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Daily Archives: May 4, 2020
Jordan Peterson and Carl Jung’s Worldviews Have Been Greatly Oversimplified – Merion West
Posted: May 4, 2020 at 4:09 am
With respect to McManus and Hamilton, who have admittedly produced a very interesting article, there are characterizations and theoretical points within their article that I feel need to be addressed.
Introduction
As a practicing psychotherapist investigating political expressions of psychoanalytic thought, I was very interested to read Matt McManus and Conrad Hamiltons recent critique of Jungian and Lacanian perspectives. I was also intrigued by McManus and Hamiltons choice to assign, respectively, these thinkers to the Right and Left of the political spectrum. They did this, in large part, through their interpretations of how Jordan Peterson and Slavoj iek have, in turn, drawn from each psychoanalysts work. With respect to McManus and Hamilton, who have admittedly produced a very interesting article, there are characterizations and theoretical points within their article that I feel need to be addressed. In particular, it is necessary to demonstrate more accurately the complexity of the perspectives held up as representatives (I believe inaccurately) of Left-situated or Right-situated expressions of psychoanalysis.
Although clear divisions of Lacanian thought into the Left and Jungian thought into the Right might make for an engagingyet choppy articlethere are a number of similarities between the two perspectives. There are also complexities internal to these perspectives that have to be eclipsed for this interpretation to hold. Especially noticeable in reading their article were the failure to acknowledge the left-wing Jungian streams of theoretical development (that have largely been ignored since Jungs death), the equation of Petersons focus on order from chaos with the aim of Jungian analysis in general, and the erasure of theoretical similarities between Lacan and Jungs perspectives. Also, I believe there were some inaccuracies regarding admittedly difficult aspects of Lacanian theory (the misrepresentation of the early infants relationship to the mirror stage, for example), as well as a degree of irony when the two authors (themselves influenced by Marxism) invoke charges about lacking evidence or unfalsifiabilitywhen it comes to those with whom they disagree. However, I will sideline these later concerns in favor of primarily addressing the implicit characterization of Jungian thought as being inherently conservative or right-wing in analytic approach.
To a degree, I believe that the authors are aware and acknowledge partially the complexities of Jungian thought, and this causes some discomfort with the original premise of their piece. McManus and Hamilton take pains to differentiate and separate the decidedly un-progressive personal figure of Jacques Lacan (Freud was not a progressive) from the interpretations of Lacans interlocutors. These interlocutors were often the resolutely fashionable left-wing figures, who haunt the bookshelves and syllabuses of continental philosophy departments. These names include Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, and, of course, the focal figure of their article: Slavoj iek. This highlighting of the development of Lacanian theory through its academic interpreters allows it to be positioned on the Left, within the topology of McManus and Hamiltons article.
It is strange, therefore, that the Jungian analogue to psychoanalysis (analytic psychology) does not receive the same treatment. Instead, when it comes to the supposedly right-wing orientation of Jungian analytical psychology, we are presented with a paucity of examples. We are offered Jungs alleged racism, his spurious personal actions during the Second World War, and his influence on Jordan Peterson as proof for their characterization of Jung as right-wing. It is important to note here that Peterson, while a renowned clinical psychologist, was not a trained Jungian analyst. iek, on the other hand, is a trained (albeit not practicing) Lacanian analyst. As such, to use Peterson and iek as examples of their relative schools is already perhaps to overstate the point. McManus and Hamiltons somewhat impoverished overview of Jungian thought may also be partly due to the acknowledged unpopularity of Jung within the academy. The authors are academics, rather than clinicians; so their seeming lack of familiarity with the outgrowths of Jungian theory can perhaps be forgiven. Who (outside the murky world of clinical psychoanalysis and psychotherapy) could be expected to know the permutations and arcane growths of post-Jungian theory? Instead, as they did in their piece, it might be easier to focus on the twin poisons of mysticism and racism, when it comes to Jung.
McManus and Hamilton reduce Jungian thought to the twin streams of the problematic proclamations of its founder and the fiery exhortations against progressivism leveled by its most easy listening popular exponent, Jordan Peterson. Yet, there are many broadly progressive and left-wing developments that have emerged from (and been influenced by) the Jungian field. Indeed, McManus and Hamilton mention the Anti-Oedipal work of Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari as being desirably progressive critics of Lacan. However, McManus and Hamilton fail to mention the tribute that these two thinkers pay to Jung in their 1980 book A Thousand Plateaus. Within A Thousand Plateaus work, Jungian archetypal theory is, indeed, referenced. Although described as insufficiently deterritorializing, Jungs approach is seen by Deleuze and Guattari as being closer to the mark than the single all-encompassing Oedipal model employed by Freud. This refers to the Oedipal framework which, of course, Lacan based his entire theoretical edifice around in his return to Freud.
This Deleuzian connection runs deeper than this single mention in the Capitalism and Schizophrenia series. Deleuze further references Jungs work inhis 1968 book Difference and Repetition, and Deleuzian ideas expressed within this book are reflected theoretically in the work of the former Jungian (and creator of Archetypal Psychology) James Hillman. Hillman was originally a Jungian analyst, who guided studies at the Jung Institute in Zurich. His workwithin books such as Re-Visioning Psychologyreflects a pluralist, deconstructionist, and anti-authoritarian turn within Jungian thought. There are also influences from the Sufi mysticism of Henry Corbin. Years before Jordan Peterson arrived on the scene, Hillman had already anticipated and argued against popular conservative interpretation of Jung. He did this by critiquing the over-emphasis on the monotheistic (slaying-the-dragon-of-chaos) Hero archetype, as well as the individualist ego later associated with it.
Hillman felt the over-identification with this archetype was inherent to Western cultures excesses. And his own pluralist re-imagining of Jungian theory sought to mitigate this through emphasis on difference. He also railed preemptively against Petersonian reductions of archetypal imagery to evolutionary psychology and biological processes. Again, Hillman saw these as attempts to slay the power of the images of the unconscious, stultifying them by turning them into abstract scientific concepts. Furthermore, Hillman questioned the individualist basis of therapy, advocating for changes in the political and social world. As such, he anticipated many left-wing critiques of this individualism inherent in the profession, such as those articulated in Anti-Oedipus. As perhaps the most popular post-Jungian psychologist in the United States (apart from Peterson), it can hardly be said that Hillman was right-wing or conservative.
Further examples of radical attitudes latent within the Jungian model of analysis are plentiful. For example, the interpretation of psychosis as a breakdown-to-breakthrough, a spontaneous reorganization of the conscious self by the unconscious, also reflects and anticipates the anti-Oedipal promotion of deterritorialization, within the work of Deleuze and Guattari. The importance of Jungs personal deterritorialization and psychotic breakdown to the creation of his system are most clearly illustrated via the posthumous release of the almost Lovecraftian esoteric tome called The Red Book.The Red Book features an articulation of the content of Jungs breakdown, complete with psychedelic artwork and a hallucinogenic narrative of underworld figures. Jungian scholars such as Sonu Shamdasani and Hillman have held this as being far more foundational to the creation of his school than the influence of Freud, and the entire book can be held up as an instance of deterritorialization, par excellence. These elements do not a conservative form of psychoanalysis make. Far from the imposition of a right-wing orderor, slaying of chaosthis is a descent into the abyss of the underworld and a reforging of self and identity through deterritorialization and radical difference, in the vein of Zarathustra.
To fail to present these elements of Jungian thought and characterize it as merely a vessel of Petersonian order is to exclude its essential origin myth. With the above points in mind, it becomes difficult to maintain the view of Jungian analysis as a right-wing perspective. Although the authors of the original article do pay some heed to the contradictions between Jung and Petersons interpretations, by excluding the other half of Jung (the many ways in which Jungian theory emerges from more of a Deleuzoguattarian upsurge of radical difference and otherness), a false image of theoretical conservatism is more sustainable. It is not my intention to hold up Jung as a progressive icon in opposition to McManus and Hamiltons articleor to present him as a hidden leftist. Rather, I seek to highlight the ambiguities within his work and the more progressive tendencies of those of his followers who are not named Jordan Petersonand who have had far more legitimate clinical (though perhaps less popular) impact.
Race, Antisemitism, and Jung
Jungs behavior during the Second World War is also put forward by McManus and Hamilton as to why Jungian analytic psychology should been regarded as an inherently right-wing articulation of psychoanalysis. While it is true that Jung performed ambiguous (often unacceptably complicit) actions in regard to Nazismand made statements that even for the time and context would have been considered Antisemitic (See Stephen Froshs work on the subject)he also worked in order to help Jewish colleagues escape from Nazi Germany. Jung also explicitly criticized the Nazi regime, once the explicit barbarity of it became more apparent. This, of course, does not excuse his earlier actions or his Antisemitism. However, again, we are presented with an ambiguity that has led to intense levels of soul-searching, within the Jungian analytic profession. Theoretically, as Hamilton and McManus point out, this profession has a vested interest in exploring and articulating the shadow not only of the individual client but also of the personality of Jung himselfand of Jungian institutions.
Jungs Antisemitism especially has been laid bare not only by Frosh but by the well-respected Jungian Analyst Andrew Samuels. Samuels, as one of the most prominent and high-profile Jungian thinkers, again shows the political ambiguity in Jungian thought. Samuels actually is far more deserving of the title of representative of this school of analysis than is Peterson. Samuels, for instance, has been the chair of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy. He was also an advisor for the British Labour government and one of the first professors of Jungian Analytic psychology in the world. Samuels has also long been the pre-eminent voice in political psychotherapy of any denomination: promoting a very strongly pluralist, left-wing, and progressively-orientated approach to integrating these two fields. His identity as a Jungian is not in contradiction to his political identity as a leftist. Jung and Jungian thought hold a level of ambiguity that McManus and Hamilton miss, either owing to their ignorance of its existence or as a result of misconstruing Jungs complicated background for the convenience of creating a simple binary: Left or Right.
It is Jungs initialoften deeply flawed or problematicpersonal explorations around questions of plurality, difference, and race that allowed for post-Jungian theory to develop reflexivity around these questions, which Hillman and Samuels demonstrate. This evolution is even reflected in the tribute to Jungs theory that decolonial pioneer Frantz Fanon makes in his 1952 book Black Skin, White Masks. This is the book where Fanon attributes his own theories around introjected racial consciousness as being inspired by those made by Jung. Although Fanon was a Lacanian by training (and emphasizes the constructed rather than inherent basis to archetypes in his appropriation of archetypal theory), still Fanon acknowledges that his work owes some debt to Jungs original psychoanalytic exploration of racial consciousness. Again, my point here is not to excuse Jungs racism by reference to Fanon. Rather, I aim to illustrate that even around the issues of race, Jung (and also his legacy in terms of post-Jungian analytical psychology) is far more complex than McManus and Hamilton imply.
Peterson as Senex Possessed
Although McManus and Hamilton do mention in passing that Petersons work is an idiosyncratic rendition of Jung, it is perhaps not emphasized enough how Petersons over-emphasis on the aspects of order, the individual ego, and the heroic slaying of chaos moves away from anything resembling the aim of Jungian clinical work. What these aspects of Peterson perhaps would indicate to a Jungian analyst is a personality under possession of what is called a Senex archetype: This archetype is the Grey old man, the representative of established order. It is reminiscent of the image of Saturn devouring his children. While standing for repression, stasis and, conservatism, he rails against the attempts of the young to gain power and overthrow order. The Senex is often seen as being within an archetypal complex, in which it is positioned in conflict with the archetype of the Puer (the eternal youth). We can see Peterson falling into this complex through his position as the substitute dad of estranged Western masculinity. He follows this with father-like exhortations to clean ones bedroom. Then, there is the mutual hatred between Peterson and the infantilized Puers of the social justice movement. Petersons theoretical reduction of the images of the unconscious psyche to biological and evolutionary explanations would also be likely seen by many Jungian thinkers as an example of a Senex possession. This results in an attempt to make concrete the fluid material of the unconscious. In this way, individuation and differentiation can take place and, therefore, fossilize the unconscious: ossify it in a form that is more socially and academically acceptable to explainor, as Deleuze would have, Oedipalize it.
Possession of the personality through an archetypal complex such as this is far from the aim of individuation in the Jungian sense. With more integral interpretations of Jung as seen in the works of Hillman, Samuels, or even from Jung himself (within The Red Book), individuation is, instead, articulated as being the differentiation of self via bringing forth radical difference from the unconscious. In holding Peterson as an exemplar of Jungian thought, a caricature of analytical psychology as conservative can be promoted. However, this cannot be sustained if any sort of faithful account of Jungian theory is provided.
It might be said that in trying to cleanly divide Jung and Lacan into Right and Left political positions, it is almost a replication of the Senex-Puer complex that I identified Petersons work as suffering from. Admittedly, there is perhaps some attraction in framing the perspectives of complex, ambiguous thinkers in this way. It allows one to frame ones preferred perspective as either that of a righteous rebel or, alternatively, a defender of order. The truth is thatmuch like Lacanunderneath the unipolar portrayal of Jung by McManus and Hamilton, an ambiguous figure lurks. There is a figure who is sometimes conservative but sometimes radically other. There is a figure who emphasizes individuation and differentiationbut also the influence of collective archetypes. There is a figure who saves his Jewish colleagues but promotes theories of Aryan supremacy. Jung is a profoundly complex figure. As such, there must be a reckoning with himin all of his ambiguitythroughout the academy before his form of psychoanalysis can be labelled right-wing.
Nick Opyrchal is a psychotherapist in private practice. For his M.A., he researched the intersection between Lacanian and transpersonal perspectives in psychotherapy. His current doctoral work investigates the intersection of identity politics and the transpersonal within psychotherapy.
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Jordan Peterson and Carl Jung's Worldviews Have Been Greatly Oversimplified - Merion West
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Dave Rubin Talks To Shapiro About Learning From Jordan Peterson On Tour – The Daily Wire
Posted: at 4:08 am
On this weeks episode of The Ben Shapiro Show: Sunday Special, The Daily Wire editor-in-chief talked with Dave Rubin, the host of The Rubin Report, about his upcoming title Dont Burn This Book: Thinking For Yourself In An Age Of Unreason, which will be released on Tuesday.
During the conversation, Shapiro asks Rubin about his close-knit relationship with Professor Jordan Peterson, who remarks on the front cover of the upcoming book that it is topical, engaging, personable, and, above all, reassuring.
I want to get back to some of the lessons that you have, Shapiro told Rubin. One of the ones that really struck me, because it was actually rather moving, is your discussion of your relationship with Jordan Peterson.
Rubin then talks about an event he did with Peterson and Shapiro in Los Angeles and the vitriol that was targeted at them in response before going into some observations about Petersons resolve during his own book tour for 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote To Chaos.
We found out in the middle of the tour that his wife had what they thought was terminal cancer thank God it turned out not to be terminal, and shes actually doing much better, said Rubin.
Try and imagine this guy who was a mild-mannered psychologist and professor, who suddenly became the worlds father in a way, really the pre-eminent public thinker of our time, he said. The fame, the hit pieces. You know, you remember the enforced monogamy hit piece in The New York Times, and you remember the Cathy Newman so what youre saying is moment.
All of those things, living through all of that and then thinking his wife is going to die, said Rubin. We were at lunch, at a steakhouse of course, when he got the call about his wife. I saw this man live through something unbelievably, extraordinarily horrible or as he would say brutal and always put his best foot forward.
I never saw him break one of those rules, said Rubin, referring to the rules set forth in the professors own book. I saw him just trying to be true, and if he gave me anything, through osmosis or through accident, its that. I am really trying to do that.
Shapiro also asks whether Rubin has learned any particular lessons from Peterson, noting that a passage of Dont Burn This Book talks about the professors decision to improve his public appearance.
Rubin emphasizes the importance of dressing well, and recalled when he was touring in Sweden, he overheard a conversation between a young man and a cashier, and that the young man remarked that he was buying a suit for the first time to go see Petersons lecture.
I thought, this is absolutely incredible, said Rubin. [Hes] buying the first suit of his life so that he can present himself in a responsible way, to go to an event to hear how he can further fix his life.
After the Sunday Special was published, Peterson himself remarked that the interview between Rubin and Shapiro contained comments from good friends.
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Watch now: Remembering Michael Jordans 1982 weekend and loss to TU at the Mabee Center – Tulsa World
Posted: at 4:08 am
Adair: Garrett Long, 6-0, jr.
Beggs: Kendal Daniels, 6-4, jr.
Berryhill: Davis Dotson, 6-6, so.
Bixby: Xavier Glenn, 6-3, jr.; Parker Fredrickson, 6-1, fr.
Bristow: DJ Overstreet, 5-9, sr.
Broken Arrow: Anthony Allen, 6-5, so.; George McCurdy, 6-2, jr.; Jaiell Talley, 6-5, jr.
Cascia Hall: Luke Lawson, 6-3, sr.
Catoosa: J Coons, 6-4, sr.; Gavin Phillips, 6-0, sr.
Central: Caylen Goff-Brown, 6-1, so.; Trae Washington, 6-0, sr.
Claremore: Caison Hartloff, 6-4, jr.
Claremore Christian: Logan Picolett, 5-10, fr.
Claremore Sequoyah: Zach Perry, 6-3, sr.
Cleveland: Kyler Kauk, 6-0, so.
Collinsville: Gaige Longshore, 6-3, sr.
Coweta: Chandler Wheeler, 6-5, sr.
Cushing: Wil Moyer, 5-9, sr.; Dominic Turner, 6-2, so.
East Central: Will McGuire, 6-0, jr.
Edison: Quentin Asberry, 6-4, sr.; Loddie Combs, 6-2, sr.; Brandon Stuart, 6-1, sr.
Glencoe: Bryce Coe, 6-1, so.; Jaken Weedn, 5-11, fr.
Glenpool: Jimauri Bradford, 6-0, jr.; Avery Cook 6-4, jr.; Isaac Tiger, 6-0, jr.
Hale: Demitrius Neal, 5-11, so.
Haskell: Zane Adams, 6-2, sr.
Hilldale: TJ Maxwell, 5-11, sr.
Holland Hall: Garrett Eaton, 6-3, sr.; Kyle Hook, 6-3, sr.
Jenks: Ben Averitt, 6-5, so.; Ike Houston, 6-4, sr.; Chase Martin, 6-5, so.
Kelley: Matthew Plaisance, 5-10, jr.; Eli Wallace, 6-0, jr.
Locust Grove: Zeke Simpson, 6-0, sr.
Mannford: Tyler Day, 5-10, so.; Connor Hewitt, 6-2, sr.
Memorial: Ty Frierson, 5-9, so.; Will Hill, 6-1, sr.; Brayshawn Hubbard-Finch, 6-5, sr.
Metro Christian: Caden Hale, 6-1, sr.; Ian Sluice, 6-2, jr.
Muskogee: Xavier Brown, 5-11, sr.
Oologah: Konner Davis, 5-7, sr.
Owasso: Caden Fry, 6-7, so.; Kyler Mann, 6-4, jr.
Pawnee: Gunnar Gordon, 5-9, so.; Brad Reeves, 5-11, so.
Pryor: Ryan Freeman, 5-9, sr.
Regent Prep: Harrison Smith, 5-8, sr.
Rejoice Christian: Gage Barham, 5-11, sr.; Riley Walker, 5-11, sr.
Rogers: Marcal Johnson, 5-11, jr.
Sand Springs: Josh Minney, 6-4, sr.
Sapulpa: Hunter Hoggatt, 6-5, sr.; Jackson Skipper, 6-7, jr.;
Skiatook: Jayden Garner, 6-1, sr.
Sperry: Jayden Bridgeman, 6-0, jr.
Tahlequah Sequoyah: C-Jay Soap, 5-10, sr.
Union: Nehemiah Boykins, 6-4, sr.; Seth Chargois, 6-4, sr.; RJ Forney, 6-1, sr.; Micah Lovett, 5-11, sr.
Verdigris: Tyler Haddock, 6-2, sr.
Victory Christian: Luke Patton, 6-6, sr.; Josh Udoumoh, 6-2, so.
Wagoner: Jacob Scroggins, 6-4, jr.
Webster: Tojuan Pryor, 6-3, sr.; Isaiah Sanders, 5-10, jr.; Martwon Taylor, 5-10, jr.
Pictured above: Edison senior Quentin Asberry
World sports writer Barry Lewis made the final decisions after nomination forms were sent to all the schools in the Tulsa metro area. Coaches were asked to nominate players from their teams and select the best five from other teams. Players from grades 9-12 were eligible. A metro school is any school within 60 miles of the Worlds downtown office plus any school within 75 miles located in a town with a population of more than 5,000.
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Watch now: Remembering Michael Jordans 1982 weekend and loss to TU at the Mabee Center - Tulsa World
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Justin Amash could lead conservative reformation – Spring Hope Enterprise
Posted: at 4:08 am
Corey Friedman
Creators Syndicate
By Corey Friedman
Dont expect Rep. Justin Amash to shatter the political duopoly and make the Libertarian Party competitive in national elections. But dont be surprised if Amash becomes the prototype for a new breed of American conservative.
The Michigan congressman who left the Republican Party last July is exploring a Libertarian presidential bid. Hes drawn the ire of President Donald Trumps critics, who fear an Amash candidacy could play a spoiler role by drawing never-Trump Republicans away from presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, helping the president win a second term.
Despite his star power, Amash isnt a lock for the Libertarian nomination. Attorney and author Jacob Hornberger is the partys front-runner, with seven primary wins, and the second-place candidate is Vermin Supreme, the satirist and performance artist known for wearing a boot on his head.
Thomas L. Knapp, a pundit who runs a libertarian think tank, wrote that hes tired of his party picking recently Republican politicians as its standard-bearers. Reinforcing that trend could scare off left-leaning independents.
A founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, Amash has made a consistent case for limited government, personal freedom and budgetary restraint. Hes Ron Pauls ideological heir, and while he wont lead Libertarians to the promised land, he may be the future of post-Trump Republicanism.
His experience of leaving the Republican Party and joining the Libertarian Party speaks more about internal Republican Party politics in that the party seems to have gone from a principled policy orientation to a politics of personality orientation, explained Michael Bitzer, professor of politics and history at Catawba College.
I phoned Bitzer, a leading political scientist in North Carolina, to gauge the impact of Amashs insurgent campaign. He reads the tea leaves as well as anyone, but said its too early to tell whether an Amash candidacy would help Trump by capturing crossover Republicans whod otherwise support Biden.
The standard I teach is third parties are typically spoilers, Bitzer said, noting that Green Party hopeful Ralph Nader is thought to have hobbled Democratic nominee Al Gore in the 2000 election and independent Ross Perot likely cost President George H.W. Bush a second term in 1992.
While some conservatives and right-leaning independents may flirt with Amash in early polls, Bitzer expects most voters to pick the major-party candidate whose views best align with their own.
I think in this hyperpolarized environment, the two parties are going to be consistent, he said. Third parties will try and break through, but the two parties have control of the political system in a variety of ways.
The silver lining for Amashs admirers is that future GOP candidates may be molded in his image.
The modern Republican Party is essentially a coalition of social conservatives and economic libertarians. As the former group ages and sees its influence wane, the party could be recast as a home for classical liberals who care more about preserving individual freedom than dictating a collective morality.
Across the board, Bitzer notes, millennials are supportive of gay marriage and equal rights for women and minorities. Young conservatives may be religious, but theyre skeptical of government having a role in spiritual matters. For the first time in 2018, polls showed a majority of Republicans now favor legalizing marijuana.
This conflict is inevitable, Bitzer said. Thats where things are headed. That could redefine the conservative movement in a way we have not seen in the past 40-50 years. Reagan really formed the religious right in modern American politics. But this generational shift is saying, Were fine with same-sex marriage. Just leave us alone.
Millennial Republicans are more in line with Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson than Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. They champion free speech, which has fallen out of favor on the far left, particularly when that speech offends members of minority groups.
Amash may be too conservative for Libertarian Party purists who want a doctrinaire candidate thundering, Taxation is theft, but hell be libertarian enough for a retooled Republican Party thats socially tolerant and hews close to pocketbook politics.
When will that culture shift begin in earnest? If Trump is ousted and Democrats recapture the White House in November, maybe sooner than later.
Corey Friedman is editor of The Wilson Times and executive editor of Restoration NewsMedia. In this weekly column for Creators Syndicate, he explores solutions to political conflicts from an independent perspective. Follow him on Twitter @coreywrites. To read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit http://www.creators.com.
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Justin Amash could lead conservative reformation - Spring Hope Enterprise
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Russell Brand And Ricky Gervais Are Just What Your Brain Needs – The Federalist
Posted: at 4:08 am
Its day 2,346 of staying home, and if youre like me, youve streamed yourself into a coma. I actually watched the John Gotti biopic starring John Travolta the other day, thats how bad its getting (It wasnt as bad as youd think).
If your brain and soul are hungry for something deeper, two surly, foul-mouthed British comedians are here to the rescue. In the most recent episode of his podcast Under the Skin, comedian Russell Brand interviews fellow British comedy luminary Ricky Gervais. I became a fan of Brands podcast after his two amazing conversations with Jordan Peterson, both of which also provide excellent intellectual calisthenics.
The hour-long episode covers everything from Gervaiss love for animals, their narcissism, and the nuances of God, spirituality, and religion. While you may not agree with either, seeing these two exceptionally bright, self-effacing, piss-and-vinegar comedians exchanging barbs and wisdom is just the mental stimulation you need today. Their own search for the truth might even prompt the sort of self-reflection we all could use at this time. Heres a sneak preview.
Brand and Gervais are millionaires many times over and enjoy even greater fame in Britain than in the United States. Still, neither came from wealth or acclaim. Brand was an only child raised by a single mom. Gervais signature edgy humor is inextricably tied to growing up in the working class. Knowing where they stand in society can be tricky.
As Gervais explains, Were court jesters we have to be court jesters. We have to have low status. Were in the mud with all the other peasants, teasing the king. But we have to keep our low status somehow, I think. I feel I want to.
Gervais is the creator of the original The Office series, and Brand talks about feeling sorry for his character, David Brent. The pair both see him as a sad figure, engaged in ever more absurd acts in order to reach a place of acceptance or worth. Compared to our reality TV culture nowadays, this character isnt even absurd anymore.
As Gervais jokes, Big Brother contestants make deals with the producers to get on the show. Let me in there, and Ill start a fight and take my clothes off. It facilitates the emotional destruction of people who just want to be loved and the public eats it up. As Brand puts it, Theres been a glorification of idiocy in culture.
Gervais laments the toll this takes on fame-seekers. This obsession with seeing normal people destroy themselves. These people keep going back to fame and going, Do you love me yet? No, they dont love you, they want you to fail!
Gervais is a well-known atheist. While both men have substantial criticism for organized religion, Brands travels through addiction and mental illness have given him a firm belief in some kind of god and a sense of interconnectedness.
Im a solipsistic, narcissistic person, Brand says. Ive been through the mills of addiction, sex, fame, drugs, money, and all that kind of stuff, and its placed me at a point where Ive had to open myself up to different ideas.
He means this as a challenge to Gervais that while they both have criticisms for organized religion, Brand sees Gervais as having a similar sense of wonder and awe at the universe, the same wonder that prompted Brands spirituality.
Gervais concedes, I seem like a spiritual person, but not literally, which is totally true. I am in as much awe at seeing a tree, or a mountain, or a bird, or a river as anyone who thinks God made it. I see the beauty of nature.
While Brand sympathizes with Gervais distaste for the constraints of organized religion, he explains, Ive gone on sort of the opposite journey, in that I feel like I started off atheistic just in that I would reject any attempt to impose regulation or control on me for the purposes of domination.
But as Ive gone through my own stuff with addiction and mental health or whatever it is, Brand continues, my own sense of despair particularly looking at it from a perspective of mental health issues and addiction is that there is an unaddressed yearning for a kind of oneness, togetherness, and for love.
While Gervais understands that desire for connectedness, he doesnt think desire alone is enough to make it true. It is a terrifying prospect that well never exist again, I think, but it doesnt mean its not true, says Gervais.
The bottom line is I cant believe something I dont believe. So how do I find meaning? Well, we are here. The chances of us being us you being you and me being me, existing now, that sperm hitting that egg is 400 trillion to one. Were not special, but we are lucky. We do exist. Its incredible.
As were looking for ways to occupy our minds in this strange time, this conversation is worth a listen. You may disagree with Brand or Gervais conclusions; I do. The redeeming undercurrent, however, is that both men are seekers of the truth. Their convictions are born of deep consideration, and they are willing to follow them to their natural conclusions, no matter how disappointing or inconvenient. Now might be just the moment we need to consider what we really believe as well.
Caroline D'Agati is a writer, former park ranger, and New Jersey expatriate living in DC. She studied English at Georgetown and media studies at The New School. You can follow her on Twitter at @carodagati.
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Russell Brand And Ricky Gervais Are Just What Your Brain Needs - The Federalist
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Patriots Draft Pick Has Right-Wing Paramilitary Gang Tattoo. But It’s OK, He Didn’t Know What It Meant – The Root
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Screenshot: YouTube (Herd Nation)
And with the 159th pick in the 2020 NFL drafts fifth round, the New England Patriots select...the right-wing, paramilitary-supporting kicker from Marshall.
On Saturday, the Tom Brady-less team from the same town that brought you Aaron Hernandez, the gang-affiliated double-murderer from Florida, drafted Justin Rohrwasser, a heralded kicker whose left arm just happens to display the insignia of the Three Percenters, one of the right-wing paramilitary groups that The Root has referred to as Yall Queda.
As soon as the Patriots Trump-supporting coach and owner gave Rohrwasser the nod, Resist Programming noticed that the draftees social media history seemed to show an affinity for far-right zealots like Jordan Peterson, an opponent of transgender pronouns and the feminization of men.
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But it was the 23-year-olds Three Percenter tattoo that raised the most eyebrows. Although Rohrwasser claims he got the tattoo when he was a teenager, he didnt have it in high school. It also doesnt appear in photos when he played at the University of Rhode Island in 2015.
Make no mistake about it, the III percent is a gang.
Maxime Fiset, a former neo-Nazi who works with the Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence in Montreal, called Three Percenters the most dangerous group in Canada. They provided security for neo-Nazis at the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. In 2019, a jury convicted Jeremy Drake Varnell of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction to blow up an Oklahoma City building after Varnell admitted that he subscribed to III% ideology, according to the Associated Press.
As we previously reported:
Founded by another patriot named Mike Vanderboegh, the Three Percent movement stems from its belief that the American Revolution was won by an army composed of 3 percent of the population, which, according to this liberal ideology called numbers, is pretty wrong. (The number was closer to 15 percent, but perhaps they forgot to carry the 1 when they were doing the math. Hey, it involves both algebra and fractions, so dont laugh.)
Unlike the Oath Keepers, anyone can simply declare him- or herself a Three Percenter, although the group does have meetings on a local level, according to its website. It was surprisingly also founded immediately after Obama was elected, in Alabama, of all places (I actually heard your brain say, Seems about right).
Like the Oath Keepers who showed up in Ferguson, Three Percenters are famous for descending on the Bundy ranch in Nevada, but used money donated by supporters to bail out other Threepers to buy iTunes music, car washes and food. They are the same people who also occupied an Oregon wildlife refuge in 2016, an occupation that ended after a shootout when the mighty Three Percenters umm ... well ... kinda just gave up because standoffs are kinda hard.
So what was Rohrwassers excuse?
I got that tattoo when I was a teenager and I have a lot of family in the military, Rohrwasser told reporters during an introductory press conference. I thought it stood for a military-support symbol at the time. Obviously, its evolved into something that I do not want to represent. When I look back on it, I should have done way more research before I put any mark or symbol like that on my body, and its not something I ever want to represent. It will be covered.
Of course, the NFL is known for highlighting the pasts of its darker-skinned draftees. In 2016, projected No. 1 overall pick Laremy Tunsil lost millions when a video of him smoking marijuana through a gas mask caused his draft stock to tumble to the 13th pick. Wide receiver Desean Jacksons career has been plagued by rumors of gang affiliations. Since he joined the NFL, he has been arrested forHold on, let me check his extensive rap sheet...Jackson has been arrested a grand total of zero times. And then theres the revealing photo of how the NFL treated Rohrwassers fellow draft class members
But Rohrwasser is different, see. He didnt know that he was gang-affiliated.
And finally, hes a real Patriot.
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The Problem with Edmund Burke and Defenders of Tradition – Merion West
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The problem here is that one mans stable hierarchy and proud tradition is anothers tyrannical oppression and ideology.
Introduction
Instead of casting away all our old prejudices, we cherish them to a very considerable degree, and, to take more shame to ourselves, we cherish them because they are prejudices; and the longer they have lasted and the more generally they have prevailed, the more we cherish them. We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason; because we suspect that this stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages. Edmund Burke inReflections on the Revolution in France: And on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event
Many have been puzzled by post-modern conservatisms distrust of so-called liberal elites and the appeals these liberal elites make to scientific consensus, academic authority, and other rationalistic tropes. Less appreciated is the fact that this animosity on the part of post-modern conservatives has a longstanding basisfar-right priests of reason and logic notwithstanding. Conservatives have long defended tradition as the stored locus of wisdom and insight, which is only to be deviated from with great caution. This is linked to the longstanding conservative skepticism of reasons power to accurately know what is and what should be. The store of insight available to even the most intelligent personalities is so limited that it would be unwise to put faith in its power. This inclination goes back to Edmund Burke, who castigated the rationalistic philosophes of his day for thinking they could simply recreate the world wholesale from the idle speculations of their pens. For authors such as Burke and Michael Oakeshott, the skepticism towards universal reasonand the over-educated intellectuals who swear by itcan lead to flirtations with the virtues of a politics of faith. At its most extreme, in the work of figures such as Joseph de Maistre and Carl Schmitt (and the counter-Enlightenment movements they cheered on), it can trend towards an outright embrace of irrationalism.
The unusual feature of this embrace of tradition is that it is often very hard to tell what insights conservatives think we should glean from it. This relates to another fundamental feature of the conservative mind, which is that it is driven more by what Russell Kirk called an attitude or disposition that is resistant to the changes put forward by liberals and, especially, the political left. As my friend Nate Hochman put itin National Review ,the path to conservatism begins as a knee-jerk reaction to the contemporary Left: a feeling that its assertionsmustbe wrong, with little understanding of exactly why. This means that many of the defenses conservatives put forward of tradition are rationalizing, rather than rationalistic. Conservatives sense that this or that venerable institution or principle, which is being attacked for its prejudices, serves a valuable function, and they, then, set out to justify its existence. This is quite different from liberals and progressives who hold certain first principles to either be self-evident or required for any society to be called just and, then, seek to steer their own in the correct direction.
The Problem with Rationalizing Tradition
The effort to rationalize tradition is understandable. Logic bros notwithstanding, most conservatives have long understood that people often have deep emotional attachments to their shared ways of life and histories. Critics from Kant through to Benedict Anderson have often pointed out that these attachments are not nearly as natural as many suppose; states spend billions of dollars per year inspiring a sense of fidelity and loyalty to their flags. At some level, we are all intuitively aware of this, as the deepening hostility towards government officials and rhetoric implies. But that has never been sufficient to entirely break the spell of non-rational attachments to collective traditions. Moreover, as other thinkers, such as Jordan Peterson, have pointed out, these attachments reflect an even deeper need on the part of individuals for a sense of order in reality. Human life is filled with tremendous precarity, as well as the ultimate threat of total annihilation, which is tied to our existential finitude. Shared tradition provides a partial barrier against the to-and-fros of the world. And tradition cannot be easily replaced by institutional changesor even effective egalitarian economic reforms to spread wealth more evenly to protect individuals against material destitution.
However, the problems with this position are also easy to note. The first is that since conservatism is a disposition or attitude rather than a rational outlook, it will often be forced to play a reactive and defensive role against its opponents. Liberals and progressives will make a case against some institution or principle conservatives cherish, and their opponents will have to respond by building a case for it. This, often, gives conservative intellectualism a frenetic quality, with its advocates raising to a pastiche or even self-contradicting bricolage of principles, data, and even crude appeals to faith. The efforts by fusionists to reconcile an unbridled support for capitalism and freedom with support for social conservatism and religion (when the hedonism and permissiveness of the former will always undermine the latter) are representative. It also means that conservatives are always at a disadvantage. Since liberals and progressives are always on the offense, they need only win a battle once to typically triumph in perpetuity.
Conservatives must always succeed or resign themselves to the institutions and principles being cherished joining others on the ash heap of history. While it is untrue that history moves in one directionand that there cannot be successful counter-revolutionsthe inexorable entropy of existence inclines to change, rather than permanence. Finally, conservative rationalizations often fall into the performative contradictions, which inevitably tar any efforts to reject reasons authority. To demonstrate the limits of reason to challenge hierarchy, conservative intellectuals must inevitably raise rationalizing objectionsor fall into mere dogmatic assertions of fidelity. But if they do this, they also concede that there are ways to assess the value of a tradition; if the tradition is found wanting, there may be a powerful basis for abandoning it. The mere assertion this is the way we have always done things is no argument for its efficacy. People clung desperately to the idea that the sun revolved around the earth, that there were natural slaves, and that God apparently granted a divine right to rule to even the most incompetent monarchs. This brings me to a more crucial point.
Conclusion
More damning is that the conservative disposition can become so attached to order that it comes to support even the most unjust or evil hierarchies, if they provide the only defense against liberal and progressive change. Roger Scruton even acknowledged as such when he pointed out that conservatives will be far more willing to tolerate levels of injustice that are known and acceptable, rather than take their chances with the fickle promises of reform. The problem here is that one mans stable hierarchy and proud tradition is anothers tyrannical oppression and ideology. When the American Founding Fathers mused on the evils of slavery but conceded that changing it would bring too much disruption, they committed a banal act of moral indifference. The rot of this choice corrodes the United States to this day. Joseph de Maistre lambasted the violence of the French Revolution, while nodding approvingly at the possibility of millions of people being killed as divine punishment for beheading their monarch. J.S Mills calls for women to be granted the right to vote and to enjoy status beyond being property of their husbands were lampooned as unnatural (perhaps a reason he infamously claimed Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives). Ironically, this point was well-described by F.A Hayek, the libertarian economist in his essay Why I am Not A Conservative:
In the last resort, the conservative position rests on the belief that in any society there are recognizably superior persons whose inherited standards and values and position ought to be protected and who should have a greater influence on public affairs than others. The liberal, of course, does not deny that there are some superior peoplehe is not an egalitarianbut he denies that anyone has authority to decide who these superior people are. While the conservative inclines to defend a particular established hierarchy and wishes authority to protect the status of those whom he values, the liberal feels that no respect for established values can justify the resort to privilege or monopoly or any other coercive power of the state in order to shelter such people against the forces of economic change. Though he is fully aware of the important role that cultural and intellectual elites have played in the evolution of civilization, he also believes that these elites have to prove themselves by their capacity to maintain their position under the same rules that apply to all others.
There is nothing wrong with tradition in and of itself. It is often a source of meaning and stability for individuals in a strange and chaotic world. However, there is also nothing inherently good about it either: whether one means inherited wisdom, or providential arrangements of hierarchy to the benefit of all. A mere attitude fearful of change and rationalizing justifications to avoid it is no basis for preventing important reforms that need to happen.
Matt McManus is Professor of Politics and International Relations at Tec de Monterrey, and the author of Making Human Dignity Central to International Human Rights Law and The Rise of Post-Modern Conservatism. His new projects include co-authoring a critical monograph on Jordan Peterson and a book on liberal rights for Palgrave MacMillan. Matt can be reached atmattmcmanus300@gmail.comor added on twitter vie@mattpolprof
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The Problem with Edmund Burke and Defenders of Tradition - Merion West
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Why are the Pats suddenly betting favorites to land Cam Newton? – NBCSports.com
Posted: at 4:08 am
The New England Patriots spent their first three picks in the 2020 NFL Draft on the defensive side of the ball. They notably nabbed Division II safety Kyle Dugger with their first pick in the draft at No. 37 overall, but they made another second-round pick as well.
With only a handful of picks left in Round 2, the Patriots traded up to select Michigan edge rusher Josh Uche. The hybrid linebacker/defensive end should have a chance to make an impact on the team's defense right away and will join 2019 third-round pick Chase Winovich, another Michigan man, on the edge.
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It wasn't a surprise to see the Patriots move up in the draft. After all, they had an overage of picks on Days 2 and 3 of the 2020 NFL Draft. Butthere was a specific reason that the teamultimately decided to move up to the 60th pick tograb Uche,according to Andrew Callahan ofThe Boston Herald.
According to a league source, had the Patriots failed to trade up for Uche, he would have been taken by one of the teams that owned the next three picks after 60th overall; the Titans, Packers or Chiefs. Instead, late in the second round, the Pats shipped the 71st and 89th picks to Baltimore in exchange for No. 60 and a fourth-rounder.
That certainly explains why the Patriots felt the need to move up 11 spots. All of the three teams mentioned would've made sense as landing spots for Uche.
The Titans have a need for a potential long-term starter at rush linebacker across from former Boston College product Harold Landry. They signed Vic Beasley this offseason, but he has regressed since a 15.5-sack All-Pro campaign in 2016.
As for the Chiefs, Andy Reid loves to bolster the trenches and they still need a replacement for Justin Houstonwho was cut last offseason. The Chiefs have former Michigan pass rusher Frank Clark as their big name on the edge and spent a fifth-round pick on another Michigan edge player, Michael Danna. So, it stands to reason that they could've targeted Uche in the second round had he been available.
And finally, the Packers could've made sense for Uche as well. Preston and Za'Darius Smith are two solid starters, but the team doesn't have a lot of quality depth behind them after the departure of Kyler Fackrell in free agency. They spent a first-round pick in 2019 on Michigan's Rashan Gary -- another edge player --so maybe they got a good look at Uche while scouting Gary and liked what they saw.
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Either way, the point is moot since the Patriots traded up to get Uche. And from the description of Uche provided by his former defensive coordinator at Michigan, Don Brown, it sounds like he'll fit in very well with the Patriots.
"Hes a football junkie. He wanted to know everything he could possibly know," Brown said, per Callahan. "Our strength coach did a really good job developing his hand quickness, and really, I thought was instrumental in helping us out. But Josh, hell do exactly what you tell him to do and you know, some pass rushers they think they can win it all. Hell do exactly what hes supposed to do."
So basically, Uche is athletic, absorbs a lot of information,and likes to do his job. Maybe that's why Bill Belichick fell in love with him and felt comfortable moving up to acquire his services.
During his final season at Michigan, Uche logged 33 tackles and 7.5 sacks for the Wolverines. The Patriots will hope that he can make an immediate impact as a pass rusher in a rotational capacity, much like Winovich did as a rookie in 2019 (26 tackles, 5.5 sacks).
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Dave Rubin is out of ideas – Business Insider – Business Insider
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Dave Rubin, the YouTube talk show host with over a million subscribers, an audience that rivals many cable news shows, is probably best known as the "Why I Left the Left" guy.
That was the title of a video he did for the conservative site PragerU, which has been viewed more than 13 million times on YouTube and which Rubin says was the original title of his new debut book, since renamed "Don't Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason."
Now a self-described "freethinking classical liberal" or "old-school liberal," he's become the right's favorite ex-leftist, an identity he uses to warn right-leaning audiences that the left will come to destroy all the freedoms they hold dear. He knows, he says, because he was one of them.
His publisher writes that "in a time of madness" the book will give "you the tools you need to think for yourself."
A representative passage reads: "I want you to walk into a bar and order a full-bodied opinion. I want you to get absolutely wasted on facts until 3:00am, and then, when you're just about ready to pass out, I want you to get another glass of reality and chug it."
With that level of humor and sophistication, "Don't Burn This Book" seems to signal that there's nowhere for Rubin to go from here, because for all his relentless use of the word "ideas," he doesn't appear to have many.
In the book, Rubin proudly repeats a story he's told many times before, about how he changed his entire worldview on racism after it was clear he was hopelessly unprepared for an interview with a black conservative radio host. He calls it "the best and worst moment" of his career.
Rubin, a former comedian, was only a few months removed from hosting his eponymous show for the progressive The Young Turks online network. He described the original version of the show as "a comedy panel talk showlike 'The View' meets 'SportsCenter.'" For a political network, the show wasn't particularly political.
Now hosting a new iteration of his show featuring long-form interviews with iconoclastic guests, in 2016 Rubin interviewed Larry Elder, a veteran conservative talk radio pugilist.
Elder challenged Rubin's use of the phrase "systemic racism" by rattling off a series of contextless statistics about black-on-black crime and anecdotes about misreported incidents of police brutality.
Rubin, visibly flummoxed, folded.
Elder in just a few minutes had completely changed Rubin's thinking about racism in America, namely that he now believes there basically is none, except that which comes from the woke left.
But Rubin's newfound "freethinking" would not include challenging his new viewpoints by, for instance, hosting a Black Lives Matter activist or an expert on police brutality to express ideas that ran counter to Elder's.
His mind had been changed, and no further discussion favorable to those bad "regressive" ideas he once held was necessary.
Through interviews on his show, Rubin linked up with the "Intellectual Dark Web," a loosely affiliated group of online personalities generally bound together by a mutual loathing of left-wing censorship and "woke" identity politics. Then, as Jordan Peterson's hype man on an international tour, he was able to reach a massive audience of mostly young people.
Now he's a regular on various Fox News shows, and his YouTube show is re-broadcast on Glenn Beck's The Blaze network. He also does regular paid appearances with Turning Point USA, the pro-Trump student group with close ties to the administration.
Though he's very careful to never fully endorse President Donald Trump, he won't articulate any meaningful criticism of him. In fact, Rubin recently gushed about briefly meeting President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago and hosted the president's son, Don Jr., for a backslapping appearance on his show.
Rubin's interviewing style is to rely on "civility," which in practice serves as a platform for the guest to present their arguments unchallenged. But that idea seems to apply only for one side.
In a 2019 interview with then-Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, Rubin scolded her for making what he called "a "slippery slope" argument in comparing the Holocaust to slavery.
Guests like far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos (who said Jews control the banks and media), Stefan Molyneux (who said blacks have smaller brains than whites), and Lauren Southern (who defended Richard Spencer's "white nationalism" as distinct from "white supremacism" and whom Rubin later called "fearless") were met with no pushback at all when making egregious statements on "The Rubin Report."
If you're at all familiar with Rubin's show or Twitter feed, "Don't Burn This Book" is unlikely to contain any surprises. Despite its provocative title, it's hard to imagine anyone being so angered by a book loaded with the same milquetoast arguments that he's been hammering for years.
He again posits that "classical liberalism" essentially libertarianism in US political terms is the true form of "liberalism," which he says has been bastardized by progressives or anyone affiliated with the Democratic Party.
In a chapter titled, "Learn How to Spot Fake News," he again refers to non-right-wing news outlets as being hopelessly inundated with left-wing "activists" and repeatedly puts the word "journalists" in scare quotes. True to form, he levels no criticism whatsoever for institutional bias or even the occasional inaccuracy at right-leaning outlets like Fox News.
Though he says he hates identity politics, Rubin never misses an opportunity to remind the reader that he's a married gay man as evidence of his "liberal" bona fides.
Rubin touts his paid appearances at conservative events as proof of their open-mindedness and tolerance, especially compared to the rigidly dogmatic left.
And even when presented with an easy lay-up of an opportunity to take issue with Trump, he demurs. Writing about Trump's border wall, something generally opposed by libertarians, Rubin refuses to take a stand, literally writing that he's not advocating for it but also doesn't oppose it. He adds with comedic flourish, "you could say I'm sitting on the fence waka! waka!"
He makes gobsmackingly reductive arguments. Among them, the Nazis were actually of the left because the word "socialist" is in the National Socialist Party name and Hitler was an "art-loving vegetarian." He argues that the disastrous and immoral US military intervention into Vietnam was good because "our contribution secured much-needed freedoms."
Rubin the "old-school liberal" even deploys the old Republican saw about the "Democrat Party" being the party of slavery 160 years ago, as if neither party had undergone substantial philosophical and demographic shifts in the century-and-a-half since.
"Don't Burn This Book" contains one of Rubin's most oft-repeated lines about discussing "ideas, not people." The point, if I surmise correctly, is that one should not attack one's opponent with ad hominems, but engage their ideas.
He rarely lives up to this stated principle, or any of them.
His Twitter feed is loaded with name-calling and personal attacks on his political adversaries and the "mainstream media." Rubin saves particular venom for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who he has called "an extraordinary idiot" and "a genuinely terrible person," and outlets like Vox, The Daily Beast, and HuffPost, which he refers to as "Pox," "The Daily Barf," and "HuffPoop."
Relatedly, he's a self-described "free speech absolutist" who like Trump supports "mass lawsuits" against media organizations for libel. His book contains not even a passing mention of the many government-imposed conservative assaults on free speech.
He hates identity politics and the left, but presents himself as the "gay liberal" when flattering conservative audiences. He's the former progressive and comic who now makes jokes about "HuffPoop." He's a brave freethinker, who keeps himself hermetically-sealed from potentially contentious interviews and debates.
And he's branded himself as a paragon of "civility," despite not being particularly civil to people with ideas that offend him.
Dave Rubin has one tune to play: "Why I Left the Left." Given the opportunity to explore new ideas across more than 200 pages, it's clear he hasn't learned any new chords.
If you never criticize Trump or the right, but relentlessly shriek about "mainstream media," the "Democrat Party," and "social justice warriors" as threats to Western civilization, it's hard to convincingly make the case that you're not just a basic tribalist conservative media personality.
There's only so long you can trade on a former political identity as the main credential for a new one, without offering any new ideas.
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There Was Only One Player Michael Jordan Feared Playing, According To Former Teammate At UNC – BroBible
Posted: at 4:08 am
Michael Jordan and Buzz Peterson played together all three years His Airness worked his magic at the University of North Carolina.
He also won North Carolina high school basketball player of the year over Michael Jordan before they each joined Dean Smiths squad. Now he works for his as assistant general manager for the Charlotte Hornets. So one could say that Peterson has seen it all when it comes to Michael Jordan. Or at least considerably more than most.
With ESPNs The Last Dance taking over the dormant world of sports, Roderick Boone of The Athletic spoke with Peterson about his days playing with the GOAT in Chapel Hill.
He says that anytime someone brings up his winning player of the year over Jordan, Michael replies, Yeah, Buzz got that award because in North Carolina there are seven major newspapers and his dad owned six of them. So thats how he got the award.
Little did he know that Jordan would go on to become one of the most dominant players in college basketball.
at first, the success he was having, it was tough, Peterson recalled. Personally, it was very hard for me, and at the time it was like, OK, this guy, hes really good, Buzz. Hes really good. For you to beat him out, its going to be really difficult. Hes just very gifted. But you can still be one of the guys to play out there with him. And so once I made my mind up and just to see him the unique thing was how he got better each year at Carolina from freshman to sophomore, sophomore to junior, how his game got better and better.
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Peterson also recounted how Jordan would more than hold his own over the summer between his freshman and sophomore year going up against North Carolina legends like James Worthy, Walter Davis, and Al Wood.
However, there was one former Tar Heel that Peterson claims actually scared Jordan.
There is one guy that I always thought, and I know to this day I dont know if Michael wont admit or not, but I swear that he had a little bit of fear of and it wasnt a basketball player. It was a football player by the name of Lawrence Taylor. LT, phenomenal athlete. Could guard east to west, as quick as anybody, could jump, big hands, strong and was a bit crazy. So Michael in the back of his mind said, Sh-t, I better be careful with this guy. And LT always wanted to guard him.
He also remembered that during his four years at North Carolina he roomed with Michael Jordan for two years and Brad Daugherty for two years.
Ill never forget, I remember seeing something in Sporting News one time, said Peterson. They said, If you want to pick the right roommate, call Peterson because he chooses the right millionaires to be roommates with.'
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