On Cancelling Dr. Seuss

This is from a review of Frog and Toad are Friends.

Christians have maintained such daft opinions on children’s books for years. What is worse, reasonable Christians have politely nodded as their unreasonable friends and acquaintances have said such stupid things.

Granted, fear of Seuss is risible, but Christians can’t all-of-a-sudden pretend they care about others having reasonable opinions on literature. We invented the daft, preachy worldview review. The thing has simply gotten out of the cage in the last ten years.

Know It All

“Dying societies accumulate laws like dying men accumulate remedies.”

-Nicolas Gomez Davila

As men implode–as their marriages fail, as their relationships with their children fall apart–they become all the more insistent that they know how happy, competent men ought to live.

SETI

If we ever found intelligent life outside of earth, there is a 0% chance their philosophy of gender and race would coincide with ours, which would mean about ten minutes after discovering alien life, #CancelAliens would start trending.

Why VidAngel Isn’t A Win

“There’s always free cheese in a mousetrap, though, and so Christians have blindly gone on for several years now thinking that the ability to edit TV and movies is a real win. Here’s the tin foil hat moment, though: buy DVDs. Stream less. Or at least buy a DVD of A Charlie Brown Christmas so that when the switch is made, you don’t have to hear Linus tell Charlie Brown that the real meaning of Christmas is contained in some passage from a TED talk on Marxism given last week.”

-from “When The Zeitgeist Begins Editing Old Films And TV Shows”

JEMS

Camilla (age 11): “I started a club at school today for girls who like old things like parasols, fans, gloves, and hoop skirts. If you’re in the club, you’re not allowed to say ‘cringey,’ ‘vibes,’ or ‘hashtag.’ We don’t know what to call the club, though.”

Gibbs: “Sisterhood of the Modern Grievance. No. How about the Jane Austen Memorial Sisterhood? JAMS for short.”

Paula: “How about the Jane Eyre Memorial Sisterhood. JEMS.”

Gibbs: “Yes! Jane Eyre! Everyone in the club has to read Jane Eyre and then take an oath.”

Camilla: “What would the oath be?”

Gibbs: “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.  I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man.  I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad—as I am now.  Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be.  If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?  They have a worth—so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane—quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs.  Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.”

Camilla: “And you have to put your hand on a copy of Jane Eyre when you say the oath.”