Tim wrote: ↑Wed May 31, 2023 4:40 pm
I HIGHLY recommend "The Righteous Mind" by Jonathan Haidt. The "other" virtues that are abandoned are things like individual liberty, trust, loyalty, and purity. Pursuing ANY virtue to the exclusion of other virtues leads to the death of a culture. Vice is always found in the myopic pursuit of a single virtue. In order to be culturally healthy we need to pursue all virtue.
Agreed in principle, although there has to be a consensus on what really is virtuous, and I'm not sure we're there as a country. Given that the political sides tend to talk past each other 99% of the time, I don't see a consensus being reached any time soon. So everyone values their own thing, fights for their own thing, and wonders why we never agree on much.
I'm aware of Haidt and have been meaning to read that book. I like what he has to say on a lot of subjects.
I'll give your podcast a try.
I want Trumpism and all other forms of authoritarianism defeated. The progressive left offers a different form or authoritarianism than Trump's right wing nationalism
Yes. The authoritarianism on the left you are talking about is a minority community of online voices. They're "influencers." They aren't actual congress people trying to undermine democracy like there are on the right. The progressive left isn't that huge a group, and not that influential in congress. It seems to me most people are somewhere in the middle.
I can't get past a party trying to restrict our freedom in very real, observable ways. America stands for nothing if not freedom. I have to put up with loose gun laws like the right has to put up with democracy. The right demonstrates obvious disdain for democracy these days. The attitudes expressed toward voting access (voter fraud!! voter fraud, I say!!) aren't cool for anyone who cares about democracy. There's no longer small differences on policy in government these days. One party wants to get rid of democracy so they can rule as authoritarians. Ron DeSantis is already acting like the little dictator of Florida. And I know they have this attitude because their policies are mostly unpopular, where they've been articulated at all. They can't win fair elections, so they whine about fraud and election rigging. It's so transparent and pathetic, I can't understand how anyone can ignore it. Perhaps that's just what I happen to care about, so it's what I fight for. I can't vote for any Republican while they won't stand unified for democracy. Full stop.
I don't relish voting for Democrats. It's totally a defensive move on my part, by far, the lesser of two evils. A loud, vocal contingent of the GOP represents an existential threat to the American experiment. January 6th should have taught everyone that.
But anyway, yeah, I'll try your podcast.
Religion is for people whose existential fear is greater than their common sense.
The god idea is popular with desperate people.