Ask Nathan Anything: Quarantine Edition

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Shoot.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I'll bite:

As an S avatar, how do you interpret the non-democratic socialist powers of past and (perhaps) present? While acknowledging that your view of foreign policy is probably outside of the first standard deviation from the mainstream in either direction, how do you as an S avatar and small-d democrat believe we should (have) treat(ed) with them?

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

I'll bite:

As an S avatar, how do you interpret the non-democratic socialist powers of past and (perhaps) present? While acknowledging that your view of foreign policy is probably outside of the first standard deviation from the mainstream in either direction, how do you as an S avatar and small-d democrat believe we should (have) treat(ed) with them?

I don't approve of any non-democratic governments, regardless of their ideological orientation. I think that the United States should probably respect such governments as members of the international community in the basic sense, but I believe it's morally wrong to embrace them as close partners.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Are you strongly religious? I am picturing every mother's dream: A 21 yo virgin with a nice haircut.

You seem very young but with a thread of conservative intelligence from maybe a strong religious upbringing.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What do you expect to happen in the next Japanese general election?

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Are you strongly religious? I am picturing every mother's dream: A 21 yo virgin with a nice haircut.

You seem very young but with a thread of conservative intelligence from maybe a strong religious upbringing.

You're right about some parts of this assessment but wrong about others! I'm an observant Catholic (and, yes, a permavirgin, albeit not a kissless one), but I'm 27 and I came to Christianity from a Generic Theist family background as a teenager. Opinions on my haircut vary.

What do you expect to happen in the next Japanese general election?

LDP landslide because There Is No One Else , just like the last five or six nationwide elections in Japan. The revisionist bloc's seat count should get chipped away at by at least a little, though (as, indeed, happened in last year's upper house election).

[morgankingsley]

Whose ban did you think was most justified in your time on atlas

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Whose ban did you think was most justified in your time on atlas

opebo and Matthew.

In opebo's case, the issue was less that he was a uniquely bad person by Atlas poster standards (although he was) and more that he was what we'd recognize today as a serial thread derailer, somewhat along the lines of Fuzzy Bear, only worse because almost all of the hobbyhorses that opebo derailed threads with were morally repugnant in themselves. In Matthew's case, not only was he a bona fide neo-Nazi with a five-digit post count on Stormfront, he was stupid enough to volunteer this information about himself in a Forum Community thread. He would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for his meddling oversharing!

[Boobs]

Top ten hottest saints?

Opinion of Christina Aguilera’s Genie in a Bottle?

Any interest in Jewish ethics?

Do you believe the witchcraft allegations against Christine O’Donnell?

Regardless of your answer to the previous question, should O’Donnell have been burned at the stake?

Opinion of the tv show Gilmore Girls?

Does your family know about Ayelet Shaked?

[All Along The Watchtower]

1. Favorite Anglican philosopher?

2. Favorite Catholic philosopher?

3. Favorite secular philosopher?

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Top ten hottest saints?

In no particular order:

Teresa of Ávila (was noted during her lifetime for being physically attractive)
Francis of Assisi (ditto, although he wrecked both his health and his appearance eventually)
Rose of Lima (ditto, although she deliberately wrecked her appearance to deter male attention)
Sebastian (needs no introduction if you're at all familiar with LGBT Catholic history)
Marie-Azélie Guérin (if you have a Victorian fashion/corset kink)
John Paul II (very good-looking as a young man, even though as Pope he looked like Jack Nicholson)
Æthelthryth (getting married twice and persuading her husband to respect her vow of perpetual virginity both times? Queen of the swerve!)
John Henry Newman (lots of good-looking portraits from when he was younger)
Seaxburh of Ely (an alternate spelling of her name is literally "Sexburga")
Bartolomea Capitanio (not a ton to say about her, she was just "my type" appearance-wise)

Opinion of Christina Aguilera’s Genie in a Bottle?

Catchy!

Any interest in Jewish ethics?

Lots of interest. I've read whole books on the subject, mostly from Modern Orthodox or Conservative perspectives. Buber and Heschel are the Jewish ethicists I've read who are closest to being well-known among people who aren't theology types.

Do you believe the witchcraft allegations against Christine O’Donnell?

Hell yeah I do.

Regardless of your answer to the previous question, should O’Donnell have been burned at the stake?

Yes, but not for that reason.

Opinion of the tv show Gilmore Girls?

An absolute delight for about four and a half seasons, took a nosedive afterwards, the reunion specials were an abomination.

Does your family know about Ayelet Shaked?

Ayelet Shaked is a part of my family. (joking)

1. Favorite Anglican philosopher?

Either George Berkeley or George P. Grant, depending on whether or not I'm in the mood to overlook the things I don't like about the latter.

2. Favorite Catholic philosopher?

Massive category but, defining "Catholic" broadly but "philosopher" narrowly, probably either Pseudo-Dionysius (whom, in grad school, I insisted on calling "Denise" because there's no way to actually prove he was male) or Erasmus.

3. Favorite secular philosopher?

Hume.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

How would you compare New England of a century ago compared to New England today?

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

How would you compare New England of a century ago compared to New England today?

Lots of similarities, lots of differences. It's still a region with a deeply moralistic political tradition, but no longer moralistic in a specifically religious way. It's still a very urban region--often entailing pretty unpleasant cultural patterns as part of how it's urbanized--but it has many fewer people living in cramped tenements and many more living in either "leafy, liberal, and loaded" suburbs or run-down row houses and duplexes. It still thinks of itself as superior to the rest of the country in what amounts to a moral way, but that sense of superiority is based on new issues now. It's still in love with moderate or pseudo-moderate Yankee Republicans beyond all reason when it comes to statewide offices, but no longer when it comes to federal offices. The forests that were all clear-cut in colonial and antebellum days grew back, then started getting cut down again. Younger New Englanders lost their accents, and in some cases developed new ones. The moral authority of the Catholic Church in the region collapsed pretty dramatically after the events of 2002, but much of New England still "feels" more Catholic than anywhere else east of the Mississippi. Lots of Puerto Ricans moved in and some Irish-Americans and swamp Yankees died off or moved out. All in all, life goes on.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What does the future look like for "Yankee" identity and culture?

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

What does the future look like for "Yankee" identity and culture?

Bleak, although "Yankee" aesthetic--hay fields, fall colors, apple pie, gun-toting hippies--is as robust as ever.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What would you say is the single biggest influencer on the accents of New England, and what secondary influences exist?

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

What would you say is the single biggest influencer on the accents of New England, and what secondary influences exist?

Western New England English, which is what I speak, is basically a slightly more conservative form of Inland Northern (although my speech does also contain a few quirks picked up when I was living in Boston). So it's influenced by what's going on further west--say, in Upstate New York and the Great Lakes--and, of course, by the monoculturalizing effect of nationwide and worldwide media. My elderly aunts have much more conservative versions of the same accent that sound a lot more like what you think of as "a New England accent" (similar to, as much as I hate to say this, the way Peter and Lois talk in Family Guy).

Eastern New England English (your classic Boston, Mainer, or "Kennedy" accent) I'm less sure about, although my suspicion is that it has some of the same extremely conservative features that have been observed in much of the South.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Would you consider joining AAD?

[Former President tack50]

Whose ban did you think was most justified in your time on atlas

opebo and Matthew.

In opebo's case, the issue was less that he was a uniquely bad person by Atlas poster standards (although he was) and more that he was what we'd recognize today as a serial thread derailer, somewhat along the lines of Fuzzy Bear, only worse because almost all of the hobbyhorses that opebo derailed threads with were morally repugnant in themselves. In Matthew's case, not only was he a bona fide neo-Nazi with a five-digit post count on Stormfront, he was stupid enough to volunteer this information about himself in a Forum Community thread. He would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for his meddling oversharing!

I mean, speaking of Matthew in my opinion the issue was not technically that he was a Stormfront poster, but that he was an unreformed Stormfront poster. Hypothetically I imagine Atlas would  welcome someone who had genuinely changed their ways and what not.

In fact, had he not gone on a rampage and melted down I could see him remaining; as I don't recall him ever posting overtly or even closetly white supremacist content on Atlas (then again I pretty much knew him only because of Atlasia, not sure if he was worse elsewhere). He would be totally shunned and ignored, but it's not hard at all for me to imagine an scenario where Matthew gets to stay; or at least one where his ban would be controversial.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

What does the future look like for "Yankee" identity and culture?

Bleak, although "Yankee" aesthetic--hay fields, fall colors, apple pie, gun-toting hippies--is as robust as ever.

[Tartarus Sauce]

Since the topic of old line Yankee identity has come up, I must ask whether you have read the book The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America by E. Digby Baltzell originally published in 1964. This is one of the many, many books sitting on my shelf that I have yet to get into.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Would you consider joining AAD?

Absolutely not.

I mean, speaking of Matthew in my opinion the issue was not technically that he was a Stormfront poster, but that he was an unreformed Stormfront poster. Hypothetically I imagine Atlas would  welcome someone who had genuinely changed their ways and what not.

In fact, had he not gone on a rampage and melted down I could see him remaining; as I don't recall him ever posting overtly or even closetly white supremacist content on Atlas (then again I pretty much knew him only because of Atlasia, not sure if he was worse elsewhere). He would be totally shunned and ignored, but it's not hard at all for me to imagine an scenario where Matthew gets to stay; or at least one where his ban would be controversial.

Sanchez is a reformed or semi-reformed white nationalist and he's a poster in good standing (although plenty of people probably wish he wasn't), so you're probably right about this. Regardless, Matthew was unreformed, and he did melt down after admitting to it. So he's gone and he deserves to be gone.

Since the topic of old Yankee identity has come up, I must ask whether you have read the book The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America by E. Digby Baltzell originally published in 1964. This is one of the many, many books sitting on my shelf that I have yet to get into.

I haven't! I've heard of it, though, and I'd like to. Another book on "old New England" culture and identity formation I've been meaning to read is The Flowering of New England by Van Wyck Brooks, which focuses on the antebellum period.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Are you strongly religious? I am picturing every mother's dream: A 21 yo virgin with a nice haircut.

You seem very young but with a thread of conservative intelligence from maybe a strong religious upbringing.

You're right about some parts of this assessment but wrong about others! I'm an observant Catholic (and, yes, a permavirgin, albeit not a kissless one), but I'm 27 and I came to Christianity from a Generic Theist family background as a teenager. Opinions on my haircut vary.

What do you expect to happen in the next Japanese general election?

LDP landslide because There Is No One Else , just like the last five or six nationwide elections in Japan. The revisionist bloc's seat count should get chipped away at by at least a little, though (as, indeed, happened in last year's upper house election).

I have to add honesty of 10/10 to your character because no one makes that stuff up.

Great stuff. Very admirable.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Are you strongly religious? I am picturing every mother's dream: A 21 yo virgin with a nice haircut.

You seem very young but with a thread of conservative intelligence from maybe a strong religious upbringing.

You're right about some parts of this assessment but wrong about others! I'm an observant Catholic (and, yes, a permavirgin, albeit not a kissless one), but I'm 27 and I came to Christianity from a Generic Theist family background as a teenager. Opinions on my haircut vary.

What do you expect to happen in the next Japanese general election?

LDP landslide because There Is No One Else , just like the last five or six nationwide elections in Japan. The revisionist bloc's seat count should get chipped away at by at least a little, though (as, indeed, happened in last year's upper house election).

I have to add honesty of 10/10 to your character because no one makes that stuff up.

Great stuff. Very admirable.

[insert Superintendent Chalmers quote here]

[1978 New Wave skinny trousers]

Opinion of Oliver Cromwell?