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May 1, 2022Liked by Rupert Cocke

This reminds me of an example I noted a decade ago. In 2011, I read a couple books by then-Texas governor Rick Perry, not because I admired him but because he was running for U.S. president and I wanted to figure out his ideology.

In "On My Honor" (2008), Perry, a conservative, complained that "liberals value the preservation of self-esteem above all else," and he called out "counterculture activists" for "imposing a culture of self and moral relativism upon the nation." This characterized the Left as a bunch of individualists. Here, his viewpoint tracked with what you call "C" in this post.

But his "Fed Up!" (2010) was introduced by Newt Gingrich who made this comment: "The Left believes that most people are not capable of pursuing happiness and that a strong centralized government is best able to provide for them." This characterized the Left as a bunch of collectivists. In this book, contrasted with the former, Perry did not mention the term "moral relativism" but instead complained about the Supreme Court's "intrusion into personal matters of morality and conscience." Here, his viewpoint tracked with what you call "A" in this post.

And, of course, A and C are contradictory.

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