Take Conservative Thought Seriously
A Letter to the Editor of the Michigan Daily
I’m a little sick, so sharing an older piece of writing instead of trying to squeeze out the little rotten thought-juice left in my brain. I sent this piece to the editor of the University of Michigan’s student newspaper—the Michigan Daily—on January 21, and received a same-day response:
Thank you for your submission, but unfortunately, we will not be going forward with publishing it. Enjoy the rest of your week.
But I’m proud of the argument and the writing, so I’m putting it here.
Ben Luu’s January 15 article on the right-wing philosophy book, Strange New World, disappointed me a great deal. I hesitate even to call it a ‘review’—to me, it reads more like a lazy screed against conservative thought in general.
Luu found Carl Trueman’s 2022 manifesto shelved among works of leftist and feminist thought, assumed its reference to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World to be a signal of proper left-wing political alignment, and brought it home. Upon opening the book, however, he was shocked to find he’d purchased a polemic defending Christianity and traditionalism.
“I knew I fucked up,” he writes.
Happily, the article doesn’t end there—Luu successfully suppresses his dogmatic instinct to ignore the other tribe, and gives Trueman’s work the ol’ college try, even though a blurb from Ben Shapiro lies on the endorsement page.
His discussion of the book, however, leaves quite a bit to be desired. He condemns its transphobia and bigotry and stupidity, and all but claims that the only reason Trueman is defending Christianity must be that his job—professor of biblical and religious studies—depends on it.
Then Luu pivots—from making fun of the work to decrying it as a dangerous thoughtcrime disguising itself “as profound and nuanced political thought.” Luu’s upset that a right-wing work of philosophy could possibly purport to deal as seriously in reality as the ideologies he clings to. And that he briefly found merit in any aspect of the work? “[A] truly disturbing thought.”
Indeed, Strange New World must be nothing more than propaganda! A blatant attempt to present right-wing thought in a book “well-researched and written with clarity.” An ugly and irrelevant work “adored” by many, with hundreds of “radiant” reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.
Luu’s error comes not in his opposition to the arguments made in Strange New World (which really do fall short) but in his total inability to take the work seriously. He knows that Trueman thinks the “politicization of … our psychological state” is responsible for social ills—but fails to let that lens guide his review. Of course Trueman will be suspicious of trans ideology if he believes that gender dysphoria was invented to serve as a political wedge. If you want to convince him otherwise, prove that the psychology is real! Don’t malign and dismiss him as a bigot.
Strange New World defends an ideology that may feel foreign to many Michigan students, but is plenty common in American politics. Hell, our president is Donald Trump! And he won the election precisely because snotty liberals like Ben Luu refused to take normie-America’s concerns seriously.
If you want to convince the average right-winger that transphobia is wrong, this is not the way to do it. And if The Daily wants to maintain an atmosphere of honest and respectful engagement with all manner of ideas, it has failed.
Lukethoughts
“Stretching is very important to our body and I am suffering the consequences of not doing so.” (Ed. note: I don’t understand stretching. Also I think you have to do it under very particular circumstances, like, you should warm up a little first or something. It all seems a bit too clever, I dunno.)
“Sports are such an interesting array of topics because for a lot of people it is the only opportunity for them to achieve “success” and I consider them topicS because every sport holds their own unique idea of success.” (Ed. note: Yes?)
“For example to be on the ATP tour doesn’t necessarily mean that you made it. In fact, unless you are in the top 100 you aren’t making enough money to sustain any pleasurable lifestyle.” (Ed. note: Yeah, most sports are kinda loser machines. Just big ol’ generators of misery.)
“I think that’s pretty cool personally.” (Ed. note: Ah. Well, ok then.)