Noah Rothman: The Progressive War on Fun

A conservative argues today's left is channeling Puritan theocrats when they try to prevent us from enjoying ourselves. Is he correct?

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Noah Rothman: The Progressive War on Fun

"That's not funny!" is the cri de guerre of contemporary progressives, argues Noah Rothman in The Rise of the New Puritans. "No longer is the American left comfortable with hedonistic pursuits," writes the Commentary associate editor. "To the New Puritan, all society's engines must be harnessed to restore a lost paradise….Enchanting diversions and happy frivolities are distractions to be avoided or even forbidden."

In a deeply researched and wittily written book, Rothman explores the totalizing philosophy of the founders of Plymouth Plantation and Massachusetts Bay Colony and argues a similarly sour and single-minded utopianism undergirds contemporary left-wing attacks on standup comedy, ethnic food appropriation, professional sports, and other culture-war skirmishes.

Rothman is smart and funny and, just as he did in his previous book, Unjust: Social Justice and the Unmaking of America, argues in exceptionally good faith. This is a deep and wide-ranging conversation and there's no question that Rothman is definitely onto something. But why then, I ask him, are conservatives such drags, too?

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Comments

[Aloysious]

Yes. If you have spending munny, you are not giving enough to the Party, comrade.

[jane1649]

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[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Or you are thinking for yourself, you self-indulgent rascal you.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Seems like an interesting argument. I do want to read this book, we'll see if I get to it. I've been reading Commentary lately as well, and that's been interesting. It's fun to see things like this where they're similar to my thinking but also I really disagree a lot.

[BestUsedCarSales]

As opposed to, like, Jacobin where they're pretty rigorous writers I just disagree on almost everything and do not have very similar thinking.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Wish they had transcripts. If anyone listens, let me know how he responds to "But why then, I ask him, are conservatives such drags, too?"
I've heard Rothman talk about this book and it's pretty specifically about Woke style leftism which makes Nick's defensiveness kind of a non-sequitur.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Most of the "conservatives" I follow and listen to are making the best jokes, the best comedy, the edgiest humor.

[mad.casual]

Halfway through moving with your chick? I don't get halfway through unloading the groceries before discovering it consistently repels women faster than my pickup lines.

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[Mickey Rat]

Gillespie subscribes to a rather tedious form of libertinism.

[ThomasD]

Phyllis Schlafly has apparently scarred Nick for life.

[Brandybuck]

About ten years ago I took a friend out to dinner in San Francisco. (We were both at a convention). And I remarked that despite the rhetoric, San Francisco was fundamentally a puritan city. She was shocked and assumed I was just being edgelord on her. I was not. I saw it then, and it's clear to all now.

Far Left Progressivism, especially topped with Identitarian sprinkles, is extremely puritanical and obsessed with the idea that somewhere someone might be having fun.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Not just having fun, but doing so in a blasphemous manner. Fun is a misdemeanor. Blasphemy is a felony.

[mad.casual]

About (holy shit) four decades ago, I learned what an "Alabama Church Key" was. About three decades ago, with Hank Williams Jr. and Steve Earle playing in the background, I learned that it's not exactly a euphemism. Two decades ago, I learned that even Catholic girls know what an Alabama Church Key is and very much how to use it and more.

In the intervening decades, I've been lectured at length about how rural, religious, conservatives don't have any fun.

[ThomasD]

Help me out here. Is an Alabama Church Key something different from a plain old Church Key (old style bottle/can opener)?

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/4-church-key-can-and-bottle-opener/407C801.html?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Smallwares%20%7C%20Shopping%20HP%20%7C%20Non%20Purchasers&utm_term=4582833208465140&utm_content=Bartending%20Supplies

I'm from the South and have never heard that term.

[Stuck in California]

I expect one or two of these book advertisements in to be on the site this week.

[DesigNate]

Progressives have always been puritanical cunts.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

The thing is, Marxism is their religion now.

[Union of Concerned Socks]

Now?

[ThomasD]

Puritans were never really good with the whole concept of Free Will, so respect for individual autonomy was never in the cards. So, once freed from Biblical authority, the turn to Marxism was practically embedded in their DNA

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

A conservative argues today's left is channeling Puritan theocrats when they try to prevent us from enjoying ourselves. Is he correct?

It's a question, to be sure.

Let's ask Matthew Continetti.

[Roberta]

I was just saying in an earlier comment thread that that's why there's a war on vaping.

[Joe Friday]

Sure, whatever happens in Omaha stays in Omaha.

And you know the old saying: If black people could be white for just one Tuesday night at the Des Moines Walmart, they'd hope to never go back.

[JeremyR]

As someone who works at Walmart, there's actually very little difference in behavior based on race. There are trashy ill behaved people of every race/ethnicity. Even Indian

Even Karens come in different colors.

[damikesc]

"And you know the old saying: If black people could be white for just one Tuesday night at the Des Moines Walmart, they'd hope to never go back."

Never heard this old saying. Who told you it? Are all your "friends" obsessed with race?

[Cal Cetín]

The joke's on them, I can't afford ethnic food, comedy or professional sports any more.

[Cal Cetín]

Say what you will of the Puritans, they apologized for their most infamous witch-hunt.

https://gizmodo.com/the-real-life-letter-of-apology-written-by-the-salem-wi-1640827487

[Cal Cetín]

Progs tend to apologize for what other people did, and when they apologize on their own behalf, its for not progging hard enough.

[Ride 'Em]

What I hear mostly from the “Progs” is how they take responsibility for something. The common chant is: I take responsibility for that, so let’s move on. So it is acceptance of guilt but no punishment.

[The Encogitationer]

Not that it brings the dead back to life.

[Cal Cetín]

"Look, we *said* we were sorry!"

[Quo Usque Tandem]

They don’t call it “The Great Awokening” for nothing.

[ThomasD]

They are not channeling the Puritans, they are the Puritans. A direct line can be drawn between the historic Puritans and todays modern progressives.

The only real difference is that, having gotten rid of God the New Puritans needed a substitute, so chose government as the new instrument of supreme moral authority.

[voluntaryist]

The coercive governing paradigm, i.e., authoritarianism, uses fear, threats, superstition, to maintain political power, NOT reason, rights, choice. Therefore, when you find legislative overreach (govt. thugs) are acting in a manner that would horrify most, you are reporting "politics as usual". That specific policy may be unpopular, irrational, tyrannical, dangerous to our health, but so is the politics that the majority support. And the majority also believe consensus trumps rights, individual conscience, choice.
Isn't that "the root of the problem"? Do not "hack at the leaves/branches of the tree of evil. Strike at the root."- Thoreau
To achieve effective, fundamental social/economic change focus on fighting for a non-violent, decentralized, local governance.

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