Among many other achievements, Tim Keller spent an entire career in Christian ministry without having his public theological identity captured or subsumed by his partisan or ideological identity. An incredibly rare feat. RIP.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/nyregion/the-rev-tim-keller-dead.html

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Sat May 20 16:58:13 +0000 2023

Catching up on links. Last Sunday's column on Trump, the media and DeSantis:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/13/opinion/trump-desantis-town-hall.html

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Sat May 20 17:28:52 +0000 2023

Replying to @DouthatNYT

My Wednesday column on the costs of legal weed:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/opinion/marijuana-legalization-disaster.html

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Sat May 20 17:29:43 +0000 2023

Replying to @DouthatNYT

My newsletter, on "Succession" and how art struggles to portray politics in a mass society:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/opinion/succession-trump-fox-news.html

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Sat May 20 17:30:59 +0000 2023

Replying to @DouthatNYT

Aaaand last but not least this weekend's column, on the writer's strike and the future of creativity in Hollywood:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/20/opinion/writers-strike-hollywood.html

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Sat May 20 17:31:40 +0000 2023

The fascinating arc of history in which the founder of a "NeverTrump" organization is touting a piece about Casey DeSantis organized around a Lady MacBeth analogy that's based on a quote from, um, Roger Stone.

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Fri May 19 14:58:16 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Must read https://twitter.com/michaelkruse/status/1659506425134034944

-- Reed Galen (@reedgalen) Fri May 19 14:17:21 +0000 2023

Step 1, legalize everything, to be rapidly followed by step 2, universal basic ozempic:

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Fri May 19 19:34:56 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Ozempic doesn't just suppress your appetite.

I talked to patients who took the drug to lose weight— only to also effortlessly stop biting their nails, compulsively shopping, drinking alcohol, and so on.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/05/ozempic-addictive-behavior-drinking-smoking/674098/

-- Sarah Zhang (@sarahzhang) Fri May 19 16:02:30 +0000 2023

New Matter of Opinion podcast, on Trump/DeSantis and the GOP field, get it while it's hot:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-g-o-p-primary-city-on-a-hill-or-american-carnage/id1438024613?i=1000613498540

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Thu May 18 12:58:59 +0000 2023

This is not how Libet himself interpreted his data, nor has subsequent research been kind to this interpretation of his finding:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/theres-no-such-thing-as-free-will/480750/

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Fri May 19 01:27:55 +0000 2023

Replying to @DouthatNYT

For those who, ah, choose to read it, a recent survey of Libet-related research:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810021000970

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Fri May 19 01:30:02 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat Retweeted

Health Update: Today, Dad is being discharged from the hospital to receive hospice care at home. Over the past few days, he has asked us to pray with him often. He expressed many times through prayer his desire to go home to be with Jesus. His family is very sad because we... 1/3

-- Timothy Keller (@timkellernyc) Thu May 18 21:44:50 +0000 2023

My shirt promising that "my harem of witches crowded into tiny cells high above San Francisco definitely draws the line at bug-eating" is raising some questions already answered ...
https://twitter.com/davidshor/status/1658544772150091800?s=20

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Tue May 16 19:10:58 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Replying to @davidshor

@lymanstoneky @mattyglesias There’s lots of weird aspects to left wing social circles that wouldn’t play well with voters (polyamory, cramped living spaces, nobody having cars or children, veganism, literal witchcraft, etc) - but nobody eats bugs!

-- David Shor (@davidshor) Tue May 16 18:47:42 +0000 2023

Per the anti-anti-AI-alarmist argument here, I think one key Q with AI is not whether it raises certain risks but how *much* it raises them relative to the other forces that make, say, nuclear war or pandemics more or less likely.

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Mon May 15 16:23:45 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Literally every conversation I have on Twitter about long-term risk leaves me more worried than when I started.

Standard countarguments are mostly these
- Ad hominem, about who is in the long-termist movement, which is *entirely* irrelevant to the core question: do we have a… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1657420851556519936

-- Gary Marcus (@GaryMarcus) Sat May 13 16:21:39 +0000 2023

Replying to @DouthatNYT

e.g., we can see right now that increasing multipolarity is making nuclear war more likely than 1991-2020. Does AI take that extra risk from, say 5% to 6%? If so I'm going to worry more about multipolarity. Does it take it to 25%? Then I'm going to worry more about AI safety.

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Mon May 15 16:29:17 +0000 2023

Also a difficulty (this is not an original observation) that a show depicting a conservative cable network's decisive role in US politics imagines basically all of the people running that network as either guilty liberals and apolitical cynics:

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Mon May 15 17:21:37 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Tonight’s Succession a pinch too The Newsroom-y imo

-- Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) Mon May 15 02:58:19 +0000 2023

Replying to @DouthatNYT

"Succession" has Roman as a right-wing troll and Connor as a crank but it doesn't really portray the way that rich ppl with moderate-conservative defaults talk themselves into aligning w/populists against the left, in part bc it doesn't have a good way of portraying the left.

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Mon May 15 17:34:45 +0000 2023

Replying to @DouthatNYT

That's not a problem for the show as family drama but the show as political drama suffers a bit for it, esp. now with Murdoch firing Tucker making real-life Fox more ideologically dramatic than the HBO imitation.

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Mon May 15 17:38:46 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat Retweeted

"It broke open a shell in my heart."

Silicon Valley techies who were once devoted to reason are now flirting with magic, spirituality, and postrationalism.

Tara Isabella Burton (@NotoriousTIB) journeys into this strange land in our new cover story: https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/rational-magic

-- The New Atlantis (@tnajournal) Mon May 15 18:40:43 +0000 2023

There’s this guy on TikTok who does nursery rhymes in the style of his favourite bands and the production standards are insane. This Mumford and Sons style rendition of You Are My Sunshine is genuinely as good as a song they would release

-- Tom Knowles (@tkbeynon) Thu May 11 12:14:05 +0000 2023

We (myself and @CarlosNYT and @lpolgreen and @mcottle) have a new podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matter-of-opinion/id1438024613

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Thu May 11 12:53:41 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat Retweeted

Definitive “This guy can’t win” talk is mainly confined to Trump opponents on the right who are saying it as a plea to voters — as well they should, if they want to win — I would take it as polemic, not some dispassionate election wonk analysis

-- Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) Thu May 11 13:04:16 +0000 2023

Benjy Sarlin tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

I don't understand the (re-re-)rise of "This guy can't win" discourse. I don't want him to win. I think he's a disaster. But in 2020 people were talking about a New Deal majority-type win for Biden and he barely squeaked across the finish line. Same with 2016 and Clinton. 1/

-- Sean T at RCP is a free elf (@SeanTrende) Thu May 11 12:23:33 +0000 2023

Friendly reminder for the last Amazon shopping day before Mother's Day:
https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Genes-Science-Maternal-Instinct/dp/1501192876/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1683815928&sr=8-1

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Thu May 11 14:39:46 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat Retweeted

May the prayers of the Coptic martyrs, united with those of the Theotokos, continue to help our Churches grow in friendship, until the blessed day when we can celebrate at the same altar and receive together the Body and Blood of the Savior.

-- Pope Francis (@Pontifex) Thu May 11 13:02:00 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat Retweeted

Some better questions for Trump. @PostOpinions https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/10/trump-cnn-town-hall-questions/

-- Ramesh Ponnuru (@RameshPonnuru) Thu May 11 14:50:25 +0000 2023

Fukuyama v. Fukuyama:
https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/06/fukuyama-v-fukuyama

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Thu May 11 21:50:40 +0000 2023

Some very exciting news: I'm making a podcast with some very brilliant colleagues - @CarlosNYT, @mcottle & @DouthatNYT! The first episode goes live tomorrow. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matter-of-opinion/id1438024613

-- Lydia Polgreen (@lpolgreen) Wed May 10 14:05:25 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat Retweeted

I hate to say this, but alongside the conclusions and tone, there are numerous good points here. "King Leopold's Ghost" is a reflection of 1990s morality, sobering in retrospect to all those who believe it is crucial--let alone easy--to avoid presentism. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/king-hochschilds-hoax/

-- Samuel Moyn 🔭 (@samuelmoyn) Wed May 10 12:27:51 +0000 2023

Big missed opportunity for Demeny voting.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/10/ramaswamy-raise-voting-age-00096266

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Wed May 10 21:46:43 +0000 2023

Placeholder for future analysis: In a Trump vs. Biden-Harris rematch, Trump's VP pick could loom larger than pretty much any VP pick ever.

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Tue May 09 13:05:49 +0000 2023

Replying to @DouthatNYT

Trump in office will be a second-term lame duck who never wanted to run a WH; whatever de facto powers Pence enjoyed, even a semi-competent second term VP will be able to accrue many more.

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Tue May 09 13:08:36 +0000 2023

Replying to @DouthatNYT

And on the campaign trail the VP pick will be the selling point (excuse) for the crucial "indict Trump, but also re-elect him" constituency -- a way for some voters to tell themselves (delude themselves) that they aren't *really* voting for Trump, but for a co-POTUS/successor:

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Tue May 09 13:10:50 +0000 2023

I'm not 100 percent sure why Canadian euthanasia feels like more of a decisively post-Christian milestone than post-1970s abortion in the West, you could argue otherwise -- but it does feel that way to me.

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Mon May 08 13:50:13 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Now, this really IS post-Christian https://twitter.com/yuanyi_z/status/1655394452817555469

-- Tom Holland (@holland_tom) Mon May 08 05:44:34 +0000 2023

My Sunday column was on the echoes of the 2016 GOP primary in 2024:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/06/opinion/are-anti-trump-republicans-doomed-to-repeat-2016.html

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Mon May 08 15:54:53 +0000 2023

My not-exactly-widely-shared opinion is that that the most promising future for Republican policymaking lies in the Venn-diagram overlap between @JDVance1 and @MittRomney, and here we are:

-- Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) Mon May 08 18:39:42 +0000 2023

Ross Douthat tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

🚨NEW: Senators Braun, Marshall & Romney Announce Their Support For Senator @JDVance1’s Railway Safety Act

-- Senator Vance Press Office (@SenVancePress) Mon May 08 18:35:00 +0000 2023