The "2 + 2 is only cultural" spoof came from James Lindsay

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Seems Lindsay (and Boghossian and Pluckrose)'s "liberal values" are backed by Christian Nationalists

Last Fall, there was a conference held in London, the Sovereign Nations conference. The ‘star’ speakers were Peter Boghossian, Helen Pluckrose, and James Lindsay, so you already know where this is going — the “grievance studies” whiners got together in London to howl at the moon and complain about how they were losing the culture war. The twist here is these were atheists gathering under the leadership of a Christian Nationalist group led by Michael O’Fallon. Curiously, I first heard about this event because Richard Dawkins endorsed it, because apparently he’s a big fan of Boghossian and assumed that anything he was willingly entangled with would be part of the godless agenda. Unfortunately, Sovereign Nations is more focused on Christian conservatism, opposing immigration, complaining about the World Health Organization, and hating George Soros. I guess the Boghossian/Pluckrose/Lindsay trio are willing to overlook their association with an organization dedicated to Catholic dominion because they share a mutual contempt for social justice. If you must, you can read an account of their conference. Or you can read Godless Spellchecker’s live tweeting of the con (curiously, there’s also a strong association between Sovereign Nations and the Mythcon asstwinks.)

They’ve since moved on to creating a new blog, New Discourses, with those three prominently featured; right now, Lindsay seems to be providing most of the content, if you really need a day of reading bad writing and bizarre logic. The discombobulating thing is that New Discourses is Sovereign Nations media, owned by Michael O’Fallon, who wants to promote conservative Christian Nationalism, and yet these arch-rationalist/skeptics/self-proclaimed liberals are willingly associating themselves with the religious right.

It’s a somewhat surprising fellowship until you recognize that there are two things that unite them: a hatred of social justice, diversity, and racial equality, and…MONEY. They’ve been bought and paid for by O’Fallon.

Link to tweet

...
Aaron Rabinowitz provides an excellent analysis of these repulsive bedfellows and their filthy philosophical positions and the Kama Sutra of twisty rationalizations they use to bring them together on the Embrace the Void podcast. Listen to that…it’s a mind-boggling hour of revelations. Did you know that the pandemic is a social justice warrior conspiracy to take over the country?

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2020/08/09/the-grift-oh-the-grift/

The purpose of Sovereign Nations is best understood as a prolegomenon to the formation of a new, and not just sentimental, conservative and Constitutional Republic. Sovereign Nations serves as an exploration of the intellectual viability of the conservative political habitat, with a view to establishing the groundwork for the construction and elaboration of a broader and more comprehensive vision for the movement in relation to the exegetical intent of our founders through our national founding documents. The essential precondition for a renewed conservative engagement with intellectual life is confidence in its own coherence and credibility.

https://sovereignnations.com/about-us/

"Sovereign Nations" is established around a conspiracy theory that George Soros is trying to undermine the USA, and is embracing the "WHO/China are attacking the USA with coronavirus" crap. Until July 2019, the above "About Us" including the following:

As can be seen over the past 8 years, the goal of Open Society Foundations is to demean and destroy the tenets of traditional conservatism and thus create a crisis of conscience within the mind of the conservative. In order to succeed, we must rebuild the confidence in the presuppositions of conservatism in all of its exercised forms including in economics, civil liberties, family, sovereignty, theology, rule of law, and foreign affairs. What was once heresy is now law and what was once law is now heresy. The issue for progressive Open Society Foundations is that their new “law” has no foundational presupposition.

It is our hope to engage with the ideas and concepts that are at the center of Open Society Foundations without descending into ad hominem argumentation. We would seek to be upfront with our disagreements, respect our philosophical and ideological opponents, and look forward to creating a common ground of open discussion.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190727105631/https://sovereignnations.com/about-us/

(no, no, god forbid they descend into ad hominem argumentation after accusing OSF of demeaning and destroying conservatism, putting forward "heresy" and having ideas about law without foundation)

Still prominent on its home page:
GEORGE SOROS-BACKED DA CHARGES COUPLE WITH ‘HATE CRIME’ FOR PAINTING OVER ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’
GREEN NEW DEAL, HEALTHCARE FOR ILLEGALS: SOROS-FUNDED GROUPS PUSH DEMS TO USE VIRUS TO ACHIEVE PROGRESSIVE WISH LIST
CORONAVIRUS: CHINA’S GLOBAL INTIMIDATION CAMPAIGN
THE WHO DIRECTOR’S LONG HISTORY OF COVER-UPS

Much more in the (hour long) Aaron Rabinowitz podcast linked to above.