Episode 85

Support Liberalism and Secularism for the 21st Century

Published on: 9th June, 2024

Blair is sharing information about conferences on liberalism and secularism, books by catholic conservatives, and spot-on joke regarding the upcoming presidential election in the United States America. Martin is talking about the European elections, and is mentioning a podcast discussing deepfakes, distrust, and democracy. You will get informed about our download statistics and listener behavior. The call-to-action is a guide on how to support our work with the podcast.

Call-to-Action: After you have listened to this episode, add your $0.02 (two cents) to the conversation, by joining (for free) The Secular Foxhole Town Hall. Feel free to introduce yourself to the other members, discuss the different episodes, give us constructive feedback, or check out the virtual room, Speakers' Corner, and step up on the digital soapbox. Welcome to our new place in cyberspace!

Show notes with links to articles, blog posts, products and services:

Episode 85 (17 minutes) was recorded at 1730 Central European Time, on June 8, 2024, with Ringr app. Martin did the editing and post-production with the podcast maker, Alitu. The transcript is generated by Alitu.

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Transcript
Blair:

Here we are again, ladies and gentlemen.

Blair:

Today it's just Martin and I in the secular Foxhole podcast number 85.

Blair:

How about that? 85.

Martin:

Yeah, that's a good number.

Blair:

Four years.

Blair:

I think we're in four years.

Martin:

Good.

Blair:

Congratulations to us.

Martin:

Yes, it is.

Martin:

Clap. Clap. Yeah.

Martin:

And we'll talk about that also, how they could, the listeners and co hosts, as you are

Martin:

and I am, and the guests and returning guests and others could support our work and we could

Martin:

support them in a trade.

Blair:

That's right.

Martin:

And value for value.

Martin:

So we'll come, come to that.

Martin:

But you have some news sandwich segment that, again, inspired by Amy Picoff.

Blair:

Yeah. Well, I do have some few things to talk about.

Blair:

Let's see.

Blair:

The first thing I want to mention is I

Blair:

subscribe to an email called notes from the middle ground by a gentleman named Damon

Blair:

Linker.

Blair:

Linker and his latest.

Martin:

And what's the meaning of middle ground?

Blair:

It's not the extreme left or the extreme right, I think, but it's not.

Martin:

The middle of the road that we know about that.

Blair:

Hopefully not.

Blair:

Yeah, hopefully.

Blair:

I think he's more, he's certainly in the liberal tradition, meaning the original

Blair:

classical sense.

Blair:

Yeah.

Blair:

Yes.

Blair:

Right.

Blair:

I believe that's true.

Blair:

But his latest, he, he talks about his, his

Blair:

teacher, this gentleman, name is Mark.

Blair:

I'm gonna call Lila l ill a mark.

Blair:

Lila.

Blair:

And he also has a, he has an article in the

Blair:

New York Review of Books, but it's available in PDF form on Mister Lila's website.

Blair:

But anyway, it's called the Tower and the sewer.

Blair:

And this is about.

Blair:

Let's read what Damon says about it.

Blair:

It's a wide ranging review covering several recent books by Patrick Deneen, Sohrab Amari

Blair:

and Adrian Vermeule.

Blair:

I think that's how you pronounce a gentleman's

Blair:

name.

Blair:

The essay is a tour de force that places these

Blair:

writers in broad historical context, situates them in contemporary, in the contemporary

Blair:

american right, and combines generosity toward the psychological and spiritual struggles that

Blair:

animate their thinking with nuanced is that word, and occasionally severe criticism of it.

Blair:

Now, these gentlemen are all anti liberal, anti enlightenment people.

Blair:

So they're no friends to America.

Blair:

So that I do want to, I will provide the

Blair:

Martin with the link to the PDF in the notes after the show.

Blair:

But that's something I want to alert our listeners to because I think it's well worth

Blair:

reading.

Blair:

And then here we are.

Blair:

And then I do subscribe to something else called the unpopulous, which Robert Tracinski.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

Yeah. He often plugs on his in his writing and also his YouTube videos.

Blair:

But they have the people that behind the unpopulous have a institute for the Study of

Blair:

modern authoritarianism, and they are having their first conference in, of all places,

Blair:

Washington, DC, next month, next month, July 11 and 12th.

Blair:

So that's something we should plug, I think, and they want to, their topic for that

Blair:

conference is liberalism in the 21st century.

Blair:

And again, I will provide the links to both

Blair:

the website and I guess to the conference for that in our notes.

Blair:

And let's see what else.

Blair:

There was something else.

Martin:

Oh, you had to joke also because these two things sounds like a good.

Blair:

Yes, that's right.

Blair:

So here's, here's the, here's the good and

Blair:

this is the bad and it's the joke.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

And people around the world should pity the american people because their choice for

Blair:

president is someone who's facing a sentence and someone who can't complete a sentence.

Blair:

So that is indeed a very sad situation.

Martin:

Yeah. Where did you see that one? That joke, actually, who read that?

Martin:

I want to give credits to that.

Blair:

We should, it was, it was a Greg Gutfeld on Fox.

Martin:

Yeah. Okay. That's also, that's also a good one.

Martin:

It's coming from Fox News.

Martin:

That's, that's interesting.

Blair:

Yeah, that's true.

Blair:

Yes, it is.

Blair:

So that's, that's the bad.

Blair:

And now the, the ringer for the sandwich, the

Blair:

top of the sandwich.

Blair:

This is another kind of a funny little thing.

Blair:

And I can't find the link.

Blair:

I have, I have to search for it.

Blair:

But here in America, we have what's called the Bible Belt, which is mostly southern part of

Blair:

the United States.

Martin:

Did it also reach where I was?

Blair:

I mean, there's, you know how you also is that there's certainly, it's not nearly

Blair:

severe in the midwest as it.

Martin:

Is more deep down south.

Blair:

Yeah, I think that's true.

Blair:

Honestly.

Blair:

And there is what I've called the buckle of the Bible Belt, which is little Rock,

Blair:

Arkansas.

Martin:

From Bill Clinton country.

Blair:

Yes, that's, yes, sadly, from Bill Clinton country.

Blair:

However, the secular student alliance is having their annual conference in Little Rock,

Blair:

Arkansas.

Blair:

So go figure.

Martin:

Yeah. That's a good battleground, right?

Blair:

I guess it must be.

Blair:

It might be.

Blair:

But I have to find that where I saw that.

Blair:

So, and then I'll put that in the show notes

Blair:

as well.

Blair:

But that's my new sandwich for this episode.

Martin:

Yeah. And I'm talking about news that I haven't listened to yet, but it's about the

Martin:

podcast in Swedish called the Security Council, and they were talking about

Martin:

deepfakes, distrust and democracy and about the artificial intelligence election year and

Martin:

so on.

Martin:

So that's something we could talk about

Martin:

tomorrow.

Martin:

It's European Union elections.

Martin:

I voted so called against European Union, okay, but I'm for free trade and so on.

Martin:

But now we are stuck in European Union.

Martin:

We haven't exited yet as Britain.

Martin:

But then you could then vote for somebody that could, a representative, a party that could

Martin:

stop the worst and maybe do something good there.

Martin:

And that's a new party that's not represented in the government or in the Riksta, as you say

Martin:

in Swedish.

Martin:

And that's called Mied Borg samling.

Martin:

And that's like Citizens alliance, you could say, or something like that.

Martin:

And it's a non socialist party because many of the non socialist parties, like the moderates,

Martin:

so called the conservatives, and even the liberal that are more social liberal, have

Martin:

problem issue whatever on their guidelines and the spectrum where they are.

Martin:

And we know that there's no left or right scale.

Martin:

In a way.

Martin:

Tracinski have talked about that also and

Martin:

others.

Martin:

But anyway, so it's interesting if I'm

Martin:

thinking of voting that and when I want to vote on a certain individual, if I could find.

Martin:

So that's for tomorrow.

Martin:

And then you said about the joke where in the

Martin:

autumn it's following that.

Martin:

And so we'll come back to that more and then

Martin:

definitely have Robert Traczynski and others returning and talking.

Martin:

So that's something about.

Martin:

And then.

Martin:

Yeah.

Martin:

What is a deepfake, for example, we could talk

Martin:

about and distrust for democracy could in a way be a good thing if it's not populist and a

Martin:

solution for the future is like a constitutional republic and really

Martin:

understands.

Martin:

I remember, wasn't it Tracinski that had that

Martin:

called something with the republic it's worth to save or something like that?

Blair:

Oh, yes.

Martin:

In paper form.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

That I don't remember, but I know that Benjamin Franklin.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

At the time of the signing, he answered someone's query, a republic if you can keep

Blair:

it.

Blair:

Of course, it hasn't been that for more than a

Blair:

century.

Blair:

Because of, you know, democracy.

Martin:

Yep.

Blair:

Which is the last in the last breath before tyranny unless you turn it around,

Blair:

which anyhow.

Martin:

Yeah. So that's something to come back to also.

Martin:

And then we could, if you're open to listen to some stats.

Blair:

Yes, please.

Martin:

So that's from our podcast host provider.

Martin:

I call it like a sound hotel.

Martin:

And that's an audio and that's captivate and

Martin:

there it's the listener behavior and the last 28 days is unique listeners, 129 and 148

Martin:

downloads.

Martin:

So some individuals have listened more than

Martin:

once, and then you could see its statistics and you could see trends a bit because we

Martin:

haven't done some latest episode is like two weeks ago, and that will have now download for

Martin:

70 downloads with Brian Stevenson.

Martin:

So that's great.

Martin:

So I don't look so much in it, and you shouldn't be, how to say, paralyzed by it.

Martin:

But it's interesting to see the trend so around.

Martin:

In general, in the long trend, we have like 198 downloads average every 28 days, like a

Martin:

month.

Martin:

So seven per day.

Martin:

Of course, in the long run, we want to have 77 hundred, 7000, et cetera, et cetera.

Martin:

And we see the potential of that.

Martin:

But we will not rush it as the band.

Blair:

No, I love Rush.

Martin:

But the new podcast app, in the latest 28 days, the fountain had 10% of that

Martin:

listening and downloads, you could say.

Martin:

So somebody out there is using a new podcast,

Martin:

modern podcast app.

Martin:

And a newly favorite of mine is Truefans Dot

Martin:

FM.

Martin:

And we will continue with this work.

Martin:

And then also the founder and originator of that, Sam Sati, will ask if you could come to

Martin:

the show and talk about the specific thing in the podcasting industry and how to arrange

Martin:

conference and political correctness and other things that could happen out there and the

Martin:

positive news, what he's doing, really doing great work with this.

Martin:

Truefans FM, the onboarding for guests, for co hosts, for listeners will be so smooth.

Martin:

And also you could have this value for value that you get something and you decide yourself

Martin:

how much you want to send as a transaction.

Martin:

So this is really interesting.

Martin:

So we'll cover that in the future.

Blair:

Yeah.

Martin:

And great.

Martin:

Again, great.

Martin:

That fountain is a popular app and there are more out there, and we will include that in

Martin:

the show notes.

Martin:

So the stats here, the latest period is United

Martin:

States, of course, is in the top.

Martin:

And then Canada.

Martin:

And these total are like around 50% of the listeners so far.

Martin:

And then Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Finland, Australia, Sweden, for some reason,

Martin:

Malaysia and Spain.

Martin:

That's the top ten.

Martin:

I didn't check how many countries we are in total, but we are getting closer and closer

Martin:

to, you know, how many countries there are out there.

Martin:

We are getting better.

Blair:

Well, that's great.

Blair:

That is great.

Blair:

I want to mention, I know you got to run.

Blair:

Is it true, fans?

Martin:

Truefans FM? Yes.

Blair:

Go ahead and talk about that if you like.

Martin:

Yeah, as I did, it's a great application, and it's a so called progress web

Martin:

app, so it could work.

Martin:

You don't have to download an app.

Martin:

It will work when you create an account, a free account, it will work on your smartphone

Martin:

also.

Martin:

And I see this positive gamification of it

Martin:

when you use it.

Martin:

You will get Satoshis.

Martin:

You could do all kind of things.

Martin:

And in the future we have like one guest that

Martin:

I'm thinking about, Warren Fahey and others and of course James Valiant.

Martin:

And in the future will be able to have like audiobooks there.

Martin:

You will be able to have courses, you could have conferences, all kind of things, and

Martin:

music artists.

Martin:

You could apply this value for value model on

Martin:

this also.

Martin:

So this would be really interesting in the

Martin:

future to follow this.

Martin:

Stay tuned and keep in touch regarding that.

Blair:

Well, that's all I had today, Martin.

Blair:

So I know, again, I know you got to run.

Martin:

Yeah, that's okay.

Martin:

And as the last thing then, and I thank you,

Martin:

Robert Beagley, as a guest, whatever, several times.

Martin:

Thanks for your email.

Martin:

And this is one thing with having a podcast,

Martin:

the relation you build and grow and so on.

Blair:

Yeah, true.

Martin:

And thanks to Robert, we had a guest that talked about this new educational, you

Martin:

could say site and college and school.

Blair:

Right, Marcia.

Martin:

And also we got support thanks to that podcast interview and conversation.

Martin:

And we appreciate that very much to get the support.

Martin:

And then you could go to the link that we have on Captivate, that's in the podcast player.

Martin:

And we include that in the show notes also.

Martin:

And I asked here on Twitter, because I saw on

Martin:

the podcastindex.org that they say like this, I will do a quote here, help us out.

Martin:

None of these is free.

Martin:

If you get any value from this project or if

Martin:

you just believe in it and want to help us with hosting fees and paying the bills, a

Martin:

donation of any amount would be great.

Martin:

And I would say the same for us.

Martin:

So, and then I tweeted here or posted, as you say now, on x to something called Conshax.

Martin:

And that's also a service that you could look at when you after some time get like from

Martin:

different streams and different podcast apps and whatnot, the donation, then of course, you

Martin:

want to thank the donors, but then you have to keep it in, you know, some kind of

Martin:

instrumental panel or dashboard or something like that.

Martin:

And contracts is that, and you could create a similar page like this capture page support

Martin:

page on contracts.

Martin:

And there they could, you could set a certain

Martin:

amount in satoshis, like, do you want to give us a cup of tea or a coffee or whatever your

Martin:

favorite beverage or a beer or your deciding amount.

Martin:

So you could have pre, how to say pre populated.

Blair:

Predetermined choices.

Martin:

Predetermined. Yeah. So it's very simple to do it, but I will wait for their

Martin:

response there.

Martin:

Okay.

Martin:

Thanks, Blair.

Martin:

It was nice to talk to you soon again.

Martin:

And we have guests in the pipeline and new things coming up and.

Martin:

Yeah, we will talk soon again.

Blair:

That sounds great, Martin.

Blair:

Thank you.

Martin:

Yeah, thanks for now and talk to you soon again.

Martin:

Bye for now.

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About the Podcast

The Secular Foxhole
Separation of Religion and State
As a freethinker, are you looking through binoculars out at the world in the safety of a foxhole? Get fuel for your soul and intellectual ammunition by listening to The Secular Foxhole podcast, in order to fight for the separation of religion and state.

Blair chose this name (The Secular Foxhole) to dispute the myth that there are no atheists in foxholes, but also as a place to share ideas and defend Free Speech. The co-hosts both advocate the separation of Church and State, but also Economics and State. In short, Liberalism, Individualism, and Capitalism.
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About your hosts

Blair Schofield

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I'm a 'lapsed' blogger who turned his blog into a podcast. Now the task is to keep both up to date! My co-host Martin Lindeskog and I have already celebrated our one year anniversary, with the podcast.

Martin Lindeskog

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Creator, ✍🏻 Tea Book Sketches. Indie Biz Philosopher ⚛️ & New Media 📲 Advisor, TeaParty.Media. Blogger since 2002 and podcaster🎙since 2006. First podcast: EGO NetCast. Latest podcast: High Five for Hemp. Support 💲My Work and 🗽 Freedom of Expression: https://bio.link/lyceum