Racist assumptions, ethnolinguistic assumptions of inferiority or superiority, are as old as mankind.
Ben Domenech
Making a good meal for someone, even if it is nothing complicated, is an expression of love: it is an invitation to share, for one dinner at least, in our common humanity.
Trump is playing to an audience of people who think of themselves less as Republicans and more as Americans - moderates, conservatives, and independents - who feel that the Republican Party has completely ignored their priorities and beliefs and insulted them along the way.
You should never meet your heroes.
I know that charges of plagiarism are serious.
In a time of fractured politics, our need for unifying cultural events is more acute, and particularly our need for creators who do not deny the people their art because of the votes they cast.
Conservative voters will put up with a lot of things in the culture that disagree with their views. They have proven time and again they will roll their eyes at actors and musicians saying negative things about the presidents and candidates they vote for and still consume their product.
When Barack Obama arrived in Washington, many in the media welcomed him with optimism as a historic figure focused on progressive change. But their overwhelmingly favorable treatment of him ultimately turned Americans who disagreed with Obama's policies away from traditional media sources they came to distrust.
When I was much younger, my siblings and I would routinely tune in to watch 'Bill Nye the Science Guy' on PBS. He was a fascinating instructor bent on helping kids achieve a basic understanding of science. When he engaged in politics, it was only very briefly if at all.
I came from a religious, homeschooled background; I had conventional views across the board.
Father John Misty is rebelling not against repression or foolishness but the ephemeral nature of mankind. He seeks permanence in a fleeting age, and he does not find it because the one place he could find an answer, he considers closed off: a locked door.
A smart, intellectual magazine is a difficult thing to run because of the need to manage conflicting personalities and opinionated writers who clash constantly, whose clashes make the publication better. It is exhausting and draining, and honestly, the only thing that's harder is probably running a university.
It'd be nice to say that American media doesn't hate this country.
If your team is good, you watch all the games - but if they're no fun to watch? You have a plethora of options. Just switch to Netflix.
Trump represents a vibrant and fed-up mass of people who see the Republican Party as standing for nothing, so they have turned to someone who can beat the party by standing for anything.
I've rooted all my life for a marginal team.
In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, everyone in America assumed that there would be wars to follow - wars over the reunification of Germany, over the nations within the sphere of Soviet influence, and more. There weren't, because George H. W. Bush's policies and diplomacy prevented that.
Trump's rise was contingent on wide swaths of the country completely tuning out so-called mainstream media sources, while all too many outlets did a poor job covering 2016.
You have the right to free speech as an American - you have no right to use YouTube to do it. And the mobs that exist can form very quickly if they are offended by your presence there.
Unilateral sanctions on Cuba have been oppressive and largely ineffective, and that's why the public largely supports lifting them.
You shouldn't have to be a chair at a think tank to speak your mind.
It is unhealthy to live in an environment where every aspect of our culture requires a great sort, where creative talents are for some but not for all, and where performing for the president of the United States becomes a point of regular and significant controversy.
Gawker was a site built to destroy lives. Its mission was to discover the worst moment in a person's life - and then publicize it for profit.
It is a common thing for supporters of President Trump, even as early as when he was a candidate, to say, 'He fights.' And yes, he does fight. He fights everyone. He gets into all kinds of scraps that are pointless and unnecessary. He insults when he doesn't need to.
A repeated problem with the Obama administration has been the lack of understanding that contracts only matter if they are enforceable - and if there is a party willing to do the enforcement.
Try to name any meaningful thing Hillary Clinton accomplished in her role as Secretary of State. The small things she did accomplish have almost universally turned out badly.
Being a bureaucrat means never having to say you're sorry.
What we try to do at 'The Federalist' is to provide opinion and analysis that brings in a lot of different perspectives from across the Right. You'll see, a lot of times, us running an article that argues one side of something and then an article that argues the opposite.
The disturbing truth we have to recognize is that Bourdain is not alone in his loneliness and depression.
We have all had the experience at some point in our lives of sitting across from someone whose favorite subject is themselves. This is true of nearly everyone to some respect - but for some people, it is a particularly acute problem.
One of the things I endeavor to remind people of consistently when I am asked to speak to groups around the country is to consider the possibility that we are led by a pack of idiots. This is not out of any animus toward our leadership class, but borne out of experience.
Writers who do great work must be coddled and encouraged.
For years, the NFL was the one league apparently immune from ratings downturns of any significance.
Politics is downstream from culture.
It is at best insufficient and at worst inaccurate to settle on a definition of the Enlightenment, for the obvious reason that there was not just one.
I grew up watching 'The Lone Ranger.' I would get up every Saturday morning, earlier than all the other kids, to watch a black and white western with Clayton Moore that hadn't filmed a new episode since 1957.
In 2008, many Democrats and Republicans believed Hillary Clinton to be a responsible public leader - a firm hand on the wheel, experienced in matters of diplomacy, conflict, and national interest. The 3 A.M. phone call was a question mark with Barack Obama, but not for Hillary Clinton.
Tolerance as practiced by the Christian, enlightened West was never about thinking that bad people are good but that we are all called to love the sinner and hate the sin.
It used to be you could just write vaguely conservative things while running a Starbucks - now, you can't.
For being the largest generation in American history, the Millennial generation inspires a ridiculous degree of overgeneralization.
Throughout the history of America, we have been a nation driven by the idea of the frontier - a place where law was slim and liberty was enormous, where you could make your way in the world based on your own ambition and abilities, not fenced in by the limitations of society.
Engaging in a sycophantic way with any politician in the short term is tempting. It offers the lure of access and the promise of influence. But ultimately, it can lead to misreading the environment, giving too much of an ear to the politician's circle, and confining your audience to partisans.
Careful authors and journalists cultivate relationships with a wide variety of sources so as to avoid bad information or being led down an inaccurate path. Gossip columnists don't particularly care if the path is inaccurate, so long as it gets attention and results in more fuel for the fire.
I stopped being a Republican because of the Iraq War.
Our leaders do us no service when they fail to recognize that the threat the so-called Islamic State and its allied terrorists represent is a civilizational, not a geopolitical, conflict and can only be understood through that lens.
Father John Misty imagines that he is a rebel. He is, but he does not realize what he is rebelling against.
The first time I watched 'The Magnificent Seven' on TV on a Sunday afternoon, I knew it was going to be a different kind of western.
When the holidays approach and the weather turns cold, you spend your nights watching and rewatching saccharine movies until you fall asleep, hoping for some gleam of happiness or catharsis that never comes, a version of life that looks like a Hallmark movie or where your idealized prince finally shows up.
Trump's supporters have taken over the Republican Party - not just because they like him but because they believe his approach to politics has been consistently vindicated.
We all consume Netflix and other streaming services in different ways. Sometimes, it's a movie you're really going to focus on; other times, it's background noise to something else, where you won't really pay attention.