“President Biden’s muted campaign launch this week is a sign for things to come. Whilst the President attempts to hide from the media, America’s allies and enemies alike are left wondering who’s really in charge. To discuss Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s chances in the lead up to the 2024 American election, the historian and commentator Victor Davis Hanson sits down with Steven Edginton for this week’s Off Script podcast.”
Good interview…but…
I think it’s extremely rich, suggesting that Bernie and “the squad” are giving Joe his agenda.
Maybe he’s basing a public script around their suggestions…But he’s not genuinely behind most of these things…He’s not honestly fighting for them.
This is a pathetic, sad, embarrassing outrage of an era, in U.S. history.
There was at least one other thing I was going to take issue with…but for the life of me, I don’t remember what…
…I was away from my PC while listening [Oh, the joy of a bluetooth headset!], and my thoughts got lost while listening to whatever came after.
“Dr James Orr is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the Faculty of Divinity, a position he took up after four years as McDonald Postdoctoral Fellow in Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at Christ Church, Oxford. He holds a PhD and MPhil in Philosophy of Religion from the University of Cambridge and a BA in Classics from Balliol College, Oxford. He is the UK Chairman of The Edmund Burke Foundation, a public affairs institute that aims to strengthen the principles of national conservatism in Western and other democratic countries.
00:00 Intro
01:50 Dr James Orr’s Background
05:06 The Threat to Western Principles
09:59 How Progressives & Conservatives Approach Change
15:48 A Progressive’s View of Religion
22:36 Increasing Atheism
27:47 Sponsor Message: Locals
28:49 Restriction, Freedom & Oppression
31:14 A Time Before Political Agreements
45:55 Why Are We So Vulnerable to Wokeness?
52:02 The Internet’s Effect on People’s Worldview
56:22 Conservatism, Art & Culture
1:04:52 What Does the Future Look Like?
1:13:35 What’s the One Thing We’re Not Talking About?”
Very good interview…
…Here are my rambling thoughts…
—
Are the rights and well being of tiny minorities not important?
Progressive liberal ethics are centered on making the world good for everyone, but especially focus on most minorities that are being ignored or actively suppressed…and there are a lot of people being ignored and actively suppressed…You cannot just stop, after the initial people you aim to help become better off…It’s not the point, to only help a limited amount of people. It’s ideology, is to bring humane equality, justice and dignity to everyone.
—
Speaking to another thing he said…how conservatives, liberals and socialists frequently share some common standards and principles…
…This is one of the reasons why I so easily share many of these conservative voices here…and even actively agree with some [or even a lot] of what they are saying…What they have to say still remains true…and it underscores how many progressives are currently going off the rails.
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…”Faith, family and flag produce freedom”?…
…That is absolutely not my experience…at all…”Faith”, if we are talking about religion, was particularly soul destroying, especially given that I am homosexual, and that religion stunts your ability to function in larger society…
…”Family”?…highly homophobic…What can I say?…The were good in many ways…They were really bad in some ways…Ultimately…my family was highly dysfunctional…It was not a solid foundation, nor a source of strength for me.
…”Flag”?!!…Holy Shit!…You cannot keep the state out of your fucking ass crack, where it comes to your sexuality…lest you be “the wrong type, getting the wrong thrills, over the wrong things”…Oh heavens No!…They cannot live with the paranoia of that!…And this isn’t even getting into the other [IE: financial] areas you get saddled and impoverished with.
I have yet to encounter any actual freedom, in any of those things…Frankly, [speaking mostly of religion and state, here] they’ve left me with the staunch impression, that they believe I am their chattel…that I exist solely for their benefit…I’ve always experienced it as more of a predator to prey relationship, where they imagine that I am their prey.
There is no freedom to be had there…It’s a life under constant fire.
[…and I know life is complicated…Many people…sometimes even myself, will go back over what I just typed here…and say “that’s going a bit extreme”…The system has still given you a lot…And it has…But the internal, natural humanity it has viciously gutted out of me?…deprived me of?…There is no compensation possible for that…It is the literal “spiritual murder” in action, which so many people claim “the likes of me are responsible for committing against others”…This is the objectively lived experience…It is psychological torture…That is literally how many people like myself, experience and recognize it.]
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I agree that the barbarians are currently holding the power…They always have been, as far back as I can remember…It’s why I am so sick of it, and commonly point out that nothing of substance has ever fucking changed…Not With Them…
Any positive change is happening outside of their sphere…often by the constructive hands of their own victims…who understand first hand, what they are fighting over.
We will bring their era of terror to an end.
—
“Pre Political structure”?…
…Our primal common ground…is that no singular person can do everything, and we need to trust each other for survival and well being. Structure is there, to ensure everyone is living up to that level of trust.
…Regardless of how anyone wants to dress it up, with “a god” or sense of “moral superiority”…that is exactly what our common ground boils down to…
…It’s why lesser mature people want you to be “just like them”…That’s all they know and trust.
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“There is no non-political dimension to human life”…
…That’s an interesting observation…I want to agree with it…though something in my gut tells me, there is an argument against it…
…I mean…there’s plenty of things about humans, which should not be political…and yet…someone…somewhere…has made it their goal to politicize it…
Some common human traits are not political at all…My favorite color is blue…Is that political?…My favorite drink is unsweetened tea…Is that political?…
No…It’s subjective and personal.
—
The cultural change is happening primarily because…masses of people who have never had a chance to have their own voices heard, are now living life with all these digital tools at their disposal.
…We are no longer locked out of the ability, to widely publish our own knowledge, thoughts and experiences.
A lot of us are realizing just how badly we have been suppressed by the establishment…and we no longer want what the establishment is trying to force onto us…We naturally want to build a parallel platform, separate from that of the establishment…because our own platform substantively supports and enriches our lives.
—
“Ones color of pill”…
Nobody can say what the future looks like…
…I can only say, what I believe a good society will embrace…and what I believe a good society will reject.
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“Ideas get stronger as they get older”…
I agree with that, in general…This is why it is so hard, to dislodge shitty ideas from a culture or legal system…It’s just “the way things have always been”, and it rarely inconveniences the majority.
It picks on tiny minorities, who have a harder time defending themselves, or reaching any sort of critical turning point.
…But once things actually start impacting large portions of the population in a negative way…things change.
I do believe…this culture, society, government, system…is entirely to sick inside of itself, to avoid change…even if that change means, death from it’s own sickness within.
Things cannot continue like they are…It’s already diseased and broken…It’s just staggering onward, in a pathetic, disgraceful state.
Our biggest problem at this explicit moment in time…is that it just wont collapse and get it over with…It continues being artificially propped up.
My hope is with the good people, among the abused, exploited and oppressed…We will chase out the predators and rebuild something vastly better.
“Actor Matthew Lawrence says he was fired by his talent agency for not stripping for the director of a Marvel project. Uh oh, we hope this wasn’t on Disney’s watch…”
“The United states could be heading towards stagflation and many economists are sounding the alarm. A US general says its time to admit the Russian Army is tought that we want to admit. Senator Scott wants to redirect IRS fund to protecting our souther border and Tucker Carlson blows the whistle on media corruption.”