The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg The Dispatch

Just as there are different Enlightenments, there are different nationalisms, too. In both cases, it’s important to see what points they all converge on. On this edition of the Ruminant, Jonah walks through the ways in which we’ve seen this all before – even in spite of how strange this moment feels. Confucius says: “Enjoy your weekend!”

Show Notes:
-30-day free trial at The Dispatch
-The latest G-File
-Rectification of the Names
-David’s soon-to-be-out book, Divided We Fall
-HumanProgress.org
-Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know: And Many Others You Will Find Interesting
-Brazil’s direct democracy
-Fichte’s Address to the German Nation

“We need to agree that the Senate doesn’t work,” Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse tells Jonah on today’s episode of The Remnant. “The Founders had this great idea that you separate power vertically and horizontally if you believe in universal human dignity, and the Senate is kind of the most unique single institution that the Founders created in the Constitution.” Sasse’s appearance comes on the heels of his Wall Street Journal op-ed, in which he calls for modified Senate term limits, repealing the 17th Amendment, and cutting the C-SPAN cameras to improve debate on the Senate floor. “The cameras change the dynamic in the room because people don’t ask real questions if they’re instead trolling for a sound bite that they can hope goes viral,” Sasse explains. What’s worse, senators use the C-SPAN camera rules to trick their constituents into thinking they’re debating their colleagues when they’re not. “They regularly do this, hand gesturing to the senator right next to them that they’re supposedly rebutting, but the rules in the Senate require the C-SPAN cameras to be cropped right around their head and shoulders, so you don’t know as a viewer that there’s no one there in the Senate.” After railing against the senatorial political posturing that’s poisoning our parliamentary system, Sasse and Jonah discuss the filibuster, clickbait journalism, and the dangers of perceiving politics as religion. Learn alongside Jonah, and stick around to the end to hear Sasse school his colleagues in real time.

Show Notes:
-30-day trial at The Dispatch, Sasse’s article: “Make the Senate Great Again,” In celebration of Brian Lamb, what Sasse means by “agglomeration economy,” and Sasse’s opening remarks at the Kavanaugh hearing.
-LiquidIV.com, use promo code “DINGO” at checkout for 25% off and ExpressVPN.com/Remnant for three months off a year-long subscription.

Let the waves of optimism wash over you as return-guests Ron Bailey (Reason) and Marian Tupy (Cato Institute) join forces as Jonah’s tour guides through the last several centuries of human progress. Listen to the first half to hear why there is actual good news about the human condition – even during a pandemic – and stick around in the second half for a satisfying helping of philosophical eggheadery on education, personal liberty, and the logic of nonviolent protest.

Show Notes:
-Try a 30-day trial membership for The Dispatch
-Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know: And Many Others You Will Find Interesting
-Marian’s project, HumanProgress.org
-Ron’s page at Reason
-Jason Hickel refutes the World Bank’s measurement of extreme poverty
-Julian Simon’s bet with Paul Ehrlich
-Malthus, the original Thanos
-Famines rarely happen in democratic countries with a free press
-China’s Social Credit System
-University of Edinburgh set to remove David Hume’s name from building
-Jonah: Irradiating the Past
-DonorsTrust.org/Dingo to get a free copy of “6 Reasons to Use a Donor-Advised Fund”
-ExpressVPN.com/Remnant for an extra 3 months free with 12-month plan

What happens when you make a pundit talk about Antifa, the Dune trailer, the Republic of Venice, and 60s Iron Man cartoons all in one go? Tune in to the weekend Ruminant to find out!

Show Notes:
-Start a 30-day free trial of The Dispatch
-Jonah’s Wednesday G-File, un-paywalled due to popular demand
-This week’s second Remnant, with Andy Ferguson
-Basically what Jonah means by “A Shoshana point.”
-The little-known Dune miniseries
-The bizarre theme song to the 60s Iron Man cartoon
-Neo-barbarism abounds
-Federalist no. 39, the one that talks about Venice
-Denis Dutton’s bad writing contest
-Keeps.com/Dingo to get your first month of treatment for free

Andrew Ferguson’s follow-up appearance on The Remnant has been a long time coming, and you can tell; he and Jonah are filled with plenty of wisdom on the state of modern journalism, what the conservative media landscape used to be like, and how to not go completely hollow while keeping up with the news cycle.

Show Notes:
-30-day free trial of The Dispatch 
-Andy’s page at The Atlantic
-Bob Dole: “I’m not bound by the platform. I probably agree with most everything in it, but I haven’t read it.”
-Jonah: The center is a lonely place to be
-“The New Journalism”
-George Stephanopoulos’ All Too Human
-Donald Rumsfeld releases transcript of Woodward interview
-“Springtime for Introverts”: Andy’s piece that was true… for a while
-ExpressVPN.com/Remnant for an extra 3 months on a year-long plan
-Gabi.com/Remnant to stop overpaying on your insurance now

Fresh off the heels of his new manifesto (not of the communist variety, though), Iain Murray, CEI senior fellow, joins Jonah on The Remnant to discuss The Socialist Temptation: what it is, who it hits hardest, why socialism isn’t really even an economic theory, and what to do about it.

Show Notes:
-Iain’s new book, The Socialist Temptation
-BBC’s generously donated show sets, to spruce up your Zoom background
-Iain refuting Thomas Piketty
-Josh Muravchik’s “Theories of the New Class”
-“Socialism is the name of our desire”
-Corporatism and Comparative Politics: The Other Great “Ism”
-Ten Thousand Commandments 2020
-North’s Violence and Social Orders
-#NationalizeMySpace
-Reagan’s speech at Hillsdale in the 70s
-Jonah at the Oxford Union
-“Socialism is so hot right now”
-DonorsTrust.org/Dingo for access to “6 Reasons to Use a Donor-Advised Fund”