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Author’s note: Cited passages are taken from the 1988 Stephen Mitchell translation, London, Macmillan.
Tao Te Ching, the “Book of the Way,” was ostensibly composed by the pseudonymous Lao Tzu, about whom next to nothing is known, sometime around the time of Confucius (551-479 BC). It’s things like this that add even more irresistible mystique to this slender volume, (more…)
René Magritte, Golconda, 1953.
2,173 words
The twofold crises of the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic are perfect opportunities for modern nihilists and culture-destroyers of every stripe to let off all the brakes. It is not often that world events align so cleanly with the rhetoric and goals of our enemies, which presents some troubling developments (more…)
Mars, ca. 2nd century AD.
2,096 words
You are here because you are convinced of the rightness of your ideas. This is not meant in a specific, epistemological sense; as in, your ideas have been verified by some kind of universal truth or that they are backed by data drawn from rigor, though these things could be applied to many of the ideas we hold on the Right. I mean that you are convinced enough of what you hold to be true that you are taking a risk in upholding it, even in the face of great adversaries. (more…)
1,494 words
What makes a place? Perhaps the best definition is simply where one feels they can linger. A “place” is a location that can be both a destination and a path. When we consider places, they invariably have a few attributes that make stopping there or passing through there a memorable experience. The opposite of a “place,” as it where, (more…)
He doesn’t even have shoes on.
1,349 words
The McCloskeys waving what amount to toys in the hands of the untrained was the single most impotent display of fear and guilt that has graced the screens of the West this month. This incident was laughable in and of itself, but was made even worse by the couple’s spineless cope of a public statement on the matter: (more…)
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Six black people have been found dead, hanging from trees, during the month of June so far. They were all ruled as suicides by local police. Black people refuse to believe that’s true, of course. The circumstances of these deaths too closely resemble the lynchings of yesteryear, right down to the surrounding social turmoil and the highly public spectacle of the corpses. (more…)
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The Alphabet Company, the parent of Google, has a market capitalization of $991.53 billion, which is about the same size as the nominal gross domestic product of the Netherlands. Chrome accounts for 68% of the global desktop browser market, (more…)
2,220 words 
The term “failed state” conjures images in the mind’s eye of collapsed banana republics, exploding Islamic theocracies, and Somalia in general. It’s a condition that would be unthinkable in the West; the countries and nation-states that constituted a vast majority of the world’s white people have remained mostly in place for centuries (more…)
1,518 words
There is a fascination with seemingly random piles of bricks showing up at riots unlawful assemblies protests benefit balls in major cities across the United States. To the eagle-eyed observer, pallets of blunt objects appearing in the line of planned marches and gatherings is just a little too convenient — and concerning — to brush away as a coincidence. (more…)
1,434 words
The “Karen” meme has quickly spread like wildfire across Twitter. It’s a more easily referenced offshoot of the previously unnamed “I would like to speak to the manager” joke that was more broadly associated with tannie haircuts and Ray-Bans than anything else. Now that there’s a name for it, it’s easier to crack a joke, especially at the expense of those who seem to embody the trope’s worst attributes. (more…)
Richard Parkes Bonington, Riva degli Schiavoni, 1826.
1,320 words
Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.
The Internet™ loves talking about the “quarantine.” It was one of the most popular terms used on Google during the month of March in the United States, a search for the term on Twitter returns millions of unfunny shitposts, (more…)
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I think that dogs should be allowed to vote.
In America’s courageous fight for universal suffrage, the franchise has been extended to all those we believe are stakeholders in our nation’s future. (more…)