Why do conservatives or right leaning people or politicians give any credence or respect to any left wing media source? I mock them relentlessly. Whenever anyone sends me anything from the nyt, I immediately dismiss it as left wing regime trash and say it to their face and make sure they know I think less of them.
Why right leaning politicians still act like that scumbag mccain and bend the knee to left wing media is beyond me. Trump is great because he openly mocks those wannabe elitist freaks to their faces. We should do.more of it and be of our own tribe and have our own van jones rule from now on.
Couple of thoughts: is there really a decline in romance or is that just the perspective of coastal/large city prestige publication writers? Seems to me in my personal experience people generally still manage to find partners for traditional marriages although they do seem to delay having kids more and have fewer.
As for the culture war, speaking for just myself, it's not just that I want to make money (I do) in my career but I like having concrete and tangible outcomes for my work, and if I had been say a college professor (something people have said they could have seen me as) then there's a ton of screaming into the void and not being sure what impact you are having. I serve on the board of a non-profit and it's similar - I offer what I believe is good advice based on real-world experience and the staff and a lot of other board members make bad decisions or accept mediocre results regardless.
I think there's pretty good data showing that marriage rates have fallen, birth rates have fallen, the amount of sex people are having has fallen, the average age of marriage has been getting later. That does suggest there's a real decline, though surely there are special and more extreme dynamics most likely in some of these coastal cities.
I agree that it is so across society (speaking as a late-Millennial lifelong small-town resident who moved far from home). Even thriving rural regions are by definition sparsely populated, which means few eligible bachelorettes in person or online, so it’s not unusual to average 2 or fewer (first) dates a year. Compounding that, many of my unattached, over-25 female acquaintances seem more focused on educational or professional advancement than on dating.
I think many of us simply didn’t “learn how to date” or conduct relationships until later in life. Maybe we didn’t have good role models; have shied away due to experiencing dysfunction or trauma; had no outside pressure or encouragement toward marriage; and/or romantic opportunities have just been scarce in the first place (see above about rural regions).
I hope I don’t come across as making excuses; much of this has been long-overdue self-improvement. Thanks Mr. Renn, and blessings to all!
PS using the term “co-parent” for a spouse is a red flag roughly the size of Greenland…
I have to say it’s refreshing to see someone say what I have thought about conservative media for some time.
I think a lot of conservatives get frustrated that liberals mock and deride their news sources, (and some of that is undeserved), but there’s also a style, form and substance about it that really is off putting to me when I watch conservative media. It’s not only values and substance, it’s form.
Yes, the NYT, and the mainstream media do not remain impartial, but for the most part there is still some idea or semblance of journalistic presentation, even if it’s just a holdover from a previous era. And that’s not nothing
Flip to conservatives, and the word choice, presentation, tone, chyron language, all make me feel like I’m being emotionally manipulated into being angry. Fox News and the Daily Wire seem to be pros at that.
I’m probably some middle of the road liberal now, but if anyone can give me some conservative news outlets outside the WSJ, I’d be open to reading them.
At this point, all cable news is awful and I'm not sure how non-lobotomized people are able to sit through it (except that the viewership is generally very old at this point), but there's no denying that the left's mainstream publications are objectively better, setting aside the problem that they're leftist.
I think the only way to piece together information as an intelligent and intellectually curious conservative is to rely on a combination of basic reporting from wherever you can get it, combined with analysis and criticism from insightful alternative sources (including this Substack!)
I wish I could remember the podcast I listened to (or was it an article?) last week.
They interviewed a gentleman who was wildly successful in making micro-bets in sports gambling with casinos. He used data analytics and, even though he was winning, the casinos didn't care because they managed their bets.
Sports betting has now dried up in the casinos and is almost all online. The same gambler was kicked off the sports betting platforms because they do not allow anyone to "succeed" but have ensured that sports betting is now like playing roulette. If someone is too successful, the sports betting websites have the analytics to suspend accounts.
Why do conservatives or right leaning people or politicians give any credence or respect to any left wing media source? I mock them relentlessly. Whenever anyone sends me anything from the nyt, I immediately dismiss it as left wing regime trash and say it to their face and make sure they know I think less of them.
Why right leaning politicians still act like that scumbag mccain and bend the knee to left wing media is beyond me. Trump is great because he openly mocks those wannabe elitist freaks to their faces. We should do.more of it and be of our own tribe and have our own van jones rule from now on.
Couple of thoughts: is there really a decline in romance or is that just the perspective of coastal/large city prestige publication writers? Seems to me in my personal experience people generally still manage to find partners for traditional marriages although they do seem to delay having kids more and have fewer.
As for the culture war, speaking for just myself, it's not just that I want to make money (I do) in my career but I like having concrete and tangible outcomes for my work, and if I had been say a college professor (something people have said they could have seen me as) then there's a ton of screaming into the void and not being sure what impact you are having. I serve on the board of a non-profit and it's similar - I offer what I believe is good advice based on real-world experience and the staff and a lot of other board members make bad decisions or accept mediocre results regardless.
I think there's pretty good data showing that marriage rates have fallen, birth rates have fallen, the amount of sex people are having has fallen, the average age of marriage has been getting later. That does suggest there's a real decline, though surely there are special and more extreme dynamics most likely in some of these coastal cities.
I agree that it is so across society (speaking as a late-Millennial lifelong small-town resident who moved far from home). Even thriving rural regions are by definition sparsely populated, which means few eligible bachelorettes in person or online, so it’s not unusual to average 2 or fewer (first) dates a year. Compounding that, many of my unattached, over-25 female acquaintances seem more focused on educational or professional advancement than on dating.
I think many of us simply didn’t “learn how to date” or conduct relationships until later in life. Maybe we didn’t have good role models; have shied away due to experiencing dysfunction or trauma; had no outside pressure or encouragement toward marriage; and/or romantic opportunities have just been scarce in the first place (see above about rural regions).
I hope I don’t come across as making excuses; much of this has been long-overdue self-improvement. Thanks Mr. Renn, and blessings to all!
PS using the term “co-parent” for a spouse is a red flag roughly the size of Greenland…
I have to say it’s refreshing to see someone say what I have thought about conservative media for some time.
I think a lot of conservatives get frustrated that liberals mock and deride their news sources, (and some of that is undeserved), but there’s also a style, form and substance about it that really is off putting to me when I watch conservative media. It’s not only values and substance, it’s form.
Yes, the NYT, and the mainstream media do not remain impartial, but for the most part there is still some idea or semblance of journalistic presentation, even if it’s just a holdover from a previous era. And that’s not nothing
Flip to conservatives, and the word choice, presentation, tone, chyron language, all make me feel like I’m being emotionally manipulated into being angry. Fox News and the Daily Wire seem to be pros at that.
I’m probably some middle of the road liberal now, but if anyone can give me some conservative news outlets outside the WSJ, I’d be open to reading them.
Hanania wrote a piece on this that's basically a classic of the genre now:
https://www.richardhanania.com/p/liberals-read-conservatives-watch
At this point, all cable news is awful and I'm not sure how non-lobotomized people are able to sit through it (except that the viewership is generally very old at this point), but there's no denying that the left's mainstream publications are objectively better, setting aside the problem that they're leftist.
I think the only way to piece together information as an intelligent and intellectually curious conservative is to rely on a combination of basic reporting from wherever you can get it, combined with analysis and criticism from insightful alternative sources (including this Substack!)
I just found the podcast episode that talks about Sports Gambling - how it used to be and how it is now that it's gone online:
https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/against-the-rules/episode-4-a-hard-way-to-make-an-easy-living
I wish I could remember the podcast I listened to (or was it an article?) last week.
They interviewed a gentleman who was wildly successful in making micro-bets in sports gambling with casinos. He used data analytics and, even though he was winning, the casinos didn't care because they managed their bets.
Sports betting has now dried up in the casinos and is almost all online. The same gambler was kicked off the sports betting platforms because they do not allow anyone to "succeed" but have ensured that sports betting is now like playing roulette. If someone is too successful, the sports betting websites have the analytics to suspend accounts.