That's David Brooks, tending to your soul, in "How to Survive the Trump Years With Your Spirit Intact" (NYT)(free-access link).
I hadn't encountered that men-thinking-about-the-Roman-Empire meme in quite a while. Okay. Nice to see its return. Helps us understand what the men are doing these days.
Anyway, I wonder, is this analysis unfair to pagans?
If paganism is a grand but dehumanizing value system, I’ve found it necessary, in this increasingly pagan age, to root myself in anything that feels rehumanizing, whether it’s art or literature or learning. I’ve found it incredibly replenishing to be spending time around selfless, humble people....
Anything that feels rehumanizing?
Well, read the whole thing to be fair to Brooks, not that he's being fair to Trump... or to pagans.
Looking into this blog's archive to see what I might have said about pagans over the years, I encountered this May 29, 2017 post, which focuses on a quote from Andrew Sullivan calling Trump "a pagan":
"Trump is not an atheist, confident yet humble in the search for a God-free morality. He is not an agnostic...""... genuinely doubtful as to the meaning of existence but always open to revelation should it arrive. He is not even a wayward Christian, as he sometimes claims to be, beset by doubt and failing to live up to ideals he nonetheless holds. The ideals he holds are, in fact, the antithesis of Christianity — and his life proves it. He is neither religious nor irreligious. He is pre-religious. He is a pagan. He makes much more sense as a character in Game of Thrones, a medieval world bereft of the legacy of Jesus of Nazareth, than as a president of a modern, Western country...."...
Pagans are pre-religious? That's awfully ethnocentric and arrogant. From Owen Davies, "Paganism: A Very Short Introduction" (at Wikipedia):
It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised. The notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition. As such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense.
So otherizing, Andrew. Bereft of the legacy of Jesus... that's how you accept insulting people these days?...
పోస్ట్లు
139 కామెంట్లు:
What a bizarre criticism. I view Trump as very much a believing Christian. On a different vein, I have a hard time distinguishing between David Brooks and George Will.
It's interesting from time to time to read the conservative position from the NY Times' conservative columnist.
Transhumanism was a religious model of the Aztec empire with progressive principles exercised with liberal license at The Twilight Fringe popular in secular society where it is common for urbane elites to purse capital and control with gay, narcissistic joyfulness.
Is there anything more pagan than the worship of the state?
Early on the Lads memed Trump as a Roman emperor, but that doesn't mean Trump himself feels that way.
Also, I'd imagine the pagan witch community would object to including Trump. Brooks has a peephole view of the world.
The word virtue comes directly from the Roman pagan god Virtus, and by extension the Latin noun/adjective Vir, lit. "Man, Manliness, Masculinity, Valor, Character"...but David wouldn't know anything about that.
Brooks is a worthless oligarch bootlicker. He has produced nothing that any real Americans want or want to read.
His only purpose in life is to provide emotional support for worthless HR department/Bureaucracy Karens and cucks who do nothing for society and live off of taxpayers.
The only reason to pay any mind to a loser like David Brooks is to keep track of what the globalist lords want their peons to think.
Trump’s spiritual philosophy is well known. His childhood preacher was Norman Vincent Peale, author of “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Peale was ordained as a Methodist minister, but he bolted to the Reformed Church, whatever the hell that is. A lot of them in the NE. You might call Peale’s message “prosperity Christianity.” The essential tenets: Always envision yourself succeeding. Pay no attention to the negatives, as they are to be taken for granted. And yes, Peale’s philosophy is Christian. Peale preaches in the sola scriptura style of a Methodist preacher.
“During the second journey of Saint Boniface to Rome, Wulfram, a monk and ex-archbishop of Sens, tried to convert Radbod, but after an unsuccessful attempt he returned to Fontenelle. It is said that Radbod was nearly baptised but refused when he was told that he would not be able to find any of his ancestors in Heaven after his death. He said he preferred spending eternity in Hell with his pagan ancestors than in Heaven with a pack of beggars.”
Trump = Radbod of Frisia
David Brooks = Beggar
NYT = Pack of Beggars
What if paganism isn't "a grand but dehumanizing value system"?
Laughable.
The Left worships Mother Earth. Leftists are the real pagans.
From the quoted article…
“This ethos encourages egotists to puff themselves up and boast in a way they find urgently satisfying; self-love is the only form of love they know....”
I immediately thought of Jeffrey Toobin as soon as I read this.
I don't think Trump is a christian, but he is good for christians, which matters more—there is no reason why christians should only be allowed to support other christians. The very idea is noxious.
Why do I get the feeling that “pagan” means whatever David Brooks needs it to mean? And that it may mean something completely different tomorrow, depending on the needs of tomorrow?
"I’ve found it incredibly replenishing to be spending time around selfless, humble people...." He said humbly.
"grandiose male narcissists" Now do O.
What exactly is dehumanizing about paganism? On the other hand, what was "humanizing" about God's treatment of Job?
Our Wormwood here is going to catch hell from Uncle Screwtape. Brooks falls victim to his own bias in what he writes. I went ahead and suffered through the entire article and am sorry I won’t get that meager 5 minutes back.
There may be some truth to the ancient Rome scenario but not as Wormwood outlines, and certainly not related to Paganism. God works through the unlikeliest people for his purposes, old women to birth prophets, a cast off child in Egypt who would be the salvation of the Jews, a well educated Jew who was a persecutor of early Christians before a conversion that wold lead to him to becoming one of Christ’s more prominent Apostles, even a brash real estate mogul with a very questionable history and no real declaration on faith are tools of God’s Design.
Trump is no prophet and even his more recent comments about God’s intervention in Butler, PA hardly make him a model Christian, but that is all part of God’s way of using people to bring people closer to faith. What preceded Trump’s rise politically would be better construed as Paganism but this ethos, as our Wormwood wants to call it, is more in line with era of conversions to Christianity after Christ’s Rise and Ascension as the Word spread throughout the Middle East and Europe.
Selfless, humble people don’t want to be around Brooks.
What’s wrong with pagans? The Reds have an Emilio Pagan, and he’s having a good season so far: https://www.mlb.com/player/emilio-pagan-641941
"... it gives them permission to grab whatever they want."
For example, if your employer hires an attractive young woman to help you with your "research". Go get her, Dave!
Brooks is a condescending, prig. Trump's "atmosphere" embodies good old-fashioned American values such as god, country, family. Assholes like Brooks are clueless.
I'm so glad we have leftist men and women in media and their non-stop obsessive hyperventilating critique of Trump's psyche.
Dear AI, please help me come up with new ideas for columns based on my perception that what Trump is doing is dehumanizing. -- David Brooks
When you talk about selfless humble people, Kalani Sitake comes to mind. Kalini is BYU's football coach, widely liked and respected among the Big 12 football environment, and beloved among BYU alum and fans.
And last year his team demolished Sanders' (both of 'em's) Colorado Buffs in the Alamo Bowl. Total physical domination. And they did it with love and respect for their opponents.
Matt Taibbi had a great takedown of Brooks this week.
Is David Brooks Imitating Lenin the Funniest New York Times Column Ever?
Best part:
It’s genuinely touching to see Brooks, the AFLAC duck of elitism, a man who wrote an actual book on being a snob, forced to consider the question of raising mass support. Adding to the pathos is the fact that it’s mere months after this same coalition of academics, lawyers, “nonprofits,” and scientists tried and failed at throwing up every legal and illegal obstacle to Trump’s election. In other words, “civic uprising” flopped when the folks in whom Brooks places faith held every lever of authority. Now they’re going to lead a grassroots revolt?
Humble selfless people who don't know the names of fancy coldcuts?
Private sector employment is finally starting to recover. April jobs report came out above expectations and will inevitably be revised up.
This despite a net loss in government jobs.
According to toadies like Brooks this is heretical paganism.
Brooks would have loved Woodrow Wilson. Obama was the closest we've come to Wilson's ideal, and Brooks loved him......Trump, it is said, is a poor person's idea of a rich man. Obama and Wilson (and Trotsky and Lenin) were a college prof's idea of a smart person.
Modern intellectualism seems to first require adopting an incorrect assumption from ignorance and politics, and then keep talking until everyone forgets that. Paid by the word after all.
Evidently, “pagan” doesn’t mean what Brooks thinks it means. Regardless, these works of his demonstrate to a remarkable extent his pomposity and his lack of familiarity with normal human beings outside of his silo.
Monotheists can't be cruel, destructive and murderous? Pagans are pre-religious? I might be more open to the idea that Trump is a pagan if Brooks and Sullivan weren't writing such nonsense.
Trump is a Boomer kid from Metro NYC. Trying to map that onto pagan/Judeo-Christian/atheist/agnostic matrix is a hopeless task. Some people verge on saintliness, but it could be very difficult for an outsider to put the rest of us convincingly into one of those pigeon-holes.
I don't think men are interested in the Roman Empire so much as they are interested in civilizational or societal collapse: Ancient Rome, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, the Zombie Apocalypse.
I'm getting the impression that for a lot of people the worst thing that could happen would be for Trump to Make America Great Again, no matter how much good came out of it. Even if it was a choice between world peace, economic justice, and prosperity, or Trump failure. I know which they would choose.
bagoh20 said...
I'm getting the impression that for a lot of people the worst thing that could happen would be for Trump to Make America Great Again, no matter how much good came out of it.
Absolutely! Think of what would happen to our poor "elites" self-regard! To be defeated by the dreaded Middle Class (the real oppressors) is unthinkable.
The NYT reborn as a high school theater aspirant who wants to be gay for the style of it but can’t quite pack the gear to go all in.
“I’ve found it incredibly replenishing to be spending time around selfless, humble people....“
It appears he attended a Trump rally.
The stock market is doing well. Leftists are bummed.
With Trump, as with Limbaugh, the larger than life persona is self-deprecation.
"necessary, in this increasingly pagan age, to root myself in anything that feels rehumanizing, whether it’s art or literature or learning."
IIRC the point of deprecating paganism is that pagans worship the wrong/useless gods. "Rehumanizing" has nothing to do with recovery, except insofar as aligning yourself with the true Ultimate puts your self true again. Does he think that art, etc are God?
"Dear AI, please help me come up with new ideas for columns based on my perception that what Trump is doing is dehumanizing. -- David Brooks"
Completely plausible. The batshit hysteria of the Democrats makes it difficult for the grifting NeverTrump Republican to be heard. New heights of shrillness must be scaled.
It is fun to listen to these guys on a podcast or whatnot. Their anxious eagerness to not be confused with the hoi polloi is absolutely palpable.
Describing Trump as a pagan only serves Brooks as a literary device to emphasize Trump's 'otherness', for the Progressive normies. When you actually think about it, Trump is on a crusade. He's more like Godfrey of Bouillon, or Richard the Lionhearted. Or maybe Hannibal "master of confusion, frequently attacking when his opponents least expected, using fog and darkness as cover"
Of course, that would be committing the Cardinal sin of making comparisons that are complimentary to Literally Hitler, and David Brooks has his position to consider. People get rid of pets that won't behave, you know.
First of all, paganism has on overall ethos. It simply means "not Christian." A quick internet search would have cleared that up for Brooks:
"Paganism is a broad term encompassing various religions and spiritual practices that share a reverence for nature, often with polytheistic or pantheistic beliefs. It's important to distinguish between historical paganism and modern neopaganism, as the term has evolved and now refers to diverse traditions.
Historical Paganism:
Historically, "pagan" referred to people who practiced religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism in the Roman Empire, particularly polytheistic religions.
These included Greco-Roman religions, mystery religions, and more localized ethnic religions.
The term was also used to describe religions practiced outside the Roman Empire, such as Germanic paganism and Baltic paganism. "
Second, its perfectly possible to be a virtuous pagan. In fact, the Roman Catholic church states that certain pagan writings anticipated the teachings of the church (others say they just stole them):
"Aristotle's philosophy had a significant influence on the Roman Catholic Church, particularly in shaping theological and philosophical discussions. His works, especially his metaphysics and ethics, were integrated into Catholic teachings, particularly through the writings of Thomas Aquinas. Aristotle's logic and his concept of a natural law provided a framework for understanding the natural world and human reason, which were seen as aligning with Christian doctrines. "
So, apparently Brooks got his ideas concerning "paganism" from watching old "Sand and Sandals" movies.
Re: Tim Maguire:
I think the thing about Trump and Christianity, particularly evangelical Christianity, is that he is not actively hostile to it. He doesn't rub his hands together and chortle with glee at the thought of forcing evangelical business owners to pay for abortions, or forcing Christian bakers to bake gay marriage cakes. He probably thinks genderqueer schoolteachers who dream of proselytising little schoolchildren are weirdos. So compared to the alternative, he's miles better, even if he also finds evangelicals a bit kooky (see, e.g., anecdotes about him making fun of Pence even before their break).
But bringing it back to the topic, if we're talking about Trump the Roman pagan, how can we ignore the obvious? As he looks ahead, he is filled with forboding; like the Roman, he seems to see the river Tiber foaming with much blood.
make that no overall ethos
Having candidates posing in the public square to show off their scars would be an entertaining change.
Published on May Day but he was so invested in the pagan as barbarian hook he missed the connection.
"I think the thing about Trump and Christianity, particularly evangelical Christianity, is that he is not actively hostile to it. "
I agree, and Brooks is, lamely, trying to separate Christians from Trump.
Brooks should stick to writing about subjects he knows, like “navel contemplation”, or “proper slacks creasing”…
Humanism's history is rooted in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, and it developed significantly during the Italian Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Renaissance humanism, originating in 14th-century Italy, emphasized human potential and reason, shifting focus from religious doctrines to human affairs and classical learning. The Enlightenment further solidified these humanistic values, emphasizing reason, science, and individual rights.”
So Humanism is a Pagan legacy, Mr. Brooks.
The heart of MAGA, the Y'all Qaeda wing of the party, does have some pagan elements. That dumbfuck at the Jan 6 insurrection with the buffalo helmet and face paint was sort of cosplaying that vibe.
If Trump wanted to go full Roman emperor, maybe we could ask him to dress in a toga (casual Friday wear?) and have him ask the populace whether Brooks should be tossed to the lions or put in a ring where he would fight an opponent to the death.
Brooks here reminds me of a late Byzantine bemoaning the the earlier Roman empire. Just because one is labeled pagan doesn't mean it's worse than the alternative. A Constantine with all his faults and questionable conversion is better than a Justinian II any day.
Because of his obsession with golf I associate Trump with Scottish Presbyterianism, but Wikipedia traces the sport to Roman times so ....
Does anyone edumacated equate pagan to Barbarian/?!
Brooks could save a lot of pixels if he'd just type "not our kind, dear" and be done with it.
Still clueless after all these years
There are plenty of MAGA males who are proud Nietzschean pagans, so I wouldn’t reflexively reject the term just because the girlie-man David Brooks deployed it.
May Day you say?
It's Beltane.
Trump's really more of a Viking than a Roman.
Don the Orange.
Also, Greenland.
Ah Brooksie, who knows that pagans don't have crisp pant creases. And therefore ought not ascend to the Oval Office. It offends Brooks sense of the proper nature of things. In Brooks's world, just as in Muskogee Oklahoma, beads and roman sandals won't be seen--and I'll be danged if Pete Hegseth isn't wearing a toga and carrying a shield. I suppose it is bad form to laugh at that pretentious little dude Brooksie, but I can't help myself.
He may not be a traditional Christian, but I believe he had an intense spiritual awakening after the assassination attempt.
So for Brooks, his "rehumanizing" activities apparently include praising a judge who breaks the law and denies due process to crime victims as "heroic" for her "civil disobedience"--got it.
Through his actions and inaction, I see President Trump exhibiting strength and courage. He has given many Americans hope and renewed faith in America.
DOGE found some waste we can cut! It would probably save more than the sum total of the savings so far.
Detailed Army plans for a potential military parade on President Donald Trump’s birthday in June call for more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and possibly a couple thousand civilians, The Associated Press has learned. ~ AP
brooksie is almost not worth the candle to fisk, we saw pagan in the bacchanal on the white house lawn a year ago, non binary is decidedly pagan,
I thought Brooksies last cri de parody was bad, but hold my IPA
Balfegor said...
I think the thing about Trump and Christianity, particularly evangelical Christianity, is that he is not actively hostile to it.
So compared to the alternative, he's miles better, even if he also finds evangelicals a bit kooky (see, e.g., anecdotes about him making fun of Pence even before their break).
5/2/25, 11:54 AM
I don't grant the notion that Mike Pence is particularly admired among evangelicals, or even representative of them. If he was, President Trump would likely have lost the 2024 election. Aside from finally putting paid to RvW, President Trump is much friendlier to the interests of normal Americans, and evangelicals in particular, than the Bushes or even Ronald Reagan were. In particular, the "Deus Vult" youth philosophy is literally tatted on his SecDef.
David Brooks still believes anyone cares about his opinion. It must be hard going through life with delusions of adequacy and relevance.
Peale was ordained as a Methodist minister, but he bolted to the Reformed Church, whatever the hell that is.
Previously known as the "Dutch Reformed Church", from a time and place when they took their Calvinism straight up. The Prosperity Gospel stuff is a hangover from those days, when material success on Earth was considered to be due to God's favor and proof of one's piety. There are multiple branches today, some of which are as abjectly worthless and politically correct as the Unitarians or Episcopalians, and others which retain some of that old-time predestinarian rigidity.
To quote Dan Akroyd's character in Dragnet: "I hate pagans."
Tim Tim Tim. Just two weeks ago:
"As we focus on Christ’s redeeming sacrifice, we look to His love, humility, and obedience—even in life’s most difficult and uncertain moments," Trump said. "This week, we pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our beloved Nation. We pray that America will remain a beacon of faith, hope, and freedom for the entire world, and we pray to achieve a future that reflects the truth, beauty, and goodness of Christ’s eternal kingdom in Heaven."
You're right, that in no way sounds like a Christian talking there.
rhhardin said...
"With Trump, as with Limbaugh, the larger than life persona is self-deprecation."
Well put.
If Christianity was as strong as it once was, calling someone a pagan would carry some weight. Now most people identifying as Christians are really living a Christian life. It might even be a topic of discussion at the upcoming conclave choosing the next pope. To call Trump a pagan is near meaningless. You might as well call Trump a ‘minority’, another near meaningless term.
Check that 👆🏽 I meant to say ‘most Christians today are NOT living a Christian life.’
anecdotes about him making fun of Pence even before their break...
I don't grant the notion that Mike Pence is particularly admired among evangelicals, or even representative of them
No he reminds us to much of the mean old people in church who you later learn are the deacons. Pence was a made member of the swamp who wore his christianity like a sport coat but practiced deception, backstabbing, insider dealing and all the other major swamp sports the Uniparty loves. He was voted in 1992 a normal guy and went native.
It's a problem us Republican voters know well and and are so so tired of. Trump is the first to actually do what he ran on and do it enthusiastically.
There are plenty of MAGA males who are proud Nietzschean pagans, so I wouldn’t reflexively reject the term just because the girlie-man David Brooks deployed it.
Leftists who sneer at Christianity and work to undermine it might heed the words of Chesterton, who was once accused of being a poor example of a Christian. He agreed and said that without Christianity he might not even consider himself human.
Leftists are quite comfortable with instrumentalism, situationalism, and consequentialism. This is the essence of the "end justifies the means" worldview that infects almost all of them. Their right-wing opposition has historically been much more constrained by at least paying lip service to Christian ethics and morality, but that is definitely falling away with the generalized crisis of faith affecting all of society. If leftists didn't like right wing Christians very much in the past, they are not going to find right wing atheists and pagans more to their liking. Far from it.
Pence was the gatekeeper to the lockdowns, a fervent propagator of the Russian hoax, even in his memoir he still lies fragrantly about General Flynn, this is who the never trumpers probably regard with contempt,
Trump’s a pagan…I guess that means that he doesn’t believe in the dominant D.C. liberal religion. Who knew?
Exactly. If the established religion is Pro-Choice, instructed by mortal gods and goddesses, then we need more pagans.
Amazing the party of trans, grooming children, anti Jewish, anti Christian somehow thinks calling the other side pagan will stick.
"Y'all Qaeda"
I'd never heard that. That's pretty good.
What Reddit page did you steal that from?
Similar to George Will, I don't hate Brooks. He merely evinces the warping power of TDS.
Manliness, that's mortal sin Saint Brooks excoriates through her watered-down philippics. In this vision of Heaven there is but one sex comprised of two kinds of women -- those with dicks and those without.
"What exactly is dehumanizing about paganism? "
Probably the human sacrifice. If it weren't for that...........
"What? George Will has written a column negative about Trump and 'garnered' some attention?!!"
"Hold my chilled Chardonnay."
- Brooks
@Rusty, paganism is still alive and well and they still practice human sacrifice. It's called abortion. Many modern pagans you speak with would say that they're not pagans, but atheists, but there's an old line that "there are no atheists in temples that practice human sacrifice."
They worship a god. The question is which one.
Kak: "Detailed Army plans for a potential military parade on President Donald Trump’s birthday in June call for more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and possibly a couple thousand civilians, The Associated Press has learned. ~ AP"
Trump can't help that he was born on the same day the Continental Congress decided to stand up an army. Has he ever, even jokingly, said the Army 250 parade was in honor of his birthday? I doubt it.
Suppose Harris had won. Should she have had an Army 250 parade? Is it not worth celebrating? What would be an acceptable size for a parade?
Also, what is the actual cost of a military parade? The troops will be getting paid whether they're in the parade, fighting terrorists hand-to-hand in some overseas hellhole, or celebrating the day at the NCO Club in a drunken stupor. So there's no opportunity cost to putting them in a parade. Maybe some travel and lodging costs, but probably minimal: load them up in C-17s (which need the training hours) or 44-pax buses, and house them on cots in the DC Armory, Andrews hangars and Fort Myer gymnasiums.
The vehicles and aircraft will burn fuel and parts, but they would do that in operations or training. The extensive pre-parade inspections will probably even improve the mechanical readiness of all that hardware vs what they'd be allowed to get away with sitting at home station.
I am not seeing a huge cost to an Army 250 parade.
(and to be fair, I also support the Navy and USMC 250 parades which I assume will happen later this year).
Critics of the parade just want to paint Trump as a dictator. And maybe they also don't want to be reminded that boys with boots and bayonets made this country, freed the slaves, and got the governors out of the schoolhouse doors.
Kind of like how we had no major Civil War 150 events.
JSM
PS: Boys! Boots! Bayonets! Maybe it can just be made part of Pride Month. That's a parade everyone can get behind, or vice versa. - jsm
rich is just the village idiot, what village would have them,
according to lefties, this country was founded in 1619, not 1776, and there is nothing worth saving about it,
“Not fair to Trump” shouldn’t that be given your own civility bs tag? When is Trump focused on being fair to anyone other than those who slavish adore him? You seem a whole less cruelly neutral than in Trump’s first term.
“ I think the thing about Trump and Christianity, particularly evangelical Christianity, is that he is not actively hostile to it.”
“ Because of his obsession with golf I associate Trump with Scottish Presbyterianism, but Wikipedia traces the sport to Roman times so ....”
Not the golf, really, but from his family history. And Scottish Presbyterians have traditionally been uncomfortable with evangelical postalizing. It doesn’t mean that he isn’t Cristian, just that he was raised in quieter Christianity.
BTW, the Trump granddaughter who put that video together of staying in the WH over Easter is going to college next year on a golf scholarship. She and her siblings hit balls in the WH indoor golf range, and even her younger sister seemed to know how to swing. Nothing like growing up in a family controlling a number of the top golf courses in the world to instill a love of golf.
OMG Trump is so huge he has his own atmosphere! Big if yrte.
If only Trump had been born on the Fourth of July, Bich would stroke out.
The industrial strength bubble that people like Brooks live in is quite amazing. It is almost as if Brooks has had no contact at all with Trump voters.
"Brooks, the AFLAC duck of elitism"
!That description is gold, Jerry- gold!
john travolta had a smaller bubble,
I know it's a reference from 1975, but it fits
LLR-democratical Rich remains supremely bitter that the US under biden's auto-pen didn't leave ALL of our military equipment to Rich's islamic supremacist allies in Afghanistan.
Another thing Trump and (old) Limbaugh have in common is that they're pranksters.
The pagans were notorious baby-killers. There was no birth control in their society. So after the Roman orgy, there would be a round of infanticide nine months later. Indeed, Rome was named for Romulus, the mythical baby who was abandoned by his parents -- a common practice -- and raised by wolves.
If you want a modern take on pagan thought in the modern era, read Roe v. Wade. Blackmun adopts a pagan ethic and heaps shit upon the Hippocratic Oath. The one decent pagan we can find and Blackmun kicks him out of medical practice. Why? Because early Christians loved Hippocrates and adopted him as one of their own!
To overlook our 50 years of infanticide as you prattle about "pagans" in the Trump administration is beyond stupid. I think Brooks would be opposed to infanticide, if he saw it. But his head is so far up his ass he has no idea what's going on.
Kak-a-phony - We note you got nothing on the stock market and jobs report.
I haven't quite figured out why the characterization of Brooks as "the AFLAC duck of elitism" is the funniest thing I've read in a very long time, but it is solid gold. P.J. O'Rourke would have been proud to come up with such a line.
"We note you got nothing on the stock market and jobs report."
Never has anything useful to contribute, but just can't help himself, still has to crap on every thread.
but!
there's hardly ANY abortion.. It's Safe, Legal, and RARE!
the total number of abortion since 2000, is Only about 2 BILLION
(73 million/yr * 25 yr =1.8 BILLION)
https://www.worldometers.info/abortions/
that's ONLY about a Quarter of the people still living on the planet. I mean, SURE, we've killed a couple BILLION innocent babies.. just in the last 25 years; but when you compare that to All the people that Hitler killed (and add on All the people that Stalin killed (And add on All the people that Mao killed (AND, add on Pol Pot))).. then you're looking at a couple of BILLION, vs a few hundred million.
Hmmmn, maybe it's Not Really That RARE, after All.
But; it's NOT Like Most black pregnancies in NYC are Aborted..
oh wait; never mind
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/nov/25/cynthia-meyer/cynthia-meyer-says-more-black-babies-are-aborted-n/
"Amazing the party of trans, grooming children, anti Jewish, anti Christian somehow thinks calling the other side pagan will stick."
The early Christians were incestuous cannibals, don't you know.
The only people systematically grooming children for their priests sexual consumption is the Catholic Church, for centuries.
A catholic priest is waaaaaaaaay more likely to diddle a kid than a drag queen.
Brooks missed his calling. Instead of writing for the far Left NYT he should have been writing scandalous profiles of celebs for Vanity Fair. Brooks reminds me of Dominick Dunne in both writing style and in his physical resemblance to Dunne. Brooks wrote once about how Obama's trouser creases signaled that BHO would be a good president which absolutely led me to my belief that Brooks wasn't really cut out for political commentary at all but then I suppose the far Left NYT gig pays better though, so there's that.
I always imagine NYT editors thinking it's about that time of the week when we need to prove we're not just a DNC outlet, saying "Better get the gimp".
Shorter David Brooks: "Look at me I am so smart, still relevant."
Explain this Democrat true believer, Mr.Brooks.
The stoics Marcus Aurelius were "pagans". Aristotle, Socrates, Homer, and Plato were pagans. And so were all the men who wrote Greek and Roman Literature.
So, I assume Brooks when he decides to "Rehumanize" he avoids the Greeks and Romans. And reads what? Israel war propaganda? Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, Mailer's the Naked and the Dead?
The man starts with with his Goal, trash Trump. Then he decides "How do attack Trump today?" Of course, Brooks has to "Mix it up" so we get this nonsense.
And what is brooks anyway? A reform Jew? A lapsed Espiscoplian? An Confident atheist? I've never been able to discuss any religiousity in his prose or his views.
A catholic priest is waaaaaaaaay more likely to diddle a kid than a drag queen.
That is false and slanderous. Catholic priests do not have a higher rate of committing sex offenses than other men. Transsexuals most certainly do. At least five times higher, by several analyses.
You know who else is far more likely to commit sex offenses against children than Catholic priests? Public school teachers.
https://thelibertariancatholic.com/children-are-more-likely-to-be-sexually-abused-by-public-school-teachers-then-catholic-priests/
Slander! Damn that sounds serious.
But you’re right, teachers and their administrators did devote 1000 years to organizing a proprioratoy system of child rape and then consistently moved the rapist around to find fresh victims, in order to hide their crimes. Oh wait……..
TBH: "The only people systematically grooming children for their priests sexual consumption is the Catholic Church, for centuries."
Lying about and ignoring the system your New Soviet Democraticals have constructed in record time, in historical terms, probably helps you sleep at night...though the hundreds of thousands of children your political support helped sex traffick into our nation in addition to those groomed in incredible numbers by your psycho public school allies probably have a very different perspective...assuming they are still alive.
TeaBagHag said...
“The heart of MAGA, the Y'all Qaeda wing of the party, does have some pagan elements. That dumbfuck at the Jan 6 insurrection with the buffalo helmet and face paint was sort of cosplaying that vibe.”
Or a high school or college football mascot.
By the way, where and when is the next democrat/pro-hamas/kill all the jews rally?
Trick question!
The democrats and their islamic supremacist allies run dozens of them every single day in every major city and on every lefty/dem college campus!
RCOCEAN II said...
So, I assume Brooks when he decides to "Rehumanize" he avoids the Greeks and Romans. And reads what? Israel war propaganda? Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, Mailer's the Naked and the Dead?
I’m thinking Goofus and Gallant.
"he bolted to the Reformed Church, whatever the hell that is."
The one I know of is German.
My head is spinning from the many pejoratives levied against those of us who voted for Trump. Pagan is a new one. I sense Brooks' brain is about to run out of gas.
“proprioratoy system”
T.B. Haggis be chortlin’… chortlin‘… chortlin‘ down a river.
They will soon be referring to him as Satanic.
Winter is Coming, David.
Trump is a Presbyterian. That’s Christian as it gets. A PAGAN by definition is a practitioner of the oldest religion on the earth: Witchcraft.
America at the highest levels had become a ship of fools. Trump asked himself how to save this country and his answers are so radical that they have religious implications. Be honest - Imagine suggesting that to journalists. Don't steal - How else can Congress get rich? Be ready to face ruin and death rather than back down on the needed reforms - who would do that? and then also clown around and enjoy life? I don't quite see that as paganism.
Pagan in antiquity meant someone wholly outside the Faith, not specifically non-Christian; the term was so employed by various of the (mostly eastern) sects and cults, including Xtianity, which were popular in late Roman times—largely displacing the gods and godesses of Olympus from their mountaintop citadel.
For example, historian T.M. Lindsay on the late Roman cult of Isis in the Cambridge Medieval History: {quoting…}
Egypt gave birth to many a cult. Chief among them was the worship of Isis. Before the end of the second century it had far outstripped Christianity and could boast of its thousands where the religion of the Cross could only number hundreds. It had penetrated everywhere, even to far-off Britain. A ring bearing the figure of the goddess' constant companion, the dog-headed Anubis, has been discovered in a grave in the Isle of Man. Votaries of Isis could be found from the Roman Wall to Land's End.
The worship of Isis may be taken as a type of those Oriental faiths before whose presence the official gods of Olympus were receding into the background. The cult had a body of clergy, highly organised, a book of prayers, a code of liturgical actions, a tonsure, vestments, and an elaborate impressive ceremonial. The inner circle of its devotees were called “the religious,” like the monks of the Middle Ages; those who were altogether outside the faith were termed “pagans”; the service of the goddess was a “holy war,” and her worshippers of all grades were banded together in a “militia.”
Apuleius, himself converted to the faith, has, in his Metamorphoses, described its ceremonies of worship and enabled us to see how desires after a better life drew men like himself to reverence the deity and enroll himself among her followers. He has described, with a vividness that makes us see them, the stately processions which moved with deliberate pace through the crowded narrow streets of oriental towns, and drew after them to the temple many a hitherto unattached inquirer.
We can enter the temple with him and listen to the solemn exhortation of the high-priest; hear him dwell upon the past sins and follies of the neophyte and the unfailing goodness and mercy of the goddess whose eyes had followed him through them all and who now waited to receive him if he truly desired to become her disciple and worshipper.
The initiation was a secret rite and Apuleius is careful not to profane it by description; but we learn that there was a baptism, a fast of ten days, a course of priestly instruction, sponsors given to the neophyte, and, in the evening, a reception of the new brother by the congregation, when everyone greeted him kindly and presented him with some small gift.
We can penetrate with him into the secret chamber reserved for the higher initiation where he was taught that he would endure a voluntary death which he was to look upon as the gateway into a higher and better life. We can dimly see him excited with wild anticipations, dizzy with protracted fasting, almost suffocated by surging vapors, blinded by sudden and unexpected flashes of light, undergo his hypnotic trance during which he saw unutterable things. “I trod the confines of death and the threshold of Proserpine; I was swept round all the elements and back again; I saw the sun shining at midnight in purest radiance; gods of heaven and gods of hell I saw face to face and adored in presence.” We can understand how such an hypnotic trance marked a man for life.
Isis worship, humanized by Hellenism, extracted from the crude wild legends of Egypt the thought of a suffering and all-merciful Mother-Goddess who yearned to ease the woes of mankind. It raised the beast-gods of the Nile and the tales about them into emblems and parables. It captured the common man by its thaumaturgy. For the more cultured intelligences it had a more sublime theology which appealed to the philosophy of the day. In all this it was a type, perhaps the best, of those Oriental cults which were permeating the Empire.
{/unQuote}
And to think I snuck into a lecture by Brooks years ago in Madison because I liked his slightly center-right commentary. When did he fall out of his chair and banged his head?
When was Brooks "Right of center"? Y'mean when he supported Hillary in 2016, or Crooned about how "Dreamy" Obama was?
I think it'd be better to describe Brook as a Globalist, Big Business Liberal. A "reasonable" Leftist on social issues. Its hard to see much daylight between him and Biden on most issues. That's why he liked Obama so much. His real passions are wars in the middle east and Ukraine, free trade, amd mass immigation.
That's why he hates Trump so much.
Really enjoyed reading the comments from this post although I was surprised that no one queried "What ever happened to Andrew Sullivan?" Had to google for myself to find out. Seems he has a Substack column so I guess he is still writing and opinionating.
TeaBagHag said...
"The only people systematically grooming children for their priests sexual consumption is the Catholic Church, for centuries.
A catholic priest is waaaaaaaaay more likely to diddle a kid than a drag queen."
Then why do they insist on surrounding themselves with children?
I am sure his 30 years younger new wife is doing much for his "spirit".
I thought the same thing about Sullivan. I was half about to check the obits to make sure he was still alive. I don't see him much quoted in the MSM either. He always had a small, but dedicated audience, his use for the MSM related to his being Gay and some sort of "Christian". Now, that the Left has won on everything related to Gays and we're even gettng Popes on board, they've moved on, and Sullivan has been left behind.
Just another white male who's not Leftwing enough.
Thank you Michael McNeil. I feel smarter today for having read your post. Now off to watch the Grandson play soccer for Prince of Peace. No pagans here.
Heus!
"Brooks is the AFLAC duck of elitism" is perfect. Cannot be improved!
Brooks' picture could easily be pasted into the Midwit Meme.
To paraphrase my good friend Walter: "Say what you will about the tenets of paganism, but at least it's an ethos."
When did he fall out of his chair and banged his head?
When he was attempting to lick the sharp crease in Obama's pants.
TeaBagHag said...
Slander! Damn that sounds serious.
But you’re right, teachers and their administrators did devote 1000 years to organizing a proprioratoy system of child rape and then consistently moved the rapist around to find fresh victims, in order to hide their crimes. Oh wait……..
I understand your need to hide from the evil you and your party have committed. Knowing that you helped facilitate the trafficking of thousands of children would embarrass and shame even someone like you.
Thousands of women and children were raped and killed on their travels to illegally enter our country.
Their blood and misery is on your hands. People must never forget the amount of misery and suffering the democrats were willing to cause in order to import illegal voters that their corporate cronies could exlpoit for cheap labor.
One of the problems with fighting the pagan values, which allow one to grab whatever one wants, is that a large portion of the population will let you grab. Stop complaining so much about the people taking advantage of other peoples' codependent behavior regarding pagan values, and maybe address the group that is letting the grabbing occur.
And it is not victim shaming when the victim is an active
and consenting participant in the activity victimizing them. It is pointing out behavior with bad consequences.
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