https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=VVrir7nxuTs
So let’s return to this issue of criticism of the fundamental institutions because there’s a lot of that going on there’s a huge cultural movement in the US in the West more broadly to Make the case that the very principles upon which our great nations were founded are in and of themselves Corrupt that America for example is fundamentally a nation built on the what would you call it that built slavery into its system right from the onset and Should be understood primarily as an oppressive structure whose is continuing to propagate itself across time On the right to you have this problem is if you’re going to criticize the institutions How far do you go down and I look at the institutions and I think well? America was founded on the principles that were originated in no small part in Great Britain and Great Britain fought for more than 150 years To end the slave trade even though they had participated in it like virtually every other society since the dawn of mankind Somehow they decided it was wrong And then they fought for more than a century almost two centuries to stop the slave trade And they did that because they’re predicated they’re predicated like the US on the idea that each individual is a divine is a locus of divinity in some inalienable sense and I’m not willing to criticize that proposition I think that when when the it the criticism of the institution goes that far then well what exactly are you throwing out here because your very claim that there’s something wrong with slavery is predicated on acceptance of the proposition that each individual is made in the image of God and That’s an institutional claim, and so is that corrupt and if it’s corrupt well Then why he isn’t slavery okay, if it’s just about power if it’s about some other principle So the the the the criticism has to go far enough obviously But it can’t go too far and we can’t lose this is part of your reference to tradition and responsibility We can’t use lose sight of the balance between the law book the Statue of Liberty is holding and the flame That’s held aloft and part of that is the tension the proper tension between the people on the left and the right you know The right are gonna say well don’t forget about the walls and the left is gonna say well don’t forget about the garden It’s like hey fair enough, and where should the walls be and how much should be garden? Well, we have to talk about that all the time There used to be a little bit more agreement in America on what that looked like there was a little bit more agreement on our Foundations our Constitution or Judeo-Christian heritage and so There’s very little agreement on that now Maybe more than we realize look I actually still am somewhat optimistic that maybe 70% of the public is still Largely on the same page and and this very exhausted silent majority that has just tuned out from politics I think it’s probably more than that. I think it’s probably 90% That you just hardly need any radicals Especially if they’re given free rein you hardly need any radicals to destabilize the society plus we’ve subsidized a whole Number of generations of people who do nothing but criticize right and I would say those are the academics particularly in the woke humanities It’s like they’re paid to do nothing but criticize so it’s no wonder that everything’s under assault Well with social media it allows that that that very small number of people to Congregate rather quickly affirm each other’s beliefs rather quickly and then make it appear as though there is there is some movement Happening when there’s really no movement and to mob and to mob everyone who dares disagree In a very effective manner like I’ve watched I bet I bet I know 250 people now who’ve been mobbed Well, yeah like yes, what’s interesting too is they’ll try to mob you so I think the first video you posted with me Whenever we did our last podcast you were mobbed quite viciously online and that was not from the left That was from the radical right and so this is from these this this mostly disenchanted young men Frankly that are so incensed by the idea that you might be supportive of me Because they’re mad at me for some reason they’re not even sure why it’s actually one of the more hilarious things about my fight with this group of Kind of populist types is that if you actually ask them questions about it They usually are deriving their hatred from some kind of conspiracy like I like I work for the World Economic Forum or I voted for red flag laws Which is again isn’t true. I voted the opposite. I’m not part of the World Economic Forum, obviously They always default to these very strange conspiracies. What if they were telling the truth? What they would say is that Dan calls us out Dan calls us out and we don’t like that because fundamentally We’re we’re more mafioso than we are 1776 And fundamentally it’s about loyalty and you know what if we want to move the goalposts a little bit and test your loyalty by Seeing if you’ll say the next thing that is that is more extreme and more And and more provocative and we’ll test your loyalty and if you don’t if you don’t concede Well, you’re no longer with us and worse if you criticize us for it Well, we’ll do everything we can to destroy you because you’ve got too much influence and we don’t like that So that that’s what’s that’s what’s fundamentally behind that Kind of mobbing on the radical right? It’s it’s like it’s a loyalty test more than anything else And what’s frustrating about it is very little Separating us policy wise again. I think I think the foreign policy is probably the key thing But other than that, it’s it’s difficult to find actual differences Well, you you told me you told me that you’ve actually faced this isn’t the case for me. I’ve faced way more Trouble from the radicals on the left than the radicals on the right Trouble from the radicals on the left than the radicals on the right I’ve had my trouble with the radicals on the right, but you know, there’s no radicals on the right Causing trouble in the universities like zero And so because mostly I was in the universities all the enmity that was devoted towards me And everything that’s undermined my profession and my ability to conduct my business has come from the radical left But the radical right has come after me now and then but you told me that Edli, especially in more recent years you’ve actually had more trouble from the radical right than from the radical left Well, I don’t know if it’s more uh It’s not like i’m it’s not like i’m popular with the left You know and part of it’s like it’s primary season and this is just what happens but I did tap into I tapped a nerve with some of these people and a very because They’re threatened they’re threatened that that that what I want, which is the reagan revolution of conservatism Is is going to displace what they want which is I mean, it’s hard to say who their hero is again I don’t actually even think it’s trump. Well, I think I think their hero is probably something like A warrior type, you know, like at least in imagination and well, they say that I know I know I know I know but that but they seem to really hate any veterans who because veterans tend to have a sense of loyalty to institutions and they hate that um, and they they It’s it’s a strange thing whatever the right wing populace so I actually call them the woke right they’re woke because there’s they share so many similarities with the left and I went over some of them, but you know some of those similarities again are are Untethering from long-standing principles again. It’s about winning in the moment. So that that hyper loyalty It’s contrarianism for the sake of being a contrarian Okay, so that might be part of it. That might be part of it then because if if the moral virtue Is to be derived from merely being contrary right to the point of conspiratorial thinking And then they run across someone like you Who is capable of being contrary but who isn’t conspiratorial or contrary in an arbitrary sense? And then you say well, here’s the limits to being contrary well, then that’s annoying because What that means is that you make a better moral case for your Stallwart reasonableness than they can make for their arbitrary Contrariness and that arbitrary contrariness. That’s just a kind of out That’s the kind of outrage that you already described is look how virtuous I am because i’m so upset about this I’m so upset. I want to tear everything down. Well, how come you’re How are you different than a radical marxist then because they want the same bloody thing and for the same moral reasons And i’m unconvinced that the many of the people that are the loudest on this Um, they usually have a when I say the people who am I talking about i’m talking about mostly like there are some politicians that Fit this bill But mostly i’m talking about influencers who run instagram accounts or one run twitter accounts Maybe they’re maybe they write for some sort of fringy online website, whatever it is Uh, maybe they’re a fox news host, uh named tucker carlson in any case their their goal their Their goal is contrarianism for the sake of it and and the word outsider means everything to them