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Category Archives: Academic Life
“Trickle-Down Tactical Partisanship”
I wrote a blog post a couple of years ago about what I called “trickle-down tactical partisanship.” Trickle-down tactical partisanship involves the deployment (or at least conscious exploitation) by political elites of non-professional, uncompensated individuals as partisan attack dogs unleashed from ethical, moral, or intellectual restraint.
Hypocrisy, Faulty Logic, & False Equivalence
Have you ever noticed that in politics an argument doesn’t have to make sense to be popular? I was reminded of this as I read Jeff Jacoby’s latest column.
Jacoby’s Folly
Apparently, Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby doesn’t let intellectual integrity or logic interfere with his efforts to sell his spin.
“Google Goggles” versus the “Accountability System of Science”
Professor Cunningham’s post about Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Righteous Mind, and the Brown campaign was timely and useful. I’ve been reading much of the work chronicled in Haidt’s latest book for a few years now and have marveled at the insights which various sub-fields in psychology have been developing about the brians and motivations of political partisans and ideologues.
Out of Sync: Political and Judicial Conservatism
James Toranto’s WSJ op-ed of March 22, 2012, The Ineffective Greenhouse: A Liberal legal legend’s ludicrous ObamaCare defense is a veritable case study in bad argument and disingenuous spin.
Jeff Jacoby: Shoot First, Think Later
I don’t want to make a habit of this but it’s too tempting not to comment on another Jeff Jacoby column in the Boston Globe, Wednesday’s A safer society with guns: statistics make a compelling case for gun ownership. Statistics! It doesn’t get any more certain than statistics.
Brown’s Incumbency Advantage?
Will Senator Scott Brown’s “incumbency advantage” be enough to secure his re-election to the US Senate this fall? My confident prediction of victory for Elizabeth Warren in the race has been met with equally confident predictions of a Brown victory.
Jeff Jacoby Potshots College Profs
On Sunday in Yes, colleges are full of liberal elites the Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby rose to the defense of Rick Santorum, who had attacked President Obama for suggesting that all Americans should aspire to a college education. Jacoby was especially horrified at the notion that academia is rife with liberal elites and President Obama is depending on them to indoctrinate America’s youth into their leftist ways!
To which I respond: So?