Class date: Sep 30, 2018
- This is my claim. It's a bold claim. And I plan to make good on it in this class.
- The Catholic Faith is True. Not just true, but True. And it’s the only worldview that is True. BTW, what does it mean to say that something is true? (It matches reality.) That means it is also sane. It makes sense of our lived experience. It provides balance. It has integrity and coherence – it makes a rational whole that all hangs together. Because of all this, it makes a life of freedom possible.
- Contrariwise, the surrounding culture is rife with falsehood, irrational, unbalanced, disjointed, and incoherent. Leading ultimately to slavery to our emotions and desires.
- Some examples:
- Women should be allowed in military combat roles, yet we should not carry guns because bad guys will take them away and use them against us. (No, the latter isn't true. It's a false belief.)
- Feminists denigrate that which is uniquely feminine.
- College students should be “exposed to differing pov's, even radical ones” – but they also need “safe spaces” with pillows and puppy videos in case they feel “triggered” by ideas that contradict their own opinions.
- Banning racial preferences in college admissions decisions is “racist.”
- Women are fully capable and equally good at everything that men can do – SO we need to lower the standards so that we can have just as many female firemen / Marines.
- “Choice” is great when it comes to abortion, but choice should not be permitted when it comes to health insurance, schools, even soda size.
- If a conservative white male author doesn't write minority / female / disabled / non-Western / whatever major characters, then he is racist / sexist / able-ist / etc. But look what happens if he does. Then he is guilty of “cultural appropriation.”
- Sexual orientation is fixed but gender is fluid. (Although orientation is not determined by genetics, but sex is.) And if a girl likes pink and princesses, she’s the victim of tyrannical social conditioning, but if a boy does, that means he’s really a girl.
- A CA law passed last year (2017) makes “misgendering” (repeatedly and willfully using the wrong pronoun for) nursing home patients a misdemeanor with up to $1000 fine or up to a year in jail. Yet, that same state, in the same week, reduced knowingly exposing others to HIV from a felony to a misdemeanor. And the same state senator is responsible for both!
- All religions are equally good. But Christianity is bad. (Islam is A-OK, though.)
- Post-modern culture summary: Lots of talk of Tolerance, Diversity, but
- Tolerance – unless you disagree, in which case it's “hate speech.”
- Diversity!! As long as we all think the same thing! I call this the diversity of the trivial. Or the superficial. Obsessed with different skin colors, "genders," and sexual orientations -- but thoughts outside the box of allowed opinions? Verboten!
- E.g. Memories Pizza, Barronelle Stutzman, Sweet Cakes by Melissa, Brendan Eich, etc.
- Quote to discuss:
- “Instead of reading everything, I would only look at stories by women or people of color or LGBT writers. Essentially: no straight, cis, white males. Cutting that one demographic out of my reading list greatly improved my enjoyment of reading short stories.” ~ K. Tempest Bradford, in her article “I Challenge You To Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors For One Year”
- Key issues summary:
- We human beings are rational; we have an built-in desire for Truth. But what the post-modern culture offers us is an abandonment of reason and filling the gap with feelings. Then, instead of reasoning, people wind up rationalizing. (What's the difference?)
- Therefore, we end up talking about persons instead of issues. And then personal attacks take the place of reasoning on the issues. e.g. "You're mean!" aka "Racist!" "Sexist!" etc. is not an argument; really, it’s no more than saying, "Shut up!" (see racism ex above)
- The Narrative is simply asserted and assumed to be true. Contrary evidence is ignored / discarded. e.g. 2015 Marines study showing female Marines perform significantly worse than males and are much more likely to be injured doing it. SecNav dismisses it all with “diversity is strength.” (Will saying it make it true?)
- Relatedly, truth is replaced by political correctness, i.e. agreement with the Narrative. e.g. The OJ Simpson trial and NOW. Bill Clinton gets a pass on objectifying actual women because he holds “approved” views.
- Key underpinnings are self-contradictory: e.g. Moral relativism is self-contradictory. Post-modernism says that the Big Story is that there is no Big Story.
- One side makes the most sense of all the evidence. The other discards whatever doesn't fit. Which is which?
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