The Crowhill Journal

I’ve been enjoying Andrew Doyle’s “Culture Wars” podcast. In the episode called The New Clerisy, which is very interesting for many reasons, Tom Holland, the author of Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, pins some of the origins of wokeness on evangelicalism.

He makes an interesting point. The basic argument is that evangelicalism involves a conversion from one frame of mind to another after an infusion of grace, which then justifies a kind of morally superior (awakened) attitude.

What it lacks, of course, is the idea of original sin and the virtue of forgiveness. But it’s still an interesting parallel.

The whole show is worth your time.

Those words have become common accusations, often tossed about with little or no justification, but have you noticed the disconnect between them? An “-ist” ending “denotes a person who practices or is concerned with something, or holds certain principles, doctrines, etc.,” while “phobic” denotes fear.

The simplest explanation (ISTM) is that it’s hard to come up with a decent -ist word regarding the trans issue. Sexist is already taken, and I don’t believe there’s a word that means something like “believing there are two sexes and you’re stuck with the one you were dealt.”

Still, accusing a person of holding to an (allegedly mistaken) ideology is a different thing from saying a person has a phobia.

Or … is it?

I said “allegedly mistaken” as if this whole thing involves some sort of appeal to truth. But it’s not about truth, is it? It’s really more about (alleged) hatred, and hatred and fear often go together. From that perspective, the words are about the same, in a post-modern sort of way.

Florida Governor DeSantis to Penalize Big Tech Companies for Unlawful Practices

He said that over the years, “these platforms have changed from neutral platforms that provided Americans with the freedom to speak to enforcers of preferred narratives. Consequently, these platforms have played an increasingly decisive role in elections and have negatively impacted Americans who dissent from orthodoxies favored by the Big Tech cartel.” …

Under the new measure from the Florida legislature, the technology companies that de-platform a candidate during an election will face a daily fine of $100,000 until the candidate’s access to the platform is restored.

It’s a start. Way to go, Gov. DeSantis.

I listened to the inaugural episode of Andrew Doyle’s new podcast, Culture Wars, in which he interviewed Bridget Phetasy, a fellow stand-up comic who also wrote for Playboy.

Ms. Phetasy asked whether the woke realize that they will get old and another generation — with their own crazy ideas — will come along to cancel them.

P&C drink and review Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Fresh Hop IPA, then talk about totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and fascism. Following up, they evaluate Rod Dreher’s “soft totalitarianism” from Live Not by Lies, but decide Dreher might have the wrong label.

Our culture is at a cross-roads. Is there time (or the will) to stop the growing tech-inspired soft authoritarianism?