“Life, Death, Truth, Governance, Morality, Pheeeh! So What?”

My column at First Things today looks at the remarkable, innovative new theme in our discourse:

The repeated thesis was simply this: “so what?”

Such a disarming question; the sort of question society has long-regarded as adolescent, arrogant, disdainful, and yes, more than a little snotty. It is a question that conveys a dare in its follow-up, whether spoken or not: “Just what are you going to do about it?”

In a three day period, I encountered three variations of this oddly innovative argument. [. . .]

Identical attitudes thrown about on two successive days might be a coincidence, but thrust-thrice, and from the same ideological corner, it seemed like a theme, to me; a detour sign, laying out new track for our already disoriented national discourse.

You’ll have to go read the whole thing to discover what inspires such contemptuous dismissal.

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