The Mediocre Idiots of Monocausality

The problem with one thingism.

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Jonah ruminates on the UN Special Rapporteur’s report alleging genocide in Gaza and the minimization of sexual violence on October 7. And if you weren’t day-drinking yet, he then kvetches about lousy concepts of social justice, the Ronna McDaniel-NBC News controversy, and the growing urge to oversimplify complex topics with monocausal explanations.

Show Notes:
—UN Special Rapporteur’s report
—ABC News report on random punching incident
—Protests at Vanderbilt
—Jonah’s LA Times article on October 9
—John Spencer
—The Remnant with Jonathan Haidt

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Comments (40)
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  1. Avatar photo
    The Bell Tower

    I know I’m late here but I have a profound disagreement with part of this Ronna McDaniel argument.

    Yes, Trump should be disqualified from public office for his behavior on January 6. But restricting his defenders from “public life” as Jonah states is a very bad idea.

    I can sympathize with the argument that an editor of credibility wouldn’t even consider her because she’s a hack. But the other side of the coin is that if you restrict all such Trump apologists from public life, they will go to places like OAN or Fox or somewhere else and simply be amplified without any pushback.

    Whether or not arguments for Trump are principled, they are unfortunately persuasive to a good chunk of the electorate. If you confine the Ronna McDaniels of the world to the fringes, their arguments will be amplified amongst the places they can do the most damage and remain unchallenged.

    Meanwhile, allegedly serious outlets such as NBC can continue to have comfortable conversations within the confines of the bubble they prefer to remain in thereby extending and reinforcing said bubble. This happens on the right as well where McDaniel presumably has been consigned.

    This argument absolutely applies to serious people such as Sarah or Kevin or Bari Weiss but it also applies to the cranks because ideas cannot be banished simply because they suck. They can be ignored by the “serious” crowd but that is done to the peril of us all. Put Ronna McDaniel on a public stage and let her defend her stupidity. This is the job of serious news organizations just as much as reporting the facts is.

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  2. Mary Stine

    I would like to say that this is one of your best Remnants! And I'd also like you to write a book on this, please!

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    John Will

    Dour is perfectly fine and understandable times being as they are. Keep up the good work.

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  4. Indisguise

    Interesting coincidence. My daughter wanted a new small blue car becos that is the most beautiful color. We went to a dealer that fought and fought for a giant used brown luxo thing. She gave up and we left. Another dealer. This one understood the words small blue and new.

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  5. Avatar photo
    The Bell Tower

    German civilians - women and children - were melted into jelly in their bomb shelters during the bombing of Dresden. This was a tremendous tragedy.

    Does that mean the Allies should have allowed the Nazis to survive, never mind retain power? Absolutely not. We can argue about the methods - and the same discussion applies to the atomic bomb in Japan. I’m uncertain about whether Truman made the right call, though it’s easy to criticize him from my couch 100 years on.

    But the outcome had to be the end of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. No other outcome would have been sufficient. Neither of these regimes could reasonably be permitted to continue.

    The only just outcome in this Gaza war is the elimination of Hamas. Not just removal from power but eradication of the organization entirely. Period, end of story.

    That is what’s missing from so many of these arguments - including the Biden administration’s arguments. They just want peace and while peace is a desirable end, leaving evil organizations dedicated to actual genocide when you can eradicate them allows evil to survive. The Palestinian people themselves suffer if Hamas is permitted to continue.

    If you’re gonna tell me that Israel should be more careful or mindful with their methods, I’m sympathetic to that argument. They should avoid - as much as possible - the killing of civilians. This is a legitimate argument.

    But if the core of your objection doesn’t also include the absolute eradication of Hamas, your arguments are invalid. You side with genocide of the Jewish people - whether you intend to do so or not. Hamas must be completely destroyed and Netanyahu - for all his many, many faults - is doing the right thing and I hope the Israeli people remain strong in their support until the job is finished.

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    Napalaska

    How are we citizens to have faith in the institution of Congress (or much hope for the future) when our supposedly best and brightest (here’s looking at you, Sasse and Gallagher, quitters-before-your-terms-are-served conservatives) run away from the “mediocre idiots?” Yes, it’s a problem that mediocre idiots “are defining the conservative position” for a lot of people right now. How is getting your ass kicked by mediocre idiots and then ceding what’s supposed to be the most powerful branch of government to them a solution?

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    Coolidge’s Burner

    You “hear about that crap constantly” because you’re on Twitter, Jonah!

    Not to beat a dead horse, but still no one has managed to show me a convincing argument for why I should care about the opinions of online randos I’ll never meet IRL. The whole business model is a mystery to me.

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    Charley Warns

    I think it was Jonah who correctly pointed out during the Friday Dispatch podcast that the problem we're experiencing right now is that policies no longer matter to a significant % of voters. What policies you embrace or reject depend on what tribe you're in. I remember a Trump supporter telling me that "nobody cares about the Jones Act" as if not caring about it makes it go away. It's laundering your ignorance under the guise of being a team player.

    The story about the guy who punched a woman in the face –yet got released– is dispiriting. I often like to say "it's enough to make a guy cynical" to be humorous, but that story is enough x 10.

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    Ben Connelly

    We’re here for the digressions!

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    EricRemcon@gmail

    Great Ruminant, Jonah.

    Thank you for 90 minutes of sanity. I especially appreciate your airing the grievance about the New Right clowns being constantly referred to as ‘the hard right’ or ‘ultra conservative’. They are cult members that flip flop in unison with their leader, not conservatives. That practice has been bugging me since 2018.

    I am sorry to hear that you take a lot of grief about not doing as much political punditry in the G-File. I would like to submit my vote for continuing that pattern. There is very little in the world of politics that is worth discussing. You can pretty much summarize any given day as: the left wants to keep the dollar printing press running 24/7 and the right is just plain crazy.

    About the only disagreement I had was your mentioning (for the umpteenth time) the fact that you really don’t care about your vote. I understand the big reason for that, you live in DC, though I’m sure there are other reasons (see, I have noticed your monocausal hobbyhorse😁). But I don’t understand why someone who has lived in the political world for 30 years is so blasé about voting.

    It annoys me when you say, “I couldn’t care less about my vote”. I would prefer something more like “Like 75% or more of the country, my vote for president does not matter very much because of our polarization and red state/ blue state divide. But, if you are in a swing state, please vote with the consequences in mind, not as a mindless partisan or in meaningless protest.”

    I am not a ‘He will destroy democracy’ doomsayer. We will survive no matter who wins (at least for a little while, probably long enough for me to move on to greener pastures, but maybe not my kids). But someone, other than nobody me, and TV partisan hacks, should step up and layout the consequences of voting FOR the oldest president we have ever had (and the most progressive in a long time) and a want-to-be-dictator in a clown suit and makeup. The crazy must pass before anything has a chance to improve.

    You don’t need to tell people how to vote, but I think you should encourage them to take it seriously.

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