Wendy McElroy | The Libertarian Institute

Geoeconomics, Geopolitics, and Montesquieu

by Wendy McElroy | Aug 15, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

How nations approach foreign policy, including war, shifts dramatically with time. A shift in American foreign policy seems to be speeding up or, perhaps, the change is merely reaching the logical conclusion of policies developed in the post-World War II decades. Since the 1990s, there has been a growing interest in the relationship between geopolitics, such as territorial incursions, and geoeconomics, such as economic sanctions. The preceding are stripped down definitions of “geopolitics” and “geoeconomics” that apply specifically to foreign policy or war; various sources would offer...

ATIXA: Willful Non-Compliance With Title IX?

by Wendy McElroy | Sep 9, 2020 | Featured Articles

Just because a law is passed does not mean it is enacted. Implementation requires a bureaucracy willing to carry out the law rather than obstruct it. A new Title IX regulation was published on May 6; this section of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 prohibits schools that receive federal financial assistance from discriminating against students on the basis of sex. The new regulation was meant to bring transparency to sexual misconduct hearings and due process to those who are accused of misconduct. To most people, these seem to be worthy goals. The new rules have been subjected to legal...

Will the New Title IX Be Sabotaged?

by Wendy McElroy | Aug 25, 2020 | Featured Articles

On August 14, a change of kind occurred in how educational institutions address accusations of sexual misconduct if they wish to receive federal funding. A controversial new Title IX regulation went into effect. Or did it? In today’s extraordinarily partisan times, there can be cognitive disconnect between official policy and actual practice. One reason: the so-called “right wing” heads most government agencies while a “left wing” bureaucracy often dominates the implementation of policies. In both active and passive-aggressive ways, the bureaucracy constitutes what is called “the...

Can Lockdown Learning Liberate Male Students?

by Wendy McElroy | Jul 30, 2020 | Featured Articles, Justice

The COVID-19 cloud hanging over North American universities may contain a ray of sunlight. It may ease what is called “the boy problem” in education—a significantly reduced number of male students and of male achievement in colleges. As bleak as isolated learning may seem to some, it may be more male friendly than many campuses. Critics denounce off-campus learning as a lesser service being offered at full price. Certainly, the college experience can be enhanced by direct interaction with professors, other students, and organizations. But a radical left ideology dominates the university...

Myths and Hoaxes of Sexual Abuse Stoke ‘Politically Useful’ Fear

by Wendy McElroy | Jul 22, 2020 | Featured Articles

"[S]ince love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved."—Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513 For those who want to control a population, fear is more useful than love and far easier to elicit. A culture conditioned to feel knee-jerk fear allows political power to rise on a tide of emotions without the need for arguments and evidence. When the adrenaline of fear hits, people cry out for social control in the belief that government can protect them. Those who want to verify a crisis before acting on it are seen as part of the...

Men’s Lives Matter: Male Victims of Sexual Abuse

by Wendy McElroy | Jul 1, 2020 | Featured Articles

When a woman sexually abuses a man, the pain inflicted is dismissed by those whose political paradigm does not include men as victims.Unfortunately, these voices dominate the research, media, and legislation that surrounds the issue of sexual victimization. Their narrative: “Women are victims, men are perpetrators.” This rigid approach even ignores the glaring male-on-male sexual violence in prisons because it does not fit the mold; in fact, if prisoners were counted, then men might well show a greater rate of rape than women. The blindness to male victimization inflicts a second injustice...

Women: Reject Victimhood, Embrace Your Individualism

by Wendy McElroy | Jun 16, 2020 | Featured Articles

As a teenager I lived on the streets for as short a period as I could manage. This one experience brought more violence into my life than I care to remember, let alone describe, but it did not define me. I mention the experience for one reason; it is not ignorance or a lack of empathy that makes me flatly state that sexual violence against women has declined over time. Almost everything is better for North American women now than it was decades ago. Yet North America is widely decried as a “rape culture,” and the condemnation is passionate to the point of sounding almost religious. “Rape...

Tulane University Accused Of Anti-Male, Title IX Violation

by Wendy McElroy | Jun 12, 2020 | Featured Articles

A complaint filed on April 17 with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) could echo through college corridors across America. Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE)—a “national policy movement for fairness, due process and the presumption of innocence”—accuses Tulane University of sexual discrimination against male students. A review of 300 large colleges conducted by SAVE’s Title IX Equity Project found many institutions to be vulnerable to similar complaints. The issue is federal funding. Tulane is a private university, but it accepts tax money for student aid....