Category: Social and Political Philosophy
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Political Oikophobia and Trump Derangement Syndrome
Oikophobia is an irrational fear of household items, surroundings, and the like. Political oikophobia is an irrational aversion to one's own country, culture, traditions, and countrymen. I suggest we call the opposite political oikophilia, an irrational love of one's own country, culture, traditions, and countrymen. This distinction 'cuts perpendicular' to the xenophobia-xenophilia distinction. Thus, Political…
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What Exactly is Trumpism?
Another excellent column by VDH. Excerpt: Trump admires people who make money. He doesn’t buy that those, to take one example, with Ph.D.s and academic titles could have made money if only they had wished—but for lots of reasons (most of them supposedly noble) chose not to. For Trump, credentialed academic expertise in anything is…
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Pragmatic and Ideological Political Parties
A good distinction. The Dems used to be pragmatic, but now are ideological. David Carlin makes the distinction and then sketches the ideology of the contemporary Democrat Party: (1) They [the intellectual leaders of the party] preach a metaphysics: There is no God, at least no God like the God of the Bible; no Supreme…
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Trump’s ‘Street Corner’ Conservatism
Good article by Matthew Continetti.
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War, Torture, and the Aporetics of Moral Rigorism
That the deliberate targeting of noncombatants is intrinsically evil and cannot be justified under any circumstances is one of the entailments of Catholic just war doctrine. I am sensitive to its moral force. I am strongly inclined to say that certain actions are intrinsically wrong, wrong by their very nature as the types of actions…
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Politics as War
A reader sends this: A correspondent has just emailed me, completely out of the blue, to tell me that you're a “racist, islamophobe, bigot”. Thought you would like that. 😀 I like it very much except that he leaves out the remaining SIXHIRB epithets: sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, and homophobic. But three out of seven ain't bad.…
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Reading Now: Paul Gottfried on Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt
Paul Gottfried, Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt: Toward a Secular Theocracy, University of Missouri Press, 2002. Excellent background to current developments. I may be missing something, but the subtitle seems poorly chosen. 'Toward X,' like the German Zur X,' signals that the author is for X, that he advocates it. But I take it…
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Philosophical Aspects of the Trump-Clinton Contest
Here is an invited essay of mine at Rightly Considered. I am told that RC is snagging around 2,000 page views per day, which is very good for such a young weblog. It is infuriating all the usual suspects. My contribution is the first in a series of reflections on the presidential election.
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Two Mistakes About Voting
Yesterday, I wrote, ". . . a vote for Trump is not an endorsement of his character, but of the ideas and policies he stands for." To generalize and precisify: A vote for a political candidate need not be an endorsement of his character as a whole; it can be mainly an endorsement of the ideas…
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A ‘Progressive’ Smear Against Pro-Trump Intellectuals
The more I read Publius Decius Mus, the more impressed I become. Who is this man? Why does he write under a pseudonym? And what does it say about the so-called 'liberal,' 'progressive' scum who have created a climate in which a person cannot speak his mind under his own name seriously and thoughtfully without…
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Prudence: For Trump
Publius Decius Mus responds brilliantly to William Voegeli. Who is the most penetrating political commentator now writing? I give the palm to PDM. Related articles On 'Nativism'
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Political Legitimacy and Rent Seeking
David P. Goldman: This is not an election fought over competing policies but a struggle for legitimacy. A very large portion of the electorate (how large a portion we will discover next month) believes that its government is no longer legitimate, and that it has become the instrument of an entrenched rent-seeking oligarchy. By and…
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On ‘Nativism’
Publius Decius Mus: For the record, I cop to being a “nativist.” I prefer policies that explicitly favor the existing American citizenry, the people born here, i.e., the natives. I’m somewhat impressed that Pethokoukis and his ilk have managed to redefine this age-old, bedrock political principle as radical and “racist.” It’s like forcing people to…
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Escape Countries
Many liberals are 'threatening' to leave the country should Trump become president. They have their 'escape countries' all lined up: Canada, Australia, France and others. But to where can a conservative American escape if and when his country becomes a culturally Marxist craphole? Chances are good that the destructive Hillary will weasel her way…
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Restatement on Flight 93
More from Publius Decius Mus. To all the “conservatives” yammering about my supposed opposition to Constitutional principle (more on that below) and who hate Trump, I say: Trump is mounting the first serious national-political defense of the Constitution in a generation. He may not see himself in those terms. I believe he sees himself as…