{"id":32931,"date":"2016-04-22T10:49:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T16:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=32931"},"modified":"2016-04-22T11:10:07","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T17:10:07","slug":"the-smug-style-in-american-liberalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/04\/the-smug-style-in-american-liberalism.html","title":{"rendered":"“The smug style in American liberalism”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Maher<\/a>
Bill Maher \u2014 shown here with Richard Dawkins at the 2009 Atheist Alliance International meeting in Burbank, California \u2014 will serve as well as anybody, I suppose, to illustrate something of the attitude that Emmett Rensin seems to have in mind. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wow. \u00a0Seth Rogers just alerted me to a really interesting (but \u2014 be warned! \u2014 rather long) essay:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.vox.com\/2016\/4\/21\/11451378\/smug-american-liberalism<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s mostly about politics, of course, as its title suggests. \u00a0But it\u2019s about politics in the sense that political things are intertwined with religion and culture more broadly:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.vox.com\/2016\/4\/21\/11451378\/smug-american-liberalism<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I think it\u2019s spot on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve indicated many times, I frequently check in on two or three virulently anti-Mormon message boards. \u00a0I want to see what\u2019s going on, what\u2019s stirring the hive. \u00a0And, honestly, I find the level of vitriol on them oddly riveting. \u00a0I simply can\u2019t imagine behaving as many of these people do, and I\u2019m always curious to see what limits, if any, they might impose on themselves.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anyway, one of the things that strike me most forcefully about these sites isn\u2019t their disagreement with my religious beliefs or their particular arguments. \u00a0(On the whole, really, they make few such arguments. \u00a0Rather, they assume conclusions and share gestures.) \u00a0It\u2019s their utter disdain not only for Mormonism<\/a> but for Mormons<\/a>, who are (daily) depicted as not only wrong but evil, dishonest, completely incapable of reason, possibly insane, anti-science, fat, silly, and terminally uncool. \u00a0(A minor illustration: \u00a0There have been several discussions, over the years, of my allegedly plebeian\u00a0taste in theater, literature, and music. \u00a0It\u2019s not enough that my religious views are wrong. \u00a0Apparently, I indulge myself only in low-brow art that\u2019s been approved by the Church and\/or is\u00a0carried at Deseret Book or with \u201cGreat Works\u201d that have been safely certified for me to boast about.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the comprehensive, totalizing, personal hostility of these places that genuinely fascinates me. \u00a0I\u2019ve said before \u2014 and I\u2019ve not been joking when I\u2019ve said it \u2014 that I think such sites are valuable for the glimpses they offer into a very interesting social psychology\/pathology.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And one of the other things that I notice about them is that, overwhelmingly, the default political ideology is leftist. \u00a0Not just Hillary Clinton left, but far further over on the political spectrum. \u00a0And that the fact that the majority of (American) Mormons trend conservative and Republican is, with no supporting argument required, simply yet another indicator of the wrongness \u2014 and terminal uncoolness \u2014 of Mormonism. \u00a0Policy disagreements aren\u2019t merely matters of prudential judgment, but indicators of moral depravity, racism, misogyny, fanaticism, stupidity, and hatred of reason.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The dominant viewpoint of such\u00a0boards (and of one that I follow, in particular) is very self-consciously young, hip, and smug \u2014 precisely what Emmett Rensin<\/a>\u00a0(himself, I think, politically liberal) describes so very insightfully in his essay.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The essay is long, I know, but I recommend it. \u00a0(I myself have made similar points on occasion, and have even used the metaphor of an ugly divorce rather as he uses it. \u00a0But this is a very good, sustained discussion.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I particularly recommend it to my left-leaning friends \u2014 I have a number of them, incredible as it may seem to some that I have any friends at all<\/em> \u2014 and to the left-leaning atheist\/agnostic apostate critics of Mormonism (and of me) who, I know, follow this blog quite\u00a0carefully and who often comment upon it quite derisively. \u00a0A few of them, I think, may be fair-minded enough that they might silently benefit from it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

O wad some Power the giftie gie\u00a0us
\nTo see oursels as ithers see us!
\nIt wad frae mony a blunder free us,
\nAn\u2019 foolish notion.<\/p>\n

(Robert Burns)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Wow. \u00a0Seth Rogers just alerted me to a really interesting (but \u2014 be warned! \u2014 rather long) essay: \u00a0 http:\/\/www.vox.com\/2016\/4\/21\/11451378\/smug-american-liberalism \u00a0 It\u2019s mostly about politics, of course, as its title suggests. \u00a0But it\u2019s about politics in the sense that political things are intertwined with religion and culture more broadly: \u00a0 http:\/\/www.vox.com\/2016\/4\/21\/11451378\/smug-american-liberalism \u00a0 And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"The smug style in American liberalism"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Wow. \u00a0Seth Rogers just alerted me to a really interesting (but -- be warned! 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