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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   42074 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 8, 2025

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In addition though, I simply think that modern liberty is good. I'm a sort of reluctant conservative I'll admit, but even in the traditional conservative picture of the world, I think that personal freedoms from the state and even to a certain extent within traditional communities are great. To me, the project of the conservative in the modern world is not to sort of force us via governmental apparatus back into some halycon pre-modernity days. Instead, the conservative impulse should be focused towards explaining and convincing people in a deep and genuine way that living in a more traditional way is better for society, and better for people in particular.

This whole thing is based on assumptions I don't think retvrners share.

Not least that liberalism is a debate of values managed by a neutral-ish state (as opposed to an imperialistic one that takes sides and actively destroys social arrangements it doesn't agree with). That there is such a a thing as unproblematic or fixed visions of "modern liberty" (the current version must be unrecognizable to many past liberals) and so on.

If you don't agree with those assumptions all of this is at best naive and at worst a cover.

There's no fair debate when one side has the swords.

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