Tyler Austin Harper didn’t set out to become a culture warrior.
He trained as a scholar. His PhD was in comparative literature. He has written widely about the history of human extinction, the crisis in higher education, and, apparently, high-maintenance carbon-steel knives. For a while, he taught environmental studies at Bates College, working at the intersection of literature, science, and climate.
Now a staff writer at The Atlantic, Harper has offered some of the more unpredictable — and provocative — arguments on recent politics and culture. Although he sits on the left, he hasn’t been shy about critiquing his own side — and even embracing views typically associated with the right…