Cries and Whispers

Jonah gets metaphysical on today’s mumbly Ruminant, recorded live in a chaotic hotel room not ...

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Jonah gets metaphysical on today’s mumbly Ruminant, recorded live in a chaotic hotel room not far from Stonecutter world headquarters. Unsurprisingly, his under-caffeinated mind is awash with thoughts on conservative intellectual history. Be prepared for an exceedingly nerdy disquisition on the philosophical differences between left and right and the importance of understanding that life is about trade offs. Plus, tune in to permanently change your perception of the theme from Jeopardy!

Show Notes:

– The Right, Matt Continetti’s upcoming book

– Jonah on the cult of unity

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  1. Derek Drizin

    The issue of liberals not acknowledging tradeoffs is something that I think about a lot. I suspect that a lot has to do with individual psychology. I read a fascinating article called The Secretive Lives of Liberals and Conservatives: Personality Profiles, Interaction Styles, and the Things They Leave Behind, which provides the best background on the topic that I have been able to find on the internet.

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    Ben Connelly

    The Remnant audience refuses to accept tradeoffs! We will not choose between either Drive Times or Solo Ruminants! We want to have our cake and eat it too. We demand both!

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      Andrea Leane

      Seconded!

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  3. GregS

    Generalizations like this aren't very useful.
    I don't think that most left/liberals think there are no trade offs in life - just as I don’t think that most conservatives think about everything in terms of tradeoffs.
    It's just that each side accepts trade offs that the other can't stomach.

    Conservatives in the 1960s (including WFB) wanted more freedom of association and were willing to accept the tradeoff of continuing segregation.
    Liberals wanted to end segregation and were willing to accept the tradeoff of private businesses being forced to do things by the government.
    (Use anti-gay-discrimination or gay marriage laws to bring this analogy to the present day).

    Liberals wanted to expand access to health insurance and were willing to accept the tradeoff of a government mandate that everyone must obtain insurance.
    Conservatives didn't want a mandate and were willing to accept the tradeoff of large numbers of uninsured people who stress the healthcare system.
    Of course what we actually got was neither thing - a toothless mandate, fewer uninsured people but lots of people with insurance that is unusable.

    Conservatives are no better at promising that there will be no tradeoffs. Why do you think that Republicans love talking about the debt but not about social security or Medicare reform? They don't want to talk about the tradeoffs. It is a human problem not a conservative or liberal one.
    And making the broad generalization that liberals don't understand tradeoffs while conservatives do is unsupported by reality.

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      CynthiaW

      "Conservatives are no better at promising that there will be no tradeoffs."

      I expect Jonah would say that failure to acknowledge incentives and constraints, compromises and tradeoffs indicates a lack of conservatism. No true Scotsman, after all ...

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    Pete T

    When Jonah mentioned men wearing hats at ball games he said 50 years ago. Probably closer to 90. As I remember the70's not a big hat wearing time.

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    1. GregS

      50 years before his first memory of baseball games. Many of us fall into that verbal trap - I routinely say things were "recent" by which I mean the 90s...

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    Sully

    The scene in question

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMZOQZz4-qc

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    Jack

    Ryan handled the audio issues masterfully.

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    Kevin C. Smith

    Jonah:

    You’re a conservative intellectual.

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  8. Curly Gruene Cahall

    This might be my favorite episode Jonah. Part of me imagines you expanding this into a book.

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  9. M Ross

    Love the podcast, Jonah. I love the ruminate way better than the drive times. I could do without the drive time chats altogether.
    Toward the end of today’s podcast you started adding “right” to the end of every few sentences. I don’t know why people started doing this the past year, but it makes people unlistenable. In my opinion it’s right up there with people who end sentences with a questioning lilt. Some of your guests add right every few sentences and it’s just so distracting. I realize you were probably distracted and that may be why you started adding “right” to the end of sentences but please don’t make it a habit. Just some friendly advice.

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  10. D. Lee Grooms

    CNN watch update: Jonah just referenced “masturbatory gestures,” said that’s how he felt about vast swaths of cable news, and did *not* make a Toobin joke. I am concerned and will be raising the alert level accordingly.

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