Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Anatol Lieven

“President Emmanuel Macron is pursuing an old Gaullist dream: a militarily and geopolitically autonomous Europe under the leadership of France. The present strategy by which Macron is pursuing this goal is to present France as the military vanguard of Europe in the defense of Ukraine, through the suggestion that French and other NATO troops could be sent to that country …. When this idea was immediately rejected by other NATO governments, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, Macron doubled down rhetorically by accusing the Germans and others of cowardice. Some have dismissed this as mere cosplay, Macron dressing up as de Gaulle, just as British politicians are incapable of resisting the temptation to pretend to be Churchill. Others have suggested that it is chiefly motivated by domestic politics.” (04/25/24)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/emmanuel-macron-troops-ukraine/

Source: The Pamphleteer
by Tyler Hummel

“‘Your kids have been turned into mindless vassals who look up to some twit instead of looking up to Thomas Jefferson,’ screams Alex Jones into the camera. ‘Kids! Magellan is a lot cooler than Justin Bieber! He circumnavigated, with one ship, the entire planet! He was killed by wild natives before he got back to Portugal!’ His face reddens and his fists begin to pound the air. ‘That’s destiny! That’s will! That’s striving! That’s being a trailblazer! Going into space! Mathematics! Quantum mechanics! The secrets of the universe! Life is fiery with its beauty!’ He finally explodes, ‘And they want to shutter your mind talking about Justin Bieber!’ This might sound like the ramblings of a madman (and it is), but as presented in the decade old original viral video, it is one of the funniest clips on the internet …” (04/25/24)

https://pamphleteer.co/newsletter/consider-alex-jones/

Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander

“One of the most common arguments against AI safety is: ‘Here’s an example of a time someone was worried about something, but it didn’t happen. Therefore, AI, which you are worried about, also won’t happen.’ I always give the obvious answer: ‘Okay, but there are other examples of times someone was worried about something, and it did happen, right? How do we know AI isn’t more like those?’ The people I’m arguing with always seem so surprised by this response, as if I’m committing some sort of betrayal by destroying their beautiful argument. The first hundred times this happened, I thought I must be misunderstanding something. … But people keep bringing it up, again and again. Very smart people, people who I otherwise respect, make this argument and genuinely expect it to convince people!” (04/25/24)

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/desperately-trying-to-fathom-the

Source: Quillette
by Jeffrey S Flier

“In the US, free speech is protected by the First Amendment, which restricts the ability of government to limit citizens’ speech, with exceptions for speech that incites violence, represents a true threat to safety by narrowly defined criteria, or constitutes fraud or defamation. Hate speech, even if vile, is protected under the First Amendment. First Amendment protections don’t apply to private institutions, like many universities, though most universities voluntarily establish free speech rights for their communities. Academic freedom is a more limited concept, protecting scholars, researchers, and educators from censorship, discipline, or retaliation by their institutions. Academic freedom is essential to the pursuit and transmission of knowledge and to critical thinking.” (04/25/24)

https://quillette.com/2024/04/25/academic-freedom-in-higher-education-and-medicine/

Source: Hoover Institution

“One of the ideas that economists are most sure of is that when the price of something rises, other than due to something that shifts the whole demand curve, the quantity demanded falls. Conversely, when the price of something falls, the quantity demanded increases. This is not controversial in economics. Moreover, it’s so clear that it is part of our mutual understanding, even for non-economists. … The law of demand applies to virtually everything: the demand for steaks, the demand for cars, the demand for houses, and, yes, the demand for labor. That means that when governments raise the price of relatively unskilled labor by substantially raising the minimum wage, the number of unskilled workers employed will fall.” (04/25/24)

https://www.hoover.org/research/high-minimum-wage-laws-hurt-many-workers