HOLMAN W. JENKINS JR.

Liberal hypocrites like Mr. Weinstein were a big reason 63 million Americans voted for a conservative hypocrite like Mr. Trump.

If hyperbolic political speech were outlawed, there’d be silence in America.

The law is a crude machine at best, and only spits out something approaching justice of its attendants are committed to justice. As lawyering has become less about doing right and more about doing what you can get away with, our standards of acceptable shenanigans-as-usual seem to be in a free fall.

No subject over the past 30 years has lent itself so readily to politicians memorizing and repeating combinations of words without the slightest idea of what they are talking about.

A lot more than objectivity has gone missing in our reporting; intelligence has gone missing. The people in charge of the nation’s newsrooms, I continue to believe, are not as deeply, profoundly stupid as so much of what they put on their homepages, increasingly in positions calculated to attract clicks. Then I realize: The internet waits for no man. Neither does happy hour. Thinking and writing carefully require time and effort. The press hasn’t so much abandoned standards of objectivity; it has abandoned standards of effort under a digital imperative that not only favors low-intelligence “hot takes,” but makes them the calling card of what used to be a “news” industry.

The abundant paradox of the disreputable Mr. Trump is the way he entices so many others to shred their own reputations. His political existence is practically built on the willingness of the media to rise mechanically, predictably to the bait every time.

Will customers keep supporting the enormous overhead required to sustain ineffectual, unproductive stock picking across an array of thousands of individual funds devoted to every investing 'style' and economic sector or regional subgroup that some marketing idiot can dream up? Not likely. A brutal shakeout is coming and one of its revelations will be that stock picking is a grossly overrated piece of the puzzle, that cost control is what distinguishes a competitive firm from an uncompetitive one.

To be white and male is not to be sexist and racist.

Humanity never met a dictator or demagogue who said, “I’m a bad person. I want to do bad things.” The worst among us always feel justified.

Hypocrisy is the universal solvent of social relations.

The business case for the Paris agreement has nothing to do with climate change. It goes like this: It is better to be part of any confab than outside of it. Like saluting the flag or bowing your head in church, there is no cost to being insincere, but there is a cost to not going along.

Liberal hypocrites like Mr. Weinstein were a big reason 63 million Americans voted for a conservative hypocrite like Mr. Trump.

Just maybe when the Weinstein scandal has run its course, progressives will discover the virtue of toning down their own excessive claims to righteousness.

To be white and male is not to be sexist and racist.

Humanity never met a dictator or demagogue who said, “I’m a bad person. I want to do bad things.” The worst among us always feel justified.

Part of growing up is learning to live with your emotions; today’s shortcut is to believe whatever your feelings are, they’re justified.

To work together on software, people don’t need a company-supplied forum to discuss their politics, their sexual interests, their cultural antipathies. Offering it seems pointlessly divisive.

A good, old-fashioned Presbyterian horror of self-righteousness, once a feature of American life, is nowhere to be seen.

The abundant paradox of the disreputable Mr. Trump is the way he entices so many others to shred their own reputations. His political existence is practically built on the willingness of the media to rise mechanically, predictably to the bait every time.

If hyperbolic political speech were outlawed, there’d be silence in America.

[…] our world is far too indulgent of politicians saying blatantly insincere things.

Journalists, by and large, are not the irascible free thinkers of lore, going their own way without fear or favor. Corporate institutions as a rule have limited use for such people. Especially in today’s electronic environment, journalists are creatures of availability bias, to borrow a term from social science. They believe what others in their milieu believe, say what others are saying, because it’s in their interest to do so.

We have paid a huge price for our media being unable to frame the virus as a problem with a time dimension and one necessitating trade-offs.

“Follow the science” can serve as a smokescreen for avoiding the science, often complex and uncertain, in favor of partisan stereotyping and narratives of villains and heroes.

No subject over the past 30 years has lent itself so readily to politicians memorizing and repeating combinations of words without the slightest idea of what they are talking about.

The law is a crude machine at best, and only spits out something approaching justice of its attendants are committed to justice. As lawyering has become less about doing right and more about doing what you can get away with, our standards of acceptable shenanigans-as-usual seem to be in a free fall.

Certain countries long ago succeeded where the U.S. has failed in commercializing their air traffic control systems, putting them in the hands of private or quasi-private operators able to raise capital, charge fees, and invest in growth, free of meddling by congressional pork barons. You want a drone-friendly air traffic control system? This is the place to start. Our FAA isn't blindly anti-drone but simply marooned in a system that still needs thousands of eyeballs gazing at radar terminals and out of cockpit windshields.

Will customers keep supporting the enormous overhead required to sustain ineffectual, unproductive stock picking across an array of thousands of individual funds devoted to every investing 'style' and economic sector or regional subgroup that some marketing idiot can dream up? Not likely. A brutal shakeout is coming and one of its revelations will be that stock picking is a grossly overrated piece of the puzzle, that cost control is what distinguishes a competitive firm from an uncompetitive one.

Our media doesn’t believe the important question right now is “Is it true?” The important question is, “Is the truth pro-Trump?” If it is, it must not be reported. Never mind the clear lesson that such an approach only discredits the press while providing Mr. Trump the only real asset he has—the revolting qualities of his enemies.

A lot more than objectivity has gone missing in our reporting; intelligence has gone missing. The people in charge of the nation’s newsrooms, I continue to believe, are not as deeply, profoundly stupid as so much of what they put on their homepages, increasingly in positions calculated to attract clicks. Then I realize: The internet waits for no man. Neither does happy hour. Thinking and writing carefully require time and effort. The press hasn’t so much abandoned standards of objectivity; it has abandoned standards of effort under a digital imperative that not only favors low-intelligence “hot takes,” but makes them the calling card of what used to be a “news” industry.

Too much of what you are told by an ignorant press and politicized scientists exaggerates what is known about future warming, its consequences and the prospects for humanity to adapt.

No subject over the past 30 years has lent itself so readily to politicians memorizing and repeating combinations of words without the slightest idea of what they are talking about.