Appreciate hearing your thoughts. I ordered ASAP and have tried to get through as much of the book as possible in the past week. The problem that I encountered with it (and the reason it won’t prove useful for people) is that it relies on two a priori assumptions: 1) that CNs are to be unilaterally opposed, and that they have no legitimate/licit/worthwhile critiques or grievances, and nothing worthwhile to offer or consider. 2) CNs, and by extension all those on the right, are not smart people, but rather unintelligent. What this leads to is a mindset that is just a variation of the “I’m not actually listening to you because I care about what you’re saying, but rather only listening to find the next good opportunity to strike against your position.” CNs and those on the right are not dumb, and they will know when someone or some group is not invested in them but rather feigning interest while seeking to undermine them. They are not ignorant hicks. This is not the 80s/90s, when dismantling a racist skinhead’s worldview was as simple as “let’s talk it out, and then I can show you a family from a minority that doesn’t fit your narrative.” The giant continual mistake that people still aren’t able to fix, is making assumptions about the Right (what they believe and what they actually want/advocate and why) while preemptively discounting everything about them wholesale. This book felt like it was sooo close, half-way to being self-aware and escaping that very problem, yet didn’t actually get to that point. It’s ultimately another amplifier in the echo-chamber of people who oppose the Right but know nothing about the Right.
Most right-wingers have intelligence but not intellect. This results in irrational beliefs, and choosing to ignore valid solutions to any genuine concerns they have, in favour of those offering simplistic bigoted non-pragmatic answers.
@@lightbearer313 ^case in point. If you want to win them to you (and out of rightist ideologies), you'll never get anywhere with them if that's your starting point assumption. also "most have intelligence but not intellect" I think there's some self-improvement that you might need to work on first, too.
Excellent reply. If the book is representing itself as being useful in helping people to connect with those with whom they disagree, but would be viewed as condescending by the very people you are purporting to intend to reach, there's just no getting around the fact that the book will likely be a failure. I haven't read the book, but based strictly on the review above, my guess is that the book won't really be a failure, but will succeed it it's true goal, which is quite different than the goal implied in the subtitle. The books true goal, it seems to me (again, only being familiar with it through this review), rather than being to help more liberal-minded Christians to genuinely engage with their right-wing neighbors, is to sympathize with liberal-minded Christians in their frustrations with their more right-wing neighbors. I imagine liberal Christians will read it and enjoy it, but I doubt it will lead to much improved dialogue or mutual understanding between them and their Christian Nationalist neighbors.
"Right now Christian Nationalism is on the right" -and it always will be, pretty much by definition; the left can have other disturbing trends, but it's hard to see how extreme nationalism could be one of them.
Interesting.... Could this book be used as ammunition against Christian Nationalism or is it more about ways to dialogue with those that hold those views?
It’s about how to approach CNs as a cross-cultural missionary works in a foreign culture. Instead of bombarding them with facts to disprove their assumptions, seek to understand how and why came to embrace the movement and ideology.
Appreciate hearing your thoughts. I ordered ASAP and have tried to get through as much of the book as possible in the past week.
The problem that I encountered with it (and the reason it won’t prove useful for people) is that it relies on two a priori assumptions:
1) that CNs are to be unilaterally opposed, and that they have no legitimate/licit/worthwhile critiques or grievances, and nothing worthwhile to offer or consider.
2) CNs, and by extension all those on the right, are not smart people, but rather unintelligent.
What this leads to is a mindset that is just a variation of the “I’m not actually listening to you because I care about what you’re saying, but rather only listening to find the next good opportunity to strike against your position.”
CNs and those on the right are not dumb, and they will know when someone or some group is not invested in them but rather feigning interest while seeking to undermine them.
They are not ignorant hicks. This is not the 80s/90s, when dismantling a racist skinhead’s worldview was as simple as “let’s talk it out, and then I can show you a family from a minority that doesn’t fit your narrative.”
The giant continual mistake that people still aren’t able to fix, is making assumptions about the Right (what they believe and what they actually want/advocate and why) while preemptively discounting everything about them wholesale.
This book felt like it was sooo close, half-way to being self-aware and escaping that very problem, yet didn’t actually get to that point. It’s ultimately another amplifier in the echo-chamber of people who oppose the Right but know nothing about the Right.
Most right-wingers have intelligence but not intellect. This results in irrational beliefs, and choosing to ignore valid solutions to any genuine concerns they have, in favour of those offering simplistic bigoted non-pragmatic answers.
@@lightbearer313 ^case in point.
If you want to win them to you (and out of rightist ideologies), you'll never get anywhere with them if that's your starting point assumption.
also
"most have intelligence but not intellect"
I think there's some self-improvement that you might need to work on first, too.
The classic "everyone who disagrees with me is stupid or evil"
@@CatholicSamurai We all need self-improvement.
Excellent reply. If the book is representing itself as being useful in helping people to connect with those with whom they disagree, but would be viewed as condescending by the very people you are purporting to intend to reach, there's just no getting around the fact that the book will likely be a failure.
I haven't read the book, but based strictly on the review above, my guess is that the book won't really be a failure, but will succeed it it's true goal, which is quite different than the goal implied in the subtitle. The books true goal, it seems to me (again, only being familiar with it through this review), rather than being to help more liberal-minded Christians to genuinely engage with their right-wing neighbors, is to sympathize with liberal-minded Christians in their frustrations with their more right-wing neighbors. I imagine liberal Christians will read it and enjoy it, but I doubt it will lead to much improved dialogue or mutual understanding between them and their Christian Nationalist neighbors.
Do the techniques also work with islamic nationalism/imperialism?
Thanks for sharing you thoughts on this book. I listened to "The Righteous Mind" and really apprecriated the author's approach.
Wow! I can't wait to read this.
"Right now Christian Nationalism is on the right"
-and it always will be, pretty much by definition; the left can have other disturbing trends, but it's hard to see how extreme nationalism could be one of them.
Please review Mortal Goods by Ephraim Radner, it's so incredibly good
Interesting.... Could this book be used as ammunition against Christian Nationalism or is it more about ways to dialogue with those that hold those views?
It’s about how to approach CNs as a cross-cultural missionary works in a foreign culture. Instead of bombarding them with facts to disprove their assumptions, seek to understand how and why came to embrace the movement and ideology.
How about talk to them like you talk to anyone else.
Yes
Religious people lol