Is the COMMENTARY podcast a downer? That’s what one reader said, referencing its “crushing morosity.” Well, this one with John Podhoretz and Abe Greenwald isn’t exactly going to lift your spirits, what with its discussion of the shooting at the GOP baseball practice, the shadows looming over the Trump presidency, and other light topics. But it’s interesting! Give a listen.

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There are 6 comments.

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  1. Jim Wright Inactive
    Jim Wright
    @JimW

    That’s some medical-grade morosity right there. Works wonders for coming down off an energy-drink high. Kudos!

    • #1
  2. dicentra Inactive
    dicentra
    @dicentra

    I like the crushing morosity. Nothing inspires despair faster than knowing that things are really bad, but then nobody will “get morose” when discussing them.

    I also concur that it’s not necessarily a kindness to impose heroic status on the victims of misfortune. People who are suffering need comfort, support, and someone to weep with them. When cancer patients become instant folk heroes, for example, that’s a reflection of other people’s need to be comforted in the face of something truly frightening.

    Serious illnesses and injuries are already psychologically devastating enough — then the hero status tells the patient that their social function is now to provide an inspirational story for everyone else, which puts pressure on the patient instead of providing relief to the patient. That dynamic is not something you’d intuit until it happens to you.

    So yeah: when someone is beset by tragedy, don’t provide “inspirational” platitudes — which provide comfort not to the patient but to the platitude-giver — instead, express your sorrow over the terrible thing that’s happening to the patient, and let the patient express his or her distress without rebuttal and “encouragement.”

    • #2
  3. Podkayne of Israel Inactive
    Podkayne of Israel
    @PodkayneofIsrael

    Well, I’m a nurse, and I get a snootful of people telling me that the things I deal with every day are “depressing”. How is enabling people to deal with difficult situations and making those situations easier to bear “sad”? Sad would be getting no help at all, sad would be the isolation some of these “happy” folks would impose on those in their midst with problems.

    Besides, John isn’t “morose”, he’s sardonic.

    By the way, great podcast. You guys really seem to have gotten your mojo back after a couple of off episodes.

    • #3
  4. Elephas Americanus Member
    Elephas Americanus
    @ElephasAmericanus

    dicentra (View Comment):
    I like the crushing morosity. Nothing inspires despair faster than knowing that things are really bad, but then nobody will “get morose” when discussing them.

     

    My problem isn’t so much the morosity, but since late January, the podcast has been pretty steady drumbeat of how awful President Trump is and how the Republican administration is just screwing everything up, failing, flailing, destroying America, destroying the world, etc., etc., etc. In short, I’m not sure if I’m listening to the Commentary magazine podcast or the Mother Jones magazine podcast.

    • #4
  5. Lazy_Millennial Inactive
    Lazy_Millennial
    @LazyMillennial

    Elephas Americanus (View Comment):
    My problem isn’t so much the morosity, but since late January, the podcast has been pretty steady drumbeat of how awful President Trump is and how the Republican administration is just screwing everything up, failing, flailing, destroying America, destroying the world, etc., etc., etc. In short, I’m not sure if I’m listening to the Commentary magazine podcast or the Mother Jones magazine podcast.

    If you think these guys are pushing anything similar to what Mother Jones has been pushing, I’ll go ahead and ask if you ever read Mother Jones? Or anything to the left of Fox News generally?

    • #5
  6. Podkayne of Israel Inactive
    Podkayne of Israel
    @PodkayneofIsrael

    Lazy_Millennial (View Comment):

    Elephas Americanus (View Comment):
    My problem isn’t so much the morosity, but since late January, the podcast has been pretty steady drumbeat of how awful President Trump is and how the Republican administration is just screwing everything up, failing, flailing, destroying America, destroying the world, etc., etc., etc. In short, I’m not sure if I’m listening to the Commentary magazine podcast or the Mother Jones magazine podcast.

    If you think these guys are pushing anything similar to what Mother Jones has been pushing, I’ll go ahead and ask if you ever read Mother Jones? Or anything to the left of Fox News generally?

    Elephas Americanus’ imagination creates the content.

    • #6
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