David Polansky
@polanskydj.bsky.social
https://davidpolansky.substack.com/
Thucydides’s ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’ is often misunderstood, being invoked both as a critique and a justification in international relations. This essay explores the irony of this tendency and why his work is just as relevant to today
Thucydides’ account of war is as timely as it is misunderstood | Aeon Essays
Far from thinking that ‘might makes right’, the great historian’s analysis of war identifies a vice common to all states
buff.ly
There's been much discussion about the significance of Orbán's electoral defeat, not to say his prior rule. But as I ask and try to answer here, why do so many people across the political spectrum continue to obsess over Hungary in the first place?
Wherever flow the rivers of the Tisza and the Danube
On our curious Hungarian fixation
open.substack.com
As the recent attack on the the U.S. consulate in Toronto indicates, the persistent targeting of Jewish institutions in Canada are not just a problem for Jews, but for Canadian sovereignty itself. I explain why in @nationalpost.bsky.social today nationalpost.com/opinion/syna...
David Polansky: Synagogue shootings are an assault on Canadian sovereignty
The perpetrators of these crimes are not only threatening Jews, but the rule of law and the government's ability to protect civil society
nationalpost.com
I recently half-joked that we decided to destroy modern literacy in order to get rid of imaginary "lit bros." I make the actual argument here: www.washingtonexaminer.com/premium/4470...
Thirty years of anti-intellectual pretexts for hating Infinite Jest
In the internet age, in the absence of direct social interaction, we have been compelled to invent people to get mad at.
washingtonexaminer.com
This is our Iliad, and even if it weren't it's not like we're exactly surfeited with literacy among the young these days that we need them discarding what reading materials they have
jamelle@jamellebouie.net · 7mo agosome kid on my flight is reading shelby foote's civil war book and i want to tell him to throw that shit in the trash
I am not wildly enthused about Trump's latest bluster over Greenland, but as I wrote here, it has been instructive to see Europeans, Canadians, et al. displaying such outrage at being treated like American dependencies. What exactly did they think they were? thecritic.co.uk/how-much-res...
How much respect does the US owe its allies? | David Polansky | The Critic Magazine
Perhaps the closest thing President Donald Trump has to a bedrock principle is his instinctive opposition to any arrangement that favors — or seems to favor — the other guy. The notion that someone…
thecritic.co.uk
For your New Year's reading: debates over citizenship are everywhere, from the birthright question in the U.S. and Canada to the Alaa Abd El-Fattah controversy and beyond, but we we lack a clear understanding of how the concept has changed over time. www.city-journal.org/article/anci...
The Revolution in Citizenship
Its modern meaning is less suggestive of obligations than of a desired status that confers benefits.
city-journal.org
Needing a break from heavier themes, I wrote probably more than most people want to know about properties of sound, audio equipment, and collecting vinyl records. davidpolansky.substack.com/p/my-music-c...
My Music Career
I felt I needed a bit of a break from heavier themes, and this post was inspired by my friend Ryan Floyd of Detached Notes. He has belatedly made the excellent decision to get into vinyl and has been ...
davidpolansky.substack.com
I reviewed the new book by @shadihamid.bsky.social which makes the case for American power. My takeaway is that he's reverse engineering neoconservatism albeit from very different premises. Give it a read (both the book and the review): davidpolansky.substack.com/p/review-sha...
Review: Shadi Hamid's The Case for American Power
or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Hegemon
davidpolansky.substack.com
Free speech Canada vs US, an ongoing conundrum. A delight as always to chat with @polanskydj.bsky.social, for The Jewish Angle @thecjn.bsky.social thecjn.ca/opinion/is-f...
Is 'free speech' suddenly freer in Canada than the U.S.?
The 2020s are entering the era of the 'woke right', where permissible language is dictated by right-wing governments.
thecjn.ca
I mostly stayed offline yesterday, but I did set down some thoughts on why, as much as I do hope this latest peace proposal sticks, the larger question of Palestinian sovereignty is still unresolved—partly because people seem to keep seeing past it. davidpolansky.substack.com/p/what-did-w...
What Did We Learn?
Looking back and forward on the second anniversary of the 10/7 attacks
davidpolansky.substack.com
I mostly stayed offline yesterday, but I did set down some thoughts on why, as much as I do hope this latest peace proposal sticks, the larger question of Palestinian sovereignty is still unresolved—partly because people seem to keep seeing past it. davidpolansky.substack.com/p/what-did-w...
What Did We Learn?
Looking back and forward on the second anniversary of the 10/7 attacks
davidpolansky.substack.com
In the wake of Kirk's killing, I am seeing what has become a common tendency to attribute such attacks to a kind of abstract political contagion or historical momentum we can barely withstand. I try to explain here why I think we should resist this impulse. davidpolansky.substack.com/p/against-th...
Against the Passive Voice
On the mental resistance of despair as political practice
davidpolansky.substack.com
Living outside the United States on this 4th of July, I wrote about the theme of exile, with reflections on Dante, Caetano Veloso, and Jason Stanley -- a sentence that I'm pretty sure no one has written before. Link below. davidpolansky.substack.com/p/on-exile
On Exile
Considerations on Dante, Caetano Veloso, Jason Stanley, and me
davidpolansky.substack.com
I wrote (what I hope is) a non-hysterical consideration of the problem of rising antisemitism in Canada. Unlike the United States, it's not significantly involved in the Middle East already, which may allow for greater clarity. thehub.ca/2025/06/20/d...
David Polansky: Kind, tolerant Canada is failing the antisemitism test
An increasingly multicultural Canada is increasingly hostile towards Canada’s Jews
thehub.ca
For your Memorial Day reading, I wrote about the mistaken belief that we're living in a time of intense ideological conflicts. davidpolansky.substack.com/p/non-immens...
Non-immense Wars of the Non-spirit
Over three decades ago, Francis Fukuyama published his famous End of History and the Last Man, in which he declared that history (or rather, “History”), meaning an unfolding process of clashing ideas,...
davidpolansky.substack.com
Quite a few books have been written lately on the emergence of right-wing threats to democracy. I reviewed two of them—Zack Beauchamp’s The Reactionary Spirit and Quinn Slobodian’s Hayek’s Bastards—but found their explanations wanting. americanaffairsjournal.org/2025/05/demo...
Democracy’s Demons - American Affairs Journal
Following her defeat in the 2016 general election, Hillary Clinton published a book titled What Happened. While that tome is not considered a classic work of political analysis, its implied titular qu...
americanaffairsjournal.org
Quite a few books have been written lately on the emergence of right-wing threats to democracy. I reviewed two of them—Zack Beauchamp’s The Reactionary Spirit and Quinn Slobodian’s Hayek’s Bastards—but found their explanations wanting. americanaffairsjournal.org/2025/05/demo...
Democracy’s Demons - American Affairs Journal
Following her defeat in the 2016 general election, Hillary Clinton published a book titled What Happened. While that tome is not considered a classic work of political analysis, its implied titular qu...
americanaffairsjournal.org
I wrote about the question of greatness, particularly in light of Trump and his supporters for @wisdomofcrowds.bsky.social -- give it a read: wisdomofcrowds.live/p/michael-jo...
Michael Jordan, Yes; Winston Churchill, No?
David Polansky on why democracies fear greatness -- and why they shouldn't.
wisdomofcrowds.live
I am in @thehubcanada.bsky.social today on that rarest of things: an important Canadian election. thehub.ca/2025/04/28/d...
David Polansky: Canada on the brink
thehub.ca
I have a guest post in @shadihamid.bsky.social 's excellent new newsletter discussing the strange state of affairs in which liberals find themselves defending established norms and institutions--kinda like, um, conservatives. www.shadihamid.net/p/on-conserv...
On Conservatism
A guest essay from David Polansky on why everyone defends what they know best.
shadihamid.net
In light of the news of the Trump administration pulling $400 million in public funding from Columbia University and the complaints about free speech in response, I'm reposting what I wrote on this question last year, which I think still applies. www.washingtonexaminer.com/magazine-lif...
We argue about campus free speech because we forget what the university is for - Washington Examiner
The salient questions are whether universities are meaningfully generating or preserving human knowledge and whether their students are capable of receiving it.
washingtonexaminer.com
I have an essay on an underappreciated factor that contributes to the madness of contemporary politics: how broadly liberal or left-leaning establishment institutions now find themselves in the essentially conservative position of defending the status quo. www.strangefrequencies.co/on-conservat...
On Conservatism
The great historian/poet/all-around Renaissance man Robert Conquest famously formulated several laws of politics, of which the first ran: Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.
strangefrequencies.co
In my new @washingtonpost.com column, I argue that it's okay to have mixed feelings about "the system." Personally, I'm neither pro-system nor anti-system. And that's a fine place to be, however uncomfortable it may feel. More people should join us. wapo.st/3EUWhkv
Opinion | Why half of America is cheering for chaos
The fight isn’t between conservatives and liberals anymore. It’s are you pro-system or anti-system?
wapo.st
There's this emphasis on humor as a kind of political expression under the new regime, in contrast to the previous era of high wokeness. The trouble is, you can't really will yourself into comedy without turning it into a kind of kitsch, as I discuss here. thecritic.co.uk/why-politics...
Why politics kills comedy | David Polansky | The Critic Magazine
Humour is a strange thing. Back when Christopher Hitchens was both alive and still playing his assigned role of Naughty Little Provocateur, he attracted some controversy over an article titled “Why…
thecritic.co.uk
Love this examination by @polanskydj.bsky.social . Humor is true morality. It protects us from both the moralist piety of the Left and the immoral cruelty of the Right. thecritic.co.uk/why-politics...
Why politics kills comedy | David Polansky | The Critic Magazine
Humour is a strange thing. Back when Christopher Hitchens was both alive and still playing his assigned role of Naughty Little Provocateur, he attracted some controversy over an article titled “Why…
thecritic.co.uk
I am in @postopinions.bsky.social along with several others with comments on the very brief trade war between the United States and Canada. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/int...
Opinion | Trump’s tariff whiplash
Six writers react to the new administration’s tariff diplomacy.
washingtonpost.com
