Posted on 01/07/2023 7:42:54 PM PST by TBP
The new slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives lacks something besides its slim majority and the battle over leadership positions. It lacks intellectual depth.
The Reagan administration may have been the last one to challenge Americans to think for themselves, and for that matter, just to think. Perhaps this lack of thinking and intellectual depth in our politics is caused by instruments and websites that do the thinking for us. We now tune in to whatever newspaper, cable network or website reinforces our beliefs and care little about how ideas were developed, whether they work and who benefits most from them.
Growing up and into my journalism career, some of my intellectual idols were William F. Buckley Jr., William Rusher, Milton and Rose Friedman, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Gertrude Himmelfarb, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, M. Stanton Evans and Russell Kirk. Most are now gone, and even the few who remain are largely ignored by academic and cultural institutions that promote a singular, secularist and leftist worldview.
Conservative publications I read with some regularity included National Review, Commentary, American Spectator and later The Washington Times, Imprimis, Crisis and National Affairs. These appear almost exclusively to be the reading choices of like-minded people. Reinforcement is OK to a point, but it stifles growth if you can’t understand and possibly even come to believe opposing points of view. How will you comprehend them if you don’t read them?
Liberals, too, have been robbed of their intellectual giants. Recall Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, New York Democrat, Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, Washington Democrat, and publications like the once great New York Times before it became mostly a mouthpiece for all things secular and liberal, The New Yorker, The Atlantic and just about anything written by Frank Rich.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Most so-called conservative intellectuals hate the base. We know who those treacherous snakes are. We don’t need them anymore. What we want is not complicated.
I suggest these videos below. I greatly admire Bill Whittle, I believe he is one of the most rational, thoughtful, and even entertaining carriers of the Conservative Torch in our country today. These short videos (about ten minutes each) break down various key aspects of Conservatism, and I believe he does a damned good job of distilling it down:
Bill Whittle's Seven Part Series: What We Believe
Part 1: Small Government and Free Enterprise
Victor Davis Hanson is hanging in there. Where he is gone, I’m not sure who is going to fill his shoes.
As a great philosopher once said, “that’s just sad”!
Check out the linked videos I posted above: This man does not in any way hate “the base”.
But, he isn’t really an intellectual in the same mold of Thomas Sowell, but is more like a outwardly populist version of Victor Davis Hanson.
However, the first mistake for anyone these days, is reading the National Review. They are part of the deep state and support the deep state deeply.
The underpinnings? How about we don’t over think it and follow the US Constitution to the letter.
Bookmark.
Intellectuals are the new “experts”. They know everything and they are beyond questioning.
A lot of “intellectuals” come from the Ivy Leagues. That’s a problem.
A lot of “intellectuals” accept false premises related to Marxism, sexual matters, and anti-religion/anti-western civilization views. That’s a problem.
A lot of “intellectuals” have realized that they can make more money from podcasts or Youtube videos. That means they need to churn out “content” on almost a daily basis. Which means it’s all diluted and they aren’t really spending time researching or thinking about anything deep. That’s a problem.
As someone already pointed out, Victor Davis Hanson is the real deal. He is non-Ivy League, he values the Western tradition, he writes real books.
There may be others out there. But probably 99% of the “intellectuals” today are simply glib people who speak well and who say what they are expected to say. There isn’t much real thinking involved.
Goodbye Cal.
A lot of “intellectuals” accept false premises related to Marxism, sexual matters, and anti-religion/anti-western civilization views. That’s a problem.
You mean intellectuals like William F. Buckley Jr., William Rusher, Milton and Rose Friedman, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Gertrude Himmelfarb, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, M. Stanton Evans and Russell Kirk? (The names Thomas cites in his article)
So sorry I wasn’t clear enough for you. I am obviously making an observation about so-called “intellectuals” who are active on the scene today. I respect few of these active “intellectuals”. You just gave me a list of (mostly) dead people. Yeah. They were great. They were intellectuals without the quotes. They were the real deal. They’re dead. Where does that leave us now?
I’m still here.
Gertrude Himmelfarb was Bill Kristol’s mother. Perhaps she should have spent some more time raising him as a real conservative instead of a retarded grifter.
Cal Thomas apparently has missed the fact that 99.9% of the population today has the attention span of a gnat, about 2 seconds.
Takes a lot of time to read anything of substance and the attitude these days is “who got time fo dat?”
Who wants to be an intellectual nowadays? It’s racist!
The education system wants to make sure nobody grows up to be an intellectual. When everybody grows up all ignorant and dumb, then the democrats will know they’ve achieved their goals. Everybody equal, nobody a leader, nobody rich, nobody owning businesses, nobody successful. Haiti and Cuba and Venezuela and N. Korea will be our nations’ role models. But, there will still be a few required to keep the nation free of intellectuals, and they’ll be the big brother that the country always feared would come.
The Foxnews All Star Panel?
Bill Kristol
George Will
Charles Krauthammer
Mara Liasson
Mort Kondrake
Those turds?
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