John Ganz

We're like, oh, yeah, well, maybe it'll work out this time.

Even some people who were critics of Trump went, well, about this thing, oh, you mean one of the most unrealistic and potentially catastrophic things he could possibly do, which is to pick a fight, start a war with another power with no idea what was going to be at the end of that war?

I think the United States basically showed itself to be not that powerful.

You know, he made a lot of big noises like he could affect a lot.

Now they realize we got to kind of just take what we can get here.

Oh, yeah.

I haven't read it either.

Well, René Girard believes that people essentially mimic each other and want the same things, and that leads them into inevitable conflict.

And that's the heart of this kind of philosophical anthropology and description of the world.

And the upshot for him is the only way out of this is religious faith.

So the whole thing is kind of a Christian apologetics.

For me, what he's describing there is not really being moved by religious sentiment.

It's kind of realizing

that the smart people that he wants to be in with are religious and then kind of changing his tune.

And he said, oh, well, you know, I want to impress Teal.

So I'm into Eric Girard.

And that's mimetic behavior like Girard describes.

You start to copy people because I think Teal is smart.

Therefore, what Teal pursues.

So I've always believed that J.D.