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It’s Time to Play!
I suppose the last thing anybody wants to do right now is to listen to the ramblings of a millennial. I’ll do my best to be brief (and bearable!)
Alas, the Left is at it again: reminding the adults of exactly why so many of us – without regret – gave Donald Trump the keys to the car, instead of allowing four more years of their social, political, and mental pollution. Many of them are people with whom we cannot have a conversation, making it entirely accurate to label them our enemies. Even if we don’t hate them, we have no choice but to fight.
But “fighting” isn’t enough. If this is truly a moral battle, then we have to win. If we have to win, then we are morally responsible for making the necessary adjustments. Of course, this is not going to be easy to agree upon, but I have some thoughts, and I’d be interested in what Ricochet has to say.
I’ve known of this Greta Thunberg for approximately three days. Half of the country finds her – as they find everyone who holds popular opinions – stunning and brave. The other is angry. Rightly so, but conservatives do have a way of living up to their stereotype.
They’re not angry with her, but with the adults around her. The problem is that there are no adults around her, just people of a certain age (what has that age been moved back to? 38?) This is a girl surrounded by people as deluded and unstable as she. It’s the sad reality children face today; rarely do they know adults. But I’m digressing a bit. Greta isn’t really my subject.
The Right has a major opportunity, but, one that I’m not entirely confident that they will see.
There cannot be many examples in our nation’s history in which a political party has faced off against one as unlikable as our current opponents. I don’t mean unlikable in the sense that they may have stood for repugnant ideals, slavers are surely worse. Rather, I mean one which has so little to offer – even in terms of fruitless, “Hope and Change” sloganeering – to anybody who isn’t wealthy and bored.
As @susanquinn pointed out in the comments of one of her posts, conservatives are not used to playing the role of the archetypal Joker. I think it’s time we practice. There are many, many kids who can be saved. I just graduated from a public university and met some of them. We have to learn to speak in a language that they can understand. A lot depends on the Right learning how to be the adults who can play the game.
Published in Culture
I should add that there are some genuine villains here. My father – one of the deluded and unstable types – introduced my family to Al Gore. (Long story short, he did a lot for the campaign in Florida up through the recount).
I remember shaking his hand and looking into his eyes. Never before had I encountered someone who seemed so unhappy to be around a child.
Then again, the five Block children were an overwhelming bunch.
I think the Babylon Bee is doing well and having a good time while doing so.
Ah! Arahant, glad you made it. Our resident joker!
I don’t follow the Bee. Like pretty much everything political, I rely on you guys. But everything they do that’s been brought to my very short attention span is great!
Help yourself, man:
https://babylonbee.com/
Have a big. ol’ dollop of fun.
Homework. 😧!
They are doing a great job just with the headlines, but the articles bring it home how silly the times are for how good we have it.
Great post!
You had to bring slavery into it, huh?
I’m the parent of three millenials, so feel free to ramble any time!
With this latest impeachment thing, I think we’re all pretty busy watching the Dems implode. It’s just too bizarre and entertaining! But you’re right, @samuelblock–we need to push our narrow envelope. Now is the time!
Incidentally, I was curious if you were related to Walter Block. He doesn’t seem like the Al Gore type…
I find her – as I find most people who hold popular opinions – stunned and brainless.
I like your post and I think you make some good points. I lament the disadvantage that many of us labor under since the principle that there is little that is ‘good’ about government is not held by our opponents. Donald Trump has set the example of how to fight these children and win. Keep supporting him and urging others on. Maybe his WAR is not infinite and there is another one of him out there. WAR = Wins Above Replacement!
Walter Block of Loyola New Orleans? No relation, but I was fortunate enough to be taught by his protege.
He’s also not the deluded or unstable type. I watched that guy in a room with 200 rude kids who didn’t understand the points he was making…. the guy didn’t flinch!
So, was he a chip off the old Block?
Not at all. Joker extraordinaire!
Walter had a way of offending everyone in the room. Daniel D’Amico made fiscal conservatives out of practically everyone.
Somebody told me once that my professor attended Loyola about ten years before us. Apparently he had green hair and argued vehemently with everything Walter said.
Eventually, Walter hired him!
I know, I know. Such a cliche, associating the Democratic Party with what we all know Republicans are responsible for!
Thanks, Doc!
You deserve some credit. I was having so much fun with your caption contest, and it reminded me that nobody knows how funny the Right can be.
In my view one defining characteristic of the left is a complete lack of a sense of humor.
They’re too bloated with self love to leave any room for self examination. They fill the gap with irony. Or ironicalitalityness.
I’m afraid that we will have to rely on you and the other millennials to know what that is. We have a bunch of stereotypes to work with and we all have the millennials in our lives, which, perhaps because we are in their lives, tend to be a hard working and fine people. And I think that is to your point. “My” millennials know some actual adults, who help them navigate the indoctrination. When the adults in their lives are themselves hard working and fine people, it helps to counter the false narratives they encounter about conservatives.
But what message will work? As you say, the conservatives are there on campus, and many are very brave. We have some organizations that support them, e.g., the Young Americans Foundation and the Leadership Institute. We see encouraging movements like #WalkAway.
But I think students need more support and we are either not able or willing to give it to them. I’m a professor. I don’t hide my politics but I don’t advertise them either; I don’t think it’s my job to indoctrinate and I don’t think it’s any other professor’s job either. So we start with one hand tied behind our back already. We also know that it may be career suicide to reveal our ideology. Purging the Academy further of all conservatives may not be the best course. I still sit on committees and I have succeeded in getting PC language removed and also kept it from creeping in. But at some point, we all may be called upon to be brave, even to the detriment of our careers. Do those types of examples matter? Do they resonate with your generation?
I think we’ve all got different parts to play. Some should probably just ignore the kids today. If you find yourself generally liking them (even if they strike you as a little bit funky) then there’s a good chance you can tell them something that they’ll be interested in.
Do you have tenure? I hope so! If not, maybe stay a little quiet until then… we’ve got some institutions to infiltrate!
That’s absolutely true, but the right focus is the few words “learning how to be the adults”. Let’s be very cautious about speaking “in a language that they can understand.
To put it shallowly, if we focus on crafting a message that (we think) they’ll understand, then we’ll resemble that guy, what’s-his-teeth, “hello fellow kids.” And rightly so, because we’ll have become the thing he parodied.
If you’re of a religious bent, I’d say to focus on crafting a message that fits another’s mind is to fall. Everything will go wrong after that point.
Tell them the basic truths as you understand them. Connect the dots for them if you have to. That’s the language humans understand.
Steve Buscemi played the part.
I think it is important to have fun. We have been known to plot all sorts of things in the PIT, such as this beauty:
http://ricochet.com/441785/archives/from-the-secret-files-of-ricochet/
@gossamercat, your response was very thoughtful, and one which I’d have trouble answering with any precision without some additional information. What subject do you teach? Whereabouts is your university? Are your kids young, or out of the house?
Great point!
Sometimes I forget that, as much time as I spend on this site, in the presence of the wonderful Ricochetti, I haven’t actually met anybody on this site face to face. I just assume everyone here is an adult.
But I really wanted to insist on the playfulness that seems to be lacking. Of course I don’t mean to sacrifice anything; just to try to pivot enough to make eternal truths a little more tasty for the kids with sweet tooths.
There is plenty of playfulness on Fox TV’s Talk channel (On cable – it is not the Fox news station.) This is especially true on Saturday afternoons and early evenings. Both Jessie Waters and Greg Gutfield really find a way to have fun with the weekly headlines and topics.
Yes!
But we have to keep in mind that Fox News has been thoroughly trashed by our rivals. Waters and Gutfeld are good developments, but they won’t be able to change the minds of people who refuse to listen to anyone associated with that network.
Their delivery, however, provides a great example of how to have fun with the world we inhabit.
I won’t divulge! But I’m in STEM on the West Coast. The latter the belly of the beast, the former, somewhat of a haven still for us. The kids are not young anymore and neither am I!