Right to LifeBoard

Horatius Cocles wrote:

CoL just linked to current affairs. I need time for that to sink in. ;)

CoL is the type of person who reads Jacobin, Quillette, National Review, and Reason.com.

American antartica wrote:

That sounds absolutely horrible. I'll be praying for you. I hope you're staying safe.

I am, very fortunately. The first really big evenings/nights of it, the Sunday and Monday before last, really had me on edge/freaked out, but in retrospect it was probably an overreaction, the odds of something actually happening to me were always low and I just got caught up in fear. At this point things aren't quite normal but I'm past the illogical worry, just got stupid and let the sensationalism get to me. The curfew definitely was a weird thing though, not that I'm usually out that late, but having it laid down definitely hyped up the worries.

Well, time is of the essence! Aawia, would you be willing to co-moderate?

Horatius Cocles wrote:

BTW Culture of Life, one Catholic to another: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/06/capitalism-as-religion

It's an interesting book review, but I don't agree with the "conclu(sion) that capitalism is, itself, ultimately an infernal order." As Pope Leo XIII writes, "It is no easy matter to define the relative rights and mutual duties of the rich and of the poor, of capital and of labor." That said, any just economic order must pay due respect to human liberty. "(I)t is clear that the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonweal" (Rerum novarum, paragraphs 2 & 15, emphasis added).

Aawia wrote:

Tonight might not be best for me if time is of the essence, especially if the debate will last for a while. I could be free tomorrow.

Any other RCS supporters?

Stellonia wrote:

I can support doing it tomorrow. Watch your inbox, as I shall send you a telegram soon.

It would have to be tomorrow morning -- voting ends in 23 hours. :P

Culture of Life wrote:

It's an interesting book review, but I don't agree with the "conclu(sion) that capitalism is, itself, ultimately an infernal order."

I enjoyed it as well but the fundamental error is that the attempt by the Romantics like Ruskin, Morris, etc etc (much as I admire them), and even the socialists writ large, to create an alternative to capitalism ends with them at best aping Catholicism and at worst creating and equally flawed worldview. In other words, they are trying to be Catholic without actually being Catholic.

Stellonia wrote:

CoL is the type of person who reads Jacobin, Quillette, National Review, and Reason.com.

No idea what Quilette is, but NR and Reason are both...yuck.

Jacobin is odd but sometimes has good articles.

Culture of Life wrote:

I disagree. As far as political commentary sites go, NR and Reason are both pretty good. If you want to kick things up a notch, you could also browse the Claremont Review of Books every now and then. For social commentary and religion (and also a good dose of politics), see First Things, The Catholic Thing, America, and Commentary. The Bulwark is okay. It's basically the reanimated corpse of The Weekly Standard.

On the political left, I hope people here read The New Republic and Salon rather than clickbait like HuffPo and Mother Jones.

EDIT: Oh, yes. And for religion, don't forget Crisis.

NR has it’s moments, and a fair diversity of opinion sometimes so it’s not a total waste of time, but I associate it with all the neocons and normie conservatives and everything I dislike about the conservative movement, except that I probably wouldn’t accuse NR of racism. I suspect it was better back in the day, but I’m too young to remember Buckley... not that I’m such a fan of him either. Bulwark and The Weekly Standard to me are the sins of NR without the virtues. I rarely see anything from reason except when they’re throwing a fit about private organizations (which, by their own rules, should have the right to do so,) block porn. I spent too much time as a libertarian and left with a profoundly foul taste in my mouth.

First Things has some good people who write for it occasionally, some people with their hearts in the right place saying the wrong thing, and some people who are just wrong but do a good act. I’d never, ever, unless I was forced to, read a normie left thing like HuffPo or Mother Jones.

If you have any questions you would like to ask the candidates during the debate, please send them to me and Aawia ASAP.

Culture of Life wrote:

I disagree. As far as political commentary sites go, NR and Reason are both pretty good. If you want to kick things up a notch, you could also browse the Claremont Review of Books every now and then. For social commentary and religion (and also a good dose of politics), see First Things, The Catholic Thing, America, and Commentary. The Bulwark is okay. It's basically the reanimated corpse of The Weekly Standard.

On the political left, I hope people here read The New Republic and Salon rather than clickbait like HuffPo and Mother Jones.

EDIT: Oh, yes. And for religion, don't forget Crisis.

It's occasionally infuriating, but The Atlantic has quite a few good thought-provoking pieces as far as left-leaning sites go, though the Kevin Williamson debacle remains ridiculous. It was probably actually my main go-to site until they paywalled it, and it ironically enough has not seemed as good since even after they loosened it up. I try to read Vox (italicizing the one-word sites looks weird for some reason) and they can be all right, and occasionally informative but the amount of self-congratulatory nonsense they get up to about being supposedly so high-minded and intelligent ends up getting to be too grating at times.

I've found The Federalist to be an interesting kind of hit-or-miss, occasionally excellent articles looking at the culture wars and the like, and occasionally pieces that just seem to be written to be shallow and bitter. On the whole, though, I tend to like it, more depth than most conservative sites in my mind.

The Economist was my main go-to for a long time, but I've ended up dropping them pretty much entirely, as they gave up on the liberal part of being a classically liberal site with swerving all the way to the authoritarian left on cultural issues and it wasn't worth trying to slip past their article limits, which they cracked down on anyways.

For more short-form sites, RedState was just the craziest thing in what happened to it. It had a full-on purge and turned a hard 180 from the anti-Trump capital to full-bore 'trigger the libs' support, I can't think of anyone else that managed to pull such a full conversion in the blink of an eye like that. Not even really worth checking anymore.

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