Ann Coulter skewers the conventional wisdom that social media cause (rather than reflect) social disorder. Whether it’s newfangled television or crazy rock n’ roll lyrics, Coulter writes on her personal website, “Older generations are always alarmed by whatever new thing young people are doing,” adding this likely dates back to “when cavemen hectored their cave children to stop making dolls out of clay.” Those who today blame social media for creating mayhem, Coulter argues, miss the key point that it is the content of the message, not the medium, that matters most.
Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.