Conservatives You Like

second post on the thread:

"The obvious: John McCain"...

god it does seem like forever ago when he was an obvious conservative to like. what a difference six years makes!

i didnt know that larison had converted!

yah he's one of the few I can read these days

Long before I began moving towards Orthodoxy, I was being introduced to an Orthodox view of the world through Dostoevsky and through my eclectic religious reading, which included the translation of The Philokalia, which I only barely comprehended when I first encountered it. It wasn’t until that I started grounding my understanding of the faith in its historical context when I was in college that I began to appreciate what I was discovering. That was what started me on the path to studying Byzantine history at the same time. It also deepened my interest in the history of the Orthodox Church and the Church’s teachings, which eventually led to my baptism in 2003. In fact, it was originally a very academic inquiry into the history of the 14th-century Hesychastic controversy in Byzantium that started me on my academic interest in both Byzantine theology and history, which would only later lead me to understand how insufficient an academic and intellectual approach to Orthodoxy was.

how can you not love this guy

Kurt Russel is libertarian, but it's kind of impossible to dislike that dude.

bruce willis is a republican too, got much love for bruce willis.

Kurt Russell was a busy child/young adult actor. He never had time to let his politics evolve, so as an old man he just chose to be a libertarian because it requires the least amount of thought.

Long before I began moving towards Orthodoxy, I was being introduced to an Orthodox view of the world through Dostoevsky and through my eclectic religious reading

hmmm ... so was it Dostoyevsky's hatred of all things non-Russian in general, or Dostoyevsky's anti-Semitism in particular, that so warmed Larison's cold reactionary heart?!?

You cynic.

is there a single writer/thinker in the US right now that is non-libertarian right-wing and is not just terrible?

no

http://melaniekillingervowell.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/romney-dog-pissing-on-sign-via-thirdwaymattb-on-twitter.png

Not sure if Larison counts as libertarian exactly but, no, I don't think he's terrible, not in the least. He's a good bullshit detector. Is Garry Wills still a conservative?

idk where wills stands on obama but he's certainly not in lockstep with political conservatives on the catholic church

"All the Conservatives I Like Are Those That Are Dead" - Felt

wills does not seem (modern american politically) conservative at all in the nyrb

i like larison, probably because i've only seen him call bullshit rather than say what he really wants

Hollywood Republican dudes fall under two categories 1) Action Stars or Tough Guys (i.e. The cast of "The Expendables") 2) former child stars or actors who grew up in Hollywood, with family in the business, who are, for whatever reason, reacting against growing up in an atmosphere of limousine liberalism.

Kurt Russell is both. Robert Downey Jr. is the latter but as he's made more action movies his heart has probably hardened against the poor and downtrodden ("Iron Man")

according to RDJ it's his prison stint that made him a Republican

“I have a really interesting political point of view, and it’s not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You can’t. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics ever since.”

which is a really interesting quote - I can't tell if he's referring to being in prison, or the transition from playboy-to-convict itself that "enlightened" him...? what is there to "understand" about that particular journey that renders conservatism inevitable?

It's easy, Shakes. Prison made him loathe anal sex.

lol

I wonder how he feels about people who were radicalized by being in prison

daniel larison's pretty smart except when he's not:

The defeat of the Confederacy, though the Confederate political experiment does not exhaust the richness of Southern culture and identity, was a defining moment when the United States took its steps towards the abyss of the monstrous centralised state, rootless society and decadent culture that we have today. In sum, the Confederacy represented much of the Old America that was swept away, and with it went everything meaningful about the constitutional republican system, and the degeneration of that system in the next hundred years was the logical and ultimately unstoppable result of Lincoln’s victory. All of this is in recognition that we are beholden to our ancestors for who we are, and we honour and remember their struggles and accomplishments not only because they can be established as reasonable, good and true but because they are the struggles and accomplishments of our people, who have made this land ours and sanctified it with their blood in defense against the wanton aggression of a barbarous tyranny.

i haven't seen expendables, but would like to see one with kelsey grammar, dwight schultz, norm mcdonald, and adam sandler.

billy madison or punch drunk love sandler only though.

did larison really say 'honour' and 'centralised'

smdh

btw that is also some fucked up shit

Larison and Edmund Wilson aren't so far apart.

American "liberals you like" would be about as tough for me.

I just reviewed a box o' Robert Downey Sr films, and w/ those budgets he wasn't exactly a "limousine" archetype for Jr to rebel against.

TS: The Expendables v.s. this 1994 Kelsey Grammar-hosted episode of SNL (Sandler, Spade, Norm, Lovitz, Jay Mohr)

xpost -- Morbs, even bigger axe to grind if it was his friend's parents who were "socially liberal, financially conservative"

good lord

http://larison.org/2005/03/01/the-hegemonists-thomas-woods-and-the-league-of-the-south

American "liberals you like" would be about as tough for me.

at least you're willing to have beers with us

I didn't know you had a column! Talking about pols mostly, not sure I read any actual libs anymore... Krugman, I guess.

i don't know whether Matt Taibbi qualifies as a liberal, or he only appears that way b/c he hates Goldman Sachs.

surely downey jr is partly rebelling against the countercultural radicalism of his dad?

i'd say matt taibbi is to the left of a liberal, where he should be.

I like listening to Michael Savage, he has a pleasant voice and at least makes time for real creeps like pedophiles and anti-Semites.

whoa that larison post is grim. i knew he was an old right kind of guy but damn.

http://i45.tinypic.com/s5ycnd.jpg

http://i45.tinypic.com/2re3xwg.jpg

http://i47.tinypic.com/2elxbt0.jpg

Whiney?

you like that site?

or do you "like" it

I just discovered the Caiden Cowger program

rootless society

??? The whole history of non-natives in N. America is largely rootless.