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The Dispatch's own Andrew Egger and Declan Garvey join Steve for a discussion on the blow-up at The New York Times over its Tom Cotton op-ed, woke culture, Trump superfans, and the empathy gap.
Show Notes:
-The Wokening vs. the Trumpening
-Andrew's piece on Trump superfans
-Declan's piece on the empathy gap
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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I got so angry at Declan Garvey's brief mention of Harvard students attacking another Harvard student with posters denouncing her for simply disagreeing with their own opinions that I've stopped the podcast for a bit to think about that (maybe it comes up in the rest of the podcast, but I want to comment about it now).
Bad behavior is bad enough, and you have to expect that in just about any group of people, you're going to get some of it. But when we look at some of the most outrageous behavior we've seen in recent years, it seems to have come not just from the direct perpetrators themselves, but from people in authority who knew about it and, it appears, just let it happen.
The Catholic bishops and child-molesting priests is one example; violent cops and the departments that don't deal with their criminality (the shooting death by the ex-law-enforcement officer's vigilante posse; George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, killed by that cop with so many complaints against him; the Buffalo Police Department, which put out a shameful news release about the 75-year-old who "tripped" but didn't mention that he was pushed).
So where was the Harvard administration when one of the university's students was being harassed (and that's exactly what was being described) by other students. Who better to enforce some minimum standard of behavior on students? There was probably something that could be easily cited from the student handbook. And this in the era of "safe spaces." Safe space my ass. You know exactly what "safe spaces" are all about when you see people being "canceled" on a campus.
Harvey Weinstein was his own authority in his organization (although I guess he had partners). In his case, people working around him are said to have helped facilitate his predations.
Whenever we hear of repeated, similar bad behavior -- anything of an ongoing nature -- I think we should look to aim our real scorn at the authorities in charge of stopping it but who knew about it and didn't, and maybe even the people around the perps who tolerated it. They're at the center of the rot. It's been said that institutional failure is where journalism has some of its most important work to do, but the same applies to law enforcement, legislators and others with oversight in their job descriptions. Nothing makes my blood boil like a person in authority allowing perps to perpetrate. It's just evil, squared. It's the acme of scandal.
I'll get back to the podcast when my blood stops boiling.
Thanks so much for this opportunity to hear from Declan and Andrew, and to learn more about them. I admit, while I have followed politics since my late teens, I certainly wasn't thinking as deeply about these issues when I was 25, as they obviously are. I hope there are more young conservatives out there who fit this mold, as opposed to the TP USA "own da libs" model.
I will note, however, that I personally never been much for the framing of "the generations are discrete tribes who have nothing in common and whose interests are irrevocably clashing against each other, and who must make great efforts to understand each other". At work, I interact with colleagues from mid 20s to 70s, and I don't feel like "OMG I have to reach out across this great generational divide and find common ground!"
Perhaps I am being naive, especially when it comes to the rise of "woke" culture on the Left and the impact of the decline of institutions in terms of their legitimacy and how people don't join them expecting to adopt that institution's norms as their own, but to challenge and reform them. (Very Yuval Levin-ish moment from Andrew there...)
But on the other hand, while I went to a college that was certainly dominated by political liberals, but wasn't ridiculously "PC" either (PC is short for "political correctness" in case younger people reading this haven't come across it), I certainly don't recall anything as intense as what Declan described... I do recall that when I was in college, there was a big cultural war battle that happened when a Christian group invited an "ex-gay" speaker to campus, that the LGBT community took great offense to, and the speaker wound up being, well, cancelled. So I am not convinced this is a TOTALLY new phenomenon, either.
Anyway, maybe it's because I was born on the border of a generation ("Xennial"), or because I was always the type to hang out with older people when I was a kid, and now as an adult, spend a lot of time with younger people. (I guess this means I am still pretty immature!)
But I really don't see why pre-judging and making assumptions about people simply based on their age and generation, without getting to know them as individuals, is any more justifiable as making assumptions about a whole race, or a whole gender, or sexual orientation, or political party. BTW, one interesting thing I learned from the deeper dive into Andrew's recent article, by the way, is that even among the "front row Joes" there are some disagreements, yet they obviously have a strong sense of community anyway. So maybe even they have something to teach the rest of us?
Finally, thanks Andrew for adding the pop culture component by explaining the whole Juggalo thing! And I hope Declan enjoys his road trip!