Quillette Narrated

How Margaret Mead’s romanticised account of Samoan life became the founding myth of cultural determinism—and why it endures despite having been thoroughly debunked.

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Before Han Solo and Indiana Jones, there was another Harrison Ford, a star of silent cinema.

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The article "Who Got the Camera?" by Dilan Esper recalls Los Angeles policing debates in the 1980s-90s: high crime (gangs, drugs, homelessness) versus claims of LAPD brutality under Chief Daryl Gates, who treated policing like war and used extreme tactics.

It details the 1991 Rodney King incident: King, a felon intoxicated during a high-speed chase (up to 117 mph), was beaten by four LAPD officers with batons and a taser. Neighbor George Holliday's camcorder video—showing prolonged punishment, not defense—shifted public opinion. Tough-on-crime supporters rejected brutality; Gates was ousted, riots followed a state acquittal, and two officers got federal prison time.

Author argues cameras (now ubiquitous, including bodycams) aid good cops by showcasing professionalism but expose bad ones, ending the "code of silence."

Parallels to 2026: Trump's second-term ICE raids use masked agents in cities, arresting citizens/residents, beating immigrants, blocking filming, roughing protesters, and shooting two civilians dead in Minneapolis streets within weeks. Right-wing defenses (victim disobedience, threats) echo 1991 but fail against video evidence, evoking natural revulsion like family separations did in 2020.

Polls confirm backlash: Trump's immigration approval fell from +9 (Aug 2025) to -20 (Jan 20, Rasmussen); YouGov shows more support than opposition for abolishing ICE; over 1/3 of Trump voters back deportation goals but not methods (Politico).

Public wants secure borders without cruelty; midterms loom as reminder.

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A new boxset edits out one of John Lennon’s most controversial songs.

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Tasmania has all the majesty of other windswept high-latitude places, but it has always been less barren, more hospitable, more generous in its beauty.

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Napoleon Chagnon documented a society in which violent men enjoyed greater reproductive and marital success. Some of his academic colleagues never forgave him for it.

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Zohran Mamdani wants to institute “collectivist” governance, but NYC already has a collectivist problem—a coordinated veto system that blocks development and progress.

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As radicals, we lived in what I call a paradigm of suspicion, one of the malignant ideas that emerge as a result of intellectual in-breeding.

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Mishima’s reputation has grown in the new century and today there is more serious interest in his work than ever before.

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The Bondi terrorist attack reveals how Australia's reluctance to discuss Islamic antisemitism and ideological motivations undermines cohesion. By Alan Davison.

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