English blogs

Dear English-speaking reader,

The Internet is probably one of the most significant inventions of the 20th century. From my room in Flanders I can reach an audience across the whole world. There is only one requirement: that I use the lingua franca, English.

Until recently, I blogged always in Dutch, my native language. I already engage on Twitter with English-speaking people. As tweets are still limited by 140 characters, it is challenging to well-articulate thoughts in order for people to fully understand what I am trying to say. Blogs are a handy tool but as all of my blogs are in Dutch, that is no option.

As such, I will be writing more blogs in English (hopefully without too many grammatical mistakes, I hope you forgive me and politely give constructive criticism). You can find them under the label "English".

I value consultation from my readers, so to properly launch this evolution I have set-up a Twitter poll for what my first English blog should be about:

• I've been suspicious about contemporary thinking regarding Edmund Burke and the "ideology" he launched, conservatism. For instant, in Yale he's described as an anti-Enlightenment thinker. I have been researching and this has red-pilled me about the Enlightenment. In one or more blogs I would like to argue that Burke and conservatism should be considered as full members of Enlightenment thought, just like liberalism and socialism.
• I've been following Jordan B. Peterson lately. Although he's mostly (in)famous for his opposition against gender pronouns and postmodernism, the man has a lot more refreshing ideas regarding philosophy, politics and religion. He's currently having lectures regarding the psychological significance of Biblical stories, which even a staunch atheist as myself changed my look to the Bible entirely. Another YouTuber discusses the Biblical roots of the political concepts of Left and Right. Although he did a very good job, it didn't satisfy me. In one or more blogs I would like to venture into this particular piece of the Bible from a sort of Petersonian point-of-view.
• My eye recently fell on a piece by Nathan Duffy regarding postmodernism and its Enlightenment roots. I got caught into a discussion between him and James Lindsay, which pretty much denied any claims Duffy made. It is like one cannot say that liberalism, like socialism, can have bad consequences or even criticize it because it is pretty much the established ideology of the West. In one or more blogs, I would like to defend Duffy against his critics. I would like to make a critical evaluation of liberalism and the presuppositions it is founded on. With our current knowledge of human nature, can liberalism survive a Darwinist falsification test?
• In May I had a discussion with  Helen Pluckrose, a contributor to Area Magazine. She made an excellent blog on postmodernism (check it out!). But anyway, we had this discussion and it quickly got very out of hand (eventually she even blocked me). She mostly disagreed with me on the metaphysics of political concepts. It is something that bothered me a lot because I actually agree with her on many points. If even like-minded people block each other, how can we ever beat the SJW's (social justice warriors)? In one or more blogs, I will try to clarify my thoughts on the metaphysics of concepts and frame them in the large war of postmodern, cultural Marxists for control of our thoughts and language.

By voting massively for one or more of these topics, you can ensure it will be covered in my next blog. It could be that I decide to do all four topics anyway, I mostly look blog-by-blog. Some blogs turn out to be quite extensive and my time is limited. I should start writing & publishing it over a week.

Hopefully this will be a good start for more international-oriented blogs.

Enjoy!

The Freethinking Student