Sane, rational thinking still exists in these unhinged times, though our friends who solely imbibe MSM-filtered news could be forgiven for not knowing it. I want to highly recommend a series of videos that I’ve found to be a breath of fresh air and an oasis of sanity amid the dominant, emotion-fueled narrative — a fitting complement to the work Bill, Steve, and Scott do here.
It started when I ran across this profoundly smart talk by John McWhorter (a 14-minute excerpt from a Reason-sponsored debate he engaged in about a year ago, that thus predates the killing of George Floyd): “How Anti-Racism Hurts Black People“. Included among the clip’s many merits is a wonderful and all-too-rare example of someone describing changing his views in response to evidence. (What a concept!)
From there, I got hooked on Glenn Loury’s podcast on Bloggingheads.tv — particularly his one-on-one talks with McWhorter. There’s hours worth of material here, but it’s truly gold. I can listen to these brilliant, insightful fellows talk all day. Recommended episodes that I’ve watched start to finish:
- The Viruses (June 10, 2020 — 1 hour)
- The Unraveling (July 4, 2020 — 50 minutes)
- The Dark Arts (July 23, 2020 — 54 minutes)
- A Critical Look at the 1619 Project (September 11, 2020 — 1 hour)
As with present company, I feel so grateful to share a country with these men.
Here’s Bret Weinstein & John McWhorter on June 21st.
Finally, this 8-way roundtable Bret put together featuring Glenn and John along with Coleman Hughes, John Wood Jr., Thomas Chatterton Williams, Chloé Valdary, and Kmele Foster was densely packed with insight and very much worth the time. It’s such a wonderful example of people having a reasoned, civil discussion, challenging one other, agreeing on some things while disagreeing respectfully and reasonably on others (much as John and Glenn do one-on-one). Makes you wish it wasn’t such a rare thing to see — or at least, to see widely publicized.
In a time when so much of what’s going on seems to be about herding us down a particular line of thinking and “painting the windows black” to block out alternatives (per Bill’s apt metaphor), it really is vitally important to dig for and share good material like this. I’m grateful to be in a place that’s brought us here for that reason, and hope the above are of interest to others.
Please comment below regarding any other gems I might have missed! — Thanks!