Wake Up Little Hawley

The Ruminant returns to its usual format today after last week’s drive-time diversion, as Jonah ...

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The Ruminant returns to its usual format today after last week’s drive-time diversion, as Jonah is once again placed under the unsettling eyes of several silent spectators. After exploring the history of American censorship and the current state of free speech, Jonah dives headfirst into the ongoing Liz Cheney controversy and lingering nuttiness of Donald Trump within the GOP. Will Josh Hawley ever cease to irritate? Is morality hardwired into babies? And why do the women in Jonah’s life all have awkwardly positioned birthdays?

Show Notes:

– Jonah’s latest column

– Jonah on political religions

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  1. Richard Fulmer

    Woke-ism isn’t alarming because it’s a new religion; new religions come and go all the time without leaving any ripples. Woke-ism is alarming because it’s a militant, imperialistic religion.

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  2. DocHeartless

    I've never heard Tip of the Tongue Syndrome (an actual thing) expressed in the old man on the porch metaphor, but I dig it!

    Once again, I agree with you about the economic arguments. Yes, the world is better off with more billionaires and millionaires. Yes, comparative advantage is an enormously powerful ticket to global growth. Yes, more attention to improve other countries would be an excellent way to ensure our own prosperity. Yes, the zero-sum fallacies are the unkillable weeds in the body politic.

    But I think you may be stepping into the trap that we conservative and libertarian thinkers often do. We want to assume that humanity is logical, rational, and capable of adopting our arguments on their merits. I am much more skeptical of that viewpoint now than I was five years ago. The ultimatum game makes it real clear that our human innate sense of "fairness" will quickly override our logic circuits. I know it is a depressing thought, that we ultimately can't convince a sufficiently large percentage of the populace to agree with these economic principles and so vote them into being. But if that's true -- what would be the path forward for those of us that wanted to improve the human global economy?

    We could fight the good fight and make strident calls for globalization, immigration, and creative destruction and hope for the best. I strongly suspect we'd lose to populists and democrats. We can throw out our principles all together, or in fact attack them as suddenly evil ala Cruz and Hawley (whether these charlatans actually carried through on their stump speeches or they turn the 180 and betray their voters, I think we'd agree it won't end with a healthier party).

    Or we can try and find some message that will bring in the frustrated majority without alienating the further right. We can talk about the glories of free markets while also stressing the pain that it can create on individuals and sectors of the economy. We can ask those benefiting the most in the future to help those feeling that pain (through whatever way is the least disruptive but that also convinces the bottom half of the country that they are being seen). I have to think that such a message exists for my own sanity. The thought that all I have to look forward to is populism on both the right and the left is really depressing.

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    Ben Connelly

    I would totally listen to 5 Remnant podcasts a week. I vote in favor of that. Solo Remnant, Greek Chorus Remnant (I like hearing from the young guys), reading from your books or deep dive into wonky topics, and also the great interviews with various folks. All of the above!

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  4. Jane Elzinga

    Talking about language . . . jeepers creepers! That's a blast from the past Jonah.

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  5. Gerald Cuesta

    What is the drum track at the start of the podcast? Sorry if I am late to this.

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    Beach004

    Hi Jonah!
    On a recent podcast, you said that the eponymous preacher and Senate Chaplain was minister at New York some-church. He may have been at such a church at one point; but when I knew him, back in the 70's, he was at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda MD. I know because he was so good that, though I lived in Alexandria, my family would drive over there Sunday evenings to attend his evening service. He always ended the service by singing, solo and a capella,


    Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
    whose mind is stayed on Thee:
    When the shadows come and darkness falls,
    He giveth inward peace;
    Oh, He is the only perfect resting place.
    He giveth perfect peace;
    Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
    whose mind is stayed on Thee.

    Obviously, it made an impression on me.

    Lowrie Beacham

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  7. Jon Kenney

    Your weekend podcast is my favorite of the week and generally speaking I agree with you. Lately you have discussed the benefits of creating millionaires and billionaires and again, in general, I agree with you however there is a piece that I cannot connect the dots with. I had always believed that creating more millionaires and billionaires would create a rising tide and that tide would "raise all boats". In practice though, the rising tide does not raise us all up. It used to be you could start in the mailroom or in janitorial services at an organization and work your way up the ladder. Today those jobs are outsourced to another company eliminating the opportunity to move up beyond supervisor in the outsourced company. The same situation happens with gig workers. Those who provide the labor (and increasingly the assets that provide the service) are left with a smaller slice of the pie. Yes, we are all better off than the wealthiest folks in the 19th century but what about the 1950s and 1960s? My parents, without degrees, were able to save a modest down payment on a home and my dad was able to give up his second job soon after. They were able to build wealth. Someone in the same circumstance today would be hard pressed to improve their lot as much. I'm all for creating more millionaires and billionaires but I'd also like to create an incentive structure to encourage those who do well to help others do well too.

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  8. Pudge

    Censoriouis is the word you we’re looking for.

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    BWG

    The kid/candy-trade psych study is an interesting one, but there's a conflating factor: the kids went from having little to no control, to being in control, and that almost always makes almost all people happier. That part doesn't apply to nations - they're dealt some hand of resources and they don't have to wait for permission to begin trading. But I agree with your point, trade is not a zero-sum gain, just like there is not a finite amount of wealth, at least not on a human scale.
    I believe they've done studies of assembly operations, to the effect that they ask the workers what one thing do they want most to improve their working conditions, and they might say for example "brighter lights". So management puts in more lighting and morale rises. After going through several iterations of this, making various changes per worker requests, with morale improving each time, they eventually get a request "less lighting", to which management responds by reducing the lighting, and morale improves again. So it's not the specific changes that improve morale, it's the worker realization that they have some control over things.

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    Kevin Johnson

    Enjoyed this, Jonah. I applaud your standing up to defend “mother.” But isn’t it sad that most of the rest of the linguistic con by the left is going unopposed or even being adopted? “Racism” “white supremacy” “sex” “gender” “color blindness”, “objectivity” and “color blindness” are among the terms being bastardized or warped beyond recognition, with the blessing of the Biden (for whom I voted) administration. Claims that people of one race may not even comment on certain issues even find their way into The Dispatch. Kendi’s overt support for discrimination and gross stereotyping is accepted by the federal government and used to indoctrinate millions of kids and employees of private companies and government agencies. You are right that the extremism of going against “mother” is unwise even for the self interest of the radicals; it is too extreme. But how much other disgusting, false, baldly ideological,Orwellian doublespeak is becoming normal, even at The Dispatch? Sad days.

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