Three immediate thoughts re Roger’s article https://quillette.com/2025/06/10/classical-liberalism-without-strong-gods-open-society-popper/:

1. I remembered reading “Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (Appiah, 2006) years ago. A unifying moral liberal secular idea of how societies might function.  I remember recommending it to many friends. Quite bracing, I should re-read.

1. There are moral lessons to be drawn from established religion.  The importance of an institutional mechanism for forgiveness in society.  Egalitarianism.  Charity.  Many of society’s best ideas are distilled into religious tenets in admittedly simplistic but comprehensible forms. Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.

1. https://www.themontrealreview.com/Articles/Moral_Particulars_in_Literature.php Happened to read this in the same feed session, some coincidence, huh?

The media have spent a week of frenzied reporting on the high-school-level breakup of Trump and Musk.  It’s reality-tv level nonsense, and the Donald knows how to make that work for him.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the two of them orchestrated the whole thing as part of the ongoing don’t-look-behind-the-curtain autocratic capture. It was always going to be the case that the transactional president would dispense with any one of his sidekicks when they were no longer useful to him.

There is a Musk story.  Weeks of sustained grass-roots protest at Tesla dealerships has led to plummeting sales and sinking share values as the brand has become toxic.  Tesla owners are shamed for associating with the brand, and turn away. Feeling the pressure from shareholders and board members, the CEO withdraws from activities that are damaging his brand and returns to the work of managing the businesses.  A success for bottom-up non-violent citizen protest.

I haven’t seen any punditry drawing these connections, however.