Brownstone Category
Just How Alienated Are Our Masters and Commanders?
One might suppose that the voices of mainstream media and elite culture in general would be more self-critical than they…
Three Books to End the Silence
Think of this. In the time since the Covid crisis has passed, no aspect of any federal power that was…
Are There US Quarantine Camps Right Now?
Two years ago, attorney and Brownstone Fellow Bobbie Anne Flower Cox took note of the New York State executive order…
Would You Have Resisted the Imposition of Time Zones?
An intriguing controversy hit much of the civilized planet in the second half of the 19th century. How would we…
Reflections on the Bret Weinstein Interview
Tucker Carlson has conducted a brilliant interview with biologist and podcaster Bret Weinstein, who has been on the Covid case…
A Nation of Non-Compliers
The train wasn’t scheduled for another 20 minutes, so I had a chance to contemplate the official sign on the…
The Real Purge in Academia
[This is the introduction to Conformity Colleges: The Destruction of Intellectual Creativity and Dissent in America’s Universities, by David R.…
The Toilet Paper Canard
Public culture today is replete with excuses for why lockdowns had to happen. Seems like more are being generated by…
The Year that Expertise Collapsed
Getting sick and getting well is part of the human experience at all times in all places. As with other…
Grand Inquisitor Says Oops
Francis Collins was head of the National Institutes of Health – Anthony Fauci’s parent bureaucracy – during the wreckage caused…
How the Madness of Crowds Wrecked Something Navy
Corporate bankruptcies in the US just hit the largest rate since the worst of the lockdowns. It’s a reflection of…
Why We Love the Nutcracker
Many people this holiday season will experience the joy of attending a local performance of The Nutcracker ballet by Pyotr…
This Silence Is Not Golden
At least the UK held public hearings, even if they were gamed from the start. There is a smidgeon of…
The Multifront Attack on Elon Musk
Elon Musk is the world’s richest man but also the number one target of the world’s richest governments and their…
What Will Become of Cities?
Everyone was supposed to be back at the office by now. It’s not really happening, however, and this has huge…
It’s Not Too Early to Name the Decade
The New Yorker is running a contest. What should we call our era? Some possible candidates: Terrible Twenties, the Age…
The Historian of Decline: Ludwig von Mises’s Relevance Today
[This piece was commissioned by Hillsdale College and presented on campus October 27, 2023] It’s an impossible task to explain…
Come On, Peggy Noonan, Just Say You Were Wrong
The answer to the question “Will they ever admit to being wrong?” is of course: no. I’m speaking in particular…
When Nearly All Governments in the World Met Their Match
What was the fundamental error of the Covid response? We’ve yet to come to terms with it. It traces to…
Flagellantism Is the New Political Ritual
The old FedEx envelope was clever, a work of art even, optimistic and colorful, signifying speed and progress. What a…
The Declaration That Wasn’t Supposed to Happen
It’s been a continuing mystery for three years, at least to me but many others too. In October 2020, in…
Anti-Lockdown Goes Mainstream
It’s a shift worth marking. New York Magazine is featuring an article called “COVID Lockdowns Were a Giant Experiment. It…
The Shredded Social Contract
This is not about whether there is such a thing as a literal social contract. The phrase has always been…
The Triumph of the Apocalyptics
In the course of almost four years, and really dating back a decade and a half, I’ve managed to read…
A Pandemic of Lockdown Denialism
There is an old expression: “Success has a thousand fathers but failure is always an orphan.” It’s a spin on…
Fauci and the CIA: A New Explanation Emerges
Jeremy Farrar’s book from August 2021 is relatively more candid than most accounts of the initial decision to lock down…
The Great Demoralization
On March 6, 2020, the mayor of Austin, Texas, canceled the biggest tech and arts trade show in the world,…
Megyn Kelly Asks Trump a Few Hard Questions
One reporter has proven brave enough not to take the deal. The deal is: you can interview Trump provided you…
Orwell Meets Your Stuffy Nose
“Experts have long doubted the effectiveness of phenylephrine,” which is a common ingredient in DayQuil, NyQuil, Sudafed, Mucinex, and others.…
Anthony Fauci’s Very Bad Week
It’s not been Anthony Fauci’s best week. Forever intent on managing his image and public opinion on the pandemic response,…