"Remember that the greatest blasphemy ever committed was the conviction of Christ on a blasphemy charge. What was actually happening was invisible to the perpetrators.
So when empathy wars break out, one of the first things we should notice is how
precious little empathy is displayed by those defending empathy.
Not only do they not display the thing that their banners stand for, they also display a real-time embodiment of the concerns expressed by their opponents. It is like watching berserkers storm your ramparts, with banners unfurled above them—felt banners that have inspirational messages on them, like Try a Little Tenderness, or God Don’t Make No Junk.
Say, for example, that a critic of untethered empathy says that it amounts to a feminist-coded word that provides a way of surrounding a particular emotional maneuver with certain feminine virtues, such that to strike a blow against empathy, you have to be willing to hit a girl. And so the retort comes that this argument amounts to a misogynist attack on all women. To which the critic might simply reply, with a smile, Q.E.D."
-- Doug Wilson
"We are smack in the middle of a Fourth Turning, and the turmoil of it all has affected the entire West. Over the last five years, virtually every major institution has disgraced itself. What used to be a high-trust society has been blown to smithereens, and nobody knows what to think anymore. And even when an individual person’s convictions haven’t changed, despite the societal turmoil, it is very difficult to know who to think those convictions with. This implosion of all the trusted institutions and relationships has of course included those of us on the political right.
"...So what am I saying? When being normal is weird, be normal. When being normal is normal, remember why you should be normal, and be prepared to defend it, which cannot be done apart from Christ. And when being normal is weird, don’t be extra weird. Be extra normal. Normal you say? By what standard? To the law and to the testimony. Exactly so."
Doug Wilson
“The decline of community in the modern world has as its inevitable religious consequence the creation of masses of helpless, bewildered individuals who are unable to find solace in Christianity regarded merely as creed.”
Robert Nisbet
American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history. America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism. Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory.
The White House
The National Security Strategy Document