Anyone who decides that their reactionary values should be enforced with state power is, in the sense that I meant it, a fascist. Clearly, the term also means other things, but here, it mostly refers to the obsession with the "moral health" of some reified "people" or "nation".
As far as prudes go, insofar as "expressing" a standard of "modesty" means judgmental attitudes towards other peoples' harmless personal choices? Yes, that's pretty much what it means.
... this is an extraordinarily, maddeningly generous reading of Charles Murray. It frankly astounds me that, for someone so interested in the between-the-lines connections on other topics, that you'd be willing to excuse or ignore that he has, in apparently unconnected arguments, decided that 1) Black people are stupider than other people, and 2) Black culture is infecting white culture, and it's ruining America.
Now, I don't know about you, but I'd be tempted to think, at first cut, that such a person was a racist. It would require a whole lot more than a few denials to talk me out of such a position.
Or, that he wants to stop the transfer of resources from the advantaged to the disadvantaged, and impose his preferred cultural norms on everyone else. The man is an unreconstructed reactionary, and represents the best traditions of liberty about as well as the Washington Generals represented professional Basketball.
Vintage Douthat. Add some handwaving to a moralizing narrative, and hope nobody who actually understands these things checks your work. Almost everything he mentions in his list is a non-causal correlate of success. It's not that going to church makes you successful, it's that miserable failures tend not to go to church. It's not that marrying your partner makes you successful, it's that being left by your partner is a serious problem if you were reliant on them, causing crisis. (And so on, and so forth.) Meaningless blather, wishful thinking, and naked prejudice.
-Jester
Afterthought: Charles Murray, ladies and gentlemen!
As far as prudes go, insofar as "expressing" a standard of "modesty" means judgmental attitudes towards other peoples' harmless personal choices? Yes, that's pretty much what it means.
Quote:He has stated (over the past 17 years) that he never implied a connection between race and intelligence(or potential) that was widely attributed to the two chapters in that book. I think in retrospect he'd have burned those chapters, rather than suffer being branded a racist.
... this is an extraordinarily, maddeningly generous reading of Charles Murray. It frankly astounds me that, for someone so interested in the between-the-lines connections on other topics, that you'd be willing to excuse or ignore that he has, in apparently unconnected arguments, decided that 1) Black people are stupider than other people, and 2) Black culture is infecting white culture, and it's ruining America.
Now, I don't know about you, but I'd be tempted to think, at first cut, that such a person was a racist. It would require a whole lot more than a few denials to talk me out of such a position.
Quote:Still, I feel he is getting close to something in examining the deterioration of our society and its impact on children. I tend to view his work as unabashed (hence the attacks), but motivated in uplifting all people from poverty in ways amenable to libertarian values.
Or, that he wants to stop the transfer of resources from the advantaged to the disadvantaged, and impose his preferred cultural norms on everyone else. The man is an unreconstructed reactionary, and represents the best traditions of liberty about as well as the Washington Generals represented professional Basketball.
Quote:Ross Douthat, Op-ed, New York Times, What Charles Murray Gets Right
Vintage Douthat. Add some handwaving to a moralizing narrative, and hope nobody who actually understands these things checks your work. Almost everything he mentions in his list is a non-causal correlate of success. It's not that going to church makes you successful, it's that miserable failures tend not to go to church. It's not that marrying your partner makes you successful, it's that being left by your partner is a serious problem if you were reliant on them, causing crisis. (And so on, and so forth.) Meaningless blather, wishful thinking, and naked prejudice.
-Jester
Afterthought: Charles Murray, ladies and gentlemen!