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Brownstone Journal features in-depth articles, news, research, and commentary on public health, science, economics, social theory, and related policy issues — offering critical perspectives on institutional failures, government interventions, and threats to liberty.

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The Nudge: Ethically Dubious and Ineffective

By going with the grain of how we think and act, the state-employed ‘nudgers’ can covertly shape our behaviour in a direction deemed desirable by the regime of the day – an appealing prospect for any government. The ubiquitous deployment of these behavioural strategies – which frequently rely on inflating emotional distress to change behaviour – raises profound moral questions.

The Nudge: Ethically Dubious and Ineffective Continue Reading

Is Covid Policy Comedy, Tragedy, or Both?

Some degree of levity about the comedic qualities of the last two years is merited but it needs to be complemented by a serious commitment toward radical reform. We need a new way to think about how a good society can develop freely even in the presence of infectious disease. Freedom needs to be nonnegotiable. 

Is Covid Policy Comedy, Tragedy, or Both? Continue Reading

Public Health Erred on the Side of Catastrophe

Overreaching public health officials and politicians—and the journalists-in-name-only who served as their mindless, unquestioning megaphones—have fully earned our withering condemnation. Indeed, holding them accountable is essential to sparing ourselves and future generations from repeating this dystopian chapter of human history.

Public Health Erred on the Side of Catastrophe Continue Reading

The CDC Discovers Actual Public Health, Just in Time

The CDC nowhere admits this much less apologizes for it. Two years in, the CDC seems to have rediscovered the traditional practice of public health, and has justified this new wisdom based on changed conditions, while never even bothering to claim that its previous measures and guidelines achieved anything along the way. 

The CDC Discovers Actual Public Health, Just in Time Continue Reading

Pfizer for Kids: Dodgy Data and Conflicts of Interest

For children to be described by Pfizer and BioNTech as ‘ongoing reservoirs of infection’ is offensive and epitomises the way they have been treated for the past two years-including being labelled as ‘super-spreaders.’ There have been several highly credible reports citing evidence, which state otherwise.

Pfizer for Kids: Dodgy Data and Conflicts of Interest Continue Reading

My Journalism Students Seem Deeply Confused

What has happened to this student generation? Is the pillar of the fourth estate still that influential even in the age of the Internet and alternative media? Has the pandemic so numbed these hippies’ grandkids that they will not question the hegemony and The Man in the designer socks? Are these students just afraid to go out on the limb of independent thought?

My Journalism Students Seem Deeply Confused Continue Reading