This summarizes Brooks' argument, but he failed to demonstrate how culture is not important to the left. Politics cannot change culture, but reflects it.

A kind of definition, but... mystic?

Sounds like social engineering and top down control - what happened to "human nature"?

Decartes, not exactly a liberal icon.

A shopping basket of disparate things and likening economic policy under Capitalism to autocratic movements. Also ignoring the fact that French and American revolutions spring from the same source.

Another misrepresentation of liberalism as autocratic.

Yes. This is common, but "liberalism" isn't about imperious exercise of government authority over others. Many liberals would also criticize this type of planning that excludes communities. This criticism is about exclusion, rather the opposite of modern liberalism which tends to promote inclusion.

—Charles W. Eliot

And here I thought I was original in thinking this... :)

We know enough about psychology and behavioral economics to know that "personal responsibility" is not going to save us.

This is in even higher relief when we see laws applied in unclosed systems or where other loopholes exist to help the privileged. Frank Wilhot's idea sums things up fairly well:

"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."

Morgan, L., Schwartz, J. L., & Sisti, D. A. (2021). COVID-19 Vaccination of Minors Without Parental Consent: Respecting Emerging Autonomy and Advancing Public Health. JAMA Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.1855

Graham, D. A. (2021, July 20). Suddenly, Conservatives Care About Vaccines. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/fox-news-conservatives-vaccines-sean-hannity/619510/

Im, H., Wang, P., & Chen, C. (2021). The Partisan Mask: Political Orientation, Collectivism, and Religiosity Predict Mask Use During COVID-19. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/9s58f

Vartanova, I., Eriksson, K., Kirgil, Z. M., & Strimling, P. (2021, April 26). The advent of the COVID-19 epidemic did not affect Americans’ endorsement of moral foundations. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/957zk

ugh Fox you terrible pieces of shit. the only conservative media concerns there have ever been is that we aren't sufficiently horrible to people at the border. Liberals, unlike Conservatives, are happy to do own-side criticism. We want good. We want progress. We want to be decent to our fellow humans, who we recognize as worthy & good. Of course we're distressed at this bad situation. We don't shield our leaders from criticism, we expect active Democratic engagement.

You could not better show yourselves for who you are with this headline, you useless evil villians.

Gligorić, Vukašin, Allard Feddes, and Bertjan Doosje. ‘Political Bullshit Receptivity and Its Correlates: A Cross-Cultural Validation of the Concept’. PsyArXiv, 27 October 2020. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/u9pe3.

Fischer, K., Chaudhuri, A., & Atkinson, Q. (2020, October 5). Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic reflect the dual evolutionary foundations of political ideology. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qeap8

Conservatives stand for honesty, integrity, morality, and steely-eyed realism. We hold our opinions because we are confident that they are correct, we have the confidence in them to encourage free and open debate, and if our opinions are shown to be wrong we gratefully accept the correction of our errors.

Modern liberalism (not to be confused with classical liberalism) is the opposite. It is characterized by dishonesty and immorality (both typically excused with the platitude that "everybody does it"), self-delusion, and a reflexive resort to censorship and worse. ("Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out." -David Horowitz)

You see that in the climate debates, where leftists (climate activists) have repeatedly been caught manipulating, withholding, exaggerating, or even fabricating evidence, flouting the law, blackballing skeptics, and censoring contrary viewpoints, to promote the CAGW scare. The major blogs, publications, and institutions which climate activists control are ruthlessly censored, to suppress dissent.

In stark contrast, the most prominent conservative (climate realist) blogs and institutions actively encourage open discussion and dissent. That's why, for example, WUWT is so obviously and strikingly superior to any of the leftists' climate blogs.

Unfortunately, some people who call themselves "conservative" don't act like it. I'm tired of self-identified conservatives, like Michael Shannon, raging about Republicans' lack of conservatism, while they, themselves, behave like liberals.

If Mr. Shannon were really a conservative, he wouldn't censor his blog, to suppress expression of opinions different from his own. Unfortunately, that's exactly what he does. That's why you don't see the following comment in the comments section, on this article:

· ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

1.If conservatives can’t win Republican primaries, they certainly cannot hope to win as third-party candidates running against both Republicans and Democrats.

2.If so-called “conservatives” don’t care about anything but money, they’re no more conservative than the country clubbers whose Republican identity is based entirely on their desire for low taxes.

There’s something very, very wrong with a 785-word rant accusing Republicans of being “morally corrupt,” which talks almost exclusively about… money. In 785 words you devoted a grand total of three words to a passing mention of moral issues.

One in four American babies die by “choice,” but you never mentioned it.

The courts have spent the last eighty years brazenly lying to impose progressive agendas, and trampling the nation’s fifty-one constitutions in the process, yet now, for the first time in eight decades, honest jurors might actually have a slender majority on the SCOTUS, but you never mentioned it.

The American family is in tatters, with 39.6% of babies born out of wedlock in 2018, but you used the word “family” just once, and never mentioned illegitimacy.

The academy has been mostly taken over by far-left crackpots and atheists, who do everything in their power to crush all dissent, who enforce values antithetical to Christian morality, and who have created entire disciplines dedicated to promoting leftist lunacy, but you never mentioned it.

Academics expose corruption in Grievance Studies

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera

The misallocation of federal monies is a real problem, but it is far from the only problem, it is far from our most important problem, and it is only peripherally a moral issue. If you’re going to editorialize about moral corruption, you should talk about morality, not just money.

This critique on English conservatism summarizes the tension between the native and the foreign present through the entire book. It's a critique on the narrow-mindedness of those who conform to social norms without question, and therefore fail to consider perspectives or possibilities which lie outside traditional thought. The missteps in deduction that occur in this book are largely due to arguments on false premises rather than logical fallacies.

Carroll, P. (2020, August 20). The Cognitive Biases Behind Society’s Response to COVID-19 | Patrick Carroll. https://fee.org/articles/the-cognitive-biases-behind-societys-response-to-covid-19/

Malka, A., Lelkes, Y., Bakker, B. N., & Spivack, E. (2020). Who is Open to Authoritarian Governance within Western Democracies? [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/m8ze5

Adam-Troian, J., Bonetto, E., Varet, F., Arciszewski, T., & Guiller, T. (2020). Pathogen Threat Increases Electoral Success for Conservative Parties: Results from a Natural Experiment with COVID-19 in France. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/aqkpm