Hot and Bothered
Added 2021-06-14 03:02:24 +0000 UTCEvery June it happens: conservatives get all hot and bothered by Pride celebrations, and this year has been no different. Why do banal corporate expressions of support for LGBTQ+ rights drive them so mad? How does religion factor into their opposition to basic protections for LGBTQ+ people? What part do these culture war flareups play in their broader political strategy? In this bonus episode, Matt and Sam offer a survey of hyperbolic rightwing reactions to the start of Pride month and break it all down.
Sources and Further Reading:
Edmund White, Letter to Ann and Alfred Corn about the Stonewall Riots, June 1969
Edmund White, The Beautiful Room is Empty (Knopf, 1988)
Matthew Sitman, "Gossip and Insight: Discovering Edmund White," Commonweal, December 2018
Rod Dreher, "U.S. Trolls Vatican with Pride Flag," American Conservative, June 2, 2021
Rod Dreher's Blues Clues posts at the American Conservative:
"Mommy, What's a Pansexual?" February 12, 2021
"Woke Capitalism Promotes Polyamourous Parenting," May 29, 2021
"Orban vs. Blues Clues Pride Parade," June 11, 2021
Anthony Esolen, "Talk to Your Father," Crisis, October 25, 2017
Andrew Sullivan, Virtually Normal (Knopf, 1995)
Andrew Sullivan, Love Undetectable (Vintage, 1998)
Comments
The American Mind - The Stakes: Critical Race Theory was the pod and episode I listened to. Lol.
Jason Weiser
2021-06-24 03:00:51 +0000 UTCA low-key sub-sub-theme in the podcast is my interest in the Walgreen Lectures! Arendt's The Human Condition is another book that came from them. Thanks for the suggestions! (Matt)
Know Your Enemy
2021-06-20 07:45:19 +0000 UTCThey're West Coast Straussians... but one could be forgiven for confusing the two, lol. Do you have a link to the particular podcast, I am also interested in giving it a listen.
bdyeates
2021-06-19 19:57:24 +0000 UTCJust a few ideas for future episodes: How a bunch of ex-Trotskyists gave birth to neoconservatism; Leo Strauss' Natural Right and History and Eric Voegelin's The New Science of Politics and just what were the Walgreen Foundation Lectures?; conservatism before Buckley... the irritable mental gestures of Mencken, Nock, Chodorov, and Garret; libertarianism from Rand and Rothbard to the Cato Institute; which legacy is more conservative in spirit, Jefferson's or Hamilton's?; something about the conservative turn of the 1970's, from the rise of the Evangelicals and the moral majority to the neoliberal turn in economic policy starting with Carter (or arguably Nixon). Okay, that's all. Love the show. Peace!
bdyeates
2021-06-19 19:52:26 +0000 UTCAnother great episode. Thanks guys!
supremewarpig
2021-06-18 14:33:08 +0000 UTCThanks for the suggestion in this ep to listen to your earlier one on “Heroes of the Fourth Turning”. I did and it was amazing!
Tristan K. Husby
2021-06-18 02:24:23 +0000 UTCThis scholar, a queer theology advocate and biblical scholar has some excellent research to help with “Bible-based” Christians: https://www.cedarvilleout.org/docs/Arsenokoites-and-Malakos.pdf As to Catholics, ecclesiology is the biggest battleground. The idea that the Church hierarchy has the authority to define its own history is central to conservative ideology.
Chad Bailey
2021-06-17 12:30:16 +0000 UTCJust to be clear on the Catholic teaching on trans issues: as Matt said, the formal Tridentine catechism condemnation is of sodomy per se. There is no moral doctrine of the Catholic Church that trans people violate. That said, many Catholic conservatives routinely mistake their ideological preferences for doctrinal purity, and in the case of trans issues, rely on John Paul II’s modern Theology of the Body to suggest that trans people are against the long history of the church.
Chad Bailey
2021-06-17 12:10:46 +0000 UTCGlobohomo, whitepill, based.. wait are these guys fucking nazis
Jason Weiser
2021-06-16 04:57:45 +0000 UTCBasically these guys lost the culture war over LGBTQ rights in a complete rout, and are demanding that everyone let them behave as if they didn't lose, or else they might be forced to do fascism. They want a Lost Cause mythos for homophobes.
Hannah
2021-06-16 01:22:30 +0000 UTCProblem is Dreher has written repeatedly that he'd be on board with Ahmari's fascism if he thought the public would support it. I'll take a pessimistic depressive fascist over a guy actively seeking Torquemada, I guess, but man what a choice.
Hannah
2021-06-16 00:03:51 +0000 UTCEnjoying the lengthy discussion of the Classics in the first American Mind podcast episode I started up.. thanks lol
Jason Weiser
2021-06-16 00:02:23 +0000 UTCIn case you haven't read it (though this is one gathering where you likely have), you should check out Anthony Esolen's "A Requiem For Friendship." It's his long-standing response (published long ago) to the kind of reaction KYE had to his thoughts on 'manhood.'
David B Hearne
2021-06-15 21:59:33 +0000 UTCI read Anthony Esolen's Dante translations in high school and never heard of him again, until I came cross him in First Things, prompted by KYE listening. Very disappointing to learn he is a reactionary homophobe!
R. Daniel Smith
2021-06-15 09:59:27 +0000 UTCReally fun episode! Gotta say it the option is the naked facism of sorab or the annoying hermitage of rod dreher I know what I’d prefer to go up against
Chris W
2021-06-14 23:29:44 +0000 UTCGreat episode, guys! Another one for the ages.
Keith T.
2021-06-14 21:12:26 +0000 UTCI don't think of KYE as a funny show really, but this episode was hilarious. Obviously a lot of reactionaries are dangerous lunatics and shouldn't be taken lightly, but it does feel good to laugh at them.
joe
2021-06-14 20:28:40 +0000 UTC
