Harry Mills
The Rubin Report
comments
Comments by "Harry Mills" (@harrymills2770) on "I Thought the Right Understood This, I Was Wrong (Pt. 2) | Michael Knowles | POLITICS | Rubin Report" video.
So it's OK to be authoritarian if you're on the side of the angels. What, then, distinguishes us from the authoritarian left? You're wrong on this, Knowles. You want to win, today, which will only ensure that we all lose, tomorrow. There's already a massive shift in public sentiment that could never have been achieved by resorting to the same abuse of power to which the other side resorts.
This is why I consider myself an original-intent Constitutionalist or just generally a classical liberal or libertarian. Conservatives have this sense of rightness that deteriorates into dogma that is easily dismissed by lefties. "God said..." is not an argument. Also, Knowles was obviously bloviating when he touched on the "indecency" parts. He didn't actually present a cogent argument for censorship of obscenity. Maybe HIS idea of obscenity is MY idea of keepin' it real. If there's a majority of Michael Knowles's in power, then maybe they decide my questioning of claims made in The Good Book is "obscene," or profane, or they'll decide that heretical remarks are obscene.
The thing about Christianity, itself, is it needs to evolve with the times, while remaining in keeping with core principles. I really like having the "Jesus Archetype" embedded in my world view. I think it's highly beneficial to an imperfect person inhabiting an imperfect world, to have that idea firmly in mind. When you're about to bite the head off of somebody, a quick "What would Jesus do?" is even better than counting to 10. I'm not sure it would have the same beneficial effect on my character, if it weren't hammered into me with a "Believe or die!" hook. It's quite a motivator and a bulwark against human tendencies to despair and devolve into hedonism/nihilism when faced with the fact of their mortality.
This descent that is all too common amongst non-believers is why Religion has always been - and probably always will be - a prominent feature of surviving cultures. Why? Because without it, civilizations start to crumble. Tribes go extinct. The reason there's religion everywhere you look is because the tribes that lost it perished! They were RIGHT and they just kind of died out, petered out, or got outbred! You can talk all day about how backward, ignorant and regressive Christian/Muslim faithful are, but they're having big families and everybody else isn't even reproducing at replacement levels!
Anyway, I think things are a lot more nuanced than Knowles is capable of conceiving or is willing to concede, because he's got a nice, tidy world view, and he can blather over the rough bits, like "Who decides what's obscene? The most vocal Muslim on the block?"
The only kind of censorship I agree with is keeping things G-rated if the kiddies are around. But is that the job of the people creating and posting the content or the job of parents to filter out everything except those things of which the parent approve?
1