Cooper Cobbs

Amateur theologian, novice philosopher, literature enjoyer, journalist in-training.
Chesterton Media Fellow @newguardpress

[Nate Fischer @NateAFischer]

Good to see attention on the deleterious effects of marijuana legalization.

The American founders widely recognized the danger licentiousness posed to both general welfare and capacity for self-government. Contemporary conservatives are far too cavalier about this.

@CobbsCooper correctly emphasizes this:

"Legalizing recreational cannabis gives individuals the means to dull their senses, check out of life, and develop dependencies on a potentially dangerous substance. This is habituation toward destruction. A republic can only be sustained by citizens capable of governing themselves. Marijuana doesn’t contribute to that capacity — it undermines it."

[New Guard Press @newguardpress]

Chesterton fellow @CobbsCooper in @AmReformer this morning:

"The fact that some will disobey the law doesn’t change what law is for."

Link in comments 🔽

[Cooper Cobbs @CobbsCooper]

https://t.co/YjROMXTbN8

[Cooper Cobbs @CobbsCooper]

Check out something I wrote for @AmReformer in which I use Thomas Aquinas to argue against recreational marijuana usage. Link below

[Cooper Cobbs @CobbsCooper]

@MichaelCarlino @jessenigro James Talarico would do well to heed this too

[𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐨 ⛪︎ 🌲 @MichaelCarlino]

C.S. Lewis's review of this appalling decision circa 1948:

"Why should a woman not in this sense represent God? Certainly not because she is necessarily, or even probably, less holy or less charitable or stupider than a man. In that sense she may be as 'God-like' as a man; and a given women much more so than a given man. The sense in which she cannot represent God will perhaps be plainer if we look at the thing the other way round.

Suppose the reformer stops saying that a good woman may be like God and begins saying that God is like a good woman. Suppose he says that we might just as well pray to "Our Mother which art in heaven" as to "Our Father". Suppose he suggests that the Incarnation might just as well have taken a female as a male form, and the Second Person of the Trinity be as well called the Daughter as the Son. Suppose, finally, that the mystical marriage were reversed, that the Church were the Bridegroom and Christ the Bride. All this, as it seems to me, is involved in the claim that a woman can represent God as a priest does.

Now it is surely the case that if all these supposals were ever carried into effect we should be embarked on a different religion. Goddesses have, of course, been worshipped: many religions have had priestesses. But they are religions quite different in character from Christianity. Common sense, disregarding the discomfort, or even the horror, which the idea of turning all our theological language into the feminine gender arouses in most Christians, will ask 'Why not? Since God is in fact not a biological being and has no sex, what can it matter whether we say He or She, Father or Mother, Son or Daughter?'

But Christians think that God Himself has taught us how to speak of Him. To say that it does not matter is to say either that all the masculine imagery is not inspired, is merely human in origin, or else that, though inspired, it is quite arbitrary and unessential. And this is surely intolerable: or, if tolerable, it is an argument not in favour of Christian priestesses but against Christianity. It is also surely based on a shallow view of imagery. Without drawing upon religion, we know from our poetical experience that image and apprehension cleave closer together than common sense is here prepared to admit; that a child who has been taught to pray to a Mother in Heaven would have a religious life radically different from that of a Christian child. And as image and apprehension are in an organic unity, so, for a Christian, are human body and human soul.

The innovators are really implying that sex is something superficial, irrelevant to the spiritual life. To say that men and women are equally eligible for a certain profession is to say that for the purposes of that profession their sex is irrelevant. We are, within that context, treating both as neuters.

With the Church, we are farther in: for there we are dealing with male and female not merely as facts of nature but as the live and awful shadows of realities utterly beyond our control and largely beyond our direct knowledge. Or rather, we are not dealing with them but (as we shall soon learn if we meddle) they are dealing with us."

From "Priestesses in the Church?"

[Cooper Cobbs @CobbsCooper]

@PhilipDBunn Moby Dick is hilarious. Like, so funny

[New Guard Press @newguardpress]

Congratulations to Chesterton Media Fellow @CobbsCooper of @patrickhenrycol for being a finalist in the feature writing category!

[New Guard Press @newguardpress]

Congratulations to @thesimonolech for being named a finalist for the @collegiatenet commentary award!

Simon went to a small town in Washington State and talked to locals on the changing dynamics in the town in the wake of COVID.

"When work went online, many wealthy families moved into Winthrop from places like Seattle. This gradually changed the social landscape of Winthrop in various ways."

[Bradley Devlin @bradleydevlin]

No, “conservatism” (which isn’t an -ism, btw) is not repackaged John Stuart Mill slop.

The first paragraph of Aristotle’s Politics:

“Every state is a community of some kind, and every community is established with a view to some good; for mankind always act in order to obtain that which they think good. But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good.”

You cannot be a defender of western civilization if you deny the common good. End of story.

[Evie Solheim @EvieSolheim]

Slightly warm take: Conservatives should not be allowed to complain about “the arts” unless they’ve participated in the arts in their local communities - and that can be as simple as buying a ticket to a local musical. I just took my daughter to see a local production of “The Little Mermaid” and it was money well spent (and barely more expensive than a movie ticket). Was it avant garde? Will The New York Times write about it? No, but it was wonderful for her to hear a live band play and hear beautiful singing and realize how much talent we have where we live!

[Evie Solheim @EvieSolheim]

Read my review of "Skipping School" by @DixieDillonLane for @amconmag:

[Collegiate Network @collegiatenet]

This week’s newsletter is out.

Our featured story, written by Dalton Brown, comes from our John Adams College paper, The Rostra, followed by work from Chesteron fellow @CobbsCooper, @newguardpress’s Gabriella DiPrima, alum @JonasYDu, and others.

[New Guard Press @newguardpress]

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[Evie Solheim @EvieSolheim]

"Although Lane demonstrates that homeschooling in the 21st century cannot be claimed by a single group, I think it can. It can be claimed by Americans. Homeschooling is as foreign in Europe as ice in tap water. Americans’ deep desire for freedom and suspicion of the state mean our soil is ripe for the practice."

Good stuff from @CobbsCooper!

[Nicki Neily @nickineily]

Colleges can’t claim to value diversity while treating differing viewpoints like a problem. Read more on this issue from @CobbsCooper with the @CollegeFix: https://t.co/IpSak074A8

[Marlo Slayback @marlo_safi]

I realize that some papers may also be using AI to aid with reporting, but I really can’t emphasize to young and aspiring journalists enough how critical it is that you get up and go do original reporting and talk to actual people right now. Almost every young budding conservative journalist I meet, and this has been the case for years, wants to be a literary journal editor or focus on opinion writing.

Go actually talk to people, go to events and be a fly on the wall! Use your observational skills and imagination to write something AI can’t, because you’re including words said to your human face from actually ensouled human beings. You will be competing with probably hundreds of more qualified candidates when you apply for the rare editorial position opening, sorry. So go build trust with sources, get as many bylines as you can with as much original reporting as you can get. It’ll put hair on your chest and give you grit. This is a transferable skill in short supply.

*You are competing with a machine!* Your competitive advantage is physical presence and moral judgement. Go do the leg work, sit in someone’s office or living room and talk to them and take in the small details like their gestures and mannerisms or the idiosyncrasies of the space they inhabit. Read some John McPhee and Tom Wolfe to see how that’s done in an entertaining way. Bring a camera or use your phone and take pictures instead of depending on AI slop images! Journalism at its best is a public service built around human stories!

[New Guard Press @newguardpress]

Chesterton Fellow @CobbsCooper reviews a new book on the homeschooling movement’s history by @DixieDillonLane in @realDailyWire!

Link in the replies! ⬇️

[Cooper Cobbs @CobbsCooper]

They cut “asedious.”

In my recent review of Dixie Dillon Lane’s “Skipping School,” I said the book would “prove alchemical to every reader.” They changed that to “has something for everybody.”

I think DW just has it out for archaic words that start with “a.”

[Cooper Cobbs @CobbsCooper]

Check out my review of Dixie Dillon Lane's excellent book "Skipping School" in @realDailyWire!

[Cooper Cobbs @CobbsCooper]

I’ve written two articles for the Daily Wire’s culture column Upstream this summer and both times they cut a really fun word that begins with “a.”

I wrote that boomers see Gen Z complaining about the job market while unemployed as engaging in nothing more than “acedious cope.”