The UN said last week that free markets undermine “the realization of housing as a human right“. Really? Here’s how freer markets have worked out for the world’s slum dwellers since 1990:
Why has the IPA’s Evan Mulholland been quoted in media outlets in New York, Washington, Canada, Malaysia, the UK, Ireland and, the Czech Republic this week? Is it free speech? Free markets? Climate change? No – it’s the Committee for Melbourne’s crusade to end the oppression of women, one traffic light at a time. Here is Evan on Ten News on Tuesday:
Evan wrote that “using pedestrian signals to virtue signal is utter nonsense” in The Spectator Australia yesterday.
Last week, after being prevented from giving an address at Middlebury College in the US by protesting students, conservative American sociologist Charles Murray was surrounded and attacked as he left the venue. A female professor accompanying Murray was hospitalised. Three things you must read about this attack on free speech:
- The best and most forensic analysis was this 4,200 word piece by Peter W. Wood from The Federalist on Tuesday.
- Charles Murray’s own harrowing account from AEIdeas on Sunday.
- This 6 minute Bloomberg video of a panel discussion featuring Frank Bruni and Jonathan Haidt.
This just sums up the problem with American college elites. They are less worried that attackers like those above resemble fascists, than that someone dressing up as a Star Wars stormtrooper for a party, might be a closet Nazi.
Your long piece this week is actually a long listen – a 30 min discussion with John Roskam, Paul Kelly and Nick Cater on whether or not conservatism is in crisis on Tom Switzer’s Between the Lines on Radio National.
And a couple of terrific articles for when you’ve backed yourself into a corner in a political discussion at the pub – “Half of scientific studies are false” in Vox last week and “What do economists actually know?” by Russ Roberts in NewCo Shift on Friday.
Article of the week:
This excellent piece on Reason from Elizabeth Nolan Brown discusses a study from the University of Southern Mississippi that has found what we have long suspected – those expressing moral outrage are often doing so for self-serving reasons.
IPA Staff Pick:
Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: Morgan Begg
I found this experiment intriguing – last week researchers in New York re-staged the US presidential debates with a female playing Donald Trump and a male playing Hillary Clinton. To their great surprise, this caused the largely progressive audience to support Trump and reject Clinton.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- Simon Breheny, Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act will be repealed – The Australian
- John Roskam, Conservative Values – 2GB
- Daniel Wild, Business investment in Australia now lower than under Whitlam – Parliamentary Research Brief
