Enes Kanter Freedom on his name. Ayaan Hirsi Ali on liberalism. Tim Urban on religion. Plus: Nellie Bowles, Ross Douthat, Chloé Valdary, Karol Markowicz, and Balaji Srinivasan.
To Nellie Bowles: I have been tough in my comments of your work. But, what you wrote in this piece struck me like nothing I've read in a long time. Having worked for major media outlets myself and then striking out on my own, I understand exactly where you're coming from. But, you won't regret what you're doing...because what you're building is yours.
Keep up the fantastic work. And let those NYT egotists revel in their ever-increasing irrelevance.
Stop for a minute. So many comments/opinions seem to be based on thinly veiled fear and anger. The path to saving the US and building a better future is for each of us individually to lead by example. Let's be passionate and fierce advocates for a positive vision for society and politics. Have faith in that vision and demonstrate your common sense, honesty and courage in all conversations. Don't "straw-man" opposing views, "steel-man" them. Those are the real conversations that people are desperate for - not the echo chambers of the NYT or Fox news. To do otherwise is to simply build another echo chamber which doesn't make sense. I prefer the path of common-sense.
"A value-neutral liberalism that insists that all cultures and choices are equally good is liberalism in name only. For liberalism to win, it needs to stand up to its enemies yet again."
Like Ayaan, I lost faith not in liberalism, but in the belief that the spoiled trust-fund brats who called themselves "liberals" actually gave a shit about it. And I gave that belief up in 2008. Like John McWhorter, I ask if any of these obsessive mentally ill tantrums about jargon are making a concrete positive difference in the lives of the people these trust-fund brats pretend to care so deeply about. Like JK Rowling, I state that promoting gender "identity" results in a civil "rights" movement that writes a blank check for male predators -- we're living in a world where rape is still not a hate crime, but accurately calling a rapist with a dick a man is one?!
Like jazz, liberalism was ripped out of the hands of the working-class people who created it and taken over by trust-fund academics, who had no fucking idea what it was and why it was created, and it had the life sucked out of it.
But again, I slammed over to the cynical and disillusioned side of these debates back in 2008. Been waiting for others to catch up.
Freedom marched for BLM? And thinks America is racist? Ali thinks liberals are the ones who will stand up for her?? Urban comments on religion by remarking he used to think more atheism is good, and now what is good about all the venerable old religions is only their modern aspects? Douthat experienced patriotism after Trump lost the election? These essays are a bunch of head-scratchers for sure, and that’s being kind.
I wish to respond to Balaji directly, because I’ve reached exactly his conclusion in the past.
Despite all of the evidence he cites, I believe Americans try anything and eventually do the right thing.
Right here, right now, in this very post we see the beginning of the next way Americans engage in free speech: we pay for it.
For all the horrid culturally corrosive forces amplified by social media, substack, and platforms like it let Americans read unfettered voices of genuine liberals such as Bari Weiss, Glenn Greenwald, and, hopefully, when it is prestigious enough (nod to that short), our children.
See, America is a journey. I believe that spirit which led people across the great divide still lives in most. Some will get lost. Some will prey on others. Some might convince others that they’ve read the word of a new gospel in a hat. Some will perish. But, in the end, they’ll build. They’ll do it because they can. They’ll do it because this is America, and we are free.
Great respect for Enes Kanter Freedom. Just hoping in 2022 he changes his mind about Black Lives Matter, which is a neo Marxist organization with stated contempt for the nuclear family and Israel(while it's leaders enrich themselves with funding from woke companies, buying multi-million dollar homes in Topanga). On all other matters, he has courage.
Very nice, but it would have been wonderful to have less of the coastal elites weigh in. They're becoming very boring. Too much soy. I hope in 2022 Common Sense stays away from the likes of self-flagellating millionaire bajo players from England who went on some silly apology tour because his bandmates were outraged that he liked a book. Barri spent an hour with that cry baby. He was no hero but a slap in the face to ordinary folks that have truly suffered over the last 2 years but got up every day to feed their families. Tim Urban has however provided some hope relative to religion. Perhaps he along with many of the New Atheists that include Sam Harris, Laurence Krauss, the bowtie wearing science guy, believer that biological woman are a social construct and Pluto denialist Neil deGrasse Tyson and crown prince of the new atheistic religion Richard Dawkins who all believe that "The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference" are willing to give God a second look. Probably not as they would prefer to drop acid and meditate with Sam. God bless you Barri for your great work and all the health and happiness in the New Year
Balaji Srinivasan's cri de cœur is not without validity. But when one looks back over American history, it will be seen that times of trouble have been frequent—indeed, the rule rather than the exception. Take crime. The present moment reminds me of nothing so much as the Seventies, the decade that spawned the film "Death Wish." I rewatched it recently and I must say, it hasn't lost—or perhaps it has regained—its relevance.
In her latest TGIF, Nelly Bowles included a tribute to the recently deceased Joan Didion, a writer I greatly admire, She too chronicled the End Times, i.e. the Long Sixties, yet here we still are. One need not be a Pollyanna to suspect that predictions of doom are usually overblown.
Ross Douthat's indictment of America's response to the COVID-19 pandemic is a prize example of the perfect promoted as the enemy of the good. As a matter of fact the US record on vaccination is pretty good. The problem is that as things turned out, vaccines could not shut down the virus. What they could do, however, was mitigate the severity of infection and that has saved countless lives.
At the present moment, those in America who are most likely to die of COVID are the unvaccinated: mostly people who choose not to take the vaccine. I find myself asking what Mr. Douthat's "we" can do to make people get jabbed. Not much, unfortunately. Mandates are not only obnoxious but ultimately counterproductive. So if vaccine resisters are prepared to live—and possibly die—with their choice, that's on them.
I believe that we've reached a point at which the war on COVID is doing more damage to the fabric of American society that the virus itself. The terrible effect on this country's children, who've had their lives disrupted by lockdowns and school closures that we now know to have been futile and destructive, is only the most glaring example of the havoc wrecked. Mr. Douthat might pause to reflect on that.
Ines Freedom, you’re incorrect about “I know that America has its share of problems, chief among them racism” - the chief problems in this day and age are revisionist history, failure to understand and attempts to redefine science, and the demonization of the right and anything that doesn’t fit with left wing heterodoxy.
In response to Chole Valdary I will just say that though the proponents of critical race theory may make the occasional valid point, the ideology as a whole is vicious. It promotes—indeed, celebrates—a postmodern variant of racism in which the pseudo-intellectual vocabulary of debased social science replaces the crude stereotyping of past times.
Tim Urban's lament reminds me of a remark, (doubtfully) attributed to G.K. Chesterson: "When men cease to believe in God, they do not then believe in nothing. They become capable of believing in anything." This is only too true, as we see in the present moment.
To Nellie Bowles: I have been tough in my comments of your work. But, what you wrote in this piece struck me like nothing I've read in a long time. Having worked for major media outlets myself and then striking out on my own, I understand exactly where you're coming from. But, you won't regret what you're doing...because what you're building is yours.
Keep up the fantastic work. And let those NYT egotists revel in their ever-increasing irrelevance.
Signed,
A former NYT subscriber
Stop for a minute. So many comments/opinions seem to be based on thinly veiled fear and anger. The path to saving the US and building a better future is for each of us individually to lead by example. Let's be passionate and fierce advocates for a positive vision for society and politics. Have faith in that vision and demonstrate your common sense, honesty and courage in all conversations. Don't "straw-man" opposing views, "steel-man" them. Those are the real conversations that people are desperate for - not the echo chambers of the NYT or Fox news. To do otherwise is to simply build another echo chamber which doesn't make sense. I prefer the path of common-sense.
"A value-neutral liberalism that insists that all cultures and choices are equally good is liberalism in name only. For liberalism to win, it needs to stand up to its enemies yet again."
Like Ayaan, I lost faith not in liberalism, but in the belief that the spoiled trust-fund brats who called themselves "liberals" actually gave a shit about it. And I gave that belief up in 2008. Like John McWhorter, I ask if any of these obsessive mentally ill tantrums about jargon are making a concrete positive difference in the lives of the people these trust-fund brats pretend to care so deeply about. Like JK Rowling, I state that promoting gender "identity" results in a civil "rights" movement that writes a blank check for male predators -- we're living in a world where rape is still not a hate crime, but accurately calling a rapist with a dick a man is one?!
Like jazz, liberalism was ripped out of the hands of the working-class people who created it and taken over by trust-fund academics, who had no fucking idea what it was and why it was created, and it had the life sucked out of it.
But again, I slammed over to the cynical and disillusioned side of these debates back in 2008. Been waiting for others to catch up.
Freedom marched for BLM? And thinks America is racist? Ali thinks liberals are the ones who will stand up for her?? Urban comments on religion by remarking he used to think more atheism is good, and now what is good about all the venerable old religions is only their modern aspects? Douthat experienced patriotism after Trump lost the election? These essays are a bunch of head-scratchers for sure, and that’s being kind.
I wish to respond to Balaji directly, because I’ve reached exactly his conclusion in the past.
Despite all of the evidence he cites, I believe Americans try anything and eventually do the right thing.
Right here, right now, in this very post we see the beginning of the next way Americans engage in free speech: we pay for it.
For all the horrid culturally corrosive forces amplified by social media, substack, and platforms like it let Americans read unfettered voices of genuine liberals such as Bari Weiss, Glenn Greenwald, and, hopefully, when it is prestigious enough (nod to that short), our children.
See, America is a journey. I believe that spirit which led people across the great divide still lives in most. Some will get lost. Some will prey on others. Some might convince others that they’ve read the word of a new gospel in a hat. Some will perish. But, in the end, they’ll build. They’ll do it because they can. They’ll do it because this is America, and we are free.
Great respect for Enes Kanter Freedom. Just hoping in 2022 he changes his mind about Black Lives Matter, which is a neo Marxist organization with stated contempt for the nuclear family and Israel(while it's leaders enrich themselves with funding from woke companies, buying multi-million dollar homes in Topanga). On all other matters, he has courage.
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/07/1003872848/the-complicated-history-behind-blms-solidarity-with-the-pro-palestinian-movement
https://uca.edu/training/files/2020/09/black-Lives-Matter-Handout.pdf
How is Covid preventable? The only virus ever eradicated by vaccination is smallpox and that is because smallpox does not have an animal reservoir.
Very nice, but it would have been wonderful to have less of the coastal elites weigh in. They're becoming very boring. Too much soy. I hope in 2022 Common Sense stays away from the likes of self-flagellating millionaire bajo players from England who went on some silly apology tour because his bandmates were outraged that he liked a book. Barri spent an hour with that cry baby. He was no hero but a slap in the face to ordinary folks that have truly suffered over the last 2 years but got up every day to feed their families. Tim Urban has however provided some hope relative to religion. Perhaps he along with many of the New Atheists that include Sam Harris, Laurence Krauss, the bowtie wearing science guy, believer that biological woman are a social construct and Pluto denialist Neil deGrasse Tyson and crown prince of the new atheistic religion Richard Dawkins who all believe that "The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference" are willing to give God a second look. Probably not as they would prefer to drop acid and meditate with Sam. God bless you Barri for your great work and all the health and happiness in the New Year
Hi Bari - i am not sure what i get by paying for a sub? Please advise. I paid.
Balaji Srinivasan's cri de cœur is not without validity. But when one looks back over American history, it will be seen that times of trouble have been frequent—indeed, the rule rather than the exception. Take crime. The present moment reminds me of nothing so much as the Seventies, the decade that spawned the film "Death Wish." I rewatched it recently and I must say, it hasn't lost—or perhaps it has regained—its relevance.
In her latest TGIF, Nelly Bowles included a tribute to the recently deceased Joan Didion, a writer I greatly admire, She too chronicled the End Times, i.e. the Long Sixties, yet here we still are. One need not be a Pollyanna to suspect that predictions of doom are usually overblown.
Ross Douthat's indictment of America's response to the COVID-19 pandemic is a prize example of the perfect promoted as the enemy of the good. As a matter of fact the US record on vaccination is pretty good. The problem is that as things turned out, vaccines could not shut down the virus. What they could do, however, was mitigate the severity of infection and that has saved countless lives.
At the present moment, those in America who are most likely to die of COVID are the unvaccinated: mostly people who choose not to take the vaccine. I find myself asking what Mr. Douthat's "we" can do to make people get jabbed. Not much, unfortunately. Mandates are not only obnoxious but ultimately counterproductive. So if vaccine resisters are prepared to live—and possibly die—with their choice, that's on them.
I believe that we've reached a point at which the war on COVID is doing more damage to the fabric of American society that the virus itself. The terrible effect on this country's children, who've had their lives disrupted by lockdowns and school closures that we now know to have been futile and destructive, is only the most glaring example of the havoc wrecked. Mr. Douthat might pause to reflect on that.
Ines Freedom, you’re incorrect about “I know that America has its share of problems, chief among them racism” - the chief problems in this day and age are revisionist history, failure to understand and attempts to redefine science, and the demonization of the right and anything that doesn’t fit with left wing heterodoxy.
Thank you Bari for all you do. Your’re an inspirational breath of fresh air. May God continue to bless you in this new year of 2022
In response to Chole Valdary I will just say that though the proponents of critical race theory may make the occasional valid point, the ideology as a whole is vicious. It promotes—indeed, celebrates—a postmodern variant of racism in which the pseudo-intellectual vocabulary of debased social science replaces the crude stereotyping of past times.
What university did you take critical race theory?
Ah, the appeal to Authority...
Tim Urban's lament reminds me of a remark, (doubtfully) attributed to G.K. Chesterson: "When men cease to believe in God, they do not then believe in nothing. They become capable of believing in anything." This is only too true, as we see in the present moment.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali says more with fewer words than anyone I've come across.