I have been asked why I intersperse political entries with narrowly philosophical ones. But in every case the question was put to me by someone who tilts leftward. If my politics were leftist, would anyone complain? Probably not. Academe and academic philosophy are dominated by leftists, and to these types it seems entirely natural that one should be a bien-pensant lefty. Well, I'm here to prove otherwise. Shocking as it will seem to some, leftist views are entirely optional, and a bad option at that. The hard left in its now-dominant 'woke' incarnation is inimical to just about everything worth preserving. There is of course a broad spectrum of leftist position, not all equally anti-civilizational, and some not at all anti-civilizational. Some good things can be said about some leftists of yesteryear.
I could of course post my political thoughts to a separate site. Now a while back I did effect such a segregation, sending my political rants and ruminations to my Facebook page. But given that philosophy attracts more leftists than conservatives, it is good for them to be exposed to views that they do not encounter within the enclaves they inhabit. Or are contemporary liberals precisely illiberal in their close-minded-ness to opposing views? One gets that impression. We conservatives are the 'new liberals.' We conservatives are classically liberal in that we support free speech and open inquiry. You say you want an example? Consider Newsmax. It is a conservative outlet that regularly allows leftists such as Ellis Henican and Barney Frank to have their say. No so with the leftist outlets: they do not allow political adversaries to have their say.
Posting the political to a separate weblog would also violate my 'theory' of blogging. My blog is micro to my life's macro. It mirrors my life in all its facets as a sort of coincidentia oppositorum of this situated thinker's existence.
Why did I leave Facebook? The mendacious FB admins went on a phishing expedition: they wanted me to reveal my smartphone number. I refused. In any case FB is not a serious venue in the main and the comments I received on carefully crafted posts were mostly crap. My most valued interlocutors refused to follow me over there. FB is a place for narcissists to post selfies and pictures of what they had for lunch. Am I being fair? Fair enough.
Bill,
Regarding your point that FB comments to carefully crafted posts are usually bad: in my experience, such comments are customarily unclear and/or irrelevant to the topic of the post. It's as if the responders are engaged in free association. If I had a dollar for every response that changed the subject, I could finance my own social media company.
It’s practically impossible to have a reasonable conversation with someone who changes the subject and has trouble following a line of discussion. I suspect most folks who use FB don’t do so for the sake of reasonable discussion. As you indicated, they use it to post pics, etc. Perhaps they also use it for therapeutic purposes.
Posted by: Elliott | Sunday, May 28, 2023 at 02:01 PM
Elliot,
I agree with all of that. On the bright side, the 'commentariat' here is a distinguished bunch: you, Brian, David Brightly, Oz, Hector, Vito, Bro Joe, et al.
Comment moderation eliminates the unserious. Hector C is an impressive young guy, around 30 I believe, on FB, who has been leaving some deep and erudite comments.
I saw on the news last night a big 'gator who knocked on some Floridian's door. It was not opened unto him. Any of those critters ever come up onto your property?
Posted by: BV | Sunday, May 28, 2023 at 03:10 PM
Memorial Day. Lest we forget:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omd9_FJnerY
Posted by: Joe Odegaard | Monday, May 29, 2023 at 12:15 PM
Bill,
I'm glad to be part of a community interested in discussing the topics covered here.
I haven't had any gators on my property, but I have seen one on the sidewalk around the neighborhood, and I see them regularly in the ponds. Walks at night when the visibility is low are not advised.
Here's a story from April 2022.
https://www.wric.com/video/video-10-foot-alligator-spotted-strolling-through-florida-neighborhood/
Posted by: Elliott | Monday, May 29, 2023 at 03:25 PM
Thanks for that praise, Bill, very kind of you!
I joined Facebook in 2006 not long after it first appeared and in those days it was only available to university students. Even then it was mostly just used for humorous purposes and for arranging parties and putting up silly photos, usually of said parties. Discussing anything serious there 'publicly' is pointless and always was; though I have had many serious discussions on the private 'chat' function with close friends. You were the very rare exception of a serious man in a most unserious place, somewhat like finding Schopenhauer at a bouncy castle!
Leftists are preponderant in academic philosophy generally, but are they preponderant within academic *political* philosophy? I doubt it - some of the major contemporary figures in that field are conservatives - e. g. Harvey Mansfield - and many of the biggest postwar thinkers were classical liberals or conservatives (Popper, Kolakowski, Oakeshott, Strauss, Schmitt, Voegelin, Hayek, Scruton, Aron and so on). Likewise, atheists are preponderant in academic philosophy generally but not within academic philosophy of religion (that one's a fact - I can't find data on political philosophy though). Philosophers should ask themselves why experts in these fields are far less likely to agree with them - or even the most likely people to disagree with them - and not just accept the default position without adequately analysing the alternatives. Is the same pattern found in any other branch of philosophy I wonder? Somehow I doubt it.
Posted by: Hector | Monday, May 29, 2023 at 06:38 PM