Fate of the West
Where Western civilization is headed. History, demography, culture and power, with serious attention to both decline and renewal.
About this list
This reading list brings together items from the sources selected for Fate of the West. Open each item at its original source for the complete article, episode or video. This is a selection of current coverage, not a complete archive.
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Maria Monk and the Kamloops Graves Panic
Two centuries before the claimed discovery of non-existent ‘unmarked graves’ in British Columbia, a wave of bestselling ‘convent exposés’ purported to detail mass rape and child murder among priests and nuns.
No, Your Kid Probably Doesn’t Need Extra Time on Tests
The hardest part of my job is when I have to tell parents that their children are completely fine. I’m a neuropsychologist in New York City with more than a decade of experience specializing in neuropsychological evaluations and therapy for kids with learning and attention deficit disorders. But in recent years, I’ve noticed a marked shift in my private practice. Rather than dreading a diagnosis signaling their kid has a learning disability, my clients have come to expect and hope for one.
Trump’s Disastrous Diesel Deal
Toward the end of his 2024 presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump pledged to “cut your energy costs in half within 12 months after taking office.” The promise was outlandish, but Trump is hardly the first politician to make outlandish promises. In his first 12 months in office, the price of gas did come down, modestly, as did the price of heating oil.
The Future of Israel May Belong to This Man
The Netanyahu era could end this month with a victory by Gadi Eisenkot, the plainspoken former IDF chief who wants to disempower the populist right, writes Yonah Jeremy Bob.
How Will Israelis—and History—Judge Benjamin Netanyahu?
In Israel’s first election since October 7, voters will deliver a verdict on their longest-serving prime minister. Haviv Rettig Gur, Michael Oren, Yossi Klein Halevi, and others weigh his record.
The flight of the angry entrepreneurs
Who will listen to what they say about Britain?
AI art is for prigs
Real masterpieces are daemonic
How we feed online depravity
Viewers give snuff videos a reason to exist
Religion can save democracy
It promotes confidence instead of certainty
A Dishonest (and Dangerous) Nobel Laureate
On 9 October, some 48 hours after the commemoration of the Hamas massacres in Israel, South African jurist Navanethem (Navi) Pillay was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Pillay has enjoyed a long juridical career that has included the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and adjudicating the Rwandan genocide.
Fake But Accurate
Citizen journalism and the James Talarico ‘scandal.’
Neukölln, the Berlin District Where the Left Broke Through
Amid resounding recent victories for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), on September 20 Germany’s socialist party Die Linke bucked the trend with a spectacular victory in Berlin. It dominated the campaign with its program of ending cuts, capping rents, and socializing housing companies, leaving other parties to respond to the popular demand that Berliners had confirmed in a 2021 referendum. The monster victory for the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt further galvanized Berlin’s diverse urban working class to express opposition to the fascists.
Johnny Cash, Prison Abolitionist
There’s a popular T-shirt, which you can find in souvenir stores, gas stations, and Walmarts across the United States. It’s typically black, and it has a white screen-printed photo of Johnny Cash on it. He’s grasping his acoustic guitar, and his face is screwed up in a defiant snarl as he flips a middle finger at the camera. Underneath, the shirt says simply CASH, in all caps. Thousands of people own this shirt. They wear it to the grocery store, and to their kids’ baseball games, and to vote in November.
Stop pretending the existential fears of Israelis are fake
“Stop pretending the existential fears of Israelis are fake.” Haviv Rettig Gur joins Maya Sulkin for a conversation about why international pressure on Israel fails to account for Israelis’ fears of annihilation, the rise of extremism across the Middle East, and what it would take to achieve lasting peace. Watch the full conversation now on YouTube.
Douglas Murray: The International Criminal Court Is a Sham
Recent years have seen a flourishing of BS institutions. There is the International Association of Genocide Scholars, an organization that suddenly leaped to prominence last year when it was reactivated in order to accuse Israel of “genocide” in Gaza; there is the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a politicized pseudo-court that seems determined to fast-track that same genocide allegation; there is the United Nations Human Rights Council, whose only standing agenda item devoted to a single country is, yes, about the Jewish state;
Common People
A wonderful new book by Stephen Wade, America’s greatest living folklorist, chronicles the history of the country’s folk music.
The Search for a Post-Enlightenment Democracy
Liberalism needs a new foundation.
Will Israel Ditch Netanyahu? With Haviv Rettig Gur
Israelis are at a crossroads. The country is voting for the first time since October 7. Haviv Rettig Gur breaks down what’s on the ballot.
An Inside Look At How To Tame Unstoppable AI
Slowing the AI race may not be possible. But there is a path to oversight that doesn’t depend on the industry’s permission — and it comes from the past.
A Portrait of Eugene Debs for Today’s Left
You can tell the capitalist system is in trouble when Americans start talking about Eugene Debs. Although the popular image of the great labor and socialist leader has ebbed and flowed since his death a century ago this month, our New Gilded Age has placed him back in the spotlight. Progressive politicians and labor activists, including United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain and union organizer Jaz Brisack, quote his speeches with regularity.
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