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I am 100% with you on this. The feminisation of everything is a grave problem, maybe the gravest of all (there is this superb book (was it No Men in the Pews?) about the loss of men in the Catholic Church - isn't the whole gay maffia thing related to that?). If you don't see this you live under a rock.

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Excellent, thanks. IMHO Alastair Roberts's 2016 piece is the best single treatment of this problem. [1] Aaron Renn's long-running "Masculinist" series is the best lengthy study. [2] And, thankfully, plenty of wise and insightful women see the problem as well -- e.g. the brilliant Mary Harrington [3]

[1] https://alastairadversaria.com/2016/11/17/a-crisis-of-discourse-part-2-a-problem-of-gender/

[2] https://www.aaronrenn.com/masculinist/

[3] https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/december-january-2022/new-female-ascendency/

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There’s a lot going on here. The Longhouse meme itself, showing up in FT, is kind of weird. I haven’t been on Twitter that long so it’s not a surprise that I’d never heard of it, but it is a surprise that you had not. I suspect it is ephemeral, and would be a little disappointed if, for example, Totally_Teagan warranted an article in FT.

With respect to having conversations on Twitter, I get the necessity to shut down comments/replies. Mr Dreher does so as well, and seeing, inter alia, the responses to his photo with Cardinal Pell, one has to wonder or conversation can really occur on that platform.

Since joining a few months ago, I have been exposed to and interacted with some very clever thinkers, and some great entertainment, but also a frightening darkness, fed by anonymity (does my nom de plume make me an Anon, btw?) but, even deeper than that, a malevolence that makes me want to cede the space to the howling imps who dominate it.

As for the Lomghouse itself, I can make n’ary hide nor hair of it, other than that it seems to exist as a sort of nondimensional sack into which L0m3z can put various ideas or complaints. Feminization (particularly via the education system) is very real, but as the father of a teenage boy, I suspect that you also see the irrepressible masculine spirit breaking through. My own teenage son is very realistic about the culture he inhabits, but instead of bemoaning it, goes about with a wink and a nod towards his own goals, wokeness being just another thing to be overcome.

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Looking up Mr. Deneen and his credentials, he has the usual impressive list of educational institutions attended and requisite lofty positions held; Rutgers, B. A. in English Lit, Ph.D. in Poly-Sci, Asst. Professor at Princeton, et all. I bet I would rather enjoy his dissertation, “The Odyssey of Political Theory: The Politics of Departure and Return” but alas, I will not spend $57 on Amazon to find out.

Back to the credentialism, it seems to be the rig du jour reaction to proletariats who post an article without a background from the ivory towers of academia. He goes even further when dismissing the Longhouse piece as Nietzsche-lite. I found that descriptor as confounding as you did, especially considering the content of the article vs. what Nietzsche’s personal background revealed about the man. A philosopher who began as a minister’s son, only to renounce a belief in God when his father died, is not the first name to come up in my mind after reading the Longhouse.

As to his Twitter remarks on the rise of extremism, Lom3z addressed that issue towards the end of his piece when noting the “shallow machismo” and “buffoonery” displayed by certain social influencers. As the father of four teenage sons, it is imperative to me to ensure they do not take up these destructive views in an attempt to make sense of the world.

Ending on a bright note, I wholeheartedly agree with the assessment that Mr. Deneen should be more open to public discussions, more so if he is to continue holding the mantle of ‘public intellectual.’ Kind of need a public audience for that title.

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You should read Bronze Age Mindset!

https://www.amazon.com/Bronze-Age-Mindset-Pervert-ebook/dp/B07DJQ89TD/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=1340305246626025&hvadid=83769150150100&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=85810&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=p&hvtargid=kwd-83769442186751%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=15302_10729508&keywords=the+bronze+age+mindset&qid=1677173202&sr=8-1

The original passage where this meme comes from was this:

"Modern world not bad just because modern; and it is better than some ages in

the past. Many parts of past were as bad, or worse, than our situation, and for the

same reasons. The modern is “nothing new”: it is the return of a very ancient

subjection and brokenness under new branding, promoted by new concepts and

justifications. If you want to see our future look to Europe as it existed before

1600 BC, or much of the world as it was until recently and still is….the

communal life of the longhouse with its young men dominated and broken by

the old and sclerotic, by the matriarchs, the blob and yeast mode in human life

overtaking and subjecting all higher aspiration. Aztec “cities” with twenty

morons sleeping and eating off the floor, demagogued in the masses by blood-hungry priests with dead eyes. It is no different if they use the doxies of Reason and Logos to cart us off to this life."

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Hi, Kale. I love your podcast with Rod Dreher. I can assure you Pat Deneen has had way more than 238 tweets in his few years on Twitter. My guess is he has deleted most of them.

Deneen can get really feisty, but I'm surprised he went at First Things like that. He's pretty tight with Rusty Reno, I think.

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The history of modern conservative movement is Buckley.

Buckley was a gatekeeper of the highest order. It is not really a surprise to see this kind of continued behavior from Buckley's heirs: the chained conservative commentator class who have accepted their position as losers.

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I did order 'Why Liberalism Failed' to read. $9.99 is a little less steep than $57. 👍

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