After providing an update on his absence this week, Jonah begins today’s Ruminant on a note of uncertainty: He hasn’t decided whether an Elon Musk Twitter takeover is something we should welcome or fear. His mind is also occupied by the idea raised by Megan McArdle that Americans are increasingly “sidestepping institutions” in their daily lives, as well as Matt Continetti’s perspective on the term “right-winger.” Plus, tune in for a predictably nerdy disquisition on populism and why an old-fashioned liberal ethos is what separates conservatism from statism.

Show Notes:

• The Remnant with Megan McCardle

• Martin Kramer’s The War on Error

• The Remnant with Michael Brendan Dougherty

• Part 1 of the Remnant’s Matt Continetti nerdapalooza

• Father Coughlin: Man of the left

• Louis Hartz’s The Liberal Tradition in America

• Seymour Martin Lipsett’s American Exceptionalism

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