I’ll get right to the point: Charlie Kirk was not a white supremacist. I will leave you to believe that he deserves to be called a colorful name for a donkey. I leave you free to believe he was a good man, who ultimately died for his Christian faith.
The NFL’s decision to make a “gender non-conforming” star who doesn’t sing in English the halftime performer is not important to world events. But it is a symptom of a big problem in how we deal with our big problems.
This might explain it. Donald Trump had a dream in which he was told that reality is an illusion, that it’s all in his head, that all that exists is what he imagines. The notion would not be original to him. Nothing is, except his regard for himself.
Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about it all. Pluralism as an absolute is relativism; a relative pluralism honors the individual search for truth.
The events of the last week have captured the news media, the commentariat, and the online amateur philosopher sites — TwitteX and suchlike. Though they are connected, I think therein lie two separate compelling stories. Here, I hope to tell both of them, separately.
If you must know, the politician I admire the most was nevertheless wrong about most issues: William Jennings Bryan. So sticking up for Lincoln is not something I do from ideology, or if it is ideology, it’s only in the broadest possible sense. The country we have now, if there is something to preserve, we owe it to Mr. Lincoln.
Last night, Russia launched its largest drone attack yet in its war against Ukraine. Vladimir Putin does not want peace, he wants victory. And, as China’s ceremonial flexing this week emphasized, he’s not the only one. If President Trump wants to be the peace president, time is running out.
I’m more proud to be a neoconservative now than I was in the loftiest days of the second Bush administration. A little lonelier, sure, but as strange as it may sound, I’m hoping Elon Musk can bring America back to the party.
I’ll just illustrate something I’m on about, and maybe someone will get it. Bearing in mind that my opposition to Trump and all his insanity is loud, consistent, and well-known. I saw a commercial in the summer of 2024 by Trump — and I hoped I was wrong — but that’s when I knew the presidential election was over. The commercial said, “Kamala Harris cares about ‘they/them’; Donald Trump cares about you.” That’s when it ended.
One of the things I find most appealing about the Japanese anime art form is that you often hear characters encourage others by saying “Do your best!” Or characters who have been worried recover their courage and with renewed resolve lift a fist into the air and declare, “I’ll do my best!” Some of us remember when you didn’t need to watch a cartoon from overseas to find that sentiment expressed. In fact, it wasn’t all that long ago when it was expected of each of us, all the time. No longer.