Weekend Reads: October 16, 2020

Welcome to Lowercase Weekend Reads. Grab a warm drink or a scotch, a comfortable seat and get ready for our weekend reads highlighting the most important articles of the week.

Facebook Just Forced Its Most Powerful Critics Offline

Every time I think Facebook cannot surprise me anymore they come back and do it. 

"Nothing says 'free speech' quite as much as a multibillion-dollar corporation with a global monopoly getting its critics shut down."

How the media has abetted the Republican assault on mail-in voting

The disinformation around this subject is insane. Thankfully we still have decent journalists willing to do research like this. 

John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge on the Crisis of Conservatism

Interesting take on conservatism. After being destroyed from within by Trump, it needs to reinvent itself.

A BC research project gave homeless people $7,500 each — the results were 'beautifully surprising'

This is my feel good story of the week. To me the results are astonishing. I would love to see something like this at a greater scale. Imagine if we could target funding for something like this instead of wasting it in other things. We will have a whole podcast episode on income inequality but I have changed my mind regarding poverty and redistribution. 

The Lawrence Mead Affair – Quillette

This story is crazy! If this is what is happening in universities we are screwed. Look, this guy’s ideas are wrong but that does not mean he should not be published! Free speech is about getting upset sometimes. Plus how do you know that your view is right if it has not been challenged and dismantled in the marketplace of ideas? 

What we are reading: 

Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty 

Next in line:

The Return of History: Conflict, Migration, and Geopolitics in the Twenty-First Century by Jennifer Welsh