This Partial Week in Reaction

Jim is simply at his absolute best in Leftism as Cancer. That one is for the Reactionary Canon. See also reasons for the leftward drift.

Neoreaction is in the news again. This time, Matt K. Lewis has an article up at The Week Why are US Conservatives so Obsessed with Monarchies?. In spite of the abysmally misleading title, the article is actually a pretty fair if brief introduction to some neoreactionary concepts, and blissfully avoids any hyper-ventilation over the perceived evils of Human Biodiversity.

Rod Dreher notices Lewis’ article and then promptly get neoreaction mashed up with paleo-Catholics and Pope Francis and his not entirely rightist economic views. Dreher is usually better than this. I await a fair and dynamite article from on the neoreaction proper (and not on what it ain’t), once he gets his feet back under him.

I’ve been reading local boy Matt Briggs, Statistician to the Stars, Professional Bayesian, and Inveterate Climate Realist for several years now. I consider his deep and witty analysis of the psychology of climate activism as exemplified here to be unmatched. The critique will be familiar to students of the Cathedral’s ways:

• Proponents of Hypothesis X attract funding by promoting it;
• Attracting funding means gaining power;
• Gaining power is attractive to seekers of power, whether they understand Hypothesis X or (more commonly) not;
• Use accumulated power and/or funding to marginalize, stigmatize, and pathologize dissent from Hypthothesis X;
• Use some proceeds of power and/or funding to construct and promote non-parsimonious explanations about the origins of Hypthothesis X “Denial”;
• Lather, rinse, repeat

Bryce delivers part 2 of his comprehensive, but condensed by Moldbuggian standards, introduction to Cathedralism. For those keeping score: We’re up to about 2900 words.

Ever wonder what’s going on over at the Cato Institute? It’s alive and well, playing the Libertarianism’s Generals against Progressivism’s Globetrotters. More Right: “Cato Progressives Displeased with Reaction” and Theden: “The Thing That Ate Libertarianism” give us the coverage. Once thought to be no vice, Extremism in Defense of Liberty turned out to be a bit (erm…) “retrograde”.

Look for another dose later in the week. I needed to clear this out to focus on being a fly on the wall over at Foseti’s, and also putting up an important social announcement.