Conor Friedersdorf laments the InstaPithiness.
Latest Updates: conservatism RSS
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aziz
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johnpi
The spokesman for the American Family Association, a right-wing group, has issued a statement calling for the purging of Muslim soldiers from US military ranks.
“Of course, most U.S. Muslims don’t shoot up their fellow soldiers. Fine. As soon as Muslims give us a foolproof way to identify their jihadis from their moderates, we’ll go back to allowing them to serve. You tell us who the ones are that we have to worry about, prove you’re right, and Muslims can once again serve. Until that day comes, we simply cannot afford the risk. You invent a jihadi-detector that works every time it’s used, and we’ll welcome you back with open arms.”
“This is not Islamophobia, it is Islamo-realism.”
Meanwhile, the relatives of one of the victims has spoken out against the collective scapegoating of Muslims.
“You can’t blanket a whole group of people. There’s extremists in every religion, and there’s extremists all over the world,” said Cahill’s daughter, Kerry. “And I don’t think that we can blanket a whole group of people when this man obviously was ill, I think.”
Cahill’s other daughter, Keely Vanacker, expanded: “The death of our father, or any of these victims, shouldn’t be an excuse or reason to begin to hate an entire group of people.”
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aziz
Elie Wiesel on the GOP Tea Party’s anti-Semitism and Holocaust comparisons: “This kind of political hatred is indecent and disgusting”
– The Elie Wiesel Foundation (@eliewieselfdn) on Twitter
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aziz
Brilliant article on Ayn Rand and her lasting legacy of insanity to the Right.
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johnpi
“The way the Muslim Brotherhood group manages internal disagreement shows … the low level of the group’s flexibility in dealing with those who disagree with it. The competition between the group wings seems to be a “zero sum” game,” writes Khalil al-Anani, an analyst at Egypt’s Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya magazine.
“Therefore, very often the conservatives will insist on punishing the reformists organisationally, politically and morally and under the claim of keeping the cohesiveness of the group.”
I’m highlighting the excerpt above because it rings true with my experience generally that conservatives tend to retaliate in-group and have trouble sharing power (the tendency of conservatives in any polity to drift toward authoritarianism is well-documented). The strength of the movement overall will in part be determined by conservatives ability to restrain themselves.
Also in the article, some MB supporters say government media is hyping the conflict to try to weaken the group.
For background here’s a previous story about the clash here.
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buzz
Some red meat for Shams: In the news cycle today is word of a bible project to eliminate ‘liberal bias.’ The Conservative Bible Project sets forth the following guidelines:
1.Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
2.Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, “gender inclusive” language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity
3.Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level[3]
4.Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;[4] defective translations use the word “comrade” three times as often as “volunteer”; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as “word”, “peace”, and “miracle”.
5.Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as “gamble” rather than “cast lots”;[5] using modern political terms, such as “register” rather than “enroll” for the census
6.Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
7.Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
8.Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story
9.Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
10.Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word “Lord” rather than “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” or “Lord God.”[Insert pithy quip here]
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aziz
right-wing terrorism: a US census worker was found hanged, with the word “FED” across his chest, in Kentucky.
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aziz
Michael Moore’s new movie about Capitalism needs to be seen by conservatives.
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aziz
conservatism in the wilderness: the harsh bigotry of no expectations.
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aziz
Does conservatism need a new Buckley? or an autopsy?
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buzz
A fiendishly well-written article which attempts to stir doubt in the minds of Americans about Sufism and sow seeds of division within Islam. Not surprising that the neocon Wall Street Journal published it. It is the writer. Who is Emily Esfahani Smith? She is a relative newcomer who just graduated from Dartmouth and interning for WSJ. She also has written for American Spectator, New Republic and New Criterion. She definitely has some neocon game and could be a real problem in the future. Whole article is worth a read. Here is an excerpt:
Prof. Kevin Reinhart, who has been teaching Sufism at Dartmouth College for more than 20 years, notes that Sufis have not always behaved as pacifically as their teachings suggest they should. “Sufis took up arms to resist the Russians in Chechnya. They resisted the Italians in Libya. They resisted the French in Algeria.”
Most Sufis define jihad internally—as a struggle against the ego, the part of the soul that tempts one into corrupt behavior. Mr. Schwartz, though, does not shy away from discussing Sufism’s relationship to armed struggle. “We support a defensive jihad . . . for instance, to defend innocent people in Chechnya, Algeria and Bosnia.”
But to Ms. Mirahmadi, the Chechens, the Algerians, the Libyans and the Naqshbandi Army in Iraq fight for “nationalistic reasons. They’re not fighting because they’re Sufis.” In an interview with the Iraqi satellite channel, Al-Zawra, the official spokesman of the Naqshbandi Army in Iraq confirms this: “We will fight for the integrity and unity of Iraq, land and people, to maintain its Arab and Islamic identity.”
That Sufis are fighting at all is a problem. According to a Nimatullahi sheikh, the former master of the Nimatullahi order, Javad Nurbakhsh said that if a Sufi kills anyone, no matter what the reason—even in self-defense—he will never reach the perfection required to achieve union with God. Ms. Mirahmadi expresses a similar sentiment: “I was there during conversations between the former president of Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov, and Sheikh Kabbani. He called Sheikh Kabbani begging for advice on how to react to the Russian invasion. Sheikh Kabbani said stop fighting.” Period.
Complete WSJ article: How Peaceful Is Pacifism?
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aziz
Reihan Salaam is now blogging at The National Review. Promises policy instead of partisanship.
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aziz
in a rather brilliant post, matoko explains Palinism, invoking the myth of Kylon of Croton.
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razib, murtad fitri
from below abu noor says:
Obviously one needs context, but there is a notion in the American/European context that associates religious observance with conservativeness. I see no reason why that should always be the case, or even an assumption.
i think this is an important point. people create definitions which are natural in their own context, but implicitly generalize them. for example, for most of american history up until 1960 the proportion who were affiliated with a christian church was increasing. most of this was due to increased urban concentration and transportation, but some of it was due to revivals of religion such as the second great awakening or the religious revivals concomitant with the progressive movement of the early 20th century. similarly, the % who are religious and believe in god has increased in south korea, and ‘liberal’ views tend to be concentrated among christians in that nation.
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thabet
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thabet
I think Daniel Larison underestimates the psychological damage ’social pressure’ can have on people (speaking of what I have witnessed of traditional, religious, close-knit, families and communities as an ‘insider’):
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thabet
I thought this was a very interesting opinion on the differences between American and British politics:
[W]e Americans do not have an intuitive class consciousness of what capitalism does to community, and so have yet to produce a political figure who is able to talk about creation–or, if you prefer, the “conservation”–of a national community, an instantiation of social solidarity, that doesn’t become bogged down in arguments over the First Amendment. That’s not to say that “culture war” arguments are absent in Great Britain; that’s hardly the case. But still, when Americans (liberals and conservatives alike) try to talk about the “common good,” we end up arguing over religion and lifestyle and choice, rather than capital and labor and equality and distribution. And as important as the former are, the almost complete absence of the latter amongst conservative arguments is a shame, and something that it would be good to be able to change.
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aziz
Conservative culture site Culture11 abruptly closed its doors today. The website is still running but not for long. Josh Trevino and Rod Dreher have more.
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thabet
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thabet
Corey Robin reviews the history of the conservative movement in the US.
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thabet
