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Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the Temptation of Foundations
The West does not need another sacred anchor. It needs a working Backspace Key.
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Against Final Immunity
What writing in public has taught me about error, freedom, Kurdistan, and the Backspace Key.
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When a People Are Told What They Want
By Khaled Salih & Ann-Catrin Emanuelsson 1 June 2026 Today we begin sharing the first public reflections from our forthcoming book, Kurdistanî Azad: The Long Dream of Kurdish Self-Rule. This book has been with us for many years — in memory, family, research, argument, grief, hope, and the old
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When Help Becomes Capture
1 June 2026 In my recent notes on When Parochial Error Goes Global, I have been circling one question: how does error protect itself from correction? This short piece connects that question to Steven Byrnes’s recent LessWrong reflection on empowerment, manipulation, helpfulness, obedience, and corrigibility. His concern comes from
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When the Theory Becomes the Eye
Ernst Haeckel, Beautiful Explanations, and the Need for Error-Correction
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The Backspace Key: Why Apostasy, Blasphemy, and Doubt Matter
27 May 2026 This is the sixth essay in my series on the ideas behind my upcoming book When Parochial Error Goes Global. The earlier essays traced how a parochial error can travel, why no error is final unless criticism is forbidden, how anti-rational memeplexes capture intelligence, and why
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Civilization Dies When It Loses Its Backspace Key
25 May 2026 There is a moment in David Butterfield’s conversation with Triggernometry when ancient Athens stops being ancient. At first, the interview appears to be a historical discussion: Greece, Rome, democracy, the Persian Wars, the Greek miracle, the fall of Athens. But gradually the subject changes. Or rather,
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The Open Society’s Category Error
22 May 2026 The Open Society does not usually collapse because it has too much compassion. This is the fifth essay in my series on the ideas behind my upcoming book When Parochial Error Goes Global. The earlier essays traced how a parochial error can travel, why no error is
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The Sermon After the Beheading: Yasir Qadhi, Samuel Paty, and Intelligence Without Rationality
21 May 2026 Five years ago, shortly after the beheading of Samuel Paty in France, I drafted a long article about Yasir Qadhi’s sermon on “the situation in France.” I never published it. Perhaps the timing was too raw. Perhaps the article was too detailed, too angry, too close
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What Is an Anti-Rational Memeplex?
18 May 2026 This is the fourth essay in the series on the ideas behind my upcoming book When Parochial Error Goes Global. The first essay describe how a Levantine matrix went global and how a parochial error learned to travel. The second essay applied the principle of no error
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Protect the Person, Criticize the Doctrine
17 May 2026 Why the Open Society Must Defend Muslims as Persons While Keeping islām Open to Rational Discussion This is the third essay in my series on the ideas behind my upcoming book When Parochial Error Goes Global. The first essay describe how a Levantine matrix went global and
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Intelligence Without Error-Correction: Sweden, Islam, Islamism, and the Backspace Key Test
16 May 2026 After publishing this essay in an earlier form, I received a criticism that was both friendly and exact. The argument, I was told, was sharp and necessary — but too front-loaded and too generalizing. I had begun too high up in the philosophy. I had spoken too