Nanny-Statism Goes Bipartisan
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley is probably the best option for those who seek a standard bearer to carry on anything that could be considered Trumpism in a post-Trump world. This is because, unlike President Trump, Hawley is a man of political convictions who can better speak to cultural issues for his convictions and motivations go further than the inflation of his personal ego. Hawley also does not have a Trumpian personality for he does not behave in an abrasive manner on Twitter or carry any of the personal baggage that Trump does.
This is not lost in the intellectual sphere of conservative thought, as Hawley has become a bit of a controversial figure to say the least. For some Hawley is the man taking the fight to the big tech companies that are out to get conservatives and for those conservatives who believe that the liberal order is destroying everything that conservatives cherish, Hawley represents faith, tradition, family, and societal cohesiveness.
For others he is a man who wants to use state power to form what he perceives to be the ideal society, he is just another politician who wants to advance “the common good,” whatever that means. They have criticized people like Hawley, Tucker Carlson, and Sohrab Ahmari for not only condemning the liberal order, but not having any sort of viable alternative or one that would justify taking the wrecking ball to it.
Enter Hawley, who has now introduced legislation to give us an idea of what this new version of conservatism might look like. To parody Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of Lake Erie, we have seen the future and it is them. Hawley’s bill is nothing more than nanny-statism.
Previously used to describe left-wing ideas such as soda taxes and “The Life of Julia,” Hawley’s conservative nanny state would, according to The Hill:
[B]an YouTube’s “autoplay” feature, which loads up new videos for users automatically; Facebook and Twitter’s “infinite scroll,” which allows users to continue scrolling through their homepages without limit; and Snapchat’s “streaks,” which reward users for continuing to send photos to their friends.
None of this has anything to do with monopolies or bias at any of those sites. This is Hawley trying to be the nation’s father, yelling at the youths to get off the internet, because the “addiction” of the social media “drug” is bad for your mental health.
Of course the dangers of becoming addicted to social media and other societal problems associated with Twitter, Facebook, and others are very real, but so is drinking too much soda. It is not Michael Bloomberg’s job to tell me or you how much soda to drink and it is not Josh Hawley’s job to tell us how many YouTube videos to watch.
If Hawley and others want to move away from the politics of the individual and toward familial and societal cohesiveness then they need to let families do what families do and not have the all powerful government step into that role.
