Beer And Conversation With Pigweed And Crowhill

P&C drink and review Dirty Little Freak, a flavorful brown ale from DuClaw Brewery, then discuss the Enlightenment.  What was the Enlightenment, when did it happen, and what ideas did it produce? Why has it come under fire from some quarters today? Should we value the Enlightenment, or is it just another example of racism and white privilege? 

P&C drink and review Sierra Nevada's Celebration Fresh Hop IPA, then talk about totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and fascism. Following up, they evaluate Rod Dreher's "soft totalitarianism" from "Live Not by Lies." P&C think Dreher has the label wrong. We're at a cross-roads. Is there time (or the will) to stop the growing tech-inspired soft authoritarianism?

P&C drink and review Old Speckled Hen, then talk about ACAB.  Is the central intent of policing to surveil, terrorize, capture and kill marginalized populations, specifically black folk? There are people in our society who are promoting that view. The media, politicians and similar cretins keep feeding us a narrative that we have an epidemic of white cops killing unarmed black people. Is it true?

P&C drink Southern Belle, an imperial brown ale, then discuss problems in science. It would be nice to believe that we can rely on science. Scientists are supposed to be dispassionate, purely rational people who follow the evidence where it leaves. P&C call BS. Science is as influenced by politics, ideology, ambition, egos, trends and fads as anything else. So how are we supposed to "trust the science"? And what is "the science" anyway?

P&C drink and review a Mexican stout, then discuss Mao's cultural revolution. They review some of the basic history, and then explore whether there are similarities between the cultural revolution and modern wokeness. And in fact ... there are. Weaponizing students. Standards that are so vague and ever-changing that you can never know if you're in or out. Overthrowing everything that seems outdated with no idea what you're going to replace it with. Cancel culture. Rejecting everything old or traditional. Struggle sessions = diversity classes. Art exists to advance social justice messages. It's a scary comparison.

P&C discuss the Georgia elections and the prospect of Democrats controlling the Senate, then address the big story -- the attack on the Capitol. There are a few important points to be made. First, this kind of violence needs to be condemned in no uncertain terms. Second, Trump's behavior and language was completely unacceptable. Third, the long-term implications of this event are hard to predict, but will be very negative for Trump.

The boys drink and review a Kolsch from Sky Blue Brewing, then discuss the influence of an old sociology paper by Cloward and Piven. These 60s-era "intellectuals" lamented that not enough eligible people had signed up for welfare benefits. They proposed overwhelming the welfare system by deploying an army of activists and troublemakers to (1) get more people to sign up for benefits, and (2) riot, demonstrate, protest, and generally cause trouble. The goal was not to get more wealth to the poor, but to cause the welfare system to fail, create a crisis, and force the federal government to institute a new system. Their proposed "solution" was called "guaranteed minimum income," which is an idea so stupid you have to be an intellectual to believe in it. Their overall proposal seems to define the basic playbook of the left, which is to cause disorder and crisis, destroy the current system, and replace it with socialism. Cloward and Piven believed the only way for poor people to get th