Hey Chad Pecknold, You Suck

Every now and again, it’s fun to have an article that comes from nothing but pure childish annoyance with a person or group of people, without even a hint of caring about that person on an intellectual basis. Far as I can tell, the last time I did this was my article on those who romanticize the Middle Ages way back in late January. (Although I’m actually on good terms with @TheAristoteIian at the moment, and that article was far from perfect.)

Enter Chad Pecknold, a Catholic professor, and writer for the Catholic magazine First Things. On 8/7/2021, Pecknold tweeted:

Liberals are enraged by non-liberal forms of democracy, while silent about nations which aren’t even democracies at all. Why is that? It’s not because they love “democracy.” It’s because liberalism is their religion: an elite political religion from which there can be no dissent.

What exactly are “non-liberal forms of democracy?” Given Pecknold said this in the middle of the Hungary discourse, I assume he means nations like Hungary — except Hungary is still a liberal democracy, it’s just a liberal democracy with a culturally conservative leader. By the way, it’s not me saying that Hungary is a liberal democracy, it’s what conservatives have been saying all week in response to claims that Hungary is a dictatorship. As Rod Dreher wrote on 8/3/2021: