five quotes (1.23.26)

five articles and a link to an extraordinary documentary

Lachman is not particularly invested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and when it comes to immigration, she thinks if you come to the U.S. legally, you deserve to stay. But setting aside the policy aspects of Groyperism, she said the rise of Fuentes has been undeniable. “Everybody I know watches Nick. He’s funny,” she told me by phone a couple of days before our lunch. Lachman tried to explain that he serves a different purpose than Kirk did. “Charlie, I take notes and apply to my life.” Fuentes “is a character; he likes to humor people.”

She offered an analogy: “Charlie wants to help the family in a way, take care of the kids. And Nick Fuentes has younger-brother syndrome. He just wants attention.” And once in a blue moon, he said something she agreed with. “I think you’re right, I could stop girlbossing so hard; I could let someone in.”

—Simon van Zuylen-Wood, “The Takeover of Kirk Country” (New York Magazine)

I have quoted Ross Douthat’s famous prediction many times: “If you dislike the religious right, wait till you meet the post-religious right.” Whatever his flaws, Charlie Kirk helped young people on the right to think about things. As the young woman quoted above notes, he made you want to take notes and apply his principles to your life. Nick Fuentes, on the other hand, just wants to shock and entertain; he is Howard Stern for the young, militant right. And, he is gleefully stepping into the territory ceded by Kirk’s death.

And here is Rod Dreher, riffing on the same article:

That’s my task in this new book I’ll be writing (soon I’ll be able to share details with you about the deal). I didn’t really know much about Charlie Kirk, but since his death, the more I’ve gotten to know about him, the more I realize that I’m more or less a Charlie Kirk conservative. And the more it has become clear to me that Charlie’s personality, and especially his Christianity, was what held back the tide of darkness that is now rolling across the young Right like a tsunami. My general thesis — subject to change once I go even deeper into my investigation — is that active, serious Christianity is the only barrier that will keep this from happening to the Right, and the country.

—Rod Dreher, “Kirk Killing: The Radical Right’s Reichstag Fire” (Newsletter)

Obviously, Kirk’s killing is depressing in its own right. A young man, husband, and father was gunned down in cold blood and in broad daylight for his beliefs. One of the sadder repercussions of this event is the young right id that has been unleashed by his death. At its best, Christianity restrains our impulses to nationalism with an awareness of the universality of the church; it restrains our fear of the other with the fact that he is my brother; it tamps down our anger and willingness to shed blood in the name of peace and the better battle of holiness. Clearly, Christianity (and Christians) has failed to make use of these constraints, but it is baked into the doctrine. The theological roots of the Christian faith point to love and honor to all. We have pulled up those roots because they appeared to us hidebound. That has been a huge mistake.

Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico who advises Keeper, suggested that monogamous human relationships could be threatened by A.I., but perhaps also strengthened by the development of artificial threesome partners. A human augmentation technologist, Dünya Baradari, proposed that social media data could be uploaded to an A.I. avatar that could court virtually on your behalf, reducing the chance of incompatible first dates. Mr. Miller wondered whether these avatars could be digitally aged, so that you could know what your date would look like when they get old.

—Amanda Hess, “Can You Optimize Love?” (New York Times)

Ah, yes, the optimization of love. Nothing in that list of ambitions is creepy at all. It is perfectly normal to allow a computer to digitally court another computer on your behalf, so you do not have to waste the time of going on a date with someone the computer decides you are not compatible with. This will all be fine. If you thought dating apps were weird places before. . . The author points out toward the end that all of this is shading a bit too closely to a Black Mirror episode.

1. “Learning for its own sake” is a high-minded ideal that describes very, very few people in the history of the world. Expecting the average child to “learn for its own sake” is a bit like expecting the average child to pass a fitness exam to advance in the Navy SEALS. In a twenty-year career, you might encounter a dozen students who can handle the psychological burden of “learning for its own sake.”

2. The social models of education wherein students “learn for its own sake” have nothing to do with the typical American private school. Our students are neither landed aristocrats, nor monks.

—Josh Gibbs, “Learning Should Be Undertaken “For Its Own Sake,” But Get Real” (The Classical Teaching Institute)

Yeah. So, as a teacher, I have made this sweet, idealistic argument before: you are free people studying the free/liberal arts. Learning is good. It will make you a better, more rounded person. But this argument doesn’t win students over. They just do not care. The exceptions (who are delightful) prove the rule. We either have to a) cater to students whims or b) stop carrying about their short-term desires being fulfilled and move on with the business of teaching.

Savage does a good job of honing in on how the impact of this has varied by cohort. Boomer, and to some extent Gen-X white men were already established in their careers when dial really got turned on this. Boomers were already tenured professors by that time. They were the senior leaders of these organizations while this was happening, and in some cases still are. For example, despite the huge shift towards hiring women and minorities at the Atlantic, the older Gen X white male Jeffrey Goldberg remains the editor-in-chief.

Thus the brunt of the diversity push fell largely on the Millennials. This was compounded by the fact that the Boomers won’t retire. Every old white male professor or executive means, roughly speaking, one less younger white man who will be able to get a job in these organizations.

—Aaron Renn, “Confronting the Unspeakable Truth” (Newsletter)

What Renn highlights above is worth confronting. So many of the executives who rolled out the red carpet for DEI programs and slanted their company’s hiring practices towards minorities and women bore absolutely no personal cost for doing so. They were already safely ensconced in their positions. This is why I only really take calls for diversification seriously if the person calling for them stands to lose out if the policies are implemented.

Bonus Link: The Thinking Game

If you can find the time, watch this documentary. It is about Demis Hassabis and the creation of DeepMind, the Google-owned AI company. Hassabis is a fascinating person, a clear exemplar of the type of tech-minded idealist who is genuinely trying to do good in the world. If the soul of AI research was Demis Hassabis, this whole push would be much less precarious.