The right has always had a pronounced anti-intellectual streak

In The Meaning of Conservatism Roger Scruton applauded "unthinking people" who accept the burdens life imposes on them without complaint.

They want a society of subjects who uncritically defer to their "superiors."

https://twitter.com/mjfree/status/1946376932423053579

There are innumerable examples of this going way back. Joseph De Maistre called reason a fundamentally destructive force and recommended people be indoctrinated into dogmas and come into the world with all their opinions ready made.

Nietzsche said people should be educated...

Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor points out that the egalitarian and universalistic ethics of liberal modernity which develop out of Christianity is "higher" and more demanding precisely because it insists that we need to take our ethical obligations to everyone seriously.

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1884795801739710691

That is very much the opposite of the Trump regimes , which is not that we prioritize those closest to us-but that we can do harm to others if it advances the interests of those we align with. Which is neither a Christian ideal or any ethical ideal worth defending.

Appreciated this acidic take by @GregTSargent in @newrepublic where he talks about how MAGA projects itself as speaking for the people, even after majorities of Americans have consistently rejected it....

newrepublic.com/article/187269… ...Two things to say about this. Firstly is that this is very typical of right forms of populism. The "people" right populists project to are usually those who feel they once possessed status, wealth, and prestige relative to others which has been taken away from them...

I'd argue that right has a much better instinctive understanding of how the left behaves, but a much worse understanding of its intellectual drives. I say this having been routinely impressed by the right's ability to predict how mainstream leftists with react...

https://twitter.com/BenTeitel/status/1814393210908881389

...and having sighed over too many books where allegedly serious intellectuals moan about how Marx wasn't interested in economics.

Part of the reason is the general different between how ideas tend to be treated on different ends of the political spectrum...

Good piece by @GregTSargent on Trump's talent for projecting an aura of personal and political invincibility despite repeatedly losing the popular vote, mid terms, and elections....

newrepublic.com/article/182111… ...and it is without a doubt projection. As far back as The Art of the Deal Trump acknowledged he "played to people's fantasies" by insisting he was doing something big and spectacular. This was intended to excite people and get the to invest in his project...

The right is generally viewed as having a more pessimistic view of human nature and history, and consequently to value the need for hierarchy to maintain order. But you could very easily argue that human evil is precisely why we need to avoid concentrations of power and wealth.. ...or that our shared human weaknesses are a basis for a deep equality.

Color me shocked.

I think @LukewSavage made a good point recently when he pointed out how these strains in our meritocratic mythologies points to how there is an enduring revulsion towards inherited aristocratic privilege which once upon a time had progressive implications... ...You see this in the American revolutionaries revulsion for what Jefferson called "artificial" aristocracy. Less remembered is the fact that he called for a so-called "natural aristocracy" of merit which would be entitled to its privileges and power. So the problem wasn't...

@MatthewSitman stresses the importance of this essay by Willmoore Kendall to understand the modern right, and I think its a plausible claim.

On Kendall's telling Socrates isn't even a Millsian proponent of free speech, but a potentially revolutionary...

modernagejournal.com/was-athens-rig… ...threat. Socrates also isn't particularly critical of the masses, but directs his primary scorn against conventional and well situated elites-pointing out the emptiness of their claims to embody virtue and legitimacy.

What amazing about this is Kendall concludes with...

Good talk with @GregTSargent and @kathsstewart. They focus on identity politics and Christian nationalism. I want to stress something different: how appealing to Christian tropes can reinforce both the yearning for order and a defense of radicalism...

newrepublic.com/article/180287… Trump's recent effort to hawk his patriot's Bible is very funny, and deserves to be criticized as self-contradicting given the concern for others central to Christian ethics rightly understood.

But the appeal to religion serves him in both sublimating the kinds of order...

I don't know whether smart people are overwhelmingly liberal. But the reason liberalism and the left are aligned with intellectualism has deep historical roots, as Roger Scruton knew when he said conservatives admire "unthinking people" who accept the burdens life impose on them.

https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/status/1767579903019610148

You can see this patten emerge around the time of the Enlightenment when the revolutionary philosophes praised critical reason and the interrogation of authority and conservatives like Burke dismissed the "empire of reason" and De Maistre called it a "destructive" force.

This is a funny point, but it reflects how the image of "working class" or poor prevalent in right wing populism is often both nostalgic and coded in ethno-chauvinist tropes. This is necessary since the language of right populism is dispossession of the deserving...

https://twitter.com/GregTSargent/status/1752722922253209874

...The idea is typically to democratize aristocratic sensibilities by implying that the white working class truly belongs, to put it in proper Trumpese, amongst the "winners" rather than "losers" of the world like the migrants and refugees coming in...

Good piece by @ThePlumLineGS on the need to avoid fatalism about Trump's return. There is marked disconnect between Trumpists casting his return as populist inevitablity and doing whatever they can to game the anti-majoritarian margins...1/

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… ...You even saw this last election when Trump conceded that too many people voting would prevent Republicans from ever effectively wielding power again. Underpinning the bellicosity is a constant anxiety and resentment that in fact the arc of history...2/

This is a chilling piece that suggests a second Trump administration would not only double down on the first's hard right inclinations, but do so with a more conscious ideological design of appealing to the fringe...1/

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1724412893481881912

...In some ways its not that surprising. Trump has always adopted a highly personalized style of politics based on loyalty to himself, and this move rewards the base that has stuck with him through thick and thin throughout a rough time...2/

Good piece by @ThePlumLineGS about the new speaker. I had a laugh at Greg's distinction between "Vulgar" and "Refined" MAGA and how Johnson straddles both in his effort to project morally ostentatious qualities onto cruel policies...1/

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… ...The material on asylum seekers was especially potent. Many people forget that threatened foreign nationals have a legal right to seek asylum in the United States under the Refugee Convention America ratified. Its not a matter of generosity, but entitlement...2/

Great piece by @ThePlumLineGS talking about the origins of the "Southern Strategy" with several historians and political scientists. What really comes to the fore is the extent to which political ideologies aren't natural but constructed...1/

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… ...This isn't to say "constructed" in a rationalist sense out of thin air. Instead that savvy political operators get a feel for the joints of ideological disconnect and aspiration before working to stich together coalitions on that basis...2/

He doesn't give any examples, so no idea who he's talking about.

But this is just another example of how "horseshoe" theory has caused a lot of intellectual confusion by enabling the lazy conflation of very different views without the need to understand any of them.

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1701007400789291231

To be clear there are figures who transition from the far left to the far right who are motivated throughout by a hatred of liberalism first and foremost. The far right will sometimes even take advantage of this by coding some of its arguments in progressive rhetoric.

Its a longstanding tradition that goes back to Paine, but clearly becomes inaugurated with J.S Mill's declaration that he was a socialist. It combines a commitment to economic democracy with liberal concerns to check unconstrained power and retain respect for basic rights.

https://twitter.com/ontologoff/status/1699802677499121979

At a theoretical level liberal socialism rejects the possessive individualist approach of classical liberalism, and insists that normative individualism has to be combined with an anthropology that takes very serious our status as social creatures.

This excellent piece by @ThePlumLineGS captures a very important point about the seemingly strange conservative emphasis on historical forgetting...1/

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… ...I say seemingly strange because, for many, the right emphasizes the importance of tradition and history while the left rejects it. In fact there is a long list of figures on the right who stress the need to forget history as crucial. Starting with Burke...2/

This is a very chilling piece by @ThePlumLineGS about the kinds of disciplinary surveillance being introduced to monitor whether and how young students display signs of being queer or trans...1/

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… ....What really comes to the fore is the extent to which GOP legislators have found ways to both divest themselves of responsibility for anti-LGBTQ policies while still advancing them through advancing policies that impact very personal forms of interaction...2/

Something to be optimistic about this Friday. @ThePlumLineGS talks about the burgeoning progressive politics of Gen-Z. Its hard to say who will and wont wind up conforming to the conventional wisdom of moving right as they get older...1/

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… ...I've read reports that suggest Millennials are staying put, or gradually starting to drift. The article makes the case that growing up during the Great Recession and the Trump years may inoculate most of Gen Z against voting for the GOP...2/

This is a good piece by @ThePlumLineGS on the current education wars, demonstrating again how American conservatism is especially adept at adopting the rhetoric and tropes of Enlightenment rationalism where it seems strategic...1/

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… ...The language of "impartiality" in the teaching of history is obviously absurd when paired with transparent efforts to silence discussion of race and racial oppression. But it reflects an awareness that transparently saying this is about sublimating...2/