Schadenfreude-tastic

Does our culture need to become more nationalistic? What about reorienting our society towards “the ...

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Does our culture need to become more nationalistic? What about reorienting our society towards “the highest Good,” as defined by your religion of choice? Stephanie Slade, managing editor at Reason, doesn’t think so, but she brings a unique perspective that many other libertarians don’t: she’s also a practicing Catholic. In this episode, Stephanie explains how she balances these two commitments that, on the surface, seem at odds with one another. Jonah also picks a fight with her about drug ads on primetime television.


Show Notes:

–Stephanie’s piece for Reason on nationalism

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  1. Avatar photo
    WKDawson

    Very good discussion and good questions. There are a lot of things I could agree with Stephanie on, but as you point out with some of the dicey issues like whether we should allow people to buy heroin, we still have to struggle with where to define the role of the state.

    We all live precarious lives. Being prudent increases our chances that things will come out well, but that does not guarantee that by some twist of fate, we will never find ourselves as addicts or in some other ill-situation like that. The basic principle of non-interference by the state largely makes sense, but somehow, it cannot be applied universally to everything. The questions comes down to "where and how to draw the line?".

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  2. John Clarke

    After listening to this podcast for an hour, what I took away from it was I disagreed with every comment and perspective offered by a Stephanie Slade. I was positively moved that Jonah was against advertising high grade heroin on Saturday morning cartoons, but beyond that, I opposed most of his perspectives on what drives the Nationalist Populist movement in the USA.

    While I am not the Nationalist Populist spokes person, my reason for supporting the Trump agenda and opposing the Leftist anti-Trump movement is to promote America, rather than tear it down. The world economy is not a zero sum game that mandates that we win and some other country or culture must lose. We have laws designed to protect our collective interests and they should be enforced to protect and promote those interests. Trump is not anti-immigration, but rather anti-illegal immigration. We as a society constantly debate our position on an infinite list of topics. Jonah and Stephanie support legalization of narcotics because it falls in with their Libertarian construct and supports an anti-prohibition agenda and thereby enhances a personal libertarian ideal. Stephanie mentioned the failure of prohibition on alcohol in America. We still prohibit driving cars above 100 mph in America also. Prohibiting recreational use of narcotics still offers many significant protections for our society, that it is worthy to debate and defend against the loss of an individuals freedom to choose versus the loss of someone’s life, health and tax payer expense to provide anti-addiction treatment. So the argument against prohibition is yet to be settled.

    We are not a perfect people in a perfect nation, but I’d rather stay were we are than degrade to an unacceptable level of imperfection so as to not offend some other nation or people.

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  3. Avatar photo
    Kevin Johnson

    Great stuff, Jonah. I share your distaste for the furthest reaches of libertarianism and your examples such as child porn during cartoon hour are suitably illustrative. I’ve heard them many times. When you get a live, sentient, pleasant libertarian on, perhaps you could work harder to get them to respond more substantively on such hard cases. Your enthusiastic brief wins us over, but I think you would serve humanity (your main goal, I know) better if you lowered the heat to get them to say more on how they justify the anything goes approach. They like to just repeat their philosophy, but we would gain from hearing them say why the obvious harm is acceptable. Perhaps you know from experience this can’t be done...if so, nevemind.

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    Cornelius O’Brien

    There’s no way you listened to Ms. Slade at 1.5X en route. Loved the subject matter and whatnot but. Jeebus. She speaks at the speed of my thoughts

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    Jay Graham

    I've always thought that part of what makes American culture exceptional is that it tends to reject nationalistic thinking. Am I wrong about this?

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  6. Collin Saunders

    Jonah, you should talk to Marvin Olasky of WORLD magazine. He’s trying to resurrect his definition of “compassionate conservatism.” I know you two are very different, but it would be interesting to hear your opposing sides to talking about his concept and how his definition of it is different from George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism.

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    1. Richard Fulmer

      Olasky's book, "The Tragedy of American Compassion" is quite an eyeopener.

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  7. Avatar photo
    Kevin Durant?

    What did libertarians call blood diamonds? Free trade diamonds?

    The reason free trade has become a hot button issue is because much of the free trade taking place currently is just criminal behavior. China isn’t France, guys.

    I know everyone likes to take a “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” approach to trade with China. Just open the shipping container and marvel at the bounty!!

    The reason I oppose having 90% of our generic drug components coming from China is not because it’s an obvious national security threat, which it is. It’s not because I love Scranton factory guy and hate rural China guy.

    I oppose it because companies are gaining a competitive advantage by doing business with criminals. AKA crime. If you want companies to be allowed to do everything that China does, inside of the US, then argue for that. But for now, equal justice under the law still includes enforcing laws. Pawn shops can’t sell stolen stereos.
    “Yes, but it crossed a body of water first so don’t worry about the details of how I got it”
    is not an explanation that police officers or prosecutors accept, nor should they.

    The mafia lifted poor uneducated people out of poverty as well. And?

    The good news is that China used some of the money to buy nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers so it’s not all downside. I’m sure Biden will apologize to them for the temporary disruption.

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