Three years ago, I registered a complaint about the evangelical debates over “winsomeness.” Specifically, I said that these debates almost all treat interpersonal dynamics as Internet things.
My goal in life is to be as good a critical question-asker as Ross. There's rarely any "gotcha" moments; just a serious concern for understanding clearly what other people think and how those ideas touch reality.
I think you’re on to something that a critique of winsomeness stems from the digitization of our lives. And sure it’s not a good thing if your winsomeness is for show or an act, but I think for a lot of people I see who care about this sort of thing, they’re looking to take seriously growing in the fruit of the Spirit.
Tremendous! Super-helpful. How in the world are we going to expose bad ideas if we don't engage with those promoting them? I fully trust that King Jesus is returning and there won't be the smallest grain of a bad idea in His Coming Kingdom. Christ was not remotely intimidated by the rotten ideas emanating from Hell nor of their author. Satan has "no hold" (John 14:30) over him. Of all people we should be the least intimidated of confronting hellish ideas. I hope Douthat does invite Nick Fuentes to his podcast! We would get a very clear idea of who Fuentes's real father is.
Totally brilliant! I am a British fan of Douthat's NYT column and do sometimes listen to his podcast. My problem is that in the UK there are so many great culture-war free podcasts that I could spend too much time listening to them, but that is a nice problem for someone British! Douthat is an example for all of us.
I don't listen to Douthat because I don't trust him.
I don't listen to podcasts because I think they're a waste of time (I can read much faster).
But after your article here, I might have to give Douthat's podcast a few tries.
I really liked the Thiel clip you embedded. When it takes you 30 seconds of uhmms to start your answer to the question of "Should the human race survive?"... and you start with "Yes, but"... you're dangerous. That would not have come through on the transcript.
I do have a disagreement though.
"When people want the company of others, when they desire things like conversation, friendship, and cooperation, they don’t immediately frisk the people in their lives for the wrong political views."
Do you really not do this? I ask because nearly everyone does. I doubt you would be friends with David Duke or Nick Fuentes. I've lost friends who went so far Left they became insufferable to spend time with. Setting viewpoint boundaries for your social relationships is a key part of maintaining stability in any society. What makes our time different is that we're convinced so many of our fellow citizens fall outside of those boundaries.
"they don’t immediately frisk the people in their lives for the wrong political views"
I think the word "immediately" is doing a lot of lifting in that sentence--also, I'd argue that guys like Nick Fuentes, David Duke, and your insufferable lefty friends aren't bad people because of their politics, but because of their attitudes that are upstream from their politics.
To put it another way, I could be friends with someone who voted for Kamala Harris/Donald Trump because they thought the alternative would destroy the country. I could not be friends with someone who voted for Harris because they want to have consequence-free sex and want to be able to abort any accidental children, and I could not be friends with someone who voted for Trump because they want him to deport all the immigrants, whether legal or illegal.
My goal in life is to be as good a critical question-asker as Ross. There's rarely any "gotcha" moments; just a serious concern for understanding clearly what other people think and how those ideas touch reality.
I think you’re on to something that a critique of winsomeness stems from the digitization of our lives. And sure it’s not a good thing if your winsomeness is for show or an act, but I think for a lot of people I see who care about this sort of thing, they’re looking to take seriously growing in the fruit of the Spirit.
I loved listening to Ross on The Argument and I'm grateful he is podcasting again!
Excited to listen to this. Thanks for the recommendation, Samuel.
Tremendous! Super-helpful. How in the world are we going to expose bad ideas if we don't engage with those promoting them? I fully trust that King Jesus is returning and there won't be the smallest grain of a bad idea in His Coming Kingdom. Christ was not remotely intimidated by the rotten ideas emanating from Hell nor of their author. Satan has "no hold" (John 14:30) over him. Of all people we should be the least intimidated of confronting hellish ideas. I hope Douthat does invite Nick Fuentes to his podcast! We would get a very clear idea of who Fuentes's real father is.
Totally brilliant! I am a British fan of Douthat's NYT column and do sometimes listen to his podcast. My problem is that in the UK there are so many great culture-war free podcasts that I could spend too much time listening to them, but that is a nice problem for someone British! Douthat is an example for all of us.
I don't listen to Douthat because I don't trust him.
I don't listen to podcasts because I think they're a waste of time (I can read much faster).
But after your article here, I might have to give Douthat's podcast a few tries.
I really liked the Thiel clip you embedded. When it takes you 30 seconds of uhmms to start your answer to the question of "Should the human race survive?"... and you start with "Yes, but"... you're dangerous. That would not have come through on the transcript.
I do have a disagreement though.
"When people want the company of others, when they desire things like conversation, friendship, and cooperation, they don’t immediately frisk the people in their lives for the wrong political views."
Do you really not do this? I ask because nearly everyone does. I doubt you would be friends with David Duke or Nick Fuentes. I've lost friends who went so far Left they became insufferable to spend time with. Setting viewpoint boundaries for your social relationships is a key part of maintaining stability in any society. What makes our time different is that we're convinced so many of our fellow citizens fall outside of those boundaries.
"they don’t immediately frisk the people in their lives for the wrong political views"
I think the word "immediately" is doing a lot of lifting in that sentence--also, I'd argue that guys like Nick Fuentes, David Duke, and your insufferable lefty friends aren't bad people because of their politics, but because of their attitudes that are upstream from their politics.
To put it another way, I could be friends with someone who voted for Kamala Harris/Donald Trump because they thought the alternative would destroy the country. I could not be friends with someone who voted for Harris because they want to have consequence-free sex and want to be able to abort any accidental children, and I could not be friends with someone who voted for Trump because they want him to deport all the immigrants, whether legal or illegal.
Thank you for this insightful look to
Douthat’s podcast. It is now in my playlist.