Great read! One thing I would add is in trying to raise children to be Godly, empathetic, moral, kind, humble, and respectful we can’t underestimate the weight culture, society, and entertainment have on our kids. You can teach your children about God and the Bible daily, take them to church, put them in Christian school and it’s still a huge battle because of the worldly influence ever present around them, especially when kids have all access to internet (with constant liberal and immoral influence on all of the popular young social media sites) and texting with friends on their phones. Generation X parents are learning a hard lesson that it wasn’t the best idea for us to give our teens cell phones. We essentially let ourselves and them be Guinea pigs with the new technology that we had no idea how it would effect us and them. And once given, it’s nearly impossible to take it away.
You might find these relevant. Ignore this if you have already read them. It's all a difficult problem, remember, man plans, God laughs. This is either a shameless plug or a useful response. David
Good essay. Thomas Sowell wrote a whole book about the hubris of the Leftist elites, "The Vision of the Anointed" and came to many of the same conclusions.
Me, I have a more Occam's-Razor-ish theory about personas that the Leftists take on and the intellectually tangled knots that the "believers" weave to justify their power grabs and claims that they know what is best: They are simply lying.
And they know they can get away with it because they control the media and academia.
Consider Charlottesville. The left leadership lied and lied to create a false belief of white supremacy and badness. (And they instigated violence.) Real liars. Then you have masses of arrogant ignorant types believing them, but becoming foolish in their arrogance.
I think you have both types. Your comment caused me to think more about the issue.
I genuinely appreciate your giving more thought to the issue. Your replies have made me think also.
How many of the Left are outright lying, how many are lying to themselves, how many are honestly deluded and misguided but truly believe? If that is what is going on, it may seem like a hypothetical issue, because we cannot read minds and answer the question with certainty. But I think it is important.
For one thing, if leaders of the Left are cynical liars, then we are wasting our time trying to convince them of the truth. They will never change their minds, will only make up new lies (which seems to me to be what they do, in actuality).
More importantly, if the Leftists have a strategy of lying, which has been the weapon they used to take control of our institutions, shouldn't we be trying to understand how that weapon works, how they created it and use it, and then use it against them, if we can? Instead of letting them go on using it to defeat us?
I knew a German nuclear physicist at work who seemed to genuinely believe that the second amendment was foolish, and I think he was surprised at my responses. It may have been important that I was a "peer", and not so easily dismissed. I don't believe he was just lying. He eventually became a shooter and has a concealed carry permit. A lot of them really think they are smarter and think than anyone. Of course, a PhD nuclear physicist really is a smarter breed, which maybe explains his change. (Don't know if he reads these. If he does I'll probably hear from him.)
Glad you liked it. I haven’t seen Sowell’s book. They might begin to believe their own lies. I do know from personal experience that much of academia does think that they are so smart that they can just ignore the thoughts of lesser bet.
It’s actually a little comforting to think that you are right and they are just lying. The thing is that many of the evils are so bad that it seems like only true believers would do them. Maybe some of both?
Great read! One thing I would add is in trying to raise children to be Godly, empathetic, moral, kind, humble, and respectful we can’t underestimate the weight culture, society, and entertainment have on our kids. You can teach your children about God and the Bible daily, take them to church, put them in Christian school and it’s still a huge battle because of the worldly influence ever present around them, especially when kids have all access to internet (with constant liberal and immoral influence on all of the popular young social media sites) and texting with friends on their phones. Generation X parents are learning a hard lesson that it wasn’t the best idea for us to give our teens cell phones. We essentially let ourselves and them be Guinea pigs with the new technology that we had no idea how it would effect us and them. And once given, it’s nearly impossible to take it away.
Just give them flip phones for contact. That’s probably why they give them smart phones anyway.
You might find these relevant. Ignore this if you have already read them. It's all a difficult problem, remember, man plans, God laughs. This is either a shameless plug or a useful response. David
https://drp314.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-power-versus-freedom
https://drp314.substack.com/p/wisdom-strength-and-courage
https://drp314.substack.com/p/propaganda-thoughts
Good essay. Thomas Sowell wrote a whole book about the hubris of the Leftist elites, "The Vision of the Anointed" and came to many of the same conclusions.
Me, I have a more Occam's-Razor-ish theory about personas that the Leftists take on and the intellectually tangled knots that the "believers" weave to justify their power grabs and claims that they know what is best: They are simply lying.
And they know they can get away with it because they control the media and academia.
Consider Charlottesville. The left leadership lied and lied to create a false belief of white supremacy and badness. (And they instigated violence.) Real liars. Then you have masses of arrogant ignorant types believing them, but becoming foolish in their arrogance.
I think you have both types. Your comment caused me to think more about the issue.
I genuinely appreciate your giving more thought to the issue. Your replies have made me think also.
How many of the Left are outright lying, how many are lying to themselves, how many are honestly deluded and misguided but truly believe? If that is what is going on, it may seem like a hypothetical issue, because we cannot read minds and answer the question with certainty. But I think it is important.
For one thing, if leaders of the Left are cynical liars, then we are wasting our time trying to convince them of the truth. They will never change their minds, will only make up new lies (which seems to me to be what they do, in actuality).
More importantly, if the Leftists have a strategy of lying, which has been the weapon they used to take control of our institutions, shouldn't we be trying to understand how that weapon works, how they created it and use it, and then use it against them, if we can? Instead of letting them go on using it to defeat us?
I knew a German nuclear physicist at work who seemed to genuinely believe that the second amendment was foolish, and I think he was surprised at my responses. It may have been important that I was a "peer", and not so easily dismissed. I don't believe he was just lying. He eventually became a shooter and has a concealed carry permit. A lot of them really think they are smarter and think than anyone. Of course, a PhD nuclear physicist really is a smarter breed, which maybe explains his change. (Don't know if he reads these. If he does I'll probably hear from him.)
Glad you liked it. I haven’t seen Sowell’s book. They might begin to believe their own lies. I do know from personal experience that much of academia does think that they are so smart that they can just ignore the thoughts of lesser bet.
It’s actually a little comforting to think that you are right and they are just lying. The thing is that many of the evils are so bad that it seems like only true believers would do them. Maybe some of both?
Agree 1000%!