Tea at Trianon: Those Who Hate Boys

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, July 26, 2025

Those Who Hate Boys

From Becoming Noble:

Terrible solutions are proposed. No matter how much traditional masculinity is undermined, powerful voices continue to insist that the real problem is that it hasn’t been destroyed altogether. ‘Only then will boys be happy.’ My thesis for this series is that there is a need to defend true masculinity on its own terms, not on the implicit terms of progressives who either don’t understand it or actively hate it.
Take, for example, this debate at the Oxford Union on traditional masculinity. The opening argument of the opposition - who are supposed to be defending traditional masculinity - starts with asserting the need for a ‘contemporary and inclusive’ masculinity which is accessible to anyone ‘of any race, sexuality, or other identity’.
The best defence that this speaker can mount on this anaemic foundation is an argument that masculinity is useful for activism and community building like the ‘Movember Foundation’. After this slightly pathetic case she goes back to conceding “being forced to conform to a set of expectations is uncomfortable and even dangerous. We should allow people to access the gender expressions that make them feel like their truest self.” (Read more.)

Society will get the worst behavior it tolerates. From Culturcidal:

Although the shine is definitely off the halo these days, for a brief period of time, Rudi Giuliani had enough respect put on his name that he was considered a FRONT RUNNER for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008. At first glance, this seems ludicrous. After all, Giuliani is a moderate Republican who is best known for being the Mayor of New York City. Why were conservatives so in love with this guy?
Some of it had to do with him doing a good job during 9/11, but the thing he was most famous for was cleaning up NYC. The city was a crime-ridden hellscape before Giuliani took over, but “America’s mayor” had a plan to deal with it.
He embraced something called “Broken Windows” policing. The general idea behind it is that when small crimes are unaddressed, large crimes soon follow. You let people smash windows, put up graffiti, and jump the turnstiles at the subway, and people assume no one cares, and they can get away with more.
Under Giuliani, the NYC Police Department got very aggressive, very visible, and cracked down on these “small” crimes. As a result, not only did it improve the look and image of NYC, but the crime rate also plunged. How much? Quite a bit, actually.... (Read more.)