Are We Done Yet?

Inconvenient arguments.

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Full of rage and regret, Jonah reconsiders the life choices that led to him watching the interminable DeSantis-Haley debate start to finish, and plans to inflict his pain on listeners. He also revisits his argument about Hitler inflation in Democratic electioneering, and, at a listener’s request, considers the ties between DEI and Marxism.

Show Notes
Jonah’s Never Go Full Hitler
Jonah on CNN (DEI debate)

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Comments (10)
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  1. Avatar photo
    EmmyCab

    I enjoyed listening to you elaborate on your "Never Go 'Full Hitler'" piece. My favorite line from that one: "But American politics didn’t begin in 2015, and even if these sincere progressives don’t know the history of anti-conservative demonization, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen."

    I remember exactly when I first realized how long the left has been using the same old arguments to smear conservatives. It was during the GWB years while I was reading a biography about Ronald Reagan. At some point in that book I realized, "Man, you could swap out the name Reagan and replace it with Bush and these attacks would sound exactly the same." (I have an ag degree so I didn't spend my youth studying the history of the Truman vs. Dewey election, et al. so this came as somewhat of a surprise to me at the time, lol.)

    Thanks, Jonah, I always enjoy your pod. :)

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    Jeffrey B

    I don’t know how you’re able to maintain your composure on the Chris Wallace show when you’re having to talk to morons especially re: the Claudine Gay plagiarism. You’re a stronger man than I am, kudos to you for sticking it out.

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    Addicus

    Only 16 min in and we get this gem, "The Tea Party was full of good people who the Left called Nazis".

    Sure that's over the top. What noun should we have used for the fine folks claiming, "Obama was born in Kenya - no birth certificate, he's a Muslim and he's setting up Death-Panels!"

    Yes it seems both sides remember the crap the other side says about them while ignoring their own side's slanders.

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    1. Sai Ayila

      What do say about Harlan crow owning Nazi memorabilia? That doesn't mean crow is necessarily a Nazi sympathizer but if your family, greath grandfather or mother were one of adolf Hitler's victims then you would find crow's actions of keeping nazi memorabilia of worlds famous "garden of evil" dictators disgusting. I have problem with that, no offense to crow but that's the reality

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    CynthiaW

    Good talk.

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    George.Skinner

    The left has too casually thrown around accusations of fascism at right wing opponents for far too long. However, that doesn’t absolve the right from using their own eyes, ears, and judgement to identify Trump’s authoritarianism for themselves. It’s a pathetic excuse tied to a juvenile reflex to spite or defy the left.

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  6. Rob Asghar

    Enjoyed your take on cultural Marxism. I then googled it and was boggled to see a very biased Wikipedia entry that frames the very notion of cultural Marxism as an antisemitic conspiracy theory of the alt-right. Looks like the SPLC and the Guardian, not so shockingly, take a similar view.

    From Wikipedia: "The term Cultural Marxism refers to a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory that misrepresents the Frankfurt School as being responsible for modern progressive movements, identity politics, and political correctness. The conspiracy theory posits that there is an ongoing and intentional academic and intellectual effort to subvert Western society via a planned culture war that undermines the Christian values of traditionalist conservatism and seeks to replace them with culturally liberal values."

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  7. Mmorrissey001

    Really good to see Reihan Salam. Thanks for the link.

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    Coolidge’s Burner

    Jonah—any thoughts on Frankfurt-School Marxism's influence on the movie Fight Club?

    Maybe the movie just attempts to articulare Gen X's what-does-it-all-even-mean-man strand of ennui, but Tyler Durden's (played by Brad Pitt) declaration that "[a]dvertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need" seems right up Herbert Marcuse's alley. Fight Club (20th Century Fox 1999).

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    Kevin Johnson

    Another good one. Thanks for continuing to point out how identity politics and DEI are illiberal. Group rights replacing equal rights is a disaster. I look forward to you and others adding another piece to your great points on this. As Thomas Sowell and others have documented, the group rights, identity politics line is not only illiberal and immoral, it does tremendous damage to members of the groups it intends to help. Cheating them of agency, as Glenn Loury stresses, implying they are incapable of meeting neutral standards, providing perverse incentives and undermining real accomplishments, and deepening racial and other divisions, this approach is a disaster, especially for black Americans. Studies indicate many students sent to colleges for which they are not prepared either fail to graduate or move from stem to easier majors when their unpreparedness becomes an obvious burden. And the attack on western skills and values (punctuality, reading and writing) as “white” would be hilarious if not so damaging to blacks. If there were any brilliant KKK leaders, they could have devised this way to destroy black achievement, self-confidence, and flourishing.

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