Taki's Daily Blog
Paul Gottfried’s a lot more patient than I am, if he’s willing to spoon through thousands of pages of Marxist analyses to find the chunks of edible meat that float in the spoiled soup. If I see that an argument is based on false premises, I rarely spend time tracing its every convolution through to the end, in case the author … [Read More]
Although it might be disturbing to some readers that in my following remarks about white nationalists I treat my subjects with respect, this should cause no surprise to anyone who is familiar with my work. I am accustomed to show respect for intelligent people, including those with whom I disagree. In writing about the post-Marxist Left, I focused on the intellectual … [Read More]
In view of the numerous responses to my announcement of the death of paleoconservatism and my discussion of the transition from a paleo to a pospaleo opposition to the neoconservative-liberal media, there may be need for these further clarifications. One, the postpaleos’ indifference to the post-World War II conservative movement is a decided advantage that they enjoy in relation to their … [Read More]
In a recent blog Helen Rittelmeyer cites a new publishing celebrity for the New York Post and a Doubleday expert on the American Right, Ross Douthat, whose gripe is that American conservatives had actively supported segregation. Douthat is certainly not the only authorized intellectual who has been saying this. One of Helen’s respondents, who has taken the pen name Tobias, likewise … [Read More]
At the end of the Cold War, conservatives found themselves in a state of disunity and intellectual ferment. The neoconservative faction demanded a continuation of the Cold War model of interventionist foreign policy and rejected the domestic small government conservatism popular in the South and West. Neo-nationalists, such as Pat Buchanan, pushed for a turn inward, the rejection of various liberal … [Read More]
It seems everyone wanted to be on the side of progress in the Seventies, but today everyone’s a Burkean. Gay marriage advocates, Barack Obama supporters, and defenders of the welfare state all identifiy themselves as the rightful heirs of Edmund Burke, the grandfather of conservative philosophy. This is a strange development. Burke and the conservatism he preached have long been relegated … [Read More]
For those who haven’t been keeping up with Caledonian affairs, Scottish independence has been brought onto the agenda by the victory of the anti-unionist, pro-independence Scottish National Party in the general election for the Scottish Parliament last year. The SNP victory comes after about half a century of solid domination of Scottish politics by the Labour party (now in regional opposition … [Read More]
On the question of conservatism, one can count on two things: First, that at any moment, some opinion-monger or other is holding forth on the nature of conservatism, and, second, that nearly everything he is saying is unedifying. Conservatism as conventionally understood is either vacuous ("conservatives respect tradition—except when they don’t"), asinine ("conservatives resist change"), or imperceptible ("conservatism is no more … [Read More]
I support Ron Paul, and I intend to vote for him in the Illinois primary. But I had a little different reaction from Justin’s when I watched the clip of the congressman commenting on the Huckster’s Christmas ad. My friend and colleague Aaron Wolf is right: “That was not a wise comment by Ron Paul.” In fact, the congressman seems tired … [Read More]
Over at Townhall.com late last night, Michael Medved slipped in some Thanksgiving Eve--well, “thoughts” would be too strong a word: “The Thanksgiving holiday provides an opportunity to refocus on the motivations of early New England settlers, who crossed the ocean not to escape the Old World, but to change it by the force of their example.” Really? I’m not a particular … [Read More]