Thread by @Noahpinion

1/When I asked about top public intellectuals, a lot of the names I heard most frequently were those of moderate conservatives, or at least people who push back against cultural liberalism.

Sam Harris, Steve Pinker, Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Haidt, Scott Alexander, etc.

2/This could just reflect my followers (weighted towards high-earning men).

Or there could just be so *many* liberal intellectuals that they split the vote, while a few conservative intellectuals unified the conservative vote...

3/But I also wonder if there's a boom in conservative intellectualism due to the rapid decline of American Christianity. nytimes.com/2017/08/02/opi…

4/With Christianity rapidly becoming less of a unifying moral/cultural force on the American right, it's only natural that conservatives would begin looking around for new ideas - especially new alternatives to cultural liberalism.

5/The decline of Christianity doesn't mean everyone in America is going to adopt cultural liberalism.

Conservative moral intuitions about the world - sexual promiscuity is bad, inequality can be OK, etc. - were here before Christianity, and they will remain.

6/I view moral systems, including religions, mostly not as sources of our morals, but rather as ways that we organize and explain our pre-existing moral intuitions.

7/Conservatives, like liberals, want intellectuals and institutions that tell them how to live rightly, in ways that resonate with their existing moral sentiments.

If it isn't the Bible telling you to love Christ, maybe it's Jordan Peterson telling you to clean your room.

8/Liberalism, meanwhile, has no ancient canon, and has always had to grope for new ideas and thinkers to represent its values.

Conservatives, welcome to the club! :-)

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