Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy

“One of the big mysteries of human history is the so-called ‘hockey-stick of prosperity.’ That is, the fact that, for much of human history, standards of living were virtually unchanged. Very little separated the Roman citizen in 1AD from the British citizen in 1700. But, starting in the 1700s, standards of living skyrocketed. … Nothing like this had happened before, and it kept happening. Even the most optimistic economists at the time had trouble explaining it. Enter Mokyr, Aghion, and Howitt. Collectively, their work helped explain why this growth happened, why it happened where it did, and how it is sustainable.” (10/13/25)

https://www.econlib.org/2025-nobel-mokyr-aghion-howitt

Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jason M Blazakis

“President Trump’s executive order designating antifa as a ‘domestic terrorist organization’ was never really about antifa. It was about building a template for repression. Now, with his latest order on ‘Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,’ the blueprint is clear: free expression, political dissent and municipal autonomy are in the crosshairs. … History offers warnings. Governments that criminalize opposition rarely stop at the margins. In Turkey, the label of ‘terrorist’ has been used to decimate civil society, shutter newspapers and jail academics. In Russia, counterextremism laws have become blunt instruments for crushing democracy. We must be honest: America is inching down that path.” (10/13/25)

https://archive.is/sfDsD

Source: Persuasion
by Sam Kahn

“[A] chill went down my spine when I read the text of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘super-Sparta’ speech in mid-September where he claimed that Israel had been driven into a state of isolation on the world stage and would need to adapt by embracing that isolation, by ‘adapting to an economy with autarkic characteristics’ and by becoming a ‘super-Sparta,’ producing its own weapons and economic necessities and generally ignoring the outside world. In particular, Netanyahu singled out Europe, arguing that Muslim migration had led to European countries developing an ‘Islamist agenda’ that was intrinsically anti-Zionist. Another way to put it was that Netanyahu was adopting a ‘Masada Mindset.’ The overwhelming sense of the speech was a belief that Israel, and Jews, have an utterly singular fate.” (10/13/25)

https://www.persuasion.community/p/now-israel-must-choose

Source: Reason
by Matthew Petti

“The kids these days have a lot of silly euphemisms. Porn becomes corn. Sex becomes seggs. Nipples are nip nops and a picture of an eggplant can stand in for a penis. Killing someone becomes unaliving them, and people kermit sewerslide instead of committing suicide. Everything slightly risqué or unpleasant becomes baby talk. But not because teens are overgrown infants — it’s a bottom-up response to top-down censorship.” (10/13/25)

https://reason.com/2025/10/13/algorithmic-censorship-changes-the-way-we-talk