yetGavin McInnes looks like someone you’d see at an avant-garde art exhibit, or discussing Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy over a craft beer…at a Father John Misty concert. That’s according to conventional reasoning. In reality, McInnes is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Or more jcisely, an abrasively parochial nationalist in prototypical hipster attire — certainly not a combination you see every day. As the impresario of the belligerent Proud Boys group, McInnes is a self-proclaimed “Western chauvinist” who “refuses to apologize for creating the modern world”. He denies any harbouring of misogynistic or racist sentiments, and espouses an ideology teeming with contradictions. In fairness, the Proud Boys, a quasi-cultish consortium possessing excess levels of testosterone, doesn’t disavow members from visible minorities. McInnes rightfully points out, on numerous occasions, unfounded journalistic conclusions categorizing the group as neo-Nazi in design. Despite that, it’s his rigid conception of Western identity, and its alleged superiority, that imply the more malignant underpinnings. Just because he’s not a proponent of eugenics doesn’t exonerate him from latent, crude prejudice. After all, McInnes slams the …

  In fairness, we were warned. “On day one, we will begin working on an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful southern border wall”. The rhetorical pledge captured a pivotal moment in time, and President Donald Trump hasn’t yet abdicated that assurance. The initial comment – which appeared to be a hyperbolized metaphor pulled from the recesses of the 45th President’s wildest fancies – has transformed into an imposing beacon of hope for his base, and a crude manifestation of exclusionary populism for others. On top of that, leveraging DACA extensions to suborn bilateral support for construction is, quite frankly, concerning. Moral outcry aside, the wall needs to be viewed in the context of what it purports to address: illegal immigration. It is arguably the cornerstone of Trump’s agenda, image, and appeal. As such, it’s worth seriously considering whether the construction of a wall is the most cost-effective way of addressing the issue, as well as exploring the current tenor of illegal immigration. To end the suspense, it’s far from a panacea – instead, serving to compound …

Today’s political and cultural landscape is one of intimidation and censorship, both explicit and implicit. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to notice that the field of academia is overwhelmingly reflective of one particular stream of thinking. It’s pretty much groupthink. While that stream of thinking is present if not ubiquitous among the student population, many actively disagree. Discovering one’s own values and principles requires the act of seeking knowledge, and that cannot be done without the freedom of speech and expression. In high school classrooms all across America, education is shaping up to be a tool for indoctrination and propaganda, a consequence from almost a century of plunder and deceit. As William F. Buckley Jr. wrote in God and Man at Yale, “a free association, within a free society, shaping an educational institution toward its own purpose, is practicing a freedom which totalitarian societies would never permit to do.” Pointing out an obvious bias on campuses in North America, Buckley warned of a present and existential threat towards one’s right of free expression and …

As hard as it is to believe now, barely six months ago it appeared that the Damascus-based regime of Bashar Al-Assad was on its last legs. Pressed by both Western-backed moderate rebels and ISIS alike on a front ranging from Idlib in the north and Homs in the east, and with his own forces disintegrating under an increasing number of both defections and desertions, the main question seemed to be whether Assad would even be able to hold on to his western Syrian, Alawite coastal strongholds and the capital city itself, or if even those pillars of loyalty to the regime were now in danger. The days of the House of Assad as the rulers of Syria appeared to be numbered.   Well, that was then and this is now. President Putin, determined to rescue his puppet and Russia’s sole naval base in the Mediterranean, choose to directly insert himself into the conflict under the guise of fighting ISIS, but in reality directing the bulk of his fire upon opposition rebel forces. Buoyed by the …