Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander

“I agree that in-person debates are confrontational and bad for truth-seeking. But I didn’t propose a debate in order to seek truth. I proposed it because, under California Penal Code § 415(1), it’s illegal for me to challenge you to a duel. I think your public writing on this topic has been dishonorable. Out of obligation, I will respond to the meaty arguments that you have set out for me. But what would be viscerally satisfying would be to make you get up on a stage where I read your own words to you in real time and ask “Really? Really?” after each sentence. … I’ll start by addressing the meaty arguments, move on to directly impugning your honor, and then we’ll decide whether to debate, duel, or seek some kind of synthesis of our conflicting views.” (10/06/26)

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/an-open-letter-to-steven-pinker-on

Source: The UnPopulist
by Tad DeHaven

“The administration is running a television advertisement in which President Trump says, ‘Together we will defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism in America.’ Government-financed propaganda promoting an unpopular head of state is something one might associate with a communist country. The irony doesn’t end there. The ad’s target is the Democratic Party and its leftward shift, as evidenced by its ‘democratic socialism’ problem. Yet it is Trump himself who has unlocked the door the left has long sought to open: the normalization of government ownership of private companies.” (10/06/260

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/donald-j-trump-the-dsa-president

Source: Reason
by Thomas J Powell

“The federal government built a system that records the lawful trading activity of tens of millions of Americans, invades their financial privacy, and makes investors pay for the surveillance. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) calls it the Consolidated Audit Trail, or CAT. Now the agency is considering ‘fundamental changes’ to the setup. It should eliminate the system instead. CAT, launched in 2020, records almost every order, modification, cancellation, and execution by tens of millions of investors. The SEC requires these records so regulators can search trading activity and reconstruct it long after a trade occurred. The records are collected before there is probable cause, reasonable suspicion, or even an allegation of wrongdoing.” (10/06/26)

https://reason.com/2026/10/06/the-sec-is-watching-american-investors-trades-thats-a-privacy-nightmare/

Source: Bluegrass Institute
by Angela C Erickson

“In June 1845, Cassius Marcellus Clay launched an anti-slavery newspaper in Lexington, Kentucky, one block from one of the largest slave markets in the United States. He called it The True American. Published by William L. Neale and edited by Clay, the paper openly challenged Kentucky’s slaveholding establishment. Its editor was a son of a Kentucky aristocrat; a cousin of the Great Compromiser, Henry Clay; and a man who understood that publishing against slavery in a slave state was not merely controversial. It was dangerous. … The office of The True American was not just a newspaper office. According to historian Herndon J. Evans, it was ‘armed with two brass cannons, iron barred windows, and an arsenal of Mexican lances and pikes.’ … Clay later said he had filled the four-pounder cannons with shot and nails.” (10/06/26)

https://www.bluegrassinstitute.org/cassius-marcellus-clay-brought-cannons-to-a-free-press-fight/