I think that the time has come for those who support the Open Society paradigm to put as much energy into fighting back against those who would seek to put society back into a conformist straightjacket, as those like Ron De Santis, his Chief of Staff, Christina Pushaw, and the Reactionary Conservative blogosphere do into trying to inject it into the mainstream of society. You can't just shed bitter tears about it, you have to stand up and be loud about what you believe to be right and take the fight up to these people. That means you have to look around for people to challenge them who are good enough to beat them at their own game. Have the Progressive Left been to Harvard to find their Ron De Santis equivalent? They need to. Then get busy.
The use of state power to wage these culture war fights may be the most concerning thing going on in our politics right now, and DeSantis has excelled in this. This piece is a good analysis of his illiberal policy choices.
What's interesting, though, is that often his targets aren't something that he's creating himself, like Joseph McCarthy or, for that matter, Trump. As you document, people like Chris Rufo, the Daily Wire presenters, Rod Dreher frequently are the ones who find stuff to complain about and formulate intellectual arguments against -- and then these items gets picked up DeSantis and his political operation as fodder for a stunt or an awful illiberal policy.
There is also a second set of intellectuals who carry water for people like Rufo and Dreher by reposting, echoing, praising the latter, while ostensibly still defending the principle of pluralism and democratic governance, usually in the self-styled role of courageous outsider. The "Intellectual Dark Web" had this role for a bit, before many of them sank into the swamps of pure crankery, but people like Wesley Yang, Matt Taibbi and, occasionally, Andrew Sullivan, still do this.
We can only fight back against DeSantis and politicians like him by winning elections or winning in court. There's no conversation possible with Trumpy "intellectuals" like Rufo or Ben Shapiro, because their arguments are all iron-clad nonsense. Which leaves the second set of intellectuals who are not so shameless as to be impervious to intellectual embarrassment; in the right forum (i.e., not social media), one can, in fact, make arguments that have consequences, because they don't want to appear foolish, and so what matters, then, is finding that forum and making the argument effectively.
I'd be interested in hearing your view on this second category of writer/talking head. I'm also curious if you've thought about what forums are working or could work for this purpose (of course, this is one of the animating concerns of this publication)?
I think this is a very good post. Popper's vision is basic to any class of liberal, from "classical liberals" (who are usually called conservatives in contemporary politics, and were the core of the late 20th century GOP) to the liberals of today's Democratic Party. This is a clear outline of the ways DeSantis has positioned himseslf and Florida as leading forces of illiberalism.
But illiberalism can take multiple forms, as the recent controversy over the dismissal of a faculty member at Hamline University for showing an image of the Prophet Mohammed illustrates (detailed in last Sunday's New York Times, Jan. 8). There is no counterpart to DeSantis on the Left, because DeSantis uniquely mobilizes state power to close the open society. But, practically speaking, those on the Left will be in a much stronger position to criticize these forms of Right illiberalism if they are vocal in speaking out against illiberalism on the Left, particularly since Desantis has, in part, explicitly positioned himself as a response to illiberalism on the Left in academia.
I think that the time has come for those who support the Open Society paradigm to put as much energy into fighting back against those who would seek to put society back into a conformist straightjacket, as those like Ron De Santis, his Chief of Staff, Christina Pushaw, and the Reactionary Conservative blogosphere do into trying to inject it into the mainstream of society. You can't just shed bitter tears about it, you have to stand up and be loud about what you believe to be right and take the fight up to these people. That means you have to look around for people to challenge them who are good enough to beat them at their own game. Have the Progressive Left been to Harvard to find their Ron De Santis equivalent? They need to. Then get busy.
The use of state power to wage these culture war fights may be the most concerning thing going on in our politics right now, and DeSantis has excelled in this. This piece is a good analysis of his illiberal policy choices.
What's interesting, though, is that often his targets aren't something that he's creating himself, like Joseph McCarthy or, for that matter, Trump. As you document, people like Chris Rufo, the Daily Wire presenters, Rod Dreher frequently are the ones who find stuff to complain about and formulate intellectual arguments against -- and then these items gets picked up DeSantis and his political operation as fodder for a stunt or an awful illiberal policy.
There is also a second set of intellectuals who carry water for people like Rufo and Dreher by reposting, echoing, praising the latter, while ostensibly still defending the principle of pluralism and democratic governance, usually in the self-styled role of courageous outsider. The "Intellectual Dark Web" had this role for a bit, before many of them sank into the swamps of pure crankery, but people like Wesley Yang, Matt Taibbi and, occasionally, Andrew Sullivan, still do this.
We can only fight back against DeSantis and politicians like him by winning elections or winning in court. There's no conversation possible with Trumpy "intellectuals" like Rufo or Ben Shapiro, because their arguments are all iron-clad nonsense. Which leaves the second set of intellectuals who are not so shameless as to be impervious to intellectual embarrassment; in the right forum (i.e., not social media), one can, in fact, make arguments that have consequences, because they don't want to appear foolish, and so what matters, then, is finding that forum and making the argument effectively.
I'd be interested in hearing your view on this second category of writer/talking head. I'm also curious if you've thought about what forums are working or could work for this purpose (of course, this is one of the animating concerns of this publication)?
I think this is a very good post. Popper's vision is basic to any class of liberal, from "classical liberals" (who are usually called conservatives in contemporary politics, and were the core of the late 20th century GOP) to the liberals of today's Democratic Party. This is a clear outline of the ways DeSantis has positioned himseslf and Florida as leading forces of illiberalism.
But illiberalism can take multiple forms, as the recent controversy over the dismissal of a faculty member at Hamline University for showing an image of the Prophet Mohammed illustrates (detailed in last Sunday's New York Times, Jan. 8). There is no counterpart to DeSantis on the Left, because DeSantis uniquely mobilizes state power to close the open society. But, practically speaking, those on the Left will be in a much stronger position to criticize these forms of Right illiberalism if they are vocal in speaking out against illiberalism on the Left, particularly since Desantis has, in part, explicitly positioned himself as a response to illiberalism on the Left in academia.