An Open, Frank Ruminant

On this episode, Jonah ruminates from his igloo (we hope – wouldn’t that be cool?) ...

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On this episode, Jonah ruminates from his igloo (we hope – wouldn’t that be cool?) on some Alaska stories, the American founding, relativism in language, and why good manners are more important (and more complicated) than you might think.

Show Notes:

–Alaskans plug in their cars

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  1. Richard Fulmer

    Lord Acton's argument that praise for flawed leaders is a form of corruption is well taken, but that would seem to preclude praising any leader. Every leader, being human, is flawed. I like your point that we praise the good they did, while not hiding or forgetting the bad.

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    Angie

    Until I got online and into politics online...I had no idea the names of things or people had even changed, and since the vast majority of people are not online or political junkies...how are they supposed to even know things have changed?

    The last I heard, it was African Americans, (when I was growing up, Black was a slur)didn't know Eskimo was no longer allowed, didn't know Indians was not ok ( though the ones I know from the Seneca Nation say they don't mind at all , nor do they care about Columbus Day...)

    Which leads me to another point...activists and the regular people are not the same...and I feel like it is activists that declare these changes for whatever reason...then there are the large number of white people online who complain about white privilege who show it when they think seem to talk for other groups about what they want or find acceptable...plus, the fact that no group is a monolith and they don't even agree as to what to use

    It is hard to keep up, and I certainly don't want to insult anyone, but, I feel like actually knowing what the right thing is , isn't so easy to figure out

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    VladimusPrime

    On the evolving meaning of words and their usage.

    I must express a bit of disappointment with Jonah's understanding of McWorter's point about the double meaning of words like "literally". In the podcast Jonah laments that if literally comes to mean also figuratively what word will now mean literally? So Jonah understands that words change but he fails to understand McWorter's second point that context of word usage matters a lot to our understanding of them. Literally is or will come to mean both things, and which meaning is in use in a particular statement will be easily distinguishable to people by the overall context of the sentence being uttered or written. If people for some reason might find this incredulous bear in mind that today a reasonably educated person has no trouble reading documents from 100 years ago and understanding their meaning (more or less) despite the fact that as many words have changed from then till now as we are now lamenting are changing too fast. Maybe when one has a separation of a few hundred years like that between us and Shakespeare the changing nature of language proves to be more of a hurdle. But even that is not really insurmountable and certainly to someone with a higher than average education and focus on the subject it proves the smallest hurdle in the process of understanding and appreciating his work. Despite the drastic changes in the language exhibited over more than 420 years.

    Literally will not lose anything it will gain in function, much like the word cleave has which today can be used to describe putting two objects together or splitting two object apart, ie. "He cleaved to the log to stay afloat, or the log was cleaved in two by the axe."

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    Butch Earl

    Mr. Goldberg, thank you for a wonderful ruminant.
    Jonah's point about manners is very appropriate for our times. Even if I were to be convinced by Trump's acolytes that wearing a mask is a cowardly cave in to the deep state China loving globalist establishment, I still would wear one as a common courtesy to my fellow citizens who believe otherwise. It's sad to see but, Trump's hyper narcissistic selfish norm is becoming theirs.

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    Kevin Johnson

    Great stuff, Jonah. On the wonderful North, if you haven’t sat and watched the sun NOT sink into the sea, as my wife and I did in northern Norway, you are missing something. Given how far Fairbanks is away from the ocean, you might have to settle for just using the horizon, but seeing the sun dip and then turn around is really something.

    I’m glad you focused on the intentional warping of the language by the left for ideological reasons. You note how they create new shibboleths and play “gotcha” with folks as they constantly move the goal posts of “acceptable” speech. Far worse, I think, is the now decades-long success at changing the world through speech and indoctrination. You example of “Langston Hughes, emancipator of slaves” is funny...except it is really tragic. Millions of our kids and grandkids will be indoctrinated by the 1619 project, the redefinition of racism, the necessity of racial and ethnic stereotyping to fulfill “social justice”, the bastardization of words such as truth, and priviledge...

    By all means let’s accept McWorter’s argument for organic change in language, even if we slow the pace as you suggest. But let’s confront the ideological drive you cite because it seeks to disarm dissidents from the woke narrative.

    You also note how you might get in trouble for even mentioning those questioning any part of the BLW narrative, including seeking a baseline understanding of statistics on police killing of blacks. I am troubled that The Dispatch is contributing to this phenomenon by all but ignoring the many experts and thoughtful commentators who dissent from David (quoting Lyman Stone) and BLM narrative that there is an epidemic of police killing blacks and that such killings are wildly disproportionate by race. It is clear we have a terrible problem with stereotyping black men, including by cops, and we must fight that. AG Barr noted that this week, thankfully. But The Dispatch is all but ignoring McWorter (on this subject), Sowell (on this topic), Fryer, MacDonald, Harris, Riley, etc. David clearly thinks these folks are wrong or their points irrelevant...and they may be. But the woke crowd just got some researchers to withdraw a peer-reviewed study after an uproar over Ms. MacDonald’s analysis of the data. Why doesn’t the Dispatch cover this real debate over data from folks who are clearly not racist, or Trumpkins, or bomb-throwers? Failing to do so, while Ricochet, Commentary, WSJ, Quillette, NR, etc. join the discussion undermines your mission, I think. Note I am NOT arguing for uncritically accepting what these analysts argue, nor saying David is wrong. But how can you ignore so many smart dissidents from this part of the BLM narrative? Thanks much.

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      Aylene Wright

      Argh I had posted a nice reply that I accidentally deleted. Anyway, I agree that for all the commitments Jonah, David, and other Dispatchers have expressed toward good faith civil disagreement, most of that has been pretty informal so far in podcasts and these comments. But a formal one similar to the recent one featuring JG and Patrick Deneen would be appreciated. Other than BLM I can think of qualified immunity, Afghanistan policy, China policy, and impact of recent SCOTUS decisions, as topics that I do not think have a consensus "right answer". Or "do never Trumpers have a duty to vote for Biden/ other Dems". I think the overall TD line on that is "nope" but I am sure they can find someone to argue that case.

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        Aylene Wright

        Er, by "JG and Deneen" I mean the recent Newsweek feature.

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      Angie

      I also read her analysis was inaccurate

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      Angie

      I am not sure, but, I believe I keep reading from center right people that she has gone over to the dark side...I have read some of her stuff and she appears to me to have a position I don't agree with about black people..she basically says they have nothing to be concerned about, everything is fine and they are making stuff up

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      Anne W (Raw5254)

      I find myself a bit frustrated, too. But, that’s why I follow more than one publication or podcast.

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    The Bell Tower

    Great info about William F Buckley. It reminds of a story I heard or read somewhere about General Washington who had a house guest coughing incessantly and Washington himself shows up at the man’s bedside at 3am with a cup of tea. The humility of manners is huge.

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    Will

    Jonah: take a vacation. And don't feel guilty about it.

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      Anne W (Raw5254)

      He deserves one!

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        Will

        Right?? That man is a machine. We love the content. But for God's sake, enjoy some downtime!!

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    Marian Cates

    Great show!

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    Barry Cope

    I always liked Frank Herbert's twist on Acton's quote: “All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” (Chapterhouse: Dune). I believe he also tried to illustrate that point with the character Korba in Dune Messiah (the lessor Dune novel).

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      CynthiaW

      My husband and I were just discussing this yesterday - including Dune, weirdly. It seems to me that once a person decides he wants to be President, you ought to suspect very strongly that he's a lemon.

      My "never-happen" proposal was that we could assemble a list of, say, one thousand Americans of demonstrated competency from a wide variety of different backgrounds, ask them, "Would you consent to serve if called?", and then draw two names from a hat. Crazy talk, you might say, but would the results be worse than what we have now?

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    Marian Cates

    Fewer not less! Me, too.

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      CynthiaW

      Different FROM, not different THAN! That is the hill upon which I will linguistically die!

      (Brits can have their "different to," because they have darling little accents.)

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