Privilege and Principles

Today’s Ruminant is all about privilege, and Jonah has many nerdy thoughts on the subject. ...

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Today’s Ruminant is all about privilege, and Jonah has many nerdy thoughts on the subject. He also offers plenty of anecdotes about day drinking, a few meditations on Build Back Better hitting a brick wall, and a disquisition on the nature of consumerism. How many varieties of privilege are there in America today? Why do certain people tend toward conservatism? And why has Jonah finally decided to open up about Fox News? Brace your bingo cards, too, because Jonah still can’t stop complaining about Theodor Adorno and his mythical authoritarian personality.

Show Notes:

– The Morning Dispatch breaks down the Build Back Better stalemate

– Let’s talk about privilege

– The Remnant with Sally Satel

– Sumptuary laws

– Veblen goods

– Huntington’s “Conservatism as an Ideology”

– Sally Satel: “The Experts Somehow Overlooked Authoritarians on the Left”

– Politics and Prose lawyers up

– Harvard stops requiring SAT scores

– Jonah opens up about Fox

– Matthew Mehan’s new children’s book

– AEI Today

– Give someone a Dispatch subscription this Christmas

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Comments (52)
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  1. Mary Stine

    Just now finally got to listen to this excellent podcast! Thank you Jonah. It's past time for me to write yet another letter to the DNC advising them of all the sins I see my current chosen party committing. *sigh* I only belong to a party in Kansas so I can vote in primaries. The most important job of the Democrats right now is defending democracy for ALL Americans, not just Progressives. To do that, we'll need the help of good hearted people of all stripes. Which, obviously means we should immediately and henceforth stop the namecalling.

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    6Million$Jonah

    My college niece and senior in high school niece and high school daughter are all into boots. Specifically this year Doc Martens. Laces or Chelsea. Every time they wear them, my 90s brain hears the “la la laaaa la laa” from Daria, although the girls in my family are more Quinn. 6-million-dollar Jonah is about 5 years younger than actual Jonah, so he may not remember Daria, but I’m guessing Goucher was no stranger to Doc Martens. Anyway, they’re BACK!

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      6Million$Jonah

      Oh, and you can prolly snag them at Nordstrom(‘s)…sorry this is so late, but when I know my Remnants are gonna be scarce, I have to strictly ration myself or else I’ll run out and be pining for the fjords. Don’t get me started on having to ration my GLoPs.

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        6Million$Jonah

        And if a lot of gift subscriptions come in, and you’re feeling especially baller, how about a trip to Catalina for her and a friend? It’s like Newport Beach’s answer to whichever islands you guys just got back from. Zip lining biking hiking scuba checking out the Bison(s) rare foxes, there’s lots to do. Your boy Bahnsen can hook you up.

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  3. Richard Fulmer

    Listening to this was a privilege.

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    George.Skinner

    Felt a bit of a twinge hearing the request for gift ideas for an 18 year old daughter. My oldest turns 14 in a month, and it's hard to think about the fact that we're only going to have her at home for maybe 4 more years if she goes away to university. I'm glad I've still got a 10 year who I get to buy toys for!

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  5. Lynda

    When I was in high school my speech teacher would drop a marble in a galvanized bucket when I used a filler word. Your use of "you know" (180 times) and "um" (300 ) would have sounded like a hail storm on a tin roof. I doubt anyone would complain if the Remnant was a little um, you know, shorter

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      6Million$Jonah

      I love every drop of Jonah I can get, even the aforementioned drops in the bucket. I’m always sad when the Remnant ends.

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      1. Lynda

        I too love Jonah's pearls of wisdom and don't want a shorter Remnant, it's just fewer ums and you knows. PS Sarah has now picked up the you know habit.

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    George.Skinner

    Privilege can be a poisonous term if you want to discuss systemic disparities. A white blue collar man hears the term "white privilege" from a college-educated activist, and it instantly shuts down the conversation. What the conversation about is disparities in how people are treated. There's a differential - if someone is receiving better treatment, you might call it privilege. If they're receiving worse treatment, you might call it disadvantage. If your end goal is that everybody receive the same sort of treatment as the person you label privileged (as is usually the case with accusations of white privilege), then privilege is probably the wrong frame for the conversation. I know when I'm crossing the US-Canada border at a land crossing, the fact that I'm a white middle-class male usually affords me easier treatment than my friends who are non-white (and my blond wife was once accused of being a Cuban terrorist when she was travelling for college - don't get me started...) The question is, would we prefer that everybody get the polite hassle-free treatment I get at the border, or the 3rd degree that my friend of Asian descent gets?

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    Ben Connelly

    If I had the resources, I’d give out many gift subscriptions to the Dispatch. Hopefully someday I will. You do great work here.

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      CynthiaW

      Do you know people who would like them? I'd be happy to sponsor someone else's gifts.

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        Ben Connelly

        Thank you very much. I appreciate the offer. But that’s okay. Go ahead and give subscriptions to people you know.

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    Kevin Johnson

    Another good one. On the “evil” you point out that is racialization of medicine, let’s remember that this is not pushed only by a small number of extremists. While some users of this space may have been fooled up to now, every day it is increasingly clear that the President I voted for either endorses, or accepts, Kendi’s neo-racist BS (Kendi has explicitly and in writing called for present and future racial discrimination…his words, not mine.). The latest evidence emerged this week with reports that HHS is offering doctors increased Medicare payments if they demonstrate “anti-racist” (Kendi’s invention) actions. This is using our taxes to bribe doctors to promote a radical, discriminatory policy that will harm patients and retard science by rejecting examination of anything other than “white supremacy” as a possible cause of health disparities. If you like all of this, fine. But my fellow Biden voters who have fooled themselves into thinking that Biden is with most democratic voters and against AOC extremists would be wise to think again. I hope the ranks of those opposing both Trump and the other extremists rises fast enough to avoid further disssters.

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  9. Jay Moroscak

    Jonah - great listen, thanks. If a Veblen Good is a conspicuous purchase of a luxury item, what do you call a charitable contribution meant only to boost your ego/social status?

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      CynthiaW

      Like attending the Met Gala? Good question regarding whether there's a word in economics for it. Conspicuous philanthropy?

      Although the Bible says your right hand shouldn't know what your left hand is doing, giving-alms-wise, I think that whatever your motivation for contributing to disaster relief, meals for starving children, water wells, etc., at least someone is helped. Maybe you make a big deal out of it on social media, but the beneficiaries still benefit.

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      1. Jay Moroscak

        Thanks - disaster relief is noble. I was thinking about the naming rights for building at universities, etc.

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          CynthiaW

          That's a good question. It would be interesting to know whether there are donors who fund university buildings and don't have their names on.

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    Anne W (Raw5254)

    Thanks Jonah. Sometimes I’m so disheartened by all of this, but listening to you is kind of cathartic. Much appreciated.

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