Power Line The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Human Nature and American Identity
Aug 3, 2024
59:57
What do Trump's controversial appearance before black journalists, the Olympics controversy over the gender of boxers, and the protean identity of Kamala Harris have in common? Simple—they are all an aspect of what Steve believes is the central political and moral-philosophical issue of our age: human nature.
Everyone seems to think Trump blundered by questioning the authenticity of Harris's changing ethnic identity, but Steve and Lucretia—in rare heated agreement—think it was a masterstroke, albeit with Trump's usual heavy-handed and perhaps clumsy way. And we use for our article of the week the usually sound Abigail Shrier's Free Press article, "Republicans, You’re Going After Kamala All Wrong," that we think gets the matter exactly backwards.
But it when we turn to the controversy over gender identity in the Olympics that we deepen the story. Take in at your leisure the case of Caster Semenya, a genuinely "intersex" South African 800-meter runner born with female genitalia who is not allowed to compete in the Olympics track and field competition because of high male testosterone levels. This is the same extremely rare anomaly as the Algerian boxer at the center of controversy right. (Also note the holder of the women's 800 meter world record, Jarmila Kratochvílová, set back in 1983—currently the oldest track and field world record. Kratochvílová is thought to have been heavily doped up, as was common with Eastern European athletes in those days, but it is hard to say.)
Steve's theory about how the left's war on human nature also applies to why Harris is such a miserable boss—hardly a rare trait among leftists. John doesn't quite buy the metaphysical explanation, but we're used to this my now.
Finally, Steve offers a brief homily about moral education drawn from a short passage from Leo Strauss's classic essay "What Is Political Philosophy" to make a point about what's wrong with the left's narrative about the Israel-Gaza War.
Everyone seems to think Trump blundered by questioning the authenticity of Harris's changing ethnic identity, but Steve and Lucretia—in rare heated agreement—think it was a masterstroke, albeit with Trump's usual heavy-handed and perhaps clumsy way. And we use for our article of the week the usually sound Abigail Shrier's Free Press article, "Republicans, You’re Going After Kamala All Wrong," that we think gets the matter exactly backwards.
But it when we turn to the controversy over gender identity in the Olympics that we deepen the story. Take in at your leisure the case of Caster Semenya, a genuinely "intersex" South African 800-meter runner born with female genitalia who is not allowed to compete in the Olympics track and field competition because of high male testosterone levels. This is the same extremely rare anomaly as the Algerian boxer at the center of controversy right. (Also note the holder of the women's 800 meter world record, Jarmila Kratochvílová, set back in 1983—currently the oldest track and field world record. Kratochvílová is thought to have been heavily doped up, as was common with Eastern European athletes in those days, but it is hard to say.)
Steve's theory about how the left's war on human nature also applies to why Harris is such a miserable boss—hardly a rare trait among leftists. John doesn't quite buy the metaphysical explanation, but we're used to this my now.
Finally, Steve offers a brief homily about moral education drawn from a short passage from Leo Strauss's classic essay "What Is Political Philosophy" to make a point about what's wrong with the left's narrative about the Israel-Gaza War.