Neoprogressive
@recapitulation.substack.com
Heaven and earth are not humane | nozickian marxist | democratic hobbesian | atheistic calvinist | effective egoist | livid tribe | Neoprogressive | @OttokarHochman at the the other place
like this critique is relatively reasonable coming from a thoroughgoing secularist or unitarian but not from someone whose denomination accepts the same object-level social commitments--as opposed to arcane theological ones--as the Reformed tradition does, if not worse ones, lol
December 10, 2025 at 9:27 AM
like this critique is relatively reasonable coming from a thoroughgoing secularist or unitarian but not from someone whose denomination accepts the same object-level social commitments--as opposed to arcane theological ones--as the Reformed tradition does, if not worse ones, lol
sir, you are a lutheran
December 10, 2025 at 9:25 AM
sir, you are a lutheran
allowing the Eternal Tory to infest their movement and cause it to degenerate into the farces of HBD and postrationalism) rather than the wrong ones ("left"-Heideggerian cant and chauvinism about being able to embrace finitude).
December 10, 2025 at 9:24 AM
allowing the Eternal Tory to infest their movement and cause it to degenerate into the farces of HBD and postrationalism) rather than the wrong ones ("left"-Heideggerian cant and chauvinism about being able to embrace finitude).
Like to be clear here my point isn't so much that you should be sympathetic to the rats as it is that you should be against them for the right reasons (their insufficient willingness to commit themselves to a totalizing, debellatory war of annihilation against every last iota of conservatism,...
December 10, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Like to be clear here my point isn't so much that you should be sympathetic to the rats as it is that you should be against them for the right reasons (their insufficient willingness to commit themselves to a totalizing, debellatory war of annihilation against every last iota of conservatism,...
Is this "strength of character"? Is attributing problems to "strength of character" a particularly progressive thing to do? Or might there be material, structural, or cognitive reasons why some people draw different conclusions from confronting the same underlying problem?
bsky.app/profile/fain...
bsky.app/profile/fain...
and these are people who fundamentally seem to lack the strength of character required to gaze into the abyss and not completely shit themselves for the rest of their lives
December 10, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Is this "strength of character"? Is attributing problems to "strength of character" a particularly progressive thing to do? Or might there be material, structural, or cognitive reasons why some people draw different conclusions from confronting the same underlying problem?
bsky.app/profile/fain...
bsky.app/profile/fain...
I think you should probably consider whether your conclusion here has literally anything to do with the actual argument of the thread, or whether you might be reading your own biases into it: concluding "my adversaries are literally mental children" is not usually a sign of sound thinking
December 10, 2025 at 9:13 AM
I think you should probably consider whether your conclusion here has literally anything to do with the actual argument of the thread, or whether you might be reading your own biases into it: concluding "my adversaries are literally mental children" is not usually a sign of sound thinking
Like it's worth noting that while Samantha's critique is totally fair almost everybody chiming in under her can basically be summed up as "these guys are too autistic"
bsky.app/profile/mech...
bsky.app/profile/tita...
bsky.app/profile/kyle...
bsky.app/profile/fain...
bsky.app/profile/mech...
bsky.app/profile/tita...
bsky.app/profile/kyle...
bsky.app/profile/fain...
December 10, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Like it's worth noting that while Samantha's critique is totally fair almost everybody chiming in under her can basically be summed up as "these guys are too autistic"
bsky.app/profile/mech...
bsky.app/profile/tita...
bsky.app/profile/kyle...
bsky.app/profile/fain...
bsky.app/profile/mech...
bsky.app/profile/tita...
bsky.app/profile/kyle...
bsky.app/profile/fain...
value they all share: the true infinite of absolute negative unity. You should recognize this is a choice, *and you should choose this*: not because this is "right", but because everything else is wrong. The last man armed proclaims at the end of time: La ilaha illallah!
bsky.app/profile/sjsh...
bsky.app/profile/sjsh...
to live is just to live in the tension. as nietzsche said: to choose, and to choose yourself
December 10, 2025 at 8:57 AM
value they all share: the true infinite of absolute negative unity. You should recognize this is a choice, *and you should choose this*: not because this is "right", but because everything else is wrong. The last man armed proclaims at the end of time: La ilaha illallah!
bsky.app/profile/sjsh...
bsky.app/profile/sjsh...
their excessive confidence in positive affirmation of their own petty schematic imaginations prevents them from recognizing the others of the world who share their same God, and coming together not in unearned dogmatic confidence but a *self-conscious, humble, openminded pursuit* of the ultimate...
December 10, 2025 at 8:52 AM
their excessive confidence in positive affirmation of their own petty schematic imaginations prevents them from recognizing the others of the world who share their same God, and coming together not in unearned dogmatic confidence but a *self-conscious, humble, openminded pursuit* of the ultimate...
universalizing, totalizing belief system which rightfully reject the consolations of finitude but fail to see it written on their own hearts. The greatest fault of the Rationalists, ironically, is that they are not Marxists; of the Marxists, that they are not Calvinists, and so on: that is...
December 10, 2025 at 8:44 AM
universalizing, totalizing belief system which rightfully reject the consolations of finitude but fail to see it written on their own hearts. The greatest fault of the Rationalists, ironically, is that they are not Marxists; of the Marxists, that they are not Calvinists, and so on: that is...
In fear of Pride, let us not have Laud. The fault of the Rationalists, is not that which they *would* purge but that which they would *not*; that is, it is that which they accept, not that which they reject. So too it is with the Calvinists, and the Marxists, and the Kharijites, and every other...
December 10, 2025 at 8:39 AM
In fear of Pride, let us not have Laud. The fault of the Rationalists, is not that which they *would* purge but that which they would *not*; that is, it is that which they accept, not that which they reject. So too it is with the Calvinists, and the Marxists, and the Kharijites, and every other...
unmoved by the phantasmal consolations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; of love, veneration, admiration, or attachment; of that so-called "decent drapery of life" which hides the only moral truth of the world: all that exists deserves to perish!
December 10, 2025 at 8:30 AM
unmoved by the phantasmal consolations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; of love, veneration, admiration, or attachment; of that so-called "decent drapery of life" which hides the only moral truth of the world: all that exists deserves to perish!
The greatest heroes of the progressive imagination have never been *anti*-fanatics or *anti*-enthusiasts; they are *open* fanatics and *skeptical* enthusiasts, who can balance humility and acceptance of their own fallibility with iron devotion to the conquering empire of light and reason,...
December 10, 2025 at 8:23 AM
The greatest heroes of the progressive imagination have never been *anti*-fanatics or *anti*-enthusiasts; they are *open* fanatics and *skeptical* enthusiasts, who can balance humility and acceptance of their own fallibility with iron devotion to the conquering empire of light and reason,...
and they were ones who could draw from, and acknowledge their debts to those who came before them even when the chasm between their religious beliefs was wide: www.americanantiquarian.org/node/12320. So too were a Spinoza or a Marx, a William Lloyd-Garrison or a John Brown, a Milton or a Winstanley
Republicanism Revisited: The Case of James Burgh. | American Antiquarian Society
www.americanantiquarian.org
December 10, 2025 at 8:17 AM
and they were ones who could draw from, and acknowledge their debts to those who came before them even when the chasm between their religious beliefs was wide: www.americanantiquarian.org/node/12320. So too were a Spinoza or a Marx, a William Lloyd-Garrison or a John Brown, a Milton or a Winstanley
Men like Paine, Priestly, and Price--probably the last heroic generation of English radicalism--were of a rare breed that could combine, to borrow a schema from Hugh Trevor-Roper, the determined zeal of a Calvin and the liberal curiosity of an Erasmus. They were at once Philosophes and Puritans;...
December 10, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Men like Paine, Priestly, and Price--probably the last heroic generation of English radicalism--were of a rare breed that could combine, to borrow a schema from Hugh Trevor-Roper, the determined zeal of a Calvin and the liberal curiosity of an Erasmus. They were at once Philosophes and Puritans;...
One of the things that scholars have noticed due to the reemphasis on the importance of understanding the historical figures religious motivations in the last ~20-30 years is how deeply millenarian support for the American and French Revolutions was, especially among their most radical wings
December 10, 2025 at 7:58 AM
One of the things that scholars have noticed due to the reemphasis on the importance of understanding the historical figures religious motivations in the last ~20-30 years is how deeply millenarian support for the American and French Revolutions was, especially among their most radical wings
You might not know *about* Price, but it's very likely that you know *of* him: this is because Richard Price was actually the specific person who Edmund Burke was attacking in Reflections on the Revolution in France.
December 10, 2025 at 7:54 AM
You might not know *about* Price, but it's very likely that you know *of* him: this is because Richard Price was actually the specific person who Edmund Burke was attacking in Reflections on the Revolution in France.
The funny thing about attempts to link Yud and Calvinism is that nobody has ever noticed the *actual, direct, and obvious connection* between them: Bayes' Theorem was invented by a Nonconformist (post-Puritan) minister named Richard Price (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard...)
bsky.app/profile/kevi...
bsky.app/profile/kevi...
December 10, 2025 at 7:50 AM
The funny thing about attempts to link Yud and Calvinism is that nobody has ever noticed the *actual, direct, and obvious connection* between them: Bayes' Theorem was invented by a Nonconformist (post-Puritan) minister named Richard Price (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard...)
bsky.app/profile/kevi...
bsky.app/profile/kevi...
that truth to survive the apostasy of 1660. Curse not them but monstrous old corruption that struck them down so low: if they came to believe that the world was reprobate and all truth could be found in the Book, ask first and above all what made them need to believe it so.
December 10, 2025 at 7:48 AM
that truth to survive the apostasy of 1660. Curse not them but monstrous old corruption that struck them down so low: if they came to believe that the world was reprobate and all truth could be found in the Book, ask first and above all what made them need to believe it so.
these two sects actually are: the sad, broken detritus of the English Revolution. Christopher Hill's *Experiences of Defeat* is really good at illustrating this: they are dogmatic because *they were right* about the most important question of them all, and that was what they needed to become for...
December 10, 2025 at 7:37 AM
these two sects actually are: the sad, broken detritus of the English Revolution. Christopher Hill's *Experiences of Defeat* is really good at illustrating this: they are dogmatic because *they were right* about the most important question of them all, and that was what they needed to become for...
If not that, it's almost always because they were raised evangelical and rebelling against it by rejecting any sort of systematic truth claims at all.
People in this category are overwhelmingly ex-Reformed Baptists or Presbyterians, and it's worth remembering what...
bsky.app/profile/snow...
People in this category are overwhelmingly ex-Reformed Baptists or Presbyterians, and it's worth remembering what...
bsky.app/profile/snow...
anyways, as someone raised classical Reformed, I am very familiar with “thinking machine” type Christians, and as a recent grad who lurked on LessWrong…I saw the same impulses and personalities.
December 10, 2025 at 7:31 AM
If not that, it's almost always because they were raised evangelical and rebelling against it by rejecting any sort of systematic truth claims at all.
People in this category are overwhelmingly ex-Reformed Baptists or Presbyterians, and it's worth remembering what...
bsky.app/profile/snow...
People in this category are overwhelmingly ex-Reformed Baptists or Presbyterians, and it's worth remembering what...
bsky.app/profile/snow...
notably, this describes Sandifer herself, who not only believes in the importance of embracing death as a natural and welcome thing, but also that it's fundamentally unjust for *anyone* to say otherwise because the fear of dying is worse than dying: www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/miracle...
Miracle Day and Death
Jill Buratto is a nurse specializing in end of life issues. She's also my wife, and would be as happy as I would be if you backed my Patreon campaign for weekly episode reviews of Season Eight of Doct...
www.eruditorumpress.com
December 10, 2025 at 7:28 AM
notably, this describes Sandifer herself, who not only believes in the importance of embracing death as a natural and welcome thing, but also that it's fundamentally unjust for *anyone* to say otherwise because the fear of dying is worse than dying: www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/miracle...
they wish for it at all, because that desire intrinsically denigrates the sort of worldliness and positive affection for finite existence that they value. This is usually bc they are from some profession, like artistry, that fundamentally derives its social value from providing terror management;...
December 10, 2025 at 7:22 AM
they wish for it at all, because that desire intrinsically denigrates the sort of worldliness and positive affection for finite existence that they value. This is usually bc they are from some profession, like artistry, that fundamentally derives its social value from providing terror management;...
This is why critics of Rationalism so often end up recapitulating warmed-over capax dei or analogia entis theology: what they object to is usually *not* that Rationalists are insufficiently pessimistic about the possibility of deliverance through reason but that...
bsky.app/profile/snow...
bsky.app/profile/snow...
and the “immortal soul in a fleshy body framework” is most decidedly un-Christian, fwiw. the church kicked out the Gnostics for it, it’s not what “we believe”. We believe God made creation, and it was good. Humanity and the world are not to be escaped, but inhabited, thru grace.
or, more evocatively, this is the lesson of socrates: you are an immortal soul nailed to a frail fleshy body. there is no escaping either half of that equation. there just isn't. you can't escape the "i am, i think, i believe, i desire, i choose" nor can you escape the skeptic's response
December 10, 2025 at 7:16 AM
This is why critics of Rationalism so often end up recapitulating warmed-over capax dei or analogia entis theology: what they object to is usually *not* that Rationalists are insufficiently pessimistic about the possibility of deliverance through reason but that...
bsky.app/profile/snow...
bsky.app/profile/snow...
This is wrong--but it's wrong for a more limited reason than most critics suggest. There really is a Apollyon, and a Vanity Fair, and a City of Destruction. There just isn't a book. Their sin is that of the enthusiast: they have too eagerly gotten their hopes up in a world that really is unbearable.
December 10, 2025 at 6:40 AM
This is wrong--but it's wrong for a more limited reason than most critics suggest. There really is a Apollyon, and a Vanity Fair, and a City of Destruction. There just isn't a book. Their sin is that of the enthusiast: they have too eagerly gotten their hopes up in a world that really is unbearable.