The fact is that belief, like all of the other abstractions with which
we describe the workings of the human mind, is ultimately unmeasurable.
We hardly know ourselves what we really think, a fact that has given
rise to truisms (“no atheists in foxholes”; “a conservative is a liberal
who’s been mugged”) of startling durability.

….I believe these things, but what do I really know?
Very little, I’m willing to admit. There are simply too many variables,
too many unknowns. What I can’t have is certainty. So perhaps I — we —
should calm down a bit.

In the meantime, we might do well to remember, especially in
emotionally charged circumstances, the norms and principles that have
served us for centuries. Our country has immigration laws and a border precisely because it is not always reasonable to admit every foreigner who seems sympathetic. We have freedom of thought and speech precisely because some words rankle. The presumption of innocence is inconvenient if one has been victimized, but we extend it precisely because
of the vagaries of the criminal-justice system. The masses may have
their dogmatism and their outrage. I will take a politics that runs on
incrementalism and compromise. More importantly still, I will take a
culture of law built on the greatest civil document ever devised by man.

Uncertainty Could Breed Humility in American Politics | National Review

It was George Orwell who pointed out, in an analysis
of the goose-step, that it could only flourish in countries where people
were afraid enough not to laugh at its silliness. Indeed, it’s very
absurdity was a demonstration of power: ‘Yes, I am ugly, and you daren’t laugh at me.’

One could put into the same bracket Caligula’s naming of his horse as
senator, Colonel Gaddafi’s dress sense, or Manchester University
Students’ Union’s recent decision to ban clapping.
Power expresses itself when it not only gets away with foolishness but
also makes you behave foolishly – nodding along with its asinine
choices.

Why we need some Python spirit

Maybe echo chambers are evolving because they are efficient? – Marginal REVOLUTION

Perspective | Academia is a cult

damonramirez:

I don’t particularly like David French, but he is correct here.
FTA
Modern America is characterized by an intense grassroots distrust of
American elites — with red America especially disdainful of progressive
elite institutions. Much ink has been spilled explaining the reasons for
this distrust, and I don’t intend for a single short piece to encompass
the whole of the argument, but I do think we underestimate the extent
to which prolonged exposure to a flawed and biased elite-ordered and
elite-controlled education system is profoundly dispiriting and
embittering for millions of Americans.

How Progressive Elite Control of Education Embitters Americans | National Review