Recuse Me

In regards to the antisemitism issue: I have four sons, aged 20 to 29, and I'm confident I'm more exposed to Pepe the Frog and other "dank memes" than the average Ricochet listener. For the vast, vast majority of consumers of this tripe it's part of being naughty and transgressive, not expressions of deep hatred. Another meme that's extremely popular revolves around whether Bush had prior knowledge of 911.

I believe antisemitism got started among the modern audience back in 2006 with the Borat movie. I remember seeing it with my young sons and none of their friends or classmates had any idea that disliking Jewish people was a "thing" that people did.

Regarding the present lack of mobility among Americans, Ace of Spades addressed this a few days ago, pointing out some changes in American families that may explain some of this lack of mobility. (1) Many families need two incomes to stay afloat, and while finding one better job is possible, finding two jobs is difficult in any circumstance, and finding two jobs that are better than the present jobs is really difficult. (2) If the parents are divorced and share custody or even have visitation orders, moving out of state is very difficult, and many people do not have money to fight these kinds of legal battles, nor do they wish to abandon their children in order to move to a job or a better job.

In addition, what Mr. Podhoretz says about support from government is true, and some states have time of residence requirements before people receive benefits.

Mrs. Ink (View Comment):

Regarding the present lack of mobility among Americans, Ace of Spades addressed this a few days ago, pointing out some changes in American families that may explain some of this lack of mobility. (1) Many families need two incomes to stay afloat, and while finding one better job is possible, finding two jobs is difficult in any circumstance, and finding two jobs that are better than the present jobs is really difficult. (2) If the parents are divorced and share custody or even have visitation orders, moving out of state is very difficult, and many people do not have money to fight these kinds of legal battles, nor do they wish to abandon their children in order to move to a job or a better job.

In addition, what Mr. Podhoretz says about support from government is true, and some states have time of residence requirements before people receive benefits.

I agree. The other big change has been smart phones and social media. It's a lot easier to stay on line and mope with your similarly situated friends than strike out in a new direction. I've been blessed personally but I see the exasperation of other parents at their children's "failure to launch" due to some of these influences.

Petty Boozswha (View Comment):

In regards to the antisemitism issue: I have four sons, aged 20 to 29, and I’m confident I’m more exposed to Pepe the Frog and other “dank memes” than the average Ricochet listener. For the vast, vast majority of consumers of this tripe it’s part of being naughty and transgressive, not expressions of deep hatred.

Agreed, for the most part. But it's still a pretty lousy thing to do.