My Interview With Stephanie Winn
About war, gender ideology, and the collapse of civilizations
Therapist Stephanie Winn interviewed me again recently because she was curious about something we had not covered in our previous discussions: “What is a military historian doing in this fight?”
The answer starts from a pivotal conversation with a tenured professor about sex difference and primitive warfare in 2020. As I pursued my master’s degree, it dawned on me that gender ideology and the ideologies that drive war are operating from the same playbook — what historian of philosophy Eric Voegelin calls “activist mysticism,” the belief that saying the right words can bend reality to your will.
From there we covered an enormous amount of ground: how transgender ideology hollows out a nation’s ability to defend itself, why pacifism makes you less safe and war more likely, Ibn Khaldun’s cycle of hard times and soft men, the role of ideology in giving people permission to commit violence, and why Hollywood’s “girl boss” era has gutted franchise after franchise by erasing sex difference.
We talked about Audrey Hale, Pol Pot, World War II rifleman training, Brazilian jujitsu, Project Hail Mary, Outlander vs. Bridgerton, and Thucydides’ three causes of war — fear, honor, and interest. You can watch the interview on YouTube above or at Stephanie’s Substack below.
