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Niall Ferguson
@nfergus
International man of history. Author, senior fellow, columnist. Latest book, DOOM: The Politics of Catastrophe (Penguin). Opinions my own.
Niall Ferguson’s Tweets
Reminder: “Keep Calm and Carry On” was never used during the war. Though millions of copies were printed in 1939, it was decided not to distribute them and the slogan was exhumed and popularized only in 2000. Instead, the government went for this.
As I said last week, the Biden administration has apparently decided to instrumentalize the war in Ukraine to bring about regime change in Russia, rather than trying to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible. Biden just said it out loud. This is a highly risky strategy.
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After President Joe Biden declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power," a White House official asserted that the U.S. leader was "not discussing Putin’s power in Russia or regime change." apne.ws/CirepbB
When is going to acknowledge explicitly that by far the biggest culprit is China, which signed up for Paris but continues to build one coal-burning power station a week? China is responsible for 60% of the increase in global emissions of CO2 since Greta was born.
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Replying to @nytimes
"Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour."
Read Greta Thunberg's full speech from the World Economic Forum in Davos: nytimes.com/2020/01/21/cli
“Ilhan Omar seems to have learned the same anti-Semitism I was once taught as a young girl in Somalia. I hope she can unlearn it too,” writes
Liberals 2 years ago: The tyrant Trump will destroy the constitution!
Liberals now: It’s all the fault of the constitution. Let’s destroy it!
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If by “failed” you mean governed and shaped the most powerful country in world history while enshrining eternal and fundamental values, spot on twitter.com/imillhiser/sta…
This is the central issue of the climate change debate. Until someone tells me how exactly the rest of us are going to constrain China and India, it's all virtue signaling.
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The rise of China and India, with their associated energy demands, has overwhelmed the emissions reductions chalked up by richer nations bloom.bg/2LQnzu4
The most depressing finding of this report is how deeply illiberal the American students are who describe themselves as liberal. The worst of it is their disgusting enthusiasm for informing on professors and one another. ndsu.edu/fileadmin/chal
In about 20 years (if there is anyone sane left in academia by then), someone will work out just how much damage was done by all the crazy campaigns of character assassination that followed the Great Awokening. The case described here is only one of many:
“Cambridge University Rescinds my Fellowship | Jordan Peterson.” Having taught at Cambridge for three happy years, I am dismayed at the shabby treatment of . All concerned should read this and hang their heads in shame. jordanbpeterson.com/blog-posts/cam
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the
equal sharing of miseries." -- Winston Churchill, 1945. (From Andrew Roberts, Churchill: Walking with Destiny, p. 892.)
A devastating letter of resignation by . His treatment by the administration of has been disgraceful.
We are living through a monetary revolution so multifaceted that few of us comprehend its full extent. And Bitcoin is winning it:
In a highly competitive field, this is the most insane Cancel Culture story of the month.
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Toronto District School Board superintendent vetoes student book event with Yazidi activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad because her memoir about being captured and sexually enslaved by Islamic State terrorists “would foster Islamophobia.”
lefigaro.fr/culture/de-peu
This person is beneath contempt.
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What if I told you Europe is not a continent by defintion, but a geopolitical fiction to separate it from Asia and so the alarm about a European, or civilized, or First World nation being invaded is a dog whistle to tell us we should care because they are like us.
I don't know who you are, Mat Krahn, or whether you're alive or dead or both, but for me you win the Internet this week.
Six questions for Xi Jinping, US edition: 1. What exactly was going on in Wuhan that led to the initial emergence of SARS-CoV-2?
nytimes.com/2017/08/29/opi "When she leaked 750,000 secret military records, she put an untold number of innocent people’s lives in danger."
"We no longer live in a democracy. We live in an 'emocracy', where emotions rather than majorities rule and feelings matter more than reason."
I lack the patience to listen regularly to podcasts, even the best ones (like 's), but his latest is a genuine masterpiece: samharris.org/podcasts/207-c And if, like me, you prefer reading, it is also available and works just as well as an essay: samharris.org/can-pull-back-
This is simply superb. “We Got Here Because of Cowardice. We Get Out With Courage.” in .
A remarkable commentary by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the perils of teaching the current generation of students, which appears to apply from Nigeria to California: chimamanda.com
You. Must. Read. This. “Stories and Data,” and how they changed his mind about Black Lives Matter. What a clear-sighted and courageous piece of writing.
It’s always a thrilling moment when the first finished copy arrives. This is the UK edition.
Attention, fellow Californians: You need to vote for for Governor on June 7. Good, detailed interview with him here:
Every time I walk through a major airport, I ask myself: How long before the rest of the world sees the ghastly products of French and Italian luxury brands for what they are? "A very remunerative joke on the world," is how nicely puts it:
You must read 's demolition of the appalling review of 's book, Prey: spectator.co.uk/article/ayaan- There should be a special place in hell reserved for reviewers who don't read or knowingly misrepresent the books they review.
This moved me to tears. May God help them, for we have not:
Free speech on the internet is in free fall. George Orwell’s vision of the future was “a boot stamping on a human face — for ever”. In 2019, it turns out to be a geek hitting “delete” on a keyboard for ever.
"Never before has such a small number of firms been able to control what billions can say and see." This is neither a defensible nor a sustainable state of affairs: economist.com/business/2018/
Why nothing works. Not populism. Not centrism. thetimes.co.uk/edition/commen
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Right after Donald Trump’s election, the SPLC really stoked panic. A pro-gay Episcopal church in Indiana was vandalized w/“Heil Trump,” a swastika, & an anti-gay slur. Turns out it was the gay organ player who did it. He was only charged w/a misdemeanor. indystar.com/story/news/201
If you had told me when I was an undergraduate in the 1980s that American universities would be like this in 2020, I would not have believed you: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/ Actually, I wouldn't have believed you in 2002, when I moved from Oxford to NYU.
For the record, I think the illiberal left is the most pressing threat. One important reason for that is that real liberals like worry too much about the rapidly fading populist right and not enough about the Red Guards' takeover of education (and much else).
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Replying to @Yascha_Mounk
The most pressing threat to liberal democracy comes from the populist right.
From Brasilia to Washington, authoritarian populists are muzzling dissent, stoking racism, and concentrating power in their own hands.
We’re facing the fight of a lifetime.
Sir Roger Scruton, RIP. We have lost one of the great minds of our time. Roger was a brilliant polymath, a fearless thinker, and a dear friend to me and . We shall miss him. Read his moving valedictory article here: spectator.co.uk/2019/12/roger-
This remains the most illuminating and memorable article ever written about Boris Johnson:
spectator.co.uk/article/my-bor via
Your weekly reminder that I, , am not . My parents went to the trouble of giving me the Gaelic spelling Niall so that numpties on the Internet would be able to tell me apart from any epidemiologists that might later be born and christened Neil. But in vain.
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@nfergus twitter.com/KenMcCarthy/st…
To me, the most depressing thing is simply that jihad is becoming routine in Europe, and we are in danger of becoming accustomed to it. twitter.com/charlescwcooke
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The more deranged the cults our time become -- from wokeism to QAnon -- the more I think of Raskolnikov's prophetic dream from the Epilogue of Crime and Punishment.
This remains the best profile yet of , which I recommend to everyone, regardless of how they voted yesterday: nymag.com/intelligencer/ 's key insight comes at the end.
This is essential reading on why drastic suppression now is the only sane option for fighting COVID-19. It is vital that policymakers (in the US and UK especially) get this message. Parts of both countries are perilously close to the Italian scenario. medium.com/@tomaspueyo/co
Today's scenes in the Capitol are a disgrace. The organizers and perpetrators of this banana republic coup attempt must be prosecuted and punished. Any politician who does not unequivocally condemn what happened should have no future in democratic politics.
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"TikTok is not just China’s revenge for the century of humiliation between the Opium Wars and Mao’s revolution. It is the opium — a digital fentanyl, to get our kids stoked for the coming Chinese imperium."
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3. After it became clear that there was a full-blown epidemic spreading from Wuhan to the rest of Hubei province, why did you cut off travel from Hubei to the rest of China — on Jan. 23 — but not from Hubei to the rest of the world?
Traveling in Europe after a year and a half, I am struck by the fact that the soft totalitarianism of "wokeism" does not seem to be nearly as big a problem at continental universities as it is in the U.S. and the Anglosphere more generally.
A reassuringly large proportion of Americans think that identity politics is nuts:
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The case of Joshua Katz's treatment by is one of the worst, if not the worst, of recent years. It illustrates how once illustrious institutions have abandoned their commitment to academic freedom and are now in the hands of ideological zealots and their appeasers.
Be afraid, Xi Jinping. Be very afraid.
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This is the most insightful commentary I have read tonight on the horrific massacre in El Paso: “The El Paso Shooting and the Gamification of Terror” - bellingcat
Thoughts on the crisis in Iraq, with some historical analogies. No, Soleimani wasn't the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. More like Reinhard Heydrich:
Stunning. This brilliantly and terrifyingly illustrates how social networks in a highly mobile population can spread a contagious virus. From a Fort Lauderdale beach to half of America. In days.
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This shows the location data of phones that were on a Florida beach during Spring Break. It then shows where those phones traveled.
First thing you should note is the importance of social distancing. The second is how much data your phone gives off.
The inexcusable decline of military history and war studies at elite American universities is part of a wider degeneration of historical pedagogy I have observed, with mounting gloom, over the past decade or so. Max Hastings is quite right:
"Having converted their own republic into a borderless credit union, Americans have to borrow other people’s national pride." Michael Lind on very good form in :
This is one of the most detailed stories I've yet read on the origins of the pandemic and the Chinese government's disastrous cover-up: dailytelegraph.com.au/coronavirus/bo
It's not very fashionable to be a man these days, especially a white one. My latest in against the sexism of the anti-sexists and the racism of the anti-racists:
"There is a general opinion in the West that if you help us too much, that will provoke Putin to start World War III. The truth is that World War III has already been started by Putin, and now Ukraine is just an avant-garde of this war."
Good, uncompromising defense of free speech from ACLU. "Woke" types please read.
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Per , 'If your first reaction to the Manhattan attack is, "Oh no, this will make Islam look bad," you're part of the problem.'
Silliest justification ever for rescinding an invitation: thetimes.co.uk/article/jordan God knows what absurd T-shirts I've stood next to over the years. When fans asks for photos at a book-signing, what author vets their apparel for non-PC messages?
Have we learned from a century of Communism? Or are we repeating the same old mistakes with Islamism?
thetimes.co.uk/edition/commen
This is the most contemptible piece of “journalism” I have read in quite a while. In a competitive field. twitter.com/EoinHiggins_/s
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"When some leaders ask me what weapons I need, I need a moment to calm myself, because I already told them the week before. It’s Groundhog Day. I feel like Bill Murray." We are receiving a masterclass in 21st-century leadership. And this is what he needs. theatlantic.com/international/
If you haven't read Frank Dikötter's astonishing, horrifying trilogy on Mao's China, you need to get started:
The courage of the Ukrainian people and the inspired leadership of is creating an opportunity for the world's democracies to awaken from their torpor and break the odious tyranny of Vladimir Putin.
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Zelensky's briefing: "We survived (the night). And we are successfully fighting off the enemy attacks."
I sometimes hear that I'm too confrontational or negative when discussing the assault on academic freedom we have witnessed in recent years. But I didn't find much disagree with in 's coruscating farewell to the U. of Toronto: nationalpost.com/opinion/jordan
RIP Sean Connery, the greatest of the Bonds and the role model to a generation. In addition to his extraordinarily handsome face and intimidating physique, Sean had a wicked sense of humour.
When are people like going to wake up to the fact that the are a bunch of charlatans?
I’m telling you, it was the airplanes.
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On the 11th of September 2001
19 Muslim men hijacked 4 airplanes. Inspired by their prophet and driven by jihadist ardor they sought to destroy the symbols of American success: the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the White House. Let’s not whitewash that plain truth.
Nothing more depressing than seeing testify before pathetic legislators who effectively cover their ears: nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworl
"I went to university in England, studied history, and realized what utter rubbish it all was." To celebrate my birthday, an essay on Scottish nationalism and how to defeat it once and for all:
Really having trouble taking the New York Times seriously these days. It's like the Guardian's Manhattan edition.
Joe Biden thinks the benefit of being able to say, 'I brought the troops home from Afghanistan' before next year's midterm elections will exceed the costs of abandoning the Afghans to the 7th-century barbarity of the Taliban. I think he's wrong:
I won. "Most [Brits] think the British Empire is more something to be proud of (59%) rather than ashamed of (19%)."
The WOKID-19 plague is ravaging Scotland.
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My God. David Hume is cancelled. Shame on U of Edinburgh.”From the start of the new academic year the David Hume Tower will be known as George Square.” Why? His “views on matters of race, though not uncommon at the time, rightly cause distress today”
ed.ac.uk/news/students/
I salute the sheer panache of winning the biggest election victory since 1979, rising before dawn to file your Spectator column on time, and still having the energy to quote Swift and Shakespeare in the Commons: spectator.co.uk/2019/12/boris-
The rise of the very talented is truly remarkable. She would be a Tory Obama if she won this. The whole leadership contest is a disaster for the bogus narrative that Brexit was motivated by racism and / or nostalgia for Empire.
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NEW - YouGov Tory members poll
Boost for Truss, bad news for Sunak
Sunak v Mordaunt
Sunak: 37
Mordaunt: 51
Sunak v Truss
Sunak: 35
Truss: 54
Sunak v Badenoch
Sunak: 34
Badenoch: 56
Mordaunt v Truss
Mordaunt: 42
Truss: 48
Truss v Badenoch
Truss: 43
Badenoch: 46
Seeing being denounced as an "indispensable propaganda device for the right” by the fraudulent in the woke (nytimes.com/2020/01/04/us/), I am even more glad to have done this video for on Margaret Thatcher:
ICYMI, this is a devastating critique of the 's role in the pandemic by my colleague
This is rather uncanny. It hit me a few weeks ago (writing Kissinger, vol. II) that he wasn't playing "three-dimensional chess" (the Star Trek game) but 2D chess on a vast board. And here's the brilliant quite independently showing how that would work with AI.
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For fun, I coded up the biggest chess game ever, where two AI engines battle it out on a chessboard that is infinitely expanding outwards in both the number of squares and the number of pieces. Here's a video of me explaining it: youtube.com/watch?v=Iy_oYC
I need to grow up and keep out of student politics, no question. But the context is important. Conservatism is on the brink of extinction in much of academia, especially in history. This isn't healthy. thetimes.co.uk/edition/commen
Better firing squads and labor camps, too. Not forgetting better persecution of national minorities and better show trials. Oh, and much better denial of all fundamental human freedoms. Way to go!
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Replying to @nfergus
The Soviet Union had better diet, nutrition, welfare, and women's rights than the US.
Putin as Nicholas II? "In 1917, angry soldiers came home from World War I and launched ... a revolution. Putin alluded to that moment in his brief television appearance on Saturday morning," writes :
So why do people fake hate crimes? Because there's not enough of the right kind of hate crime to validate the narrative, so cherished by the left, that Trump’s election unleashed a wave of white supremacist violence: thetimes.co.uk/edition/commen HT to
For reasons I cannot fathom, keeps running articles that promote racial segregation: nytimes.com/2019/03/29/sty The last in the series:
Can something as inane as TikTok really be a national-security threat? Yes it can. bloomberg.com/opinion/articl via
A key reason for the decline of history as an intellectual discipline (and as a popular undergraduate major) has been the increasingly overt politicization of many graduate programs in the United States. James Hankins describes the process well.
"An emboldened Chinese leadership understands that the greatest ideological weapon it now holds ... is the gleeful enthusiasm for self-destruction that characterizes so much of elite opinion in the U.S." Excellent by
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#Princeton President Eisgruber has recommended "that Katz be stripped of tenure & fired" freebeacon.com/campus/double-
We are all in a Tom Wolfe novel with no idea how to get out of it.
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“The full video reveals that these kids had wandered into a Tom Wolfe novel and had no idea how to get out of it.” Splendid, hard-hitting piece by @CaitlinPacific in @TheAtlantic #CovingtonBoys
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/
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6. Finally, how many of your people has this disease really killed?