Tweet

More from @RadioFreeTom

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

12 Dec

@WSJ

I am sorry to see a man whose writing I have very much enjoyed - Joseph Epstein - descend to this kind of crap in the @WSJ.

Especially because on his main point - about the honorific - I mostly agree with him. But this piece is cringe-inducing and dripping with resentment. /1

https://twitter.com/apoorva_nyc/status/1337757909795606528

@WSJ

@WSJ Epstein wrote a wonderful book on resentment and its uglier brother, "ressentiment," and it is amazing that he is completely unaware of the degree to which something he understands so well now afflicts him so mightily. This piece is not only resentful, but self-pitying. /2

Epstein attempts to dress that resentment and self-pity behind a breezy style for which he would have likely clobbered a hapless student in his own classes. The lack of self-awareness is remarkable in a writer whose candidness was part of his appeal. /3

Read 4 tweets

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

7 Dec

https://twitter.com/ShayKhatiri/status/1336039009559040000

So, this is a teaching story I often tell on the road, and a kind of teaching we should get back to. In 1985, after working my way through college and an MA, I finally got a PhD scholarship. I thought I was the cat's ass for that. /1

https://twitter.com/ShayKhatiri/status/1336039009559040000

And I swaggered into Intro to Political Philosophy (my PhD minor was in political theory), taught by tall, stern, crew-cut Jesuit named Father James Schall. Schall was tough as nails and I fought with him about...wait for it... Plato.

Because I was, you know, smart. /2

Jim had read Plato in Greek and all that, but hey, I was 24 and wicked smart. Anyway, at the end of it all, I manage to get an A. I feel like Superman.
So I run into Father Schall at the dept Christmas party, and I am totally full of myself. /3

Read 6 tweets

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

6 Dec

@RuleandRuin

You need to read this great piece by @RuleandRuin about how the GOP got where it is.
You should read it because it answers the important questions.
1. What happened?
2. How could you have been in the GOP?
3. Does the left have this problem?

/1

washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/1…

@RuleandRuin

@RuleandRuin First, Kabaservice explains how the Tea Party was really a movement of people who hated everything about government (except for stuff they wanted), and how badly they sucked at the job of governing. The Tea Party died because "I hate this job" is not how you build a party. /2

@RuleandRuin

@RuleandRuin Second, Geoff notes that every cycle of GOP populism was subsumed by people who knew they had to actually govern, which is how Goldwater, Reagan, and even Boehner became more moderate over time. That's how parties work. /3

Read 6 tweets

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

2 Dec

A short thread about cultural resentment. I am old enough to remember when rural and small-town people were considered virtuous upright upright, and city dwellers were considered diseased bags of walking sin. /1

There was a reason for this: the cities were a collapsing mess, and “real America“ judged the people who lived in them. Especially if they were black or some other shade of non-white, but also plenty of hate for the white pinko elites. /2

Ted Cruz talking about “New York values“ was an attempt to do that kind of nostalgic throwback. But everyone was in on it. Even Billy Joel sang songs about the dead future of sinking Manhattan out at sea. /3

Read 9 tweets

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

27 Nov

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric What I'm telling you is that we *know*. It's not that complicated. And that minority of people better get their asses in gear and start learning about what makes *the rest of us* tick.

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric Dennis, when you say "it behooves to be deeper in our understanding," you say this as if the Trump cult is some unique tribe that requires our compassion and understanding, and not exactly what they are telling us they are. /1

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric But more to the point, why is it always a plea for *us* to understand *them*? Why is it always one way? Why is there never a plea - or demand - to people in rural Indiana to say: "Listen, you better start understanding the 100 million Americans who aren't like you."

Read 8 tweets

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

27 Nov

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric Way, way too many of them. Right-populism and the nationalist streak that goes with it is cruel and other-directed, not just in the United States, but the UK, Italy, Poland, Hungary, many other places. /1

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric In Poland, for example, anti-Muslim feeling is running super-high. But the punch line? There are almost no Muslims in Poland. It's a scapegoating of other people for things Poles worry about. As @AdamSerwer once said of Trumpism: The cruelty is the point. /2

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric @AdamSerwer Read the new book by @anneapplebaum about democracy being on the ropes. It's not about honest, hard-working people fearing for their way of life. It's a nasty virus that is spreading in places where life isn't really all that bad. /3

Read 10 tweets

Share this page!

Tom Nichols

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @RadioFreeTom

Tom Nichols

Tom Nichols

Tom Nichols

Tom Nichols

Tom Nichols

Tom Nichols

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Like this author's thread?