Don’t ask this philosopher

Nick Dyrenfurth and Tim Soutphommasane are academics and regular newspaper columnists. Soutphommasane has a weekly feature in The Australian called ‘Ask the philosopher’. Don’t.

Nick Dyrenfurth and Tim Soutphommasane have edited a book of essays called All That’s Left: What Labor Should Stand For. It was published by New South, the University of New South Wales publishing company. Touted as collecting the wisdom of ‘Australia’s leading social democrats’ – the editors included essays by themselves – it was the usual collection of self-flattering Left groupthink. But in the introduction the academic editors made an ad hominem attack on Keith Windschuttle and Quadrant and lied about a Forum I edited for Quadrant Online:

For a long time, the Right have only been able to define themselves negatively, as in the pages of the increasingly paranoid Quadrant under Keith Windschuttle’s editorship. One may usefully consult the magazine’s vituperative response to the ‘What’s Left?’ series of…