Wow, thank you for such a detailed response!
I’ll check out the sources you’ve given.
Comment on [Serious] Any high-quality right-wing media, books, explainers?
PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 6 months ago
Yes! I’ve been on this journey!
Thomas Sowell bibliography is easily the best starting place. As a prominent conservative economist, his books actually make good arguments. It takes actual effort to deconstruct his arguments and identify where he’s wrong. He’s widely and highly respected in conservative communities and tackles a lot of the common cultural war issues.
Then there’s granddaddies Milton Friedman and F.A. Hayek. Also economists, they were directly impacted by the Cold War, and make intellectual cases that capitalism is the only economic system that leads to real individual freedom. And they also try to prove why the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union undermines liberty. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom and Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom are staples.
Castigated by modern conservatives because they’re not serious about anything, sociology’s Emile Durkheim is a cornerstone of the discipline. I’ve never read it, but his book *Suicide *concerns individuals within community and the institutions of it. He talks about a type of suicide derived from moral disorder and lack of clarity, anomic suicide.
One book that I found incredibly insightful was Yuval Levin’s The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left. This book is genuinely fair to both sides, and it shows the historical roots of conservatism and its relation to the French Revolution, when the right and the left as political stances first became a thing.
Allero@lemmy.today 6 months ago
applepie@kbin.social 6 months ago
Thomas Sowell is an american pseudo intelectual...
A lot of his analysis doesn't hold any water if reviewed in context of the world.
He is essentially doing the bidding for the regime which I guess what "conservatives" do but he is disingenius IMHO sort of Ben Shapiro type of lapdog telling working peasants sucks to suck, git gud.
PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 6 months ago
While I don’t disagree exactly, the way he puts his arguments is far better than Shapiro. Reading or listening to Sowell is a lesson in uncovering sophisticated conservative arguments. It took me a while to understand how Sowell reasoned, so that’s why I include him and think he’s a great example of conservative thinkers.
Omniraptor@lemm.ee 6 months ago
iirc Friedman changed his mind about the welfare state later in life
grue@lemmy.world 6 months ago
And they also try to prove why the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union and every lesser species of it undermines liberty.
Proving totalitarianism undermines liberty seems pretty trivial to me. An attempt to prove that communism must necessarily be totalitarian would be much more interesting.
PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 6 months ago
Yeah, that’s what they do and say.
MyPornViewingAccount@lemmy.world 6 months ago
OP, this guy has given you an honest answer that is actually good material.
Seconding these recommendations.
Retiring@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Love the name