We (@cosmo_globalist, that is, @VivekYKelkar and me, to be precise) just recorded a podcast with @VladDavidzon and @olgatokariuk, both in Kyiv. We'll have that up for you presently. We talked about the mood in Kyiv; whether Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself;
what it still needs, and whether there's time to provide it. We also talked about the past 48 hours, diplomatically; Minsk 2; Liz Truss and Macron's visits to Moscow; pipelines and politics; and Tucker Carlson.
I asked them to rank, from 1-10, the support Ukraine has received from the US, NATO, the EU, and its member states. Olga gave the US an 8 and the UK a 10 ("except for failing to crack down on Russian money, which is a big 'except.'")
Germany got a 3.
We'll put this up for you later today or tomorrow, depending how long it takes us to figure out how to do this. (This was our first time flying solo--usually @MoniqueCamarra helps us with the Cosmopolicast.)
The positive response to this podcast vindicates everything @VivekYKelkar and I have been saying about why we started the @cosmo_globalist. Yes, Ukrainians-- in Ukraine--know more about Ukraine than the talking heads sitting in the studios in NY and DC! claireberlinski.substack.com/p/the-view-fro…
It's not a surprise! The surprise is that we collectively decided, over a period of 30 years, to stop reporting foreign news by asking people who live there, "Hey, what's going on?"
Since the Cold War, the percentage of the news hole devoted to foreign news has dropped from 40 percent on broadcast to 4 percent. And by 80 percent in print media. A lot of reasons for this, mostly due to massive changes in the news industry--
If you've worked with other designers, you'll know that a designer who says, "Yes, absolutely, I can do that!"--and who*can* do that, and who is *genuinely thrilled* to do that, even if the clients have changed their minds ten times that day--is a treasure more rare than rubies.
We want to make sure he has a nice nest egg for his wedding, so we're revealing the secret of Amanpreet to you, but it goes two ways: You must be as good to him as he'll be to you.
This is the reason why I've heard this is okay: 1. We want Russia to be our ally against China and all good allies support their allies when they invade and enslave their neighbors. 2. Ukrainians are Nazis. Or one that I heard about is, anyway.
3. We need to save our energy for the fight against China, especially because that will be coming soon once China sees how indisposed we are to defend our friends.
4. Ukraine's not really a country. It just thinks it is. It's a very weird mass delusion. They're just 40 million Russians preparing to stab their fellow Russians in the eye with a broomstick or any other pointy they have on hand. Who knows why. Russians are weird.
"If it is difficult to look at the twentieth century with a steady eye, so terrible are its crimes, the temptation is great to allow one’s eye to wander. Steven Pinker is, in this regard, one step away from clinical strabismus." cosmopolitanglobalist.com/the-best-of-ti… Part I
"Poorly defined problems very often lead to absurd solutions, the ensuing circle having, in the case of homicide rates, the virtue, at least, of long-term stability." Part II cosmopolitanglobalist.com/the-best-of-ti…
Stay tuned for Part III, today.
Pinker's book was widely hailed as "amply documented" and "counterintuitive."
It was counterintuitive because it was wrong; and the sources collapse on scrutiny.
If you missed it yesterday:
You've doubtless heard the claim, popularized by Steven Pinker, that we live in the most peaceful time in history.
This week @cosmo_globalist, we're running a three-part essay by my father, David Berlinski: cosmopolitanglobalist.com/the-best-of-ti…
Pinker writes, "Believe it or not … violence has declined over long stretches of time, and today we may be living in the most peaceable era in our species’ existence … it is an unmistakable development."
Don't believe it. He's wrong.
By the lights of this Whig theory of history, the world is becoming more and more peaceful, less and less cruel. Humanity is improving, and any intuition you may have to the contrary is a mistake. Since the publication of Pinker's book, these claims have been accepted as truisms.
Journalists, analysts, academics, writers: @cosmo_globalist is looking for people who live in, and can write well about, Taiwan, Central Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Our writers right now are excessively concentrated in Europe and India:
not that there's anything wrong with Europe and India; there's lots going on in both places, but it's unbalanced. Also: If you live in Russia or China and want to write for us, we'd love to talk to you. We'll let you write under a pseudonym if need be. Iran, too.
This is who we are: cosmopolitanglobalist.com/about-us/
We're looking for people who have a depth of knowledge that you can only acquire from living in a country for many years and speaking the language,