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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 21, 2023

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I think you go to far to say religious can’t see woke as a proto-religion. The woke can’t because they don’t want to be labeled a religion. In fact I think woke is specifically a Christian religion. Jesus made the slave the equal to the emperor and ate with prostitutes etc. Woke is just the same thing of picking the people they think are the lowest in society and putting them on top. Where it differs is Christianity made the slave equal to the emperor whereas woke seems to want to put George Floyd above the POTUS and the black transvestite above George Floyd. A reverse pyramid instead of equality.

On thought crime I think Kling hits on some truth that thought crime only matters when it leads to elite insecurity. I think of Marxism and communism where I don’t have any big issue restricting their speech but that only comes into play when I see a threat they will win. Knowing the end game of Marxism makes me not have a problem with punishing their thought crime.

The older I get the more I realize libertarianism is a second order belief after you have a good culture. Humans are social creatures. Nobody would want to live in a world where 90% of society becomes fentanyl zombies. You’d rather just ban fentanyl.

Wokism is literally just Calvinism minus the concept of divine grace.

Where it differs is Christianity made the slave equal to the emperor whereas woke seems to want to put George Floyd above the POTUS and the black transvestite above George Floyd. A reverse pyramid instead of equality.

The last will allegedly be first in Christianity too, this is just pushed till the eschaton. Wokeness obviously doesn't have this luxury and so tries to make a theological claim manifest in politics, with ludicrous consequences.

The other thing is that it seems Christianity has a more substantive concept of the Good, which acts as a guardrail. The "meek" may nominally be praised (or at least seen as opportunities to display Christian charity) are not allowed to demand a blank cheque because there are other priorities.

Wokeness is a revolutionary ideology that almost celebrates not just the violation of old norms but the upcoming obsolescence of even previously progressive versions. Which leads to weird, unconstrained ideologies and outcomes.

'Meek' is actually translated as something like "those who know how to use weapons, but keep them sheathed." At least according to Jordan Peterson.

Due to semantic drift the word "prautes" that appears in the original Greek is better understood as something like "taimed" or "restrained" than "meek" as those words are used in modern times. IE when a 1st century Greek asks "is your dog meek?" what they mean is "does your dog bite?" You can still see some remnants of the earlier meaning of the word in how the term "meeked" still appears in animal husbandry to indicate a horse or ox has been harness/saddle trained.

A more culturally accurate translation of the beatitude might be "blessed are those who show restraint" or blessed is the dog who doesn't bite.

I like Greek translations for better understanding the bible, but isn't Jesus quoting Psalms here? I assumed the Hebrew word would be more what we're searching for, and the context there seems to be talking about the poor and oppressed (not a bible expert at all here though).

Those who don’t defect opportunistically (in game theory language). Non-criminals, non-cheaters, non-thieves. People who follow the rules even when no one’s watching.

“Meek” really got shafted by pairing up with “mild”.

indeed

EDIT: Actually reversed my opinion when reading further.

The Beatitudes seem to be actually referring to the objectively downtrodden or humble. The whole point is that a reversal of fortune is coming for the actually-lowly and devout. This is especially clear in Luke (Matthew seems to spiritualize it as "poor in spirit").

I only have one relevant Biblical commentary on hand - Luz Ulrich's Matthew 1-7, screenshots here, p194- and he does note that the concept - which is also translated as also "gentle" or "humble" - is applied to Jesus in Matthew 11:29 and he does seem to read it as meaning something more complex than "powerlessness". Which makes sense...for Jesus. His membership in this class is of a particular nature. He models a certain behavior and elevates the class by his conduct ("if you did it for the least of my brethren...") but he's not hemmed in by an absence of choice.

In that case...I'm going with a tentative yes? This is reminding me why I bottomed out on my Biblical scholarship hobby; without putting time into learning Greek certain rabbit holes become even deeper.

That's an interesting take. Much more appealing to me, honestly.

If the meek demanded a blank cheque, then they're no longer meek and no longer qualify to inherit the earth. Problem solved!

I think you go to far to say religious can’t see woke as a proto-religion. The woke can’t because they don’t want to be labeled a religion.

I think part of this is that acknowledging "woke" as a religion would run into the First Amendment: you can go much further with your quasi-religion (flags in classrooms, pledges in public proceedings) if you refuse to acknowledge it as such. I don't disagree with your claim that it descends from the Judeo-Christian tradition, but the vibe feels like that of two generations ago where I can easily imagine a jurisdiction deciding to put up a Ten Commandments statue at the Capitol because "it's just an acknowledgement of Truth and our respect for the tradition of Laws and Western Values," implicitly claiming that it isn't religious in the same way that a Pride flag merely recognizes historic injustices rather than promulgating explicit beliefs.

I'll be honest I don't think a completely belief-agnostic society is necessarily possible, but I can see how obsequious Progress displays bother many people (frequently, myself included) in the same way that blatant religious symbolism masquerading as tradition bothers the FFRA/New Atheist types.

The older I get the more I realize libertarianism is a second order belief after you have a good culture. Humans are social creatures. Nobody would want to live in a world where 90% of society becomes fentanyl zombies. You’d rather just ban fentanyl.

Also when existential risks are involved. Martial law sucks, but it is sometimes necessary.