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John Yoo is away traveling this weekend, so the 3WHH reverts to its old form, with Lucretia pummeling Steve like a chiropractor working on a stiff neck for his conventional thinking about the debt ceiling deal. But otherwise we’re in a jolly mood this week, as we see signs that a “Revolt of the Normies”—that is sensible middle class Americans—against gender wokery is finally underway. Just ask the sales manager for Bud Light, or shareholders of Target. (We could have alternately called this episode “Pride Month Goeth Before the Fall.”)
Then, in response to some listener requests, we begin a preliminary excursion into a “Best Books” list, though we want to await John’s return for an orderly treatment of this question. For this episode Steve and Lucretia talk about political novels, and why some are enduring, like Orwell’s 1984 or Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, and why others have been forgotten, like Andre Malraux’s Man’s Fate, or Wyndham Lewis’s Revenge for Love (which Steve is reading right now). As usual Steve and Lucretia come at this subject from different directions, and finally settle together on . . . Shakespeare.
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I’m generally in Lucretia’s corner but I part ways on whiskey. I like the smokey ones like Laphraoig.
In my experience, and even in recent times, particularly when it comes to working mothers, I have observed a distinct lack of awareness regarding gender issue surrounding children. Mothers in their late 20s and early 30s, who are now embarking on parenthood, still hail from an era where gender-related matters were, at worst, concealed in school. Allow me to recount a conversation that has left a lasting impression on me—a dialogue with a young lady employed in an entry-level manufacturing position at a vendor I frequent. She is in her late 20s, possesses no education beyond high school, and has had prior involvement with certain gang-related activities to my understanding. It was after a passing remark that she posed a question that took me aback: “Wait, you’re not a supporter of the LGBTQ community?”
I responded in the negative, providing my reasons. I took the opportunity to clarify that this is not the same gay rights movement we witnessed two decades ago. What astonished her, however, was the issue of schooling, as she exclaimed, “I thought my children would be shielded from such matters.” Her astonishment was palpable, and she even added, “Well, my son isn’t gay and won’t tolerate that.” I couldn’t help but respond sarcastically, remarking on the improbability of an eight-year-old possessing the mental acuity and cunning required to outsmart an activist teacher…
Regardless, this seems to be the prevailing reaction among approximately 70% of the parents with whom I engage in conversation. They remain blissfully ignorant, assuming that their children’s educational experiences mirror their own from yesteryears.
It has become patently clear to me that a significant segment of the population possesses the potential to be reached and galvanized in our fight against the encroachment of gender-related issues. What we need is a non-profit organization singularly dedicated to this cause. Such an entity should be non-partisan, apolitical, and non-religious in nature, strategically targeting parents specifically on this matter.
I believe if the facts are clearly laid out, the parental vote would slant in our preferred direction organically.
I listened to your podcast today and the advertisement offered after the Target section was asking for donations to a group pushing a pride message. Me thinks they did not get the return on investment they were expecting from that add.
Since Joe tripped over a black bag, maybe it was the nuclear football that had been safely stowed out of his reach.
That’s what I think! They get Zero return on investment from advertising on our show. (Shhh–don’t tell them.)
Thanks for the backup. You’re obviously a great American!
The other day I was listening to “You’re Wrong” with Mollie Hemingway and David Harsaniy and there was a “happy pride!” ad from… Febreze. Because what I really want from an air freshener is to have it turn me gay.
Lucretia – you like whiskey and red wines, I do too. Antebellum red wine aged in Jack Daniels barrels, from Tennessee. Best of both worlds.
“Lord of the World”(1907) by Robert Hugh Benson is a good dystopian novel that may have influenced “1984” and “Brave World.” Zamyatin’s “We” (1923) is another. All seem eerily prescient considering what we’re seeing now. I liked Lucretia’s point about 1984 and the changing of language and the “You WILL go along” attitude it represents.
On the lighter side, my favorite political satire is Christopher Buckley’s “The White House Mess” (1988), a takeoff on White House memoirs. It does for that genre what “This is Spinal Tap” did for rockumentaries, i.e., you can never experience the genre again without thinking of the satirical version.
I agree with Steve that “Hemingway hated it” is a fine endorsement for the Wyndham Lewis book, and I will therefore read it after I finish Paul Johnson’s “Heroes.”
Remember, Lucretia: It’s i before e when spelling Nietzche.
As a tired, almost 77 year old Milton Friedman and Tom Sowell fan/economist, re.the Budget Deal, I say KISS. This deal was done and and was ‘done compared to what?’… and it was endorsed by Art Laffer and Larry Kudlow….and AOC hated it.
–’nuff said, half way through 2023 as we struggle on how best to replace Joe.
Except that I forgot the “Z”….
While living in Germany, I learned the adage “When two vowels go walking, the second does the talking.” Trite and banal, I know, but I rarely mispronounce German words or words of German derivation. So there’s that.
My (downloaded) podcast included an ad for (paraphrasing) “Dawn dish detergent again teaming up with iHeartMedia to sponsor the ‘Can’t Cancel Pride‘ music event.” So now I’m boycotting Proctor & Gamble.
I can’t imagine how any advertising merchant would place such an ad on Rob Long‘s arch-conservative, home of consistent, principled right-wing thought, Ricochet.com. /sarcasm
Another ad placed in my copy of the podcast was entirely in Spanish, not inappropriate for gulf coast Texas, where I downloaded the podcast. I didn’t bother to pay enough attention to notice which cerveza the ad was pitching.
Boy oh boy, do I ever remember the “major clench factor” when typing a page with a footnote or two. The terror increased line by line, since as Lucretia mentioned, if you didn’t stop at the right spot on the page to type the separator line, either you ran out of space for the footnote, or you left too large a margin at the foot of the page. If you misjudged, the only solution was to type the whole page over again. Working from handwritten copy made it impossible to gauge how much space it would take up in typewritten form, so it was a jungle., . . . a minefield, . . . quicksand everywhere. (Metaphors to the left of me, similes to the right, symbolism all around me!)
My typewritten magnum opus was my ~80+ page senior project in engineering school, with dozens of footnotes. We were a team of three who had been researching and writing all semester long. By agreement, we stopped writing on the Thursday before the Monday due date, and spent all day and night Friday, Saturday, and Sunday typing (and crumpling and throwing away and retyping). The miracle was that each one of us managed to beg, borrow, or steal a typewriter, and one of them was electric – state of the art, baby!
We inserted several graphs and pictures in the paper, and typing around them wasn’t the problem, but there were no reducing/enlarging photocopiers circa 1980, so we had to engineer solutions for different sized source material.
I can also vividly recall years later the physical sense of relief I felt the first time I inserted a footnote in a paper using Word for Windows. “That’s it???!? That’s all I have to do – just type in the citation? And the software figures out the rest? Hallelujah!”
When the Congress is virtually tied . . . the perfect can’t help but thwart the good. The debt ceiling bill is disappointing, but it puts us on a better track than derailment. . . . I’m totally with @lucretia though on boycotts. I think they’re great (the only concern being making sure that they’re warranted). The boycott is a brilliant form of direct capitalism (the civil rights-forming Montgomery Bus Boycott being the Ur example). My task, as someone who loves a frigidly cold cold beer, is giving up my beloved Stella Artois, which, apparently, is now an Anheuser-Busch brand soon to be brewed in Missouri. I plan to take up with the irascible Sam Adams.
People like to sniff at it, but, for me, MS Word was a godsend.
I got that one too.
With the talk of the Dodgers and Sisters of Look At Me, I saw a mention on Twitter that Sam “Luggage Thief” Brinton was the leader of the D.C. branch for a few years. Because, of course he was.
I think I can write an article proving that Macbeth illustrates the two main points of Plato’s Republic.
Ah, I always had trouble with ie or ei in his name, so assumed that was what you did, too. Another trite and banal trick I used for remembering the order of the n’s in Cincinnati was Lawrence Welk. “One ‘n’ two.” :) Of course, only those of certain age to remember Lawrence Welk would need these aides, since we’ve had spell check for decades now. :)
This is the article read: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/macbeth-and-the-moral-universe/
Read “We”, “1984”, and “Animal Farm” in high school. Then “Lord of the World” after I converted to Catholism. Finally”Brave New World “. I’ve read more dystopian books than I would have expected looking back on my reading career. Even read the “Handmaid’s Tale ” when I was younger. Have never wanted to watch the shows. Oh and we shouldn’t forget “Fahrenheit 451”.
I read The Handmaid’s Tale when it came out in 1987, and thought it was cartoonishly bad. Can’t believe they made a TV series out of it. (Come to think of it, of course I can believe Hollywood made a TV series out of it.)
If I remember correctly, I pretty much reached that conclusion in the bookstore and never bought/read it. When the leftists were saying this is what Republicans envision for America, I knew it was a) Nonsense, and b) Not worth my $15.95, or whatever books cost in ’87.