In this weekend episode, Victor Davis Hanson talks with Roger Simon, novelist, commentator and screenwriter. The cover many topics from religiosity to his current book, American Refugees.
This morning I had the good fortune to watch two videos: “In defense of WW2 (with Hitchens and Hanson) and “The Rise of Islam and its Wars with Europe “ VDH. Great experience. I listened to this podcast in its entirety due to my incredible admiration of VDH and endured the torture. I’m an atheist, but I don’t proselytize my views. Knowledgeable people and members of the intelligentsia who believe in a deity; I just chalk it up to cognitive dissonance. I sincerely hope I don’t diminish myself with VDH by giving my honest opinion of this podcast. Does Roger Simon really think he’s in the same camp with VDH? Simon, because of his incomprehensible and confusing presentation caused VDH to stammer on several occasions. Concerning religion, has Simon heard about Hitchens, Harris, or Dawkins? I consider religious belief held by anyone to be a shortcoming, but I don’t find them intolerable. What’s true in the mind is true, is acceptable to me. Simon stated he enjoyed visiting Italy. How profound, who doesn’t? Permit me a departure into the vernacular: This podcast didn’t measure up in many ways.
Frankly, Mr. Simon appears to live in a bubble believing that right leaning voters make red states more red. Possibly in one or two localities but definitely not most. Admittedly, he only assessed 3 or 4 states. But even that seems unlikely. E.g., look at how Nevada changed to blue. Look at Arizona. Former Californians ruined Western Oregon many years ago. They have also done a number on Western Washington. Look at Texas and consider how Democrats have mentioned their intention to turn Texas blue. I did cm work in northern NV some time ago. There were plenty of locals there who were not happy the new residents, former Californians, arriving in high numbers carrying an arrogant attitude while significantly pushing up housing costs around Carson City and Reno. Several years ago, maybe 5 or 6 years ago, i heard a radio interview with an author on a local Seattle radio station. That author/researcher had done multiyear research on state-to-state migration within the US. She found that by far the majority had not changed their voting habit after changing state residences. They continued to vote Democrat up and down the ballot with no thought to what had caused the problems from which they fled. Low information voters are causing the decline we are enduring. If they take the next national election, the Experiment will be over.
My California that I must admit was taken for granted by myself for the majority of my life is gone. All things in the world are always changing but the changes to the California I took for granted were not improvements for the better in my opinion. It seems obvious that continuing to choose policies leading to the decline of and eventual demise of any quality of life of their home would be obvious. The continued support of of these ruinous policies has stolen my once beautiful state.
Dear Mr. Hanson, I have been living in Spain due to a crime that was committed against me, that I was blamed for due to the fact that my brother in law is a famous democrat. I divorced his brother over 30 years ago, and raised our son, and was always a good person. The interview set the record for me, now I am clear that I am a refuge from the United States, and it’s due to the democratic machine that views anyone a threat who can pose a realistic perspective as to what these people are made of. The nuisance, is that I am now still having to deal with the backwash of their foulness, even here in Europe. But I’m not backing down. I walked away from my home of 30 years, along with my business, and community, (what was left of it after being smeared for 7 years.) Wow. This interview with Roger L. Simon put it all in perspective. I am a refugee, from a crime that was used to harass me, for years and years, due to the Democratic machine.
My wife and I moved from Ann Arbor to Maryville, TN this year to escape the woke hellscape our old city and its university had become. And come to find out, one of my new neighbors in TN is a middle-aged, cross-dressing, pride-flag-flying, Palestine-flag-flying, deadbeat, ablebodied jobless loser and, by the way, a felon, who is grooming his own child alongside his deadbeat wife into the very lifestyle I attempted to flee. Maryville College here is woke as hell with an active DEI program that sponsors drag shows for minors – on campus – against Tennessee law. The local library insists upon housing the homeless without voter approval. And this area is apparently filled with so-called republicans – they call themselves republicans – but they are not necessarily conservative. Now it’s up to us newbies to teach these folks what the threat is and, yes, we’ve had to amp-up our political activism. We’ll see how it goes.
Furthermore, we’ve discovered, via our political activism, that only 10% of the people who live in Maryville, TN vote in any given election. Yes, those 10% apparently voted overwhelmingly for Trump for POTUS but what about the other 90%, if they were to actually vote this time, that is? Tribalism (localism in this case) is real down here and the local women’s GOP actually uses the term “ancestors,” as in so-called native republicans who do not agree with incoming, well-versed politically active conservatives (like us) and their values. What DO the believe a republican to be? Dunno, I ordered Simon’s book just to see if his experience is reflective of our own. Meanwhile, advice to others considering a move? Vet the city government, county government, library system, K-12 school board and of course, drill into the local college(s) for DEI poison. Don’t just assume the south is red. And make sure your potential new neighbors are around when you’re looking at houses….
Dear Victor,
I want to thank you so much for educating me with your historical knowledge. I am not sure how I found you…possibly Fox and your book “ The Dying Citizen”. I love listening to your podcast with Sami & Jack…and the stories of your upbringing , family farm, life experiences.
Thank you again ~ Joanie
Wouldn’t it be helpful for some of these refugees to move to purple states. Virginia, for instance, elected Youngkin and others, but it’s razor-thin. With some reinforcements, Virginia could be reliably Republican.Where else? North Carolina? Ohio?
Interesting interview.
Simon was born in 1943, so he’s 5 years younger than my father, but they both have similar views of the world, and the same questions about why things have unraveled as they have. They have the same ideas of themselves as liberals, and therefore, good people. The things they believe are good and therefore right.
And they both miss the point about how to turn things around. They think it’s just an election, it’s just a matter of conservatives fleeing progressive states for “conservative” states. They miss the point that the culture has been changed, it wasn’t changed overnight, and it will take some effort to undo anything that has been done over the last 50, 60 years.
And to the question that Victor and Roger talk about at the end of the podcast, why people in “blue” states keep doing the things they do, keep voting for the people they vote for, the same policies, when they see the results all around them, it’s because they look but do not see. They don’t believe anything has failed, or if it has, it’s because of bad people who oppose them. They believe they haven’t applied enough effort-and money-to make the things they believe in work. Basically it comes down to looking at things emotionally, instead of thinking about them. They feel good about themselves and what they believe in. It’s hard to shake that (continued in the next post…)
(resuming…) The tough part for the rest of us is that we get pulled along with them.
That, too, will not change overnight, and as Victor has often shown with historical examples, more often than not, things will crash rather than pull back from the edge.
Human nature is constant, and while the founders put together a system that would ensure the greatest individual liberty and prosperity for the greatest number of people, and while the recognized that we must each rule ourselves, overcome our nature, and society would order itself accordingly, the worse aspects of our nature are very strong. And we’ve abandoned the concepts of virtue, such as individual responsibility, that most things worthwhile take effort, nothing is easy, that truth is better than lying, things that help us each overcome our nature.
It might be too late; there might not be enough who hold such values, to act as a brake on events and pull us back.
This morning I had the good fortune to watch two videos: “In defense of WW2 (with Hitchens and Hanson) and “The Rise of Islam and its Wars with Europe “ VDH. Great experience. I listened to this podcast in its entirety due to my incredible admiration of VDH and endured the torture. I’m an atheist, but I don’t proselytize my views. Knowledgeable people and members of the intelligentsia who believe in a deity; I just chalk it up to cognitive dissonance. I sincerely hope I don’t diminish myself with VDH by giving my honest opinion of this podcast. Does Roger Simon really think he’s in the same camp with VDH? Simon, because of his incomprehensible and confusing presentation caused VDH to stammer on several occasions. Concerning religion, has Simon heard about Hitchens, Harris, or Dawkins? I consider religious belief held by anyone to be a shortcoming, but I don’t find them intolerable. What’s true in the mind is true, is acceptable to me. Simon stated he enjoyed visiting Italy. How profound, who doesn’t? Permit me a departure into the vernacular: This podcast didn’t measure up in many ways.
Frankly, Mr. Simon appears to live in a bubble believing that right leaning voters make red states more red. Possibly in one or two localities but definitely not most. Admittedly, he only assessed 3 or 4 states. But even that seems unlikely. E.g., look at how Nevada changed to blue. Look at Arizona. Former Californians ruined Western Oregon many years ago. They have also done a number on Western Washington. Look at Texas and consider how Democrats have mentioned their intention to turn Texas blue. I did cm work in northern NV some time ago. There were plenty of locals there who were not happy the new residents, former Californians, arriving in high numbers carrying an arrogant attitude while significantly pushing up housing costs around Carson City and Reno. Several years ago, maybe 5 or 6 years ago, i heard a radio interview with an author on a local Seattle radio station. That author/researcher had done multiyear research on state-to-state migration within the US. She found that by far the majority had not changed their voting habit after changing state residences. They continued to vote Democrat up and down the ballot with no thought to what had caused the problems from which they fled. Low information voters are causing the decline we are enduring. If they take the next national election, the Experiment will be over.
Excellent comment Leroy. I feel somewhat vindicated about the harsh critique I gave this podcast.
My California that I must admit was taken for granted by myself for the majority of my life is gone. All things in the world are always changing but the changes to the California I took for granted were not improvements for the better in my opinion. It seems obvious that continuing to choose policies leading to the decline of and eventual demise of any quality of life of their home would be obvious. The continued support of of these ruinous policies has stolen my once beautiful state.
Dear Mr. Hanson, I have been living in Spain due to a crime that was committed against me, that I was blamed for due to the fact that my brother in law is a famous democrat. I divorced his brother over 30 years ago, and raised our son, and was always a good person. The interview set the record for me, now I am clear that I am a refuge from the United States, and it’s due to the democratic machine that views anyone a threat who can pose a realistic perspective as to what these people are made of. The nuisance, is that I am now still having to deal with the backwash of their foulness, even here in Europe. But I’m not backing down. I walked away from my home of 30 years, along with my business, and community, (what was left of it after being smeared for 7 years.) Wow. This interview with Roger L. Simon put it all in perspective. I am a refugee, from a crime that was used to harass me, for years and years, due to the Democratic machine.
My wife and I moved from Ann Arbor to Maryville, TN this year to escape the woke hellscape our old city and its university had become. And come to find out, one of my new neighbors in TN is a middle-aged, cross-dressing, pride-flag-flying, Palestine-flag-flying, deadbeat, ablebodied jobless loser and, by the way, a felon, who is grooming his own child alongside his deadbeat wife into the very lifestyle I attempted to flee. Maryville College here is woke as hell with an active DEI program that sponsors drag shows for minors – on campus – against Tennessee law. The local library insists upon housing the homeless without voter approval. And this area is apparently filled with so-called republicans – they call themselves republicans – but they are not necessarily conservative. Now it’s up to us newbies to teach these folks what the threat is and, yes, we’ve had to amp-up our political activism. We’ll see how it goes.
Furthermore, we’ve discovered, via our political activism, that only 10% of the people who live in Maryville, TN vote in any given election. Yes, those 10% apparently voted overwhelmingly for Trump for POTUS but what about the other 90%, if they were to actually vote this time, that is? Tribalism (localism in this case) is real down here and the local women’s GOP actually uses the term “ancestors,” as in so-called native republicans who do not agree with incoming, well-versed politically active conservatives (like us) and their values. What DO the believe a republican to be? Dunno, I ordered Simon’s book just to see if his experience is reflective of our own. Meanwhile, advice to others considering a move? Vet the city government, county government, library system, K-12 school board and of course, drill into the local college(s) for DEI poison. Don’t just assume the south is red. And make sure your potential new neighbors are around when you’re looking at houses….
Driven people with driven views landing like hot shrapnel onto the roofs of the town’s moderates.
Dear Victor,
I want to thank you so much for educating me with your historical knowledge. I am not sure how I found you…possibly Fox and your book “ The Dying Citizen”. I love listening to your podcast with Sami & Jack…and the stories of your upbringing , family farm, life experiences.
Thank you again ~ Joanie
Thank you, Mr. Hanson excellent taping. As always you always have such a good lineup. America refuges book is out.
Wouldn’t it be helpful for some of these refugees to move to purple states. Virginia, for instance, elected Youngkin and others, but it’s razor-thin. With some reinforcements, Virginia could be reliably Republican.Where else? North Carolina? Ohio?
Interesting interview.
Simon was born in 1943, so he’s 5 years younger than my father, but they both have similar views of the world, and the same questions about why things have unraveled as they have. They have the same ideas of themselves as liberals, and therefore, good people. The things they believe are good and therefore right.
And they both miss the point about how to turn things around. They think it’s just an election, it’s just a matter of conservatives fleeing progressive states for “conservative” states. They miss the point that the culture has been changed, it wasn’t changed overnight, and it will take some effort to undo anything that has been done over the last 50, 60 years.
And to the question that Victor and Roger talk about at the end of the podcast, why people in “blue” states keep doing the things they do, keep voting for the people they vote for, the same policies, when they see the results all around them, it’s because they look but do not see. They don’t believe anything has failed, or if it has, it’s because of bad people who oppose them. They believe they haven’t applied enough effort-and money-to make the things they believe in work. Basically it comes down to looking at things emotionally, instead of thinking about them. They feel good about themselves and what they believe in. It’s hard to shake that (continued in the next post…)
(resuming…) The tough part for the rest of us is that we get pulled along with them.
That, too, will not change overnight, and as Victor has often shown with historical examples, more often than not, things will crash rather than pull back from the edge.
Human nature is constant, and while the founders put together a system that would ensure the greatest individual liberty and prosperity for the greatest number of people, and while the recognized that we must each rule ourselves, overcome our nature, and society would order itself accordingly, the worse aspects of our nature are very strong. And we’ve abandoned the concepts of virtue, such as individual responsibility, that most things worthwhile take effort, nothing is easy, that truth is better than lying, things that help us each overcome our nature.
It might be too late; there might not be enough who hold such values, to act as a brake on events and pull us back.
ATTN: VICTOR…
On heels of trump victory..can you explain to GOP (maga and establishment)..the party must unite to win..?? (super important)