1,610 words
In chess, we all know that the aim is to checkmate your opponent’s king. But this does not mean that in the normal course of play it’s wise to aim all your firepower directly at him. After all, he’s often pretty well protected, and directing your pieces in such an obvious way might leave you vulnerable to counterattack. Thus, it’s usually best to first meet fire with fire in the middle of the board before you go king hunting. (more…)
2,406 words
Jeffrey M. Bale & Tamir Bar-On
Fighting the Last War: Confusion, Partisanship, and Alarmism in the Literature on the Radical Right
Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2022
Professors Jeffrey M. Bale and Tamir Bar-On have taken a look at the response to the increasingly vocal political Right in the Western world. What they found is that the establishment has used the specter of fascism as a shadow to box against since 1945. Politics is the application of the friend/enemy distinction, so shadowboxing against a phantom enemy is a good way to go about domestic politics without stumbling into a civil war. (more…)