It’s been a long while since I posted (junior year has been quite a busy time), but earlier today I was reading an article written by an intellectual who is visiting my university next week. I like this article for its well-thought out critique and history of identity politics and how it proposes to bridge the ideological gap on immigration between both political sides so that it addresses the concerns of both parties. I also like how it talks about how we can create national identity in an age where diversity of many kinds is unavoidable. I do disagree with the writer’s assertion that the American right has drifted further to the right than the American left has drifted left, the writer’s thoughts on why the right opposes Obamacare, but there are quite a few ideas in his writing that I like (mostly to do with his identity politics critique and moderateness compared to how the right and the left are portrayed) and align with my own ideas that I couldn’t not share this.
Thoughts
The Problems with Women Ignoring Serious Relationships until Later in Life
I want to say that the reason I like this article is that while women need not marry right out of high school or go to college to get their MRS degree, it points out some of the negative consequences of waiting until your 30’s to get married and have kids. It has some great points for women to consider when evaluating when might be the right time for them to settle down.
https://aussienationalistblog.com/2018/07/11/the-single-girl-stretched-too-far/
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Practical Ways to Discourage Abortion and Help Women With Unplanned Pregnancies
I saw this on the Instagram story of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS). It’s a blog post from their website written by a women who found herself with an unplanned pregnancy. It’s a great post about how to help women like that. While, as a Catholic and someone who believes in common sense, I believe we should work on minimizing the amount of women who end up in this situation, the list at the end of this post has many great ways we can help out the women who do end up in this situation. If we want to eradicate the demand for abortion, we have to make sure the women in this situation feel loved and supported…that they can make the courageous choice to choose life. As the pro-life movement says, #lovethemboth.
https://focusoncampus.org/content/im-that-girl-who-chose-life
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#NeverForget
A little belated, but one of my friends took a picture of some flags that my university put up in a field on campus to remember all those lost on 9/11. It’s super touching, so I wanted to share.
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If this girl can do it, you can do it.
I also saw this via Facebook. It’s the inspiring story of a young woman my age who overcame her disabilities to achieve great things academically. Her story is proof that your disability doesn’t have to limit you.
https://www.liveaction.org/news/madison-gap-college-down-syndrome/
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Women’s sexual choices have a sizable effect on how men treat them.
I like this article from the Wall Street Journal because it points out how the sexual revolution and the rise of casual sex and porn has influenced how men and women treat each other. As mentioned in the article, casual sex often unwittingly teaches men that they don’t need to treat women right to get what they want out of their relationships because they can get sex for cheap…aka, minimal effort at all. Women will just give it to them and then often wonder why men drag their feet in committal. Because sex has been cheapened and given out more freely, it’s no wonder relationships between men and women aren’t nearly as mutually respectful and that we have problems with sexual assault, rape, and other forms of abuse in relationship. From all this, it’s easy to see the wisdom in many religions advising and prohibiting sex outside of marriage.
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Some Benefits of Following a Religion
I saw this article on the NZ Conservative Coalition blog, and I like this article because it points out that having a religion is something to look into (I myself am practicing Catholic). It seems that these days, many aetheists and other non-religious men and women sneer at those who practice any religion (often, sneering at Christians, but honestly at any religion) as fools who believe in fantasies, and that the religions themselves as restrictive and archaic. However, I believe that what many of those people miss (and I urge them to examine) is that often, the teachings codified in the commandments of the world religions (I can at least speak for Catholicism) aren’t senseless restrictions at all…they actually contain practical life advice…like a manual on how to go through life smoothly. Obviously, no one’s perfect (or else we’d be God and not humans), but when we follow these commandments, we reap benefits for all areas of our health and better our character. Take, for example, the idea of fasting. Many religions prescribe fasting during different times of the year, and fasting often requires giving up something for an extended period of time (anything from food and drink to technologies we take for granted). As I’ve learned from personal experience, fasting has allowed me to learn moderation in foods and drinks I enjoy…I don’t always have to have that bag of popcorn or drink of juice when I get a craving, and it becomes easier to say no to them. And this just only one benefit practicing a religion can have. They can also teach things such as respect for others, learning not to use people, keeping a positive attitude, avoid certain kinds of family drama, humility, and make it easier to avoid certain diseases (i.e. STDs). With that thought, I challenge anyone who considers themselves to be non-religious to see that religions are actually a breath of fresh air for the everyday problems we all have.
Religious people live 4 years longer than atheists — Fellowship of the Minds
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Finally, we’re back to promoting the only pregnancy and STD prevention method that actually 100% works in consensual relationships.
Largely due to my religious beliefs, I think that sex before or outside of marriage isn’t a good idea. It can lead to STDs, unplanned pregnancies, inability to recognize being in a relationship that isn’t a good idea for you, etc. Unfortunately, our overly sexual culture and increasingly unfavorable views towards traditional morality makes abstinence hard to practice, and many people often fail to see that there’s actually wisdom in practicing abstinence outside of marriage. Kids need to be taught that this is an extremely valid way to maintain sexual health (especially in terms of preventing unplanned pregnancies and STDs and learning self-control and moderation), and that it’s perfectly okay and much better for them that they refrain from casual sex.
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I guess I’m a bit of an old soul (or maybe a middle-aged soul).
The following is an article by Ben Shapiro I saw on the NZ Conservative Coalition. It’s about the differences between older conservatives (such as my parents and grandma) and younger conservatives and young Americans in general (like myself in a sense). It does a good job presenting these differences and what older conservatives can do to appeal to young Americans/conservatives. Personally, though I can see the side of young conservatives and young Americans in general, maybe because my parents are of an older generation or something, I lie more with the older conservatives in both my political and religious views (since I’m a practicing Catholic when most millennials are not very religious) and my views of Trump. I appreciate him because, despite some questionable aspects of his personal character, he was the much better candidate policy wise than Hillary (once the candidate I was originally going to vote for was out [Dr. Ben Carson])–essentially, his policies were more important to me than his character (I mean, as this article points out, we’ve elected presidents of questionable moral character before such as JFK and Bill Clinton). I like that this article ends with practical tips on how to win over young Americans, particularly about being able to argue secularly. Being that I am religious, my religion factors a lot into my political thinking. Not to say that religious reasoning isn’t important (because as anyone genuinely practicing a faith would know, it’s a very good moral compass), it’s important to be able to explain our views that we came to through religious guidance in a secular way so that people who have not come to our faiths can understand. Honestly, all in all, as usual, Ben Shapiro makes a compelling case.
Shapiro at ‘The Weekly Standard’: How Conservatives Can Win Back Young Americans — Daily Wire
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Commentary Request
A couple of days ago, I received an ask from commentary on a few topics and I’ll address them here:
The first thing I was asked was my thoughts on whether or not I believed there was an actual government-granted right to healthcare. Upon initial analysis, I don’t believe so. I don’t believe that the government should be telling people that they should or should not get healthcare. It should be emphasized that I believe every human has an inherent, inalienable right to life (abortion and euthanasia contradict this as I’ve discussed before) on which all other rights are derived, and I believe that implies that if someone is sick or injured and we have the means in some way to help them get better, we should in order to help them exercise their right to life and that this can also (especially when it involves research into experimental treatments), help make things better for future patients. Thus, this implies that doctors should be open to helping their patients find the treatments the best work for them and if we have money, perhaps giving monetary assistance to people who can’t afford a necessary treatment (for example, say a couple we know has a sick baby and lack the funds to get treatment, donating money to help). I believe that we should be careful in involving the government in dispensing it because I see it quickly disseminating into the government unjustly deciding who deserves to have life and who doesn’t. Because of this and my thought that individual people can better see the needs of others than the government, I believe that it would be better to find some way to deemphasize government roles in healthcare.
The second thing I was asked about effect of the costs of prescription drugs on healthcare. I don’t know a lot about this topic because it’s not in my field of study and I don’t take that many prescriptions myself, but what I do know is that awhile ago, during a conversation between my mom, a friend who studies pharmacy, and me, it was brought up that prescription drugs are often made excessively expensive by pharmaceutical companies. Unfortunately, I don’t remember all the details of that conversation.
On the topic of flat taxes vs. consumption taxes, I don’t know a whole lot either, but I’ve always kind of favored a flat tax because it means that everyone gives an equal percentage of their earnings as taxes, similar to tithing. Unfortunately, I believe there are different factors in society that would make this difficult to implement today.
As for gay marriage, I’m firmly against it, and I’ve said that the words “gay” and “marriage” together are contradictory in terms of the traditional and what I believe to be the real definition of marriage. This is largely due to being a practicing Catholic, and I’ve posted multiple times on this topic. As I usually do, it is good to note that my opposition to gay marriage doesn’t mean that I think gays are inherently bad. I just think that there is neither a right to marry nor that people of the same sex should marry. In my view and that of many of my fellow practicing Catholics, the short of it is that we do not believe that it is God’s plan for sexuality. There are many good resources out there to understand the Catholic position on this (for example, Jason and Crystalina Evert’s The Chastity Project).
Finally, on the War on Drugs, I don’t know a lot about it as well, but here’s what I do know: I do know that drugs are a huge problem that should be dealt with. Anyone who has taken a health class will know that there are lots of drugs out there (i.e. heroin, cocaine, meth, marijuana, etc.) that will negatively impact your health life, and I’ve seen it happen to a few people I know, particularly, one of my cousins who struggled with drug addiction before her death. I also remember my mom mentioning that the area I live in as being a crossroads for some drug trafficking routes. So, in conclusion, I know that it is a problem that should be dealt with, but as I don’t know too much about the specifics, I don’t have a very educated opinion about what to do about it.
Letters to a Young Conservative 