November Diary

Hello,

Ubiquitous shilling. This month I wrote on THE ZONE about the Wagner Group, death, Islam and free speech, Polish independence, why leftists often think their critics must be dumb, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, Cormac McCarthy and why doubting the war shouldn’t mean giving Russia credit.

I wrote for The Critic about Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives, Donald Trump and Europe, centrist podcasts, Carole Cadwalladr, Marianna Spring, AI slop accounts and the war.

Should we go gentle into that good night? Are opponents of assisted suicide — which took a big step towards legalisation in certain contexts in the UK on Friday — dressing up their religious beliefs in consequentialist verbiage? Perhaps, to some extent. For myself, I’d be a lot more comfortable about the rationality of suicide in certain drastic situations if I was convinced that there is no God. But setting aside the actual consequentialist arguments against Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill for the moment — and there are many, and they are serious — I wonder if we are bumping into the limits of secularism. Britain is decidedly not an individualistic society. Everyone pays, for example, into the NHS. How long can collective institutions be maintained if people are expected to leave a lot of themselves at the door?

In the doghouse. Is there a vibe shift against dogs? That’s what Cartoons Hate Her argues. Actually, I agree that a lot of dog owners are terribly annoying — the antisocial owners who leave their dogs’ shit on the ground and the “dog mums” and “dog dads” who think their pets should have the privileges of children. That said, I think there’s a growing tendency on the right towards blaming pets for fertility decline. “If they didn’t have pets, they’d have kids!” Eh, I don’t think so. For one thing, fertility has slumped in Iran, where pet ownership has been increasingly restricted. For another, it feels like to the extent that people use pets to satisfy maternal or paternal instincts, it follows rather than preceding childlessness. People who are lonely get more focussed on their pets.

Anyways, what do I know. Please consider taking out a paid subscription so I can put my dog through college.

Blue Anone. Donald Trump has won, of course. A strange phenomenon that followed his election in 2016 was a rise in liberal conspiratorialism. Half-educated weirdos across social media were making the case for why Vladimir Putin had his hand up the Trumpian tuchus and was controlling his mouth. Now, the British journalist Carole Cadwalladr is making the case for why “tech bros” have seized this moment to exert their power and, er — well, I’m not sure what she thinks they are doing. For Americans, though, a second defeat appears to have deflated that paranoid energy. For American liberals and leftists, this is probably healthy, though it is sad news for those of us who love online eccentrics.

Leaving a piece of youth. Oliver Traldi reflects on the nineties:

The mere passage of time does not resolve political problems or coordinate divergent interests. Time, as the Smashing Pumpkins said, is never time at all, and though generational trends and frequent “vibe shifts” can make it seem as though the worldviews we hate have been consigned to so-called dustbins of history, what looks like trash today might be recy­cled tomorrow, when our clocks’ hands prepare to outrace us again.

The point of exhaustion. Chris Bayliss writes on Ukraine:

At present, most pro-Ukrainian commentators in the West are committed to nothing less than the total liberation of all of Ukraine’s pre-war territory, including Crimea … This seems like a position one might reasonably have held in the first months of the war when fronts were shifting rapidly, and when Russia had been forced to abandon two of its original invasion routes. It may have still seemed plausible in early 2023 after Kherson had been liberated the previous autumn and a great Ukrainian counter-offensive in the east was still on the cards. But based on any objective reading of the military situation in Donbas, it doesn’t seem like a position one can continue to hold in good faith as 2024 draws to a close.

Plastic, fantastic? Wessie du Toit considers microplastics:

These are now part of the fabric of our physical world. They have found their way into fresh Antarctic snow, and are accumulating in the deepest regions of the ocean. They are present up and down marine food-chains, and in agricultural soil. In Florida, plastic accounts for more than 1% of the body weight of some hatchling sea turtles.

The oddity of philosophers. Daniel Kodsi and John Maier reflect on the strangeness of Derek Parfit:

Philosophers tend to tolerate a high degree of personal strangeness in one another. More specifically, they tend not to worry – at least explicitly or on the record – about whether the weird philosophical beliefs and the weird non-philosophical actions of a colleague might have a common source.

The only reporter. Charlie Peters reports on the grooming gangs scandal:

The full, true story of the criminal networks and their backgrounds has yet to be told. Justice for thousands of victims has not been handed down. There is much more to be done and l intend to stay on the case, with a camera and a microphone, asking questions to make sure that it is done.

Romance, regardless. Sarah Fletcher writes on romance and “hetero-pessimism”:

Instead of defaulting to “hetero-optimism,” society should aim for “hetero-dynamism,” encouraging men and women to embrace both vulnerability and difference. Our relationships needn’t be procreative, but they should be “creative”, in that there’s mutual striving. Magnetism and attraction are inherently dynamic. Love doesn’t require emotional mirroring, but a willingness to engage with difference without a need to see that difference as a perfect puzzle piece to yours.

Have a lovely month,

Ben