Contra Review #3

The media's self-induced demise, the United States regime as neurodivergent Soviet Russia, education bureaucrats put kids last, the hard truth about monkeypox.

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

—W.B. Yeats

I had a high school English teacher who was a devout Christian. He once told my class, “The world will try to steal your heart.” I stewed in that morsel of wisdom for a long time but didn’t understand what he meant until I became a father. When he said that, he didn’t have any children, but maybe he thought of us like his kids.

I am not a particularly devout or even good Christian—not like David French, the patron saint of transgender women adorned in sequin and fake breasts. But maybe another way to put it: you catechize your children, or someone else will.

You cannot hide them from the world, which only seems to backfire. All you can do is try to prolong the bliss and innocence of childhood for as long as that is possible, then arm them for the world when it is no longer.

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Apologies for the delay on this issue of Contra. I’m working on chapters for a book proposal right now, and I am also involved with some changes coming to Chronicles. My report on transgenderism, which I mentioned in a previous newsletter, is still under review for publication. Here is everything else that I’ve been up to since the last one.

Articles

Media’s Self-Induced Demise | Chronicles

It has been a busy time for the press, that aegis of our vaunted democracy, which is about as independent as a mob enforcer and just as gentle with its enemies. Three victims, in particular, have drawn its recent punches: tech billionaire Elon Musk, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and the owner of the popular “Libs of TikTok” Twitter account, Chaya Raichik.

NATO Has Become the Very Thing It Was Created to Fight | Newsweek

The U.S. originally spearheaded NATO against the global hegemony sought by the Soviet Union, which, much like NATO, promoted conflict and confrontation with every government that did not share its ideology. The historical irony is that the U.S. emerged from the ashes of the Cold War as an ideological nation itself with the same zeal to remake the world.

Why Bosses Love #Girlboss | Compact

Why are America’s largest firms so dedicated to maximizing abortion access? The answer is obvious, if misanthropic: Family commitments are an inconvenience to corporations, because they impede bigger bottom lines; motherhood, especially, is an obstacle to productivity. In other words, modern feminism and managerial capitalism march hand-in-hand against the family.

Education Bureaucrats Put Students Last | Newsweek

Republicans attempting to reform local education systems have encountered resistance even in "red state" redoubts like Oklahoma. Institutional capture enables entrenched bureaucrats to frustrate any effort to root out radical ideologies and mismanagement. It is a microcosm of the national struggle for young American minds.

Media

Large Corporations Are ‘Aiding and Abetting’ Gender Transition Plans for the Youth | War Room

I joined the War Room to talk about the threat of transgenderism to families. The segment got cut short by the announcement that Joe Biden contracted Covid.

The Hard Truth About Monkeypox | The Charlie Kirk Show

A talk with Charlie Kirk about America’s Sacred People and some notes on Ukraine.

Slash and Burn | Return

Katherine Dee interviewed me for RETURN. This was a short one, but it was a lot of fun, and the reception has been overwhelmingly positive so far.

Good Reads

They Can't Let Him Back In | Compact

by Michael Anton

The people who really run the United States of America have made it clear that they can’t, and won’t, if they can help it, allow Donald Trump to be president again. In fact, they made this clear in 2020, in a series of public statements. Simply for quoting their words in an essay for The American Mind, I was mercilessly mocked and attacked. But they were quite clear. Trump won’t be president at noon, Jan. 20, 2021, even if we have to use the military to drag him out of there.

The Anti-Woke Girondist's Lament | Compact

By Patrick Deneen

Douglas Murray’s new book, portentously titled “The War on the West,” tells us almost nothing about the West, or about the origins of the war supposedly being waged against it, or how this war might be ended, let alone won, by those who cherish the West.

Foreign Policy as Spiritual Warfare: A Conversation With Aleksandr Dugin | Chronicles

By Edward Stawiarski

Russian philosopher, mystic, political strategist, radical bohemian, and geopolitical guru; Aleksandr Dugin is notorious, yet few in the West know much about him.

Bullet Points

Washington Examiner: The entire police force for the small North Carolina town of Kenly tendered its resignation in protest over a newly hired town manager.

Wall Street Journal: A majority of the city’s murders since 2015 were committed by suspects who should have been in prison.

Reuters: A senior U.S. Congressional delegation met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kiev on Saturday and promised to try to ensure continued support in the war against Russia.

Washington Post: In both swing states and safe seats, GOP candidates say that liberals hate them personally and may turn rioters or a police state on people who disobey them

Fox Business: An Idaho sheriff said his county is experiencing a “crisis level” of drug overdoses, especially fentanyl and methamphetamine that comes across the southern border.

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