is a need for figures who understand that the presidency is not the be-all and end-all of the people.
Trump's rise was contingent on wide swaths of the country completely tuning out so-called mainstream media sources, while all too many outlets did a poor job covering 2016.
For many Americans, 2016 will be remembered as a terrible year. It was a year in which the lack of faith in our institutions was laid bare.
I grew up watching 'The Lone Ranger.' I would get up every Saturday morning, earlier than all the other kids, to watch a black and white western with Clayton Moore that hadn't filmed a new episode since 1957.
Tolerance as practiced by the Christian, enlightened West was never about thinking that bad people are good but that we are all called to love the sinner and hate the sin.
'The Federalist' is a small staff, and our close-knit family of senior contributors outwork our competition because of that closeness.
What can be said of George H. W. Bush beyond the personal accolades is that, as president, he was a man who did nothing by half measures. He was hands-on, engaged, and thought deeply and seriously about the purpose of the nation.
Trump's supporters have taken over the Republican Party - not just because they like him but because they believe his approach to politics has been consistently vindicated.
The disturbing truth we have to recognize is that Bourdain is not alone in his loneliness and depression.
It is at best insufficient and at worst inaccurate to settle on a definition of the Enlightenment, for the obvious reason that there was not just one.
There are consequences for just expressing generally conservative views. And if those views take on the more extreme dint, the judgment can be swift.
The idea of the frontier is a stand-in for the idea of liberty.
Gawker was a site built to destroy lives. Its mission was to discover the worst moment in a person's life - and then publicize it for profit.
It is no accident that the place that lends itself to creating conflicts between the dominant order of thought and people who want to speak their minds freely is the college campus, where conservatives feel outnumbered and crushed by a system of higher education that believes in academic freedom for me, not for thee.
I have seen a man charged with revolutionizing incredibly complex government information technology systems who did not know how to use a thumb drive.
You have the right to free speech as an American - you have no right to use YouTube to do it. And the mobs that exist can form very quickly if they are offended by your presence there.
Politics is downstream from culture.
Engaging in a sycophantic way with any politician in the short term is tempting. It offers the lure of access and the promise of influence. But ultimately, it can lead to misreading the environment, giving too much of an ear to the politician's circle, and confining your audience to partisans.
When Barack Obama arrived in Washington, many in the media welcomed him with optimism as a historic figure focused on progressive change. But their overwhelmingly favorable treatment of him ultimately turned Americans who disagreed with Obama's policies away from traditional media sources they came to distrust.
'Rogue One' does not feel like a 'Star Wars' movie. There are no scrolling yellow letters. There is no classic John Williams score. It feels like a movie of a different type set in the 'Star Wars' universe, a movie where there is no magic to save you. It is not a movie for children.
Belief that your tribe is good and other tribes are evil is what everyone thought for most of human history.
To think that the heritage of the West, including post-war liberalism, was a selfish, secular, practical arrangement of politics is a fiction.
Father John Misty is rebelling not against repression or foolishness but the ephemeral nature of mankind. He seeks permanence in a fleeting age, and he does not find it because the one place he could find an answer, he considers closed off: a locked door.
In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, everyone in America assumed that there would be wars to follow - wars over the reunification of Germany, over the nations within the sphere of Soviet influence, and more. There weren't, because George H. W. Bush's policies and diplomacy prevented that.
It is a common thing for supporters of President Trump, even as early as when he was a candidate, to say, 'He fights.' And yes, he does fight. He fights everyone. He gets into all kinds of scraps that are pointless and unnecessary. He insults when he doesn't need to.
Racist assumptions, ethnolinguistic assumptions of inferiority or superiority, are as old as mankind.
The ongoing argument over whether the Enlightenment is a good thing is hardly a new facet of American political life.
It used to be you could just write vaguely conservative things while running a Starbucks - now, you can't.
Throughout the history of America, we have been a nation driven by the idea of the frontier - a place where law was slim and liberty was enormous, where you could make your way in the world based on your own ambition and abilities, not fenced in by the limitations of society.
We must not fall into the trap of thinking speech that offends is speech that must be forbidden. A healthy culture demands that much of us, to equip the next generation of Americans with the knowledge and reason they will need to confront an uncertain future.
Conservatives recognize that college campuses and their frames of reality have an outsized impact on the culture, training the next generation of leaders.
I have seen cabinet secretaries who type with two fingers.
We have all had the experience at some point in our lives of sitting across from someone whose favorite subject is themselves. This is true of nearly everyone to some respect - but for some people, it is a particularly acute problem.
It is unhealthy to live in an environment where every aspect of our culture requires a great sort, where creative talents are for some but not for all, and where performing for the president of the United States becomes a point of regular and significant controversy.
Much of the media failed to anticipate the potential Trump represented as a disruptive populist force, understand why his supporters trusted him, or offer honest reporting on the underlying trends that made his rise possible.
The biggest loser in 2016 was Washington, D.C.
The first time I watched 'The Magnificent Seven' on TV on a Sunday afternoon, I knew it was going to be a different kind of western.
The human heart tends toward tribalism before tolerance. We can go back to that world. It still lives in all of us. Fighting it is the challenge, particularly at a time when the most audacious thing you can do is show some grace.
At 26, I barely knew who I was.
Father John Misty imagines that he is a rebel. He is, but he does not realize what he is rebelling against.
We saw a true wave election in 2010 for Republicans. There was no such repudiation offered by Resistance Democrats in 2018.
Making a good meal for someone, even if it is nothing complicated, is an expression of love: it is an invitation to share, for one dinner at least, in our common humanity.
Contemporary defenders of the Enlightenment shouldn't overgeneralize: the Enlightenment, however it is defined, is not an unalloyed good.
Trump knows where his strengths exist, and he is emphatically in favor of doubling down on them. This goes far beyond appointing Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
