Normally, free subscribers to the newsletter and podcast have to wait until Friday receive the new episode. And normally Q&A sessions with John McWhorter, in which we answer questions posed by the audience, are only available to full subscribers. But today is no normal day—I’m releasing our Q&A from last month to everyone.
In this one, John and I answer and debate questions about the election and the incoming Trump administration, America’s role on the global stage, linguistic complexity, the state of campus wokeness after Trump, Gaza and the West Bank, political slurs, and lawfare. Things get heated, as they sometimes do in these episodes.
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2:49 Mike Spooner wants to know how I came around to supporting Trump
8:14 Substack Reader wants to know if Trump’s reelection signals that we’re entering an era where “reason and common sense once again prevail.”
15:34 Michoel Stern senses that I’m becoming more isolationist, and that I don’t want America to be the world’s policeman. So what is the alternative?
22:41 Robert Odear asks if there is “an accepted metric for linguistic complexity,” and if there is one, whether linguistically complex societies also tend to be advanced societies.
28:58 Nancy wants to know if the triumph over “wokeness” represented by Trump’s election is being felt on campus.
32:53 Jonathan E. Burack wants to know why I haven’t responded to this review of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Message.
45:54 Pete Bradshaw asks what we think of the use of political slurs like “fascist,” “Hitler,” and “commie.”
51:02 Cara C. suggests that, while it was wrong for Democrats to use lawfare against Trump, it is acceptable for Republicans to use it against Democrats, if only to teach them a lesson.
Recorded December 1, 2024
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