Think of the Children

With Jonah back from the harsh wilds of Alaska, Commentary’s Christine Rosen makes her long-awaited ...

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With Jonah back from the harsh wilds of Alaska, Commentary’s Christine Rosen makes her long-awaited Remnant return. The duo explores the harmful effects of social media on young people, how pornography should be regulated, and what’s led to the rapid spread of transgender ideology. Why has trauma become a political tool? How can epigenetics explain political problems? And will this episode officially bring an end to Jonah’s friendship with John Podhoretz?

Show Notes:

– Christine’s page at Commentary

– The Commentary podcast

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  1. Avatar photo
    TJ

    Jonah I agree profoundly with what you and Christine said about virtue. There’s the proverbial invasion by savages etc. This seems to me the difference between the French revolution and the American revolution. In one view, freedom is achieved by the absence of restriction on desire. “Man is born free but is everywhere in chains.” In the other view, freedom is achieved through discipline and denial of negative desires. Freedom is achieved by a pursuit of virtue and a realization that not all the inclinations we are born with are positive.

    Redefinition of words was another spot on theme of the pod. Yet marriage has been redefined. You saw evidence that a non-trivial number of people are born with same sex proclivities and concluded that marriage should be redefined to include same-sex couples. Isn’t that logic a little opposed to the idea that not all the inclinations we are born with are positive?

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    Ben Connelly

    Great episode. I especially liked the discussion of the idea that “everything is trauma/about trauma.” Although I’d point out that there’s more to the science of epigenetics than what you said - the basic idea is that environmental triggers can affect the expression of a gene, such that in certain environments it wouldn’t express itself but in others it would.

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    Dusty

    Excellent conversation.

    Going back to the beginning, I don’t understand the comparisons between Jonah’s voice and Chris’s. I don’t think they sound similar. I won’t say “at all”, but it never crossed my mind until it’s been brought up these last few weeks.

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    Jaime Marie

    Christine is a delight! I found out that she was nowhere to be found on social media when I wanted to tell her how much I would miss her on The Commentary podcast. I loved being able to hear more from her on The Remnant. She probably spoke more on this single episode than all The Commentary episodes combined! Please give her our love!

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    O,W.L.

    I think the trauma fad is a classic correlation/causation mistake. Poverty creates a series of traumatic experiences. Poverty is also highly correlated with malnutrition and overexposure to alcohol and other drugs.


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    Anne W (Raw5254)

    Just excellent. And, yes, please have her back again soon. ❤️

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    Lisa Lohnes

    Another awesome discussion but just to clarify something. Christine does not partake of any social media, yet she seems to have defined thoughts about behavior, discussions and content being on social media. I understand that one can rely exclusively on data gathered around social media users but I found that being on those platforms actually is more revealing than purely relying on analytical data. The human factor is reading how people exchange commentary is actually more insightful than sometimes what they actually say. One does not need to exchange commentary on Twitter, Instagram, etc. in order to glean how others are freely exchanging comments, ideas or sometimes literally nothing relevant at all. I hate to throw out all her observations on how she views social media but I kind of have to. She is well-meaning and her basis of destructive or self-destructive behavior for teen girls has foundational merit, her inability to get into the spaces and understand what these do makes me have to restate something my grandparents used to say: I don't know what it is you young kids are up to but I'm sure it's no good.

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  8. Jim S

    As much as I appreciated the intelligent and articulate discussions when the topic veered over to gender issues I just had smack myself in the head.

    As I’ve commented several times on The Dispatch when I hear conservatives discuss gender issues I always feel like I’m watching an episode of Phil Donahue from the 1970s. Where gender fluidlity = sex change = gender dysphoria = medical intervention. And then let’s all go to twitter and read the most extreme trans activist viewpoints and pretend that’s what’s going on.

    Sorry. Anecdotal. Personal experience. But when I talk to young people about gender what I see is a change in language. A way to look at cultural gender norms on a spectrum and a vocabulary that identifies one’s position on that spectrum. When you say that 20% of high schoolers talk about being on the spectrum there u are. They are talking about where they are on that spectrum. Using language you are not familiar with. So please put away the fainting couch.

    Now obviously Jonah and his guest don’t like that language or subscribe to that viewpoint. They want to lump it in with discussions of cancel culture and Political correctness. And that is their right. But please don’t nut pick off Twitter to make some argument that the sky is falling. Because that is just intellectually dishonest.

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    1. Ben P

      Very well said; thank you. The part in which Jonah points out that teen girls who claim some degree of non-binary gender identity are also mostly heterosexual, he

      And then Christine says that puberty blockers prevent teens from ever being able to have children in the future.

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      1. Jim S

        There are definitely teens somewhere getting puberty blockers. There are almost certainly people under the age of 18 having surgical intervention somewhere in this world, because Medical professionals in charge of their care have decided that will yield the best outcome. But the idea that the broader gender identity movement is all about medical intervention is of course poll tested faux outrage claptrap coming from social conservatives who have never let little things like, you know, Truth get in the way of their political power schemes.

        Every time I hear this kind of uninformed garbage being pushed as truth I want to scream “What do the transgende/ gender fluid people in your life say?” And if you don’t actually know any then then maybe you could take a little quality time and get to know some before pretending like you know what you are talking about.

        The Laugh out Loud moment was that whole ‘but they say they are hetero’ riff. That literally made me guffaw. All I could think is this woman must live in a cave in Mongolia somewhere. This ladies has in her head there are two boxes in the world and every person has to be stuffed into one or the other. Bah!

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        1. Ben P

          Agreed. "Gender fluid" has nothing to do with sexual orientation; that's kind of the point. Young people are deciding they aren't happy with the gender roles on offer to them, and some older people think this must mean "gay".

          It's funny, some transgender activists get criticized for saying that gender is biological. And Jonah and Christine are effectively agreeing with them.

          The thing about puberty blockers is that teens can stop taking them and then go through puberty. They *delay* puberty. And they are very useful when a child who isn't sure of their gender identity and is seeing the first signs of puberty goes into a panic. Sometimes they just need puberty delayed so that they can get therapy and advice and determine their options. I'm guessing that Christine is confusing puberty blockers with hormone therapy.

          But, as you say, there is a world of difference between teens with gender dysphoria and teens rejecting social gender norms. And neither imply a particular sexual orientation!

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    Marian Cates

    Great episode. Wonderful to hear Christine talk at some length, as opposed to how little she speaks on the Commentary podcast. B/c I'm having problems with my vision, I haven't read her NR piece on banning kids from social media. I would like to hear about the *means* of banning them.

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    KP

    Not one mention of her upcoming book, the reason for her hiatus on the Commentary podcast? For shame...

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