The “Pandemic of Lunacy”: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy, J. Budziszewski

Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words

Jennifer Hayne

News Commentary, News

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

University of Texas at Austin professor and moral philosopher Prof. J. Budziszewski discusses his new book, “The Pandemic of Lunacy: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy,” which examines 30 modern delusions and why they spread on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” ft. guest host Jack Fowler. He argues today’s irrationality is motivated, often contains a grain of truth, and metastasizes as one false premise leads to others, with social media acting as a force multiplier. The conversation covers relativism, abortion premises leading to infanticide arguments, radical individualism sliding toward authoritarianism, and debates over sex differences and the claim that men can be women. 👉America is worth preserving. Do your part and act now by going to https://www.heritage.org/beautiful 👉Go to My Patriot Supply to see exclusive winter time deals before offers end! https://www.mypatriotsupply.com/ 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest editions of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words” by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 👉 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2iOoN0xoOoSNvDFlpLLYGY?si=5a9f369acc874c6e 👉 Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/victor-davis-hanson-in-his-own-words/id1566731706 👉 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1 👉 Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/VictorDavisHansonInHisOwnWords?e9s=src_v1_sa%2Csrc_v1_sa_o 👉 Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	My name is Sherlock Holmes.
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0:30.2	I haven't had a word to say yet because I'm happy with everything that you said.
0:34.4	Oh, okay, good.
0:35.8	We can do the whole podcast with just you. That's fine.
0:38.9	Just keep praising my book. You applaud in the background. Now, every society falls for some delusions.
0:45.4	What's unusual about our time is that we are passing through a season. We are passing through a
0:49.3	pandemic of lunacy. The interesting thing, the unusual thing about our time is how many lunacies
0:54.1	we fall for
0:55.3	and how deeply they cut. If I'm falling for one of these lunacies, I don't just think that the
1:00.3	error is true. I'm not just mistaken and think that the error isn't an error. I want the error to be
1:07.2	true. I have a question for you, too. I still want to know how many of those snicker as bars you need to survive in a month. Maybe we can talk about that another time. Hungry? Why wait? Another thing, though, that makes clear thinking difficult is that we have to get back into the habit of thinking at all. One of the things that I do with my students, they will say, and I wonder whether people did this in a previous
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