Melissa Chen
@MsMelChen • 333,162 subscribers
VP @strategyrisks | Board + co-founder @IdeasB2 | Board @envprogress | 🇸🇬 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 | ✍️ The Spectator & elsewhere | Email: [email protected]
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You can tell Sophie Cunningham’s feminism is authentic but Megan Rapinoe’s is a Trojan horse for Marxism. Just as classical Marxism sought to abolish class distinctions as mere constructs that obscure true human equality, she insists upon dissolving the material reality of sex itself, declaring that any recognition of the immutable physiological differences between males and females, differences that create profound advantages in strength, speed, and skeletal structure, constitutes “an attack on women in society.” In her vision, categories of sex are not biological distinctions or protective boundaries hard-won by Title IX, but oppressive barriers to be torn down in the name of an abstract, undifferentiated “inclusion,” thereby erasing the very foundation upon which women’s sports and competitive fairness rest. This stands in stark contrast to Sophie Cunningham’s unapologetic defense of sex-based categories which is completely aligned with biological reality. That’s what feminism was supposed to be about - protecting women and womanhood - before it was completely derailed by the third wavers, who paved for the way for this nonsense by insisting that women can do anything a man can do and that everything is *just* a social construct.
Melissa Chen52,510 görüntüleme • 1 gün önce
It is insane to see this 5th April 1982 interview with Margaret Thatcher from the vantage point of today. At this point, the Argentinians had just invaded and seized the Falklands. You can actually see what they call an "iron will" in her eyes, and hear it in every measured, authoritative word. There's no bluster or misplaced confidence, just a quiet conviction. She was a totally different type of leader unseen in a long time, which Britain sorely needs today. Thatcher’s government staked everything on retaking the islands after Argentina's invasion. Polls showed her deeply unpopular beforehand; victory, thanks to the "Falklands Factor," delivered a landslide in 1983. Defeat almost certainly would have forced her resignation amid national humiliation, collapsing Conservative support and likely ushering in a Labour government amid economic strife and union unrest. More than politics was at stake. Giving up would have meant abandoning British citizens to a right-wing junta’s aggression, a Suez Crisis on steroids for the television age. Images of surrender would have flashed around the world, signaling weakness. It would have shattered the idea that Britain still stood ready to defend its people and its territory. Watch how she explains why fighting was not just necessary, but morally imperative. Listen to the way she deftly handles questions about America, praising their diplomatic efforts while making it crystal clear that this was Britain and only Britain's responsibility to shoulder alone. And when the ITN interviewer asks her at the end if she's prepared to resign if she fails? Trust me.... just watch how and what she answered it with. This type of leadership feels like an extinct species now. It’s exactly the kind of clear-eyed, unflinching European voice the West could use more of today. (Javier Milei has long been an open admirer of Thatcher for precisely these reasons btw)
Melissa Chen274,678 görüntüleme • 9 gün önce
At a bar in Atlanta before tomorrow’s big game and the England 🏴 fans are belting out “Ten German Bombers” at the top of their lungs Can’t help but rub it in during the Ecuador vs Mexico game to celebrate the German exit out of historical spite. And of course they brought the inflatable Spitfires along, the absolute mad lads 😂
Melissa Chen283,870 görüntüleme • 26 gün önce
This is what it looked like in the stands when Mexico scored that penalty The fans blew the lid off the stadium and waterfalls of beer and popcorn came cascading from above I have to say the Mexican fans in Azteca were brilliant. They have so much heart, and at the end they were so incredibly gracious. Thank you 🇲🇽
Melissa Chen194,471 görüntüleme • 21 gün önce
Elite schools went woke because they stopped admitting (and rewarding) this female archetype at scale: the bubbly feminine, high agency, super sociable sorority sister who believes she can win with talent and charm and looks. Elle Woods, basically. Instead they filled it with grim, status-seeking activists obsessed with perpetual victim hood and deconstructing everything.
Melissa Chen327,017 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
Mexican fans cheered for Norway 🇳🇴 against Brazil here in the fan zone. After the final whistle blew, they started rowing in anticipation of the next game where they expect to face the Vikings. (Everyone has been very warm and in good spirits here - no hostilities. Although the English do seem very heavily outnumbered here)
Melissa Chen98,515 görüntüleme • 21 gün önce
They were about go on stage at the National Mall for the Freedom 250 festivities here in Washington, D.C. But then there was a heat advisory (it’s 38°C) so everything outdoors was canceled. Instead, here’s the next best thing, since I just can’t get enough of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” It’s a love letter to a beautiful part of America, the open road, the freedom to wander, and that deep, undeniable pull back to where you belong. Enjoy this video of Winston Marshall and Joey Davis with the band rehearsing in the trailer. Joey plays for Oliver Anthony who is from West Virginia.
Melissa Chen101,320 görüntüleme • 22 gün önce
The Alysa Liu as hero vs. Eileen Gu as anti-hero arc continues to play out. She skated with such lightness and joy, taking the Olympic gold today - the first individual to win gold for the USA 🇺🇸 in this event in 24 years. Just look at her post-performance reaction - pure all-American exuberance bursting out like fireworks on the 4th of July. She's so bubbly and almost cartoonishly enthusiastic, beaming at the crowd as she skates around, unable to conceal her wide grin. Meanwhile, across the slopes today, Eileen Gu faced her own dramatic twist, crashing down the halfpipe after clips of her press conference demeanor went viral. In it, she laughed loudly at a reporter's question before delivering a haughty and defensive response about her record, saying "I'm most decorated female freeskier in history." It's totally fine to highlight her self-evident success but the way that came off, compared to Alysa's warm and approachable on-ice outburst, just reinforced The Tale of Two Athletes. Eileen raked in $6.6 million from the Chinese government to ski for Team China, and her brand endorsements pull in upwards of $20 million in off-ice income. Alysa on the other hand didn't take the China deal, and had to endure being targeted by Chinese spies all because of her father who is a Chinese political refugee. I hope American companies are paying attention: patriotism is a brand in itself, one that deserves to be profitable too. Alysa is genuine and inspirational and her story is also one about grit and grace and sticking to ones' principles. What a great American hero. Congratulations Alysa Liu, American Patriot 🫡
Melissa Chen536,181 görüntüleme • 5 ay önce
Hegseth’s message to Europe could hardly be clearer: the US is pivoting toward the Asian model of alliance management - pragmatic, interest-driven, and results-oriented - rather than the old European model of values-based diplomacy laced with moralizing and lectures on human rights and the “rules-based order.” For Asian countries (Singapore, Philippines, etc.), relations with the US have always been structured more on common interests than common values. Singapore and Asian states are pragmatic and are willing to work with whoever occupies the White House because America’s role as the balancer in Asia remains indispensable. Even non-aligned countries such as India and former adversaries such as Vietnam now recognize this. They appreciate hard power and credible deterrence more than pretty speeches, which is perfectly in line with the US's new national security strategy. Managing the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait, and other hotspots requires credible deterrence and military capability far more than human rights resolutions. Asia’s focus on this aligns with the need to impose costs on revisionist behavior. Basing your foreign policy on human rights and democracy, you risk losing nations that don't exactly hold the American variant of democracy in high regard. Hegseth praised “model allies” who are “capable, clear-eyed, and ready to defend their national interests.” His use of "clear-eyed" is important here. It means that to be an ally, you must agree on what the threat is. That should be the starting point. From there, national interests converge. Note how European "allies" diverge from this framework. You have many European nations now characterizing the US as the threat to the global order instead. This is the opposite of clear-eyedness. In a world where China presents a serious, long-term challenge to the regional order, utility and resolve matter more than shared ideology. Asia adapted after the collapse of the TPP by building CPTPP and RCEP; it managed Trump’s hard-power instincts and Biden’s style alike by staying focused on interests. The US, facing its own fiscal and strategic realities, is now explicitly choosing to reward and prioritize that same pragmatism. Western Europe would indeed do well to take note.
Melissa Chen95,459 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
Every time I hear the debate between English identity and multiculturalism, I’m deeply confused. Multiculturalism essentially means that “Englishness” is an empty vessel in which cultures live together, that the vessel of being a country is neutral and empty of content. There’s been an elite project in Britain, America and Canada and generally in the English speaking world, to empty identity of distinctiveness and culture and into that empty vessel, pour any old random thing. Literally any old idea unexamined. And so you now have in Britain, a very small minority of radical islamists. They are tiny. Most muslims are not radical. They are tiny, and yet they can run your streets because everybody else is an empty vessel. You look at that idea and you say that’s not me, that’s not us, and you spit it out. But if you don’t know what me and us is, you can’t look at an idea and say that’s not us. One of the most precious things you could give your children is a thousand years of culture. It’s who you are and who you have been. Now I’m an Israeli Jew who firmly believes a nation can be multiracial but I’m worried about multicultural. Because culture is the single most important decider of human behavior. It’s the single most important thing to have in a cohesive country. To Westerners who have been trained by generations of elites to not know who you are because of a misunderstanding of what happened in the 20th century, because of a misunderstanding of where colonialism and WWII comes from, as thinking too much about your own culture, or thinking your culture is too good, is what caused the Holocaust, you need to step back. “Germaness” is not what caused the Holocaust - Haviv Rettig Gur nails it. Every word of this
Melissa Chen245,583 görüntüleme • 8 ay önce
This is the kind of fresh thinking we need Jimmy Carr is full of ideas on how to give the young a stake in the future. He asks: what if we don’t tax those between the ages of 20-30? This would address intergenerational inequities by incentivizing work, offsetting the housing affordability crisis, getting young people on the property ladder and encouraging marriage and kids.
Melissa Chen226,733 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce
Another reason why Trump cannot afford to just walk into a summit and call Xi's regime what it is: America's economy is now so hopelessly entangled with the CCP's that full-throated honesty about the China threat triggers economic blowback and strategic suicide. This wasn't true in the Cold War, as I tell Marissa Streit. Back then, the US and Soviets were economically decoupled. Hollywood made Red Dawn, Rocky IV, and a hundred other films openly calling them the evil empire. Reagan could label them the "focus of evil in the modern world" without the Soviet Union yanking the plug on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, or rare earth magnets. We fought the ideological war with clarity because the economic one barely existed.
Melissa Chen69,230 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce