Enjoying the view from Limbo
The aggressive effort to reduce “Western” or “European” civilization to its alleged sins — racism, sexism, imperialism, systemic inequality, cultural appropriation, greed, and the rest of the neo-Marxist talking points — serves as a convenient diversion from the truth that these same sins, such as they are, may be found equally, though perhaps with regional variations, in all times and places. By hiding...
Human society will be imperfect because humans are imperfect. Progressives believe society can be corrected to eliminate the frustrating and limiting social effects human imperfection, by means of intentional and all-pervasive government intervention.
But government is comprised of humans; thus….
When theoretical reason is forsaken in favor of practical reason as the human standard — or, to say the same thing, when the theoretical is reduced to the status of handmaiden of the practical — this will necessarily have certain verifiable and visible effects on life in the civilization in which this reversed perspective takes hold. In brief, this reversal reduces thinking to...
The publisher and copyright holders of the famous children’s stories of Roald Dahl have systematically expunged certain progressively offensive words from the new editions of his books, in order to bring them into line with current progressive notions of “inclusiveness” (read Marxist mind manipulation). A character who was “enormously fat” is now simply “enormous,” lest anyone be infected with the horrific, antiquated idea...
America Descending / Government vs. God / What is Progressivism?
by Daren Jonescu · Published February 14, 2023
Headlines I have read over the past several hours…. NFL World Reacts To What Donald Trump Said About Rihanna. Well, I know there are three extremely popular entities in that exciting headline, none of which any of us would ever have heard of if we lived in a semi-rational universe. And as completely uninteresting and irrelevant as is whatever Rihanna does, or whatever...
Death by Education / What is Progressivism?
by Daren Jonescu · Published February 2, 2023 · Last modified February 3, 2023
An adjunct professor foolish enough to teach an art class at a totalitarian reeducation camp in Minnesota (aka Hamline University) showed a medieval painting depicting Muhammad, after having directly advised students in the course syllabus and during the semester that this painting would be shown and discussed in her online lecture, and offering an opportunity for any students who might be inclined to...
The explosive ones. — When one considers how much the energy of young men needs to explode, one is not surprised that they decide for this cause or that without being at all subtle or choosy. What attracts them is the sight of the zeal that surrounds a cause — as it were, the sight of the burning fuse, and not the cause...
Reason as hatred.— If disapproving of someone’s behavior, or disagreeing with his reasoning, is to be understood as an expression of hatred for the person, and if all hatred in turn may be regarded as violence, in the moral and perhaps legal senses, then all rational discussion or moral argument is effectively criminalized, and anyone who dares to express disagreement or disapproval of...
Ideas and Reflections / Pandemic that Ate a Planet / What is Progressivism?
by Daren Jonescu · Published December 13, 2022
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, of whom I am not an admirer, has incurred the faux wrath of the progressive social media mob by asking whether the state of Colorado forcing a small business owner to undergo compliance training because he preferred not to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple was tantamount to putting the man through a re-education program....
Eric Idle, the Monty Python group member, has made headlines of late by openly chastising other comedians, most notably his old partner John Cleese, but now also Dave Chappelle, for crying “censorship” when in fact they are making tons of money saying whatever they want in various popular forums. That is, Idle has come down decisively on the progressive establishment side of the...
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