All posts tagged: good terms

Lil Nas X Faces the Likability Trap

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] The comeback single for the prankish rapper Lil Nas X has flopped in the best way possible: by debuting, on the Billboard Hot 100, at No. 69. “We did it boys!” he posted on X (formerly Twitter) upon news of the song’s chart placement. “We reached the funny number. be very proud of yourselves. this is our moment!” The response was perfectly Lil Nas X—incorrigible, lovable, and a little sad. He’s been on a winning streak since 2018, when, as a previously unknown teenager, his track “Old Town Road” became the No. 1 song in the United States for a record-setting 19 weeks. Subsequent smashes, released after he took the PR risk of coming out as gay, have disproved speculation that he’d be a one-hit wonder. And although his knack for slapstick TikToks and tweets have made him a cultural jester of sorts, he also earned a Grammy Album of the Year nomination for his surprisingly solemn, emo-ish debut, Montero. Now, however, he’s taking a loss in public. His first new song in two …

How to Know Your Frenemy

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. There are many different kinds of friends. Aristotle distinguished among friendships based on utility, pleasure, and virtue. Michel de Montaigne wrote about true friendship, which “grows up, is nourished and improved by enjoyment, as being of itself spiritual, and the soul growing still more refined by its practice.” In this column, I have written about the difference between real friends and deal friends. And then there is the frenemy. This portmanteau of friend and enemy first appeared as long ago as the late 19th century. It signifies a discordant relationship in which someone appears to be your friend or has a superficially friendly demeanor toward you but behaves in ways that real friends wouldn’t and shouldn’t. Perhaps the frenemy undermines you, manipulates your feelings, gaslights you, or says mean things about you behind your back. Identifying frenemies isn’t always easy, because the behavior can be designed to go undetected, or perhaps to be so …

Is Israel at War With Iran?

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] The October 7 attacks on Israel by Palestinian terror groups, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are being compared with 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. In fact, with more than 600 Israelis dead by the time of writing, their proportional death toll is several times higher than that of 9/11, and the factor of surprise is arguably greater than at Pearl Harbor. But 9/11 and Pearl Harbor weren’t just tragic attacks. They were casus belli for seismic wars. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has declared his country to be heading into “a long and grueling war.” The air attacks he ordered in Gaza have already resulted in hundreds of Palestinian casualties. Will October 7 also lead to a broader conflagration in the region? Most important, can Israel rightly consider itself to be engaged in a shadow conflict with Iran? Many commentators scoff at bringing Iran into an analysis of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. The sentiment is understandable. Some Beltway pundits name-drop Iran primarily to drive their own agendas. And the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not primarily …