Alcohol-Free Ruminations

Today’s refreshingly (or regrettably, depending on your perspective) sober Ruminant finds Jonah surrounded by boxes ...

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Today’s refreshingly (or regrettably, depending on your perspective) sober Ruminant finds Jonah surrounded by boxes of books so nerdy that even Goodwill won’t take them. Preoccupied with thoughts on the strange state of the right, and the equally strange state of Joe Biden, he swiftly reaches levels of wonkiness so high that they could cure sleep deprivation. What’s the matter with the Claremont Institute? Will the oft-discussed “Liberal Fascism Revisited” piece ever be completed? And what new euphemism for a mild hangover will soon be sweeping the nation?

Show Notes:

– Jonah’s pre-coffee reproval of Ryan Williams

– The Wednesday G-File

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  1. Avatar photo
    Daniel Takash

    Great episode! If you want to give away those books (like you, I don't think I could throw a book out at gunpoint) the Internet Archive (of wayback machine) fame has an open library where they take donations. https://openlibrary.org/bookdrive

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    Jeremy Horton

    As a former brief "resident" of the Maricopa County Jail System, I think that they would be a perfect place for you to donate your unwanted books, Jonah. Their library policy/system is....shitty as fuck...because it's a jail lol....BUT they do make an effort to pass out books, which is something. Just a suggestion. Peace & love, brother.

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    Loganrjudy

    I know you feel weird doing the solo podcast, but it's honestly my favorite Remnant of the week. Stream of consciousness ftw.

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  4. Christina

    I’ve always found the two-dimensional depiction of political philosophy—with social liberalism/conservatism on the x-axis and economic libertarianism/authoritarianism on the y-axis—to be a much more useful depiction than the one-dimensional left vs. right spectrum. It certainly helps disentangle the authoritarian tendency emerging on the right from the less-authoritarian fusionism that dominated the right during the latter decades of the last century. https://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis2

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    The Bell Tower

    So.... what is the axis for left v right? If it is government intervention or state power, then pure communism and extreme libertarianism exist on the same side of the spectrum with little to no government.

    The difference is that radical libertarians simply want government to go away while the rugged, free men build all their roads and firehouses independently and live like Grizzly Adams.

    Communism first requires a dictatorship where they destroy all the notions of wealth, property and bourgeois values (and kill all the people who won’t consent to giving everything to the state). After all the free men are dead or cowed, the good people can scamper through the forests with the bunnies and squirrels, untroubled by evil rich people and scary responsibility.

    Fascism and socialism are in the same vector leaning towards more state power. The difference here is that socialists think that if they can just exert their power through democracy, that makes it all justified. This is like saying Nickelback is better than Frank Zappa because they sold more records, but never mind.

    Liberalism as it was designed in America is the only legitimate form of government but it requires serious and responsible people to wield it in the same way that an F16 must have a trained pilot for it to be effective.

    Americans have declined in both seriousness and responsibility and they fail to understand why they can’t use the state to get what they want for their preferred faction. Republics cannot accommodate the thirst for vengeance, which is what the word “justice” in “social justice” means.

    In these hands, the F16 is simply a bomb waiting for the right (or wrong) person to get in the cockpit. Perhaps Americans will step back from this banana republican abyss over which they are teetering. I am not confident but I’m a cynical jerk who loathes humanity so... don’t mind me.

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  6. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    You are absolutely right on the masks! It’s ridiculous how extreme both the anti-maskers and the militant-maskers can be. And unscientific. At least the anti-maskers don’t claim to be backed by science (most of them). I get sick of hearing people who claim to “follow the science” and call the other side “anti-science” then act completely irrationally. And if you fall into the middle camp on this issue (ie you follow the science on masks and wear one in contexts when it makes sense to do so and do not in contexts when it does not), then you get tarred by both sides as belonging to the other extreme camp. There is zero evidence that wearing masks outside makes any sense. If you’re not remotely near anybody, I don’t see why you would wear a mask unless you particularly like wearing them. If you’re indoors in a small space with a large number of people not in your pod, you should wear a mask. If you’re vaccinated, the only real reason to wear one is courtesy to those high risk people who have not yet been, which is a decision you should make based on the scenario you find yourself in.

    Loved the Mike Gallagher episode. I admire the give-zero-Fs attitude that goes into doing it. Yeah it was probably unprofessional but so what? Mike ran out of half-baked ideas at the end. If you’ve still got a bunch, Jonah, please consider doing a solo Remnant episode of just your half-baked ideas. That would be awesome. Sober or otherwise. Or invite Guy or Jack Butler back on for one. Or an episode with Mike Gallagher, Guy, and Jack Butler.

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  7. Brett C

    Jonah, can you fix the music on Advisory Opinions?

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      Ben Connelly

      Ha! Yeah I liked the old Swanson intro better too, but Caleb did a good job explaining the change in the last AO.

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      1. Brett C

        What Caleb did say was very helpful: While David and Sarah do not have a say, Caleb answers to Jonah and Steve.

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    DillaDonutz

    I share belief with Jonah that Biden's 9/11 date is def grotesque. He's always looking to improve a story for his benefit, just like he tried improved the story of his dead wife by lying about the details of the wreck. That's beyond ____ed up.

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    wj

    Enjoyable episode. Now on to the complaining!

    I don't think I quite buy the ole line that conservative views are always going to be less popular, because people like free money and stuff. If there's really something to them that makes the world better, but people don't like it, maybe the wrong stories are being told.

    And sure, it's great that the founders built a system where great-but-hard-to-sell policies can succeed. But this just seems like the way they aggrieved minority justifies itself, as throws all it's weight on every undemocratic lever it can, to hold on to the power it sees slipping.

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  10. James D

    The most absurd and farcical part of that "Vichy" smear was that Vichy France was a profoundly RIGHT-WING organization! If they must be buffoons, they could at least be historically coherent buffoons and reach for an analogy like Fifth Columnist or something. Vichy was nationalistic, natalist, and quasi-fascist!

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