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John Broomhead's avatar

Thanks for the rundown on Holiday. Firstly, I've enjoyed these books he's authored: Discipline is Destiny & Daily Stoic. I'm a fan of history. Fascinated by pre-modern man who figured out most things...there's nothing new under the sun. Therefore, I think the Stoic content is helpful/useful to further understanding and enabling objective thinking. Here's the rub with Holiday. I'm aware of his position on being cancelled by the Naval academy for censoring about 600 DEI books and his video on Nero & Nasisim, which he uses Trump's 2016 presidency as a comparison. I could not sit through the entire hour long videos of each of these. Holiday doesn't get it. He uses a controversial book argument brought up by President Eisenhower saying he wished more people read Mein Kampf. I get it. I'm a 34 year retired Army Colonel and I've read Sayd Qutb's Milestone book to understand radical jihad as I was an Iraqi National Police military advisor and hundreds of pages to understand the Oriental region. Understanding radical socialism and radical Islam is gaining intelligence on your enemy. This does not compare to "brainwashing" impressionable military cadets to ditch a merit based system for DEI social experiment. There is no room for this in those commissioned to defend the Constitution of the United States. Next, ALL politicians are narcissists (Dark Triad Personality Traits). Full Stop. Fact. I joined the Army as at the end of the cold war. Having served under the presidencies of Clinton, W Bush, Obama, Trump & Biden, all excluding Trump have been foreign policy disasters. Biden, by far the worst of the bunch both domestic and foreign policy. Clinton handed us over to the Chinese (if one wants to understand China then study the Khan dynasty), W Bush bled the treasury and youth on bad intelligence (criminal). Obama perpetuated it and the list is too long. Trump is transactional and unpredictable (that's how to win wars). One must not be a reflexive voter. One must weigh the facts and empirical evidence (not emotions), then make an informed decision. I know I'm likely writing to folks who already think this way. However, I have association with people my age & whom I thought knew better and really don't understand how to make an informed decision for POTUS.

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Joey Simpson's avatar

I think this was a good read. Perhaps most interesting is your suggestion that young people are longing for time tested systems for dealing with life’s contemporary problems. I think Holiday provides that with the stoic literature and in a way the medium for providing those things is his independent contribution that goes beyond the teachings of the stoics. The few times he speaks about politics, I think he is conserving the stoic way in light of the Trump movement which takes liberties away from such principles. He has a great video using the stoic principles and the story of Nero and Seneca to help his followers deal with the contemporary problem of Trump’s destructive path. I think that’s pretty profound. My only critique of your article is that I reject the idea that conservatives have a more developed system of caring for their souls than progressives. I just think most of the loudest voices have done little or no soul care, and there are folks on both sides using systems of Christianity and other forms of spirituality to care for their souls. They just aren’t the squeakiest wheels.

Thanks for the good read to start the morning. I’m glad you are in conversation with Holiday’s ideas. Looking forward to more reads.

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