Jonathan Haidt is a #fail again — now on bin Laden

Once again, the conservative flak man of academic sociology blows it.

A month or so ago, he was criticizing academia for alleged bias against conservatives, as I blogged about, rather than looking at conservatives' possible (no, not possible, actual and huge) bias against academia.

Now?

As Massimo Pigliucci points out, he's saying it's a good thing to have celebrated Osama bin Laden's death — and making a hash of moral philosophy at the same time.

Per Massimo, his biggest failures are claiming you cannot "ramp up" moral interactions between individuals to a large-scale level and claiming nationalism and patriotism are two different things. On the former:

You can’t just scale up your ideas about morality at the individual level and apply them to groups and nations. If you do, you’ll miss all that was good, healthy and even altruistic about last week’s celebrations.

Empirical warrant offered for this statement in the first sentence? Zip.

So, he's a conservative moral relativist who, being a good conservative, would deny he's a moral relativist.

Obama goes Calvinist at inaugural

Harry Browne picks up on what the MSM and MSLBs all missed – Obama’s solemn riff on the Protestant work ethic.

Here’s the Obama nut graf of Browne’s focus:

Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

What’s wrong with wanting some leisure, Browne asks in response?

But, Browne notes Obama gets worse with this:

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

Browne points to the penultimate clause, and wonders, did Obama really mean that slaves CHOSE the lash instead of leisure?

Look at Obama’s whole context, as quoted by Browne:

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

Obama certainly comes off as sounding like John Calvin meeting Simon Legree.

And, by the early time at which he wrapped up going to inaugural balls, Obama apparently doesn’t believe in leisure.

Great. A George W. Bush-type moralist who actually means it.