This week, I begin by discussing two recent articles by and about women: “How Feminism Ends” by Ginevra Davis, and “Female neediness is real, but it’s not a tragedy” by Ruxandra Teslo. These essays have a common theme in that they both emphasize the difficult hand nature has dealt women. Davis focuses on the physical pain they feel, and has a compelling explanation of the trans phenomenon that I hadn’t considered before. Ruxandra criticizes the so-called Reactionary Feminists, and makes clear that many of the complaints they have about modern societies are exaggerated and need to be understood from a comparative perspective. My view is that being a woman is difficult, there is a lot of competition between the sexes and within each sex, and we need to get beyond the idea that we’re going to find a social system that solves problems that are based in human nature. All we can do is judge societies in a relative sense and consider tradeoffs when deciding what changes we want to make, realizing that many things are determined by our inherent design interacting with the current state of technological development and therefore out of our direct control.
Near the end of the discussion, I talk about Mitch McConnell stepping down as the leader of the Senate Republicans and take the opportunity to reflect on his legacy. I think it was either me or Brian Chau who coined the term “effective Republicanism” to refer to his approach. McConnell had the wisdom to understand that we are in effect a judgeocracy, and to pull the levers he needed to pull in order to ensure more conservative policy victories over the long run. He was never going to be appreciated in this populist era in which the Republican base demands buffoonery, but understanding the virtues of McConnell provides insight into how to wield power.