Show Notes
The pitiful state of university sociology departments is an unfortunate thing, but to see tantrums at elite law schools over "controversial" speakers portends danger — or so says Ilya Shapiro, author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites. He and the fellas discuss the illiberal takeover of higher education, most troublingly in the institutions that train the gatekeepers of our legal system.
Plus, James, Charles, and Steve speculate on the midterms; see the potential for backfire from Virginia's redistricting referendum; smell controversy over the latest victory for the refer movement; and begrudgingly admit the Americanness of gambling with top secrets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-ricochet-podcast--5817275/support.
More from The Ricochet Podcast
The midterm polls sure don't paint a rosy picture for Republicans. While Henry Olsen, Ricochet's in-house election analyst, isn't here to pretend the data suggest otherwise, he joins James, Charles, and Steve to add dimension to the GOP's bleak prospects. Listeners brave enough for the cold facts will hear important lessons about the Republican Party's growing pains, the value of persuasive speech during tough times, and the necessity of message discipline in getting through them. The gang at least finds some consolation in the fact that the ascendant progressive wing of the Democratic Party will likely weigh down the whole if (or when) they overreach.
With each passing wild week in the West, it can feel like a tall order to request an unequivocal defense of it. But when there's a meme, there's a way, and if Marco Rubio has taught us anything, it's that he's always up for the job. James, Steve, and Charles celebrate his statesmanship displayed on Wednesday's Acropolis speech; wonder about the wisdom of the proposed live streaming of the firing-squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter; and bristle at Abdul El Sayed's response to being confronted with "dumb questions" about who our friends and enemies are. Despite it all, they find much to look forward to in our living, breathing, loud-talking and fast-walking civilization on a hill.
Sometimes life feels like a freak show, and the sane can either take it in or turn away. This week gave us more glimpses of horror than usual, which tends to make folks more amenable to harsh punishments. James, Steve, and Charles consider the death penalty in light of the heinous crime of an unsuccessfully executed Tennessee woman; they wade through the cloudy "Cornell Seven" case and draw important distinctions between moral depravity and criminality; and they look to riots in France and wonder whether la République and la révolution will ever square themselves in l’Hexagone.
What exactly do the fight to save Piddington in Oxfordshire, the public betrayal of Najya Hannah-Jones by her activist mom, Trump's deal with Greenland, Russia's cultural inferiority complex, and a lesbian bar in Massachusetts have in common? For those of us who haven't worn an N-95 mask in at least five years, the distinctions are clear. Even so, they each command the attention of James, Charles, and Steve, who remind us that praxis rarely makes perfect.
Sometimes our topsy-turvy world is more dizzying than usual—and in those times, it's best to stand on a firm foundation and in the company of dependable people. Rob Long returns to chat with Charles and Steve about controversies of all shapes, sizes and comprehensibility, from Bo French and the "NETTR" movement, a right planning to buy votes with $5,000 checks and a prudish left shocked by the... apolitical appeal of Sidney Sweeney.