I’m teaching Paradise Lost in three weeks. Annie Crawford ‘s steady stream of PL quotes is making me excited to return to Milton’s magnum opus.

Man that Harper’s article is genuinely, viscerally upsetting. Like I know I’m old-fashioned woke or whatever, but I don’t see how this is anything other than dehumanization. An entirely new strain of misogyny, yeah, but there’s something else really grim going on here

.Matt Walsh - I am here for the fish cam.

I’ve always heard the movie version of Starship Troopers is terrible. False. It’s not perfect. The tech is definitely a downgrade from Heinlein’s book. But the movie is not bad. And it was made in the 1990s, which makes it better than 96% of sci-fi made in the last 10 years.

Timothy Knotts of @classicalconv explains the Platonic view of knowledge. From this conversation: youtube.com/watch?v=4_F-GM…

The government shutdown has not meaningfully impacted my life, leaving me to ponder, "Do we really need the US federal government?" Or at least, so much of it? Maybe we could in fact get by with Congress, Senate, SCOTUS, and a President.

Terrifying and heartbreaking essay from @thefp on complications from heavy weed use. The shift from 1% THC concentration (1970s) to 95% concentration (2010s onward), paired with revenue from selling a chemically developed addictive process. Whew. thefp.com/p/grass-sick-c…

These are wise words; enterprising men heed them.

"A conservative culture that experienced a sustained Christian revival, especially, would become a much more uncomfortable place for unconverted libertines." Great concluding line: "But I’m afraid I’m still not playing “Wood” for my kids." Ross Douthat nytimes.com/2025/10/21/opi…

"Classical Academy at Superstition Mountain" Genius? Or horrible marketing error? pinalcentral.com/free-access/ne…

"The University of Chicago’s architecture once paid homage to the medieval trivium and quadrivium—the bedrock of the liberal arts. Now it pays homage only to money." thenation.com/article/cultur…

It is wild to think how different 2017 was from 2025.

Yes.

Yes.

Great thread.

Your now weekly reminder that higher ed is done. We need alternate systems and institutions. Ancient Language Institute - y’all want to cover French too?

What are you writing today? I’ll start - CS Lewis’s model of culture war drawn from The Last Battle, That Hideous Strength, and The Faerie Queene.

What a beautiful story of God's grace. Even in the worst of human sins, using the least neutral of tools---the God Who Lives still draws men to himself.