One public intellectual is known for his celebration of sexual torture, frequenting bathhouses in San Francisco, and criticizing age-of-consent laws, having publicly asserted: “It could be that the child, with his own sexuality, may have desired that adult, he may even have consented, he may even had made the first moves.” Another public intellectual — whose professional background is market research and hobbies include golf and lawn care — is known for his dispassionate, if controversial, analysis of sociological data (much of it published by academics from respected universities) on such topics as race and sex.
One of these intellectuals is, according to Google Scholar, the most cited academic of all time, his ideas beloved and appropriated across a host of disciplines, including critical race theorists; the other is reviled, his ideas and even person maligned by the leading American institutions as bigoted and racist.
Can you guess which is which? If you’re a cynical conservative, you’d probably presume that the sadomasochistic pedophile (who is none other than French philosopher Michel Foucault) is beloved by the left, while the quirky market researcher-turned-journalist is one of liberals’ bugaboos par excellence. The latter’s name, for the uninitiated, is Steve Sailer, whose Noticing: An Essential Reader offers an excellent introduction into one of the most interesting opinion journalists of the last fifty years. Indeed, though I’ve perused the anthologies of many famous writers, never have I read one so curious and entertaining, with articles that have remained relevant (if controversial) decades after publishing.
