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<\/p>\nThe key theme of our age, at least in the US: the retreat from the aspirations of the Enlightenment, both political and scientific. Reverting to tribalism and intuitive superstitions.<\/p>\n
Actually, these forces have probably never gone away. The difference now is they’re being driven by the current US administration.<\/p>\n
(Edit next day: I changed “achievements” of the Enlightenment to “aspirations,” because there wasn’t any perfect past of such achievements.)<\/p>\n
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NY Times, Thomas L Friedman, 18 Nov 2025<\/strong> (in today’s print paper): On Republican Neo-Nazism, Hamas and Israel: An Epidemic of Moral Cowardice<\/a>\u00a0(gift link)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Beginning:<\/p>\n I write today about an epidemic. It\u2019s not biological. It\u2019s an epidemic of cowardly, immoral and unprincipled decisions by leaders across the political spectrum. Our last biological epidemic \u2014 Covid-19 \u2014 was a tiny invisible pathogen that made us physically sick. This epidemic of moral cowardice is right in everybody\u2019s face and it\u2019s eating away at the civic bonds that hold societies together.<\/p>\n Three examples preoccupy me personally: The Republican Party today has a neo-Nazi problem that it refuses to confront. The progressive left today has a pro-Hamas problem that it refuses to confront. And the Jewish people and Israel have a radical Jewish settler problem that they refuse to confront.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The first of them is in US news every day.<\/p>\n While this may seem an odd grouping, its elements have more in common than you might think. The neo-Nazis in the Republican camp want a white Christian America<\/a> from sea to shining sea \u2014 empty of as much diversity as possible. The radical settlers in the West Bank want a Jewish state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea \u2014 empty of as many Palestinian Arabs as possible. And Hamas jihadists also want an Islamic state in Palestine from the same river to the same sea \u2014 empty of as many Israeli Jews as possible.<\/p>\n Those three examples have other things in common. One is they just don\u2019t care anymore about hiding their excesses or their agendas. It\u2019s all out there online or on YouTube. They are not embarrassed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And the bigger picture…<\/p>\n Put them all together and it becomes obvious that we are watching a broad breakdown in the liberal, humanistic order that dominated Western democracies after World War II. It\u2019s the wholesale uprooting of what I call our societal \u201cmangroves\u201d \u2014 the unwritten norms that are necessary to restrain, filter and buffer aberrant behaviors and hatemongering, even when technically legal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The same story Heather Cox Richardson has been telling. Friedman goes on to discuss those Young Republicans who were in the news a few weeks ago and JD Vance’s defense of them; Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes; Vance’s and Trump’s lack of criticism.<\/p>\n [Trump and Vance] undoubtedly know that a not insignificant minority of their voters hold these racist, antisemitic views and they don\u2019t want to alienate them before the midterms, which are expected to be very close.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That’s where the Republican party is.<\/p>\n \\\\\\<\/p>\n On the second point.<\/p>\n The Morning Heresy, CFI, Jeff Dellinger, 21 Nov 2025<\/strong>: \u201cNo Longer a Trustworthy Source\u201d \u2013 Chaos at the CDC… <\/a><\/p>\n We begin today where, unfortunately, we must: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s latest act of anti-science vandalism<\/strong><\/a> to America\u2019s public health infrastructure.<\/p>\n The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its website to contradict the long-settled scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism, shocking career scientists, delighting anti-vaccine activists, drawing a rebuke from a key Republican senator and sparking an uproar among medical professionals and autism advocates who questioned whether the agency\u2019s credibility is now gone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Post<\/em> notes that the changes were made without consulting (or even informing) \u201ccareer scientists at the agency responsible for information about vaccine safety and autism.\u201d In a statement published yesterday afternoon<\/strong><\/a>, CFI blasted the move as \u201ca shameful dereliction of the CDC\u2019s public health mission that should be reversed immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n William Matthew London<\/strong>, who curates the HHS Watch resource page<\/a><\/strong> for CFI\u2019s Quackwatch, was unsparing: \u201cThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with its leadership and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices appointed by Secretary Kennedy, is no longer a trustworthy source of health information.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The CDC move drew intense criticism<\/strong><\/a> from a chorus of<\/strong><\/a> public health scientists<\/strong><\/a> and medical experts<\/strong><\/a>, with the APHA writing:<\/p>\n Amplifying this claim and encouraging unnecessary investigations only worsens parents\u2019 fears; it will not lead to better therapies, improved support for caregiving families, or changes in health care, education, and society in ways that would help children with autism thrive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n And this:<\/p>\n JMG, 21 Nov 2025: RFK Flack: \u201cVaccines Cause 80% Of Autism Cases\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n “Mary Holland, CEO of Robert Kennedy\u2019s Children\u2019s Health Defense, celebrating the latest change to the CDC\u2019s website.”<\/p>\n \u201cFor thirty years, parents have been gaslit because of pressure from pharma and the government, because they\u2019ve been pushing these shots and they\u2019re very lucrative. And, so, it is so wonderful that we now see the start of HHS and CDC telling the truth. …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Wait, wait, I thought you guys determined that *tylenol* caused autism. So which is it? Get your story straight!<\/p>\n \\\\\\<\/p>\n Short items to be noted tomorrow (or Sunday) will be about job approval ratings and Fox News, Chinese spying through baby monitors, a Mexican beach, changing their minds about swastikas, and making bad news disappear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The key theme of our age, at least in the US: the retreat from the aspirations of the Enlightenment, both political and scientific. Reverting to tribalism and intuitive superstitions. Actually, these forces have probably never gone away. The difference now … Continue reading ![](\"https:\/\/centerforinquiry.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/21110217\/Morning-Heresy-Header-Image-112125.png\")
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