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American pride in the country is on the decline. What is driving this lamentable phenomenon, and can it be reversed before it has a pernicious effect on our common national purpose? Also, is Joe Biden’s campaign yet another experiment designed to see just how out of touch the Acela Corridor can be?
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**edit** nevermind
Frenchmen don’t turn the cart over? Did you ever see “Les Miserables”?
Joe gets the benefit of the doubt for being over 70? But Trump is over 70 and he’s not our uncle I guess?
I honestly wonder if Noah is contrarian for its own sake.
maybe I’m just cranky because I find their version of poll watching lazy.
They’re saying that Joe gets the benefit of the doubt for specific, old-person-style behaviors more than he used to previously for the same behaviors. Trump does not exhibit those specific behaviors.
Ricochet members (and the modern Right in general) can’t see past the ballot box.
For proof, just look at the comments on here. As always, you’ll find plenty of stuff about the election, Biden and Trump but no one wants to comment on the thesis of the episode: The fact that two generations of young people have been indoctrinated into rejecting the very traditions that have made their safety, comfort and — ironically — the freedom to reject those traditions possible.
Two generations. And a third one on the way.
Ricochet members (and the modern Right in general) have their priorities on backwards. For them, politics comes first and the culture a distant second. (“Look, pal,” they like to say, “unless we elect the right people, we won’t even have a culture.” Sigh.)
And they think that a majority of our wayward young are going to wake up and smell the Buckley “once they get a good strong dose of reality.”
Despite all polling to the contrary, they still believe this.
Amazing.
This is the kind of thinking that’s gonna do us in.
This is Andrew Klavan’s mantra: Politics follows culture, not the other way around. We shouldn’t cede the cultural field; we’re witnessing the culmination of decades of doing so.
We do have a persistent subculture. There are pockets here and there. But we could and should do more to take the cultural offensive.
This pretty much sums up my view of what is going on in the country. I am nearing 40 and I went to public school from junior high through high school. Nearly all of my peers have drank the kool aid that the left has given to them. Thank God I was raised in a traditional family and homeschooled until age 12. For those that are just exiting high school and college, it’s even worse than my generation. I listen to this podcast and think to myself, “Will any of the twentysomethings even give these guys the time of day?” The answer is no, of course
Politics is a winnable fight. We can’t even win culture within the right. Financial cons (and most of your NT types) think the moral conservatives are the thing keeping them from being the cool kids in school.
Try getting a writing job in Hollywood as an “out” Republican. I made that mistake.
It’s a strategic mistake. And you’re never going to make Christianity nor personal responsibility cool when “you can have everything you want if not for *Those* people” and moral relativity on sex and drugs and personal conduct so long as you’re not “hurting” people.
and you see how many cons are afraid of that heat so they morph.
Yes, we “we should do more.” But what would be sufficient? The Left wins because they have scripted entertainment, music, the news, advertising, and (most crucially) academia, and that is a veritable tsunami that is engulfing our young. How can they not grow up left?
It looks pretty bleak. And I welcome good ideas. I’m just not hearing any right now.
Me too. Not sure what the answer is, but breaking out the white board and giving these kids a Ted Talk won’t work at all. Their ideas are religious in nature, and won’t be revised by countering them with facts and data.
We are fighting a new religon.
It’s not all bleak. The Left has bankrolled many projects that utterly tanked at the box office. Charlie’s Angels is the latest. Berating your (potential) viewers for not shutting up and eating our gruel like we’re told is costing them credibility as well as revenue. They tried to play the celebrity card in 2016 with all those montage videos, and what they got most was much better parody responses. There are some mainstream shows that have likeable conservative (or non-leftist) characters, and laughable Meathead types (Last Man Standing), and standup’s rampage against Cancel culture has been trending on Netflix. The more they overreach, the tighter they cling, the more people they alienate who they used to control. It’s not universal, there’s still a long way to go, but our side makes strides by saying “welcome to the party, pal” to those who suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of the “good folk/bad folk” line of death.
The new religion is reaching that awkward Inquisition stage, and there’s hints of a new Renaissance leaving them behind.
As writer Sarah Hoyt likes to say, “in the end, we win, they lose,” quoting that happy cold warrior Reagan. We can’t lose hope. There are rough times ahead, but when the dust settles: we win, they lose. They constrict; we expand.
I won’t be optimistic that the cultural tide is turning until I see examples of language and behavior that was once acceptable in the 70s, 80s and 90s … became verboten with the rise of the SJWs in the early 2000s … and is now acceptable again.
Acceptable … not acceptable … acceptable.
That is my litmus test. And I can find no examples of that. Not one. Anywhere.