3252 The Danger of Hope - Call In Show - April 5th, 2016

Question 1: [2:57] - “From our observations, Ted Cruz is receiving significant support from the Objectivist online community. Some say they support him because, while flawed, he's still the most principled pro-freedom candidate available. Others explicitly support him only because he's not Donald Trump. This is coming from a community that has historically identified religion as the gravest threat to the culture, to the point that key Objectivist intellectuals endorsed voting Democrat in 2004 and 2008. Yet now that the Republicans have a viable non-religious candidate, Trump has morphed into the new gravest threat to America.”“The mental gymnastics we've seen to justify this position have been truly astounding and suggest some visceral emotion is driving the anti-Trump/pro-Cruz response. As long-time Objectivists ourselves, it's disturbing to us to see this coming from a community with a professed commitment to reason. What do you think is the root of this response to Trump, and what does it mean for the hope of turning the culture toward true commitment to reason?”Question 2: [1:38:58] - “In a recent show, in context of the Migrant Crisis, you expressed that you were ‘on the fence’ about whether Europe ‘deserves to be saved.’ First, you should know that most Europeans that still have a spine have a distinct dislike for generalizations that involve all of Europe, since that covers everything from the lazy and corrupt Greece to the hard-working and innovative Switzerland – and arguably, a good chunk of Turkey and Russia.”“And while the U.S. government gives a decent helping of freedom to its own citizens, you could well argue that the people of Switzerland or Poland are in many ways more free. And said nations are not involved in whole-sale murder and suppression of freedom in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. So can you honestly say that the U.S. deserves to be saved, more than we do? Or that there's some other country out there that you think is more deserving? Or have you simply given up on the whole world?”Question 3: [2:08:38] - After the immigration crisis - what will be the future of dating in Europe? How it will it impact native European men and minorities when it comes to dating European women? Question 4: [2:51:17] - “My hometown and the city that I am currently living in: Hong Kong, is listed on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom as the world's freest economy. And as such, I have noticed that many libertarians seem to look up to the city as either someplace that they will want to move to or as an example that the west can emulate. However, in my honest, personal experience, the city is perhaps one of the most nonintellectual and anti-philosophical places that I have ever been in, especially when compared to the West (even with all the madness with political correctness and the like). What would your advice be to someone that lives in a society that is simultaneously the freest in the world economically, and yet is utterly philosophically empty at the same time?”Show Links: http://www.fdrurl.com/3252