CATEGORY: CULTURE (4 MIN) 

Targeting the truth

Although Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover helped ease censorship of conservative thought, many other platforms have still taken to shutting down what they consider to be “hateful” content. Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon have all performed their. fair share of selective content control, but even lesser-known companies—like Vimeo—are now. trying to silence the truth.

In First Things, Bethel McGrew tells the story of Dead Name, a new documentary that until recently was found on Vimeo. Dead Name highlights three families that have been destroyed by the transgender movement. Three parents, including even one lesbian mother, tragically recount the loss of their children to this new deception.

Yet just a month after Dead Name was released, Vimeo stepped in without warning to take the documentary down. The company claimed it removed the film for “discriminatory or hateful content.” 

“Vimeo is uninterested in platforming this sort of daring, difficult, and even unifying work,” McGrew writes. “It would rather we all pretend such stories didn’t exist.”

Read the full tale of the attack on Dead Name right here.

CATEGORY: INDUSTRY (14 MIN) 

Finish your engines

Every major institution of American life is in the crosshairs today, and our vehicles are no exception. Critics and scholars have been predicting the collapse of the age of the car for years—after all, self-driving electric cars are the future, right? But are reports of the traditional automobile’s demise greatly exaggerated?

Nicholas Clairmont, writing for The New Atlantis, reviews a new book that discusses this very topic. The Car: The Rise and Fall of the Machine That Made the Modern World, by Bryan Appleyard, overviews the history of the gas-powered car and its supposed impending doom. Clairmont, though, pushes back against this pessimism.

Clairmont believes that electric cars will indeed continue to grow as a portion of the American market, but he thinks the process will be slow and possibly painful. He also notes the many human rights abuses involved in the discovery and mining of rare earth metals necessary for electric batteries. 

That being said, Clairmont appreciates Appleyard’s dive into the dangers of a world of self-driving cars—a world where freedom itself may be in danger. Discover why in Clairmont’s article here.

American Politics and Government Summit

Join us for ISI’s American Politics and Government Summit: a conference dedicated to bringing together scholars to participate in dialogue focused on emerging research—rooted in timeless principles—in the fields of politics, philosophy, and economics.

This conference will be held February 23-24, 2023, at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina. Unlike the echo chambers that suppress free inquiry and only permit the ideas of a coterie of experts, Fort Lauderdale will be the setting that inspires academic excellence.

At a time when far too many in academia are scared into silence through the instruments of political correctness and utopian ideology, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute will continue to provide a home for everyone in higher education where honest, intellectual discourse can thrive.

This will be a conference like no other. If you’re a faculty member or graduate student who is committed to the principles of ordered liberty, you owe it to yourself to attend.

Please contact Sasha von Spakovsky, [email protected], to reserve a room at the Hilton Ft. Lauderdale Marina.

Join us in Ft. Lauderdale >>>

Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.

CATEGORY: RELIGION (5 MIN)

(Super) simple enjoyment

Last weekend’s Super Bowl saw 113 million people tune into an excellent matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. If you’re an Eagles fan, you’re probably still upset about that holding call; if you’re a Chiefs fan, you’re still on cloud nine. 

What is it about sports that absorbs our attention so closely? We get lost in football games for their own sake—for the sake of the joy that comes with being, in some small way, a part of the game.

In our Intercollegiate Review archive, James V. Schall argues that this way of thinking mirrors the way Christians ought to think about God. To make this point, Schall draws upon two unlikely sources: Aristotle and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Schall recalls Aristotle’s belief that we ought to be absorbed in God in the same way we are absorbed in watching a game. And he highlights an excerpt from a Tolkien letter preaching a relationship with God that focuses on “praise and thanks.”

“When we understand that God is God, our response is praise, thanks, delight, and joy,” Schall writes.

Read all of Schall’s analogy right here.

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We introduce you to the American tradition of liberty and to a vibrant community of students and scholars so that you get the collegiate experience you hunger for.