[Serious] Any high-quality right-wing media, books, explainers?

I know Lemmy isn't normally the best place to search for this, but are there any high-quality right-wing explainers, or modern books, or media outlets?

I myself am ultra-left (quite literally communist, to the dictionary sense of the word), but I'd like to quit the bubble that inevitably forms around and look at good arguments of the opposing side, if there are any.

Is there anything in there beyond temporarily embarrassed millionaires and fears that trans people will destroy humanity? Is there rational analysis, something closer to academic research, behind modern ideas of laissez-faire capitalism and/or political conservatism?

I've tried outlets like PragerU, but they are so basic they seem to target a very uncritical audience.

I'd like to see the world in the eyes of an enlightened right-winger, and see where they possibly fail (or if suddenly they have valid arguments).

juicy ,

So I'm going to interpret your request broadly and recommend a couple podcasts. They aren't necessarily right-wing (honestly, probably center left to center right), but they're probably outside of what you'd normally consume and may challenge or intrigue you.

  1. The New Liberal Podcast New liberalism is a rebranding of neoliberalism. I'd start by listening to a couple mailbag episodes and his past best books of the year episodes.

  2. Conversations with Tyler Tyler Cowen is a conservative economist at the University of Chicago, but you don't actually hear his opinions that often on his podcast which consists of interviews with an eclectic variety of folks from a homeless man to a Calvinist theologian, from music producer Rick Rubin to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. He has a unique interviewing style that consists of a series of disjointed questions. He often poses challenging questions, but he gives them plenty of space to answer and doesn't debate. I would suggest skipping interviews with people you know you're going to hate (e.g., Peter Thiel), but instead look for interviews that pique your interest.

Allero OP ,

Center left to center right by American standards, I suppose?

(It's important to clarify as American center is way more right than normally considered, with Democrats normally considered center-to-moderate right outside of the US)

Thanks! Wide scope is appreciated.

juicy ,

Yes, I'm not familiar enough with European politics to confidently say what it would be considered there.

Meron35 ,

A lot of the academics associated (formerly or currently) with Chicago Booth are highly respected as economists but highly conservative. As influential and famous they may be, their personal blogs and twitter account are yikes.

E.g. Harald Uhlig, Joch H Cochrane

Allero OP ,

Thanks!
If I'm not mistaken, Thomas Sowell, who is often cited under the post, changed to the right-wing after discussions with Chicago students - must be quite solid.

tjhart85 ,
@tjhart85@kbin.social avatar

I don't know if you like podcasts, but Know Your Enemy is a take on the right from two leftists who used to be conservatives who approach it from an intellectual POV.

I linked to the political magazine that helps support them since it gives some rundowns of their topics that might give you some of the sources that can be read instead of listening to their podcast, if you'd prefer.

Allero OP ,

Sounds like a great find! Thank you

Alimentar ,

I find the Austrian School of Economics really interesting.

Particularly books written by American economist Murray Rothbard, who talks about free markets, government (particularly government intervention) and inflation.

There's a very short book you can read called "What has Government Done to Our Money?”

Allero OP ,

Thanks!

ArcaneSlime ,

Here's an audio copy of Murray Rothbard's Man, Economy, and State. Murray is basically the father of "right wing" libertarianism (insofar as right v left is individualism v collectivism, not "right=racism is good,") he seems to fit the description you seek. Not saying you'll agree or love him, but he isn't some "lets kill the gays" nonsense.

Also try Milton Friedman, and Lysander Spooner. They're more "anarchism" or "libertarianism" as well, from that same individualist, rather than collectivist, standpoint.

Allero OP ,

I'm not here to love these people, I'm here to hear them out :D
Thanks!

Siegfried ,

Please dont have sex with milton, ok?

DonnieDarkmode ,

Not a right-wing source in and of itself, but Corey Robin’s The Reactionary Mind explores the history and philosophical underpinnings of conservative thought from Burke/Hobbes on through the 21st century, on a variety of different topics. It’s a serious engagement with the ideas, and attempt to understand them and their origins

Allero OP ,

Great! Something to definitely check out
Thanks

grue ,

If I recall from the Alt-Right Playbook's Origins of Conservatism video, some of the early founders of conservative thought you might want to read include:

  • Edmund Burke
  • Thomas Hobbes
  • Joseph DeMaistre
Allero OP ,

Thanks!

gregorum ,
@gregorum@lemm.ee avatar

All of that guys videos are extremely well sourced. You can find a lot of good links in the descriptions of his videos.

sailingbythelee ,

It partly depends on whether you want to understand pre-9/11 "reasonable" conservatism or the more recent Tea Party and Trump conservative populism.

Ayn Rand expresses the fairy tale version of romantic, rugged individualism, which is pretty important to understanding modern right-wing politics, especially in North America. I think the main idea conservatives take from her work, directly or indirectly, is that progress is driven by individual work and achievement, and that any kind of forced wealth re-distribution (through social programs, for example) is effectively theft, and therefore immoral.

The modern populist right-wing movement was originally driven and disseminated by right-wing talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh. So, listening to right-wing talk radio or podcasts is also a good window into the modern movement. It puts on full display the resentment felt by modern right-wingers.

If you would rather not experience right-wing media directly, but would rather read rational analysis about it, then one good choice is David Frumm. He is an old school Reagan/Bush conservative, and has lived through the transition of the Repubs to populism. He is very critical of Trumpism, like most people, but he comes from the perspective of a reasonable and well-informed conservative insider.

Fareed Zakaria has a new book called Age of Revolutions, which views modern conservative populism as a very significant political re-alignment with similarities to various revolutions of the past, both successful and unsuccessful. Fareed talks about the conditions that lead to populism. In that sense, he treats Trump's popularity as a symptom and outcome of specific underlying societal problems.

Allero OP ,

Thank you! I'd like to understand both, really, though my first concern is about modern, "Trump" conservatism.

rufus ,

Maybe read something from Jordan Peterson? He's conservative, against gender politics or modern life. Sells 'simple truths' that look well reasoned if you're not too intelligent (or don't believe in equality...) I think he wrote several books and has lots of YouTube videos available.

Allero OP ,

Peterson seemed more pretentious than competent to me.

As you well said, "look well-reasoned if you're not too intelligent"

But thanks!

theywilleatthestars ,

Probably more right-wing than you're looking for, but The Concept of the Political by Carl Schmitt. Insightful on how these people think, and much more readable than works by some Nazi philosophers I could mention.
Also if you're interested in a good deconstruction of far right views, I highly recommend Neoreaction a Basilisk by Elizabeth Sandifer

Allero OP ,

Thanks!

WebWizard ,

Mein Kampf

Allero OP ,

Would unironically take a read someday, though it shouldn't be considered mainline right-wing despite Trump debacle.

naeap ,

It's actually a really shit book

I'm from Austria and in my early youth I wanted to work though the history of my family and country, especially because nobody wanted to really talk about it.

'Mein Kampf' really really disappointed me. It reads like a whiny, misunderstood dude thinks he got cheated and looks for someone at fault - and obviously it would be best, if everything would follow his ideas, because then he would never feel rejected/disappointed anymore.

Of course this is a more than subjective, and quite polemic, view on this book, but although I've always identified much more with anarchism, I really wanted to get what's so intriguing about this book and its ideas.
But it was just a series of whining autobiographic stories and some blaming for just someone to be at fault for his suffering.

I've found the more common books during the period of the Nazi regiment much more interesting.
There are quite some books about how girls should fulfill their role as a mother, when they are reaching adolescent.

Pretty much the same for boys who get indoctrinated into being some kind of selfless knight - but always with the motivation of social admiration

Every form of self fulfillment always needs to be for the good of the empire (read: in line with the Führer's will/ideology/order)

I can completely understand how a young person would join a moment with such promises and I think it's very dangerous to just ban those books.
Instead they should be part of the educational curriculum, so the actual problems and weakness (to put it lightly) of such systems can be discussed and understood early.

Moving to simple solutions in times of crisis seems to be part of human nature. So we have to take care, that we don't do stupid things in challenging situations

Allero OP ,

Thanks for your opinion!

Any other Nazi books you'd recommend?

(Gosh, I never thought I'd say something like this)

naeap ,

Was more than 25 years ago, when I looked into books of that time. Mostly found it on such used book markets.

Can't remember any titels, sorry

But it also gets old really fast. It's always the same thing and ideal picture they want the world to be

Allero OP ,

I see. Thank you anyway!

ThrowawayPermanente ,

Frankly, anything explicitly marketed to American conservatives these days is mostly ragebait for stupid people and I doubt you'll find any of it the least bit convincing. As other have mentioned, Thomas Sowell is a great place to start if you want something serious but modern and clearly written. Milton Friedman's Free to Choose or Capitalism and Freedom are both widely recommended classics. If you managed to read Marx without dying of boredom you should also be able to get through Ludwig von Mises' Human Action or Socialism.

Allero OP ,

Thanks!
Marx is sometimes tough indeed, but readable :D

NewNewAccount ,

Describes PragerU. I follow their YouTube and Instagram accounts and it’s almost exclusively bad faith arguments or rage bait.

99% of the comments buy into it as well. I wonder if they’re quick to clean up (read:remove) dissenting voices or if it is actually an echo chamber.

ThrowawayPermanente ,

Are you punishing yourself for something?

NewNewAccount ,

Haha. Just want to better understand how the other side sees the world.

applepie ,

Just to have bias confirmed that these clowns are inteletually bankdupt bootlickers?

NewNewAccount ,

Wish they’d prove me wrong! So far… they haven’t.

grue ,

inteletually bankdupt

Sounds about right, misspellings and all.

ours ,

I only saw a YouTuber make fun of their "Christopher Columbus did nothing wrong video" (not the actual title).

Their argumentation is terribly weak.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Thomas Sowell is a great place to start

My man was churning out ragebait before ragebait was cool.

Who lost Iraq? Look to Obama

Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose or Capitalism and Freedom are both widely recommended classics.

Mr. Pencil Man, the guy who was convinced a command economy couldn't churn out writing implements because they had too many parts.

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.

Is one of my favorite Friedmanisms. My guy simply could not conceive of a central authority doing anything right (unless that thing was standing up military juntas in formerly democratic Latin American and Middle Eastern states).

If you managed to read Marx without dying of boredom you should also be able to get through Ludwig von Mises’ Human Action or Socialism.

He's got some bangers.

Children and Rights

Applying our theory to parents and children, this means that a parent does not have the right to aggress against his children, but also that the parent should not have a legal obligation to feed, clothe, or educate his children, since such obligations would entail positive acts coerced upon the parent and depriving the parent of his rights. The parent therefore may not murder or mutilate his child, and the law properly outlaws a parent from doing so. But the parent should have the legal right not to feed the child, i.e., to allow it to die.

ThrowawayPermanente ,

Fair enough, don't start with that article! Pinning his guy's mistakes on the other guy is not a great look. I should have specified that his books on economics are where someone should look first, not his tabloid opinion columns. Friedman's point about pencils was not that a command economy would be unable to produce them but rather that the free market produces them spontaneously, at low cost and in great quantity, of good quality and variety, with everyone along the way acting voluntarily and better off for having participated in the process. I don't think an offhand comment about sand is really the best representative of his work. I think the quote from Children and Rights might actually belong to Murray Rothbard, but either way I disagree with whoever wrote it and think it's a perfect example of someone following a generally good principle off a cliff.

barsquid ,

I haven't seen anything about children that insane since I saw that libertarian article pleading the case that we should be allowed to buy and sell children on the free market.

PeepinGoodArgs ,

Mises' Socialism and the economic calculation problem threw me for a loop for a while. It really rocked my preference for socialism at the time. Then I realized modern corporations with modern computing power are doing exactly what Mises says a theoretical central planner can't do.

ThrowawayPermanente ,

That's funny, I see large corporations as being similar to a planned economy, but bringing the same problems. Corruption is widespread and gets worse the more layers of middle management there are. Economies of scale are what save them. Internal goods and services are mispriced and misallocated because political considerations replace the price mechanism. Man, I really hated that part of my life.

ReallyKinda ,

This is not a right wing resource, but if you’re interested in learning about the arguments and historical evolution of ideas that underpin economic liberalism/neoliberalism, I highly recommend Geoff Mann’s Disassembly required : a field guide to actually existing capitalism. It’s concise, relatively short, and treats the ‘other’ side like rational actors (which is important for understanding, I think).

Ofc this would only help understand people who are quite well informed.

https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781849351270

Allero OP ,

Thank you!

capital_sniff ,

Maybe check out Matt McManus's work, he's a professor at the University of Michigan.

Allero OP ,

Thanks!

higgsboson ,

Going to Lemmy and asking this is like going to Truth.Social and asking about resources for helping trans teens.

Allero OP ,

True, which is why I started my first paragraph with this :D

I came to Lemmy since it's the only such platform I trust to be inhabited by real benevolent people with useful recommendations. But the bias is obviously there.

Still, I got a lot of useful reads.

djsoren19 ,

I think this is a little disingenous. Plenty of leftists are academics who have studied economic/political theory. If you're already willing to put yourself through reading Marx, you're probably also the type who's willing to read Milton.

applepie ,

No... Around here people will actually talk shop on doctrine...

Truth social is where red blooded strong american men jerk each others dicks to maintain hi T levels.

We are not the same,jpeg

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