Hindsight is 2021

With another year of the podcast, the pandemic, and American decline in the rearview, we turn to Know Your Enemy's absurdly brilliant listeners for guidance and intellectual stimulation. That's right, folks, it's a mailbag episode! And thanks to you, our cups runneth over with fascinating questions. Along the way, we discuss the intellectual legacy of one-time National Review wunderkind Garry Wills; why Bill Buckley never wrote a great book; right-wing half-wit propagandists like Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk; conservative feminism; Richard Nixon's role in conservative history; Vatican II; Bob Dylan's artful incoherence; our favorite books; and our favorite bourbons. We also take a few minutes to discuss listener feedback from our last episode with Nate Hochman. We are truly blessed with the most curious, sophisticated, and intellectually voracious listeners in the podcast game. We love you freaks so very much.

So strap in! Like the year 2021, it's a wild ride, with many twists, turns, and digressions.

Further Reading:

Matthew Sitman, "There Will Be No Buckley Revival," Commonweal, Jul 28, 2015.

Garry Wills, "Daredevil," Atlantic, Aug 2009.

Bare Ruined Choirs (1979)

Confessions of a Conservative (1979)

John Wayne's America (1997)

Sam Adler-Bell, "The Radical Young Intellectuals Who Want to Take Over the American Right," New Republic, Dec 2, 2021.

Leonard Coen, Beautiful Losers (1966)

Kaya Oakes, The Defiant Middle (2021)

Christopher Isherwood, The Berlin Stories (1945)

Janet Malcolm, Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession (1982)

Dan Georgakas & Marvin Surkin, Detroit: I Do Mind Dying (1998)

Norman Rush, Mating (1991)

..and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!