April 25, 2023
There’s a line of reasoning amongst many traditionalist conservatives. The Eisenhower years were essentially the Garden of Eden, and then…
The Fall. The 1960s.
The Original Sin varies from commentator to commentator. It could be… The Beatles. Prayer removed from public schools. Hippies. Drug culture. Vietnam protests. And more (as you’ll see in a moment).
In every case, they argue respect for tradition and authority went out the window – and with it came the destruction of American culture. It’s been downhill ever since! All our present social troubles, the deviancy, and the terrors that presently surround us, all trace back to this Fall.
Even when the believers in this myth aren’t explicit, they still imply that if we could just get back to the way things were done in the 1950s (or some other halcyon moment) then everything would be fine.
Does this make sense?
A listener sent an article to us. The author of that piece had his own hypothesis…
The Original Sin in this case is The Pill. The writer is speaking of the contraceptive taken by millions of women every year. This particular writer believes The Pill opened up sexual possibilities, permitted people to experiment, and now look at what they’re doing! He traces its role in the hatred of motherhood and familial responsibility, abortion, pornography, Hillary Clinton, and tampons in the boy’s room. Eventually, this led to communism at the highest levels of our government.
We’re on a Gish Gallop to Gommorah!
The argumentation style of the piece is quite typical for this genre.
In this episode of Gracearchy, we cover four hallmarks of articles and arguments like this. Spotting them is the first step. Knowing how to counter them is the second. We cover both steps in this episode.
Not everyone always has time to listen right away, so we’ll share the four hallmarks with you here. But we hope you’ll listen, later, to get all of the details.
1. The Gish Gallop.
2. Treating objects as moral actors.
3. Turning an ought into an is.
4. The purpose of Sex.
Every episode is also on these podcasting five platforms: Pandora * Stitcher * iHeart * Google Podcasts * Spotify
We’re featuring today’s episode on…
Please also subscribe to the service on which you listen, so that you’ll be conveniently notified of all upcoming episodes.
ZAP The State and have a nice day,
Jim Babka
Host, Gracearchy with Jim Babka
Co-creator, Zero Aggression Project