I really relate to this– this is what drew me to the rationalists
originally. I used to think I really hated rich ivory-tower liberals,
but it turns out I just hate rich people, and the “liberal” or “ivory
tower” isn’t the important part.
The temptation to frame condescending liberals (in my case meaning
the kind who look down on middle class and poor people for being the
uneducated masses) as a Major Problem Facing America is real, but
they’re more like a major problem facing my mental health than a major
problem facing the US.
Mostly he's a misogynist, but he also at least professes some kind of socialism. I can't remember if he's a full-on communist or some sort of demsoc though. (Because, again, his real guiding ideology is misogyny.)
I was being a bit coy because I already knew Taibbi isn't any sort of real leftist. I'm personally a little sick of "demsoc" journalists who do this song-and-dance routine vaguely gesturing "oh isn't the system bad" and never actually connect the dots and become proper Marxists.
On this view, everything that’s dismissed as unimportant or passed
over in the media becomes ever more important, proof that it is being
suppressed. Any dissent from this view or questioning of how central or
important it is, is a sign of subordination to the Dark Force, either
through explicit participation in conspiracies (media cabals etc.) or
through ideological mystification. In short, this is the kernel of a
totalitarian worldview.
I like how the comments here are a 50-50 split of “good sneer” and
“this is itself sneerworthy”. Sneerclub ideological diversity!
Thousands & thousands of relentlessly pompous pseudo-academic
words that add up to: those people I don’t like are dumb & wrong,
while I am correct & in touch with objective reality. Not argued,
really, just stated, again & again, as though self-evident.
Yeah but liberals really are annoying and bad. I don’t like Siskind
or Aaronson or whomever, but this sort of twee apologism for a dominant
political and cultural force in the US isn’t a good explanation for
what’s going on with them.
Like, if your explanation for why people criticize liberalism puts
Glenn Greenwald and James Lindsay in the same bucket, you are
misunderstanding the world.
> Like, if your explanation for why people criticize liberalism puts Glenn Greenwald and James Lindsay in the same bucket, you are misunderstanding the world.
No, no, you don't understand, my armchair psychologising applies equally as well to a garden-variety crank spouting off about "Fourier transforms" like they have relevance to politics and someone who has had consistent criticisms of American "liberal" politicians since their open collaboration with the Bush administration /s
Yeah, I don't think we need a grand theory of antiliberalism that explains why Lindsay's antiantiracism and Greenwald's antiantiRussia-ism are the same thing and are also both right-wing. If there's any grand theory to be gleaned, it's not about people who "ideologically incline toward liberalism" and just can't get on board with the whole program, but rather it's about other Americans who ideologically incline toward conservatism but lack any serious secular intellectual leadership on that side of their country's politics so instead of asserting their own values they can only define themselves in opposition to the mainstream centrist paradigm, which might describe one of these men but not both.
Greenwald has his blind spots but I think he has done a lot of good
in the world. He has been consistent on personal freedom from his time
defending Muslims after 9/11 to Snowden. I like him.
I feel like it was possible to watch this happen in real time to Scott Aaronson.
I really relate to this– this is what drew me to the rationalists originally. I used to think I really hated rich ivory-tower liberals, but it turns out I just hate rich people, and the “liberal” or “ivory tower” isn’t the important part.
The temptation to frame condescending liberals (in my case meaning the kind who look down on middle class and poor people for being the uneducated masses) as a Major Problem Facing America is real, but they’re more like a major problem facing my mental health than a major problem facing the US.
Linked article has an eloquent exposition of eigensneer #10:
I like how the comments here are a 50-50 split of “good sneer” and “this is itself sneerworthy”. Sneerclub ideological diversity!
I mean this was a fun line
IDK who this is, but he could lead a strawman design PH.D. program
Liz Lemon gif “Just say ‘libertarianism’, Jack; this is taking forever.”
EDIT: and yes, I know he does, a few tweets down
This could be the tl;dr of that one SSC post where he talks about how he was radicalised by seeing so many socialists when he was growing up.
Yeah but liberals really are annoying and bad. I don’t like Siskind or Aaronson or whomever, but this sort of twee apologism for a dominant political and cultural force in the US isn’t a good explanation for what’s going on with them.
Like, if your explanation for why people criticize liberalism puts Glenn Greenwald and James Lindsay in the same bucket, you are misunderstanding the world.
That whole thread was ‘end of history’ tier bad, lmao
Lots of words without a hint of him knowing what he’s talking about
Greenwald has his blind spots but I think he has done a lot of good in the world. He has been consistent on personal freedom from his time defending Muslims after 9/11 to Snowden. I like him.