posted on February 23, 2021 09:01 PM by
u/AlienneLeigh
56
u/wholetyouinhere41 pointsat 1614124524.000000
the naive Millian liberal “I may strongly disagree with your
opinions, but I am open to learning from a friendly debate” worldview is
the opening that illiberal trolls like Yarvin exploit to normalize their
repugnant opinions and recruit off less objectionable platforms.
I feel like this is the lesson of our age. And I feel like I
relitigate it on Reddit at least once every single fucking day. It’s
exhausting. Maybe I’m just too old for Reddit, but the enthusiastic,
centrist naivete of this place is astounding.
Not that it necessarily makes it any better, but I know from personal experience that a good portion of that naïveté is the result of privilege across whichever axis/es is relevant to the discussion.
In my case, I’m gay, but I’m also white, and didn’t come out as non-binary until last year. Despite living through the latter part of the fight for marriage equality, it still took me a while to grasp that not all opinions are worth platforming when it came to things like race and gender. It was only once I connected my experience as a gay person to the struggles of women and PoC that I realized it was not only okay, but also morally necessary, to pick a side.
Yes, you're right. Privilege is a really important factor. It sure was for me. I quickly forget that I was one of these "all viewpoints welcome" types when I was younger, and maybe I should have more empathy for the journey they may or not be on, but I just don't have the patience.
I liked the paragraph before that one:
> I had to think my way out of libertarianism before I could grasp how it functions to undermine healthy democratic institutions and freeze in place inequalities and power relations built on literal slavery — and that, for many libertarians, *that is the appeal*.
Another consequence of that drift is that I’d now vote without
hesitation to kick Steve Sailer off Malcolm Gladwell’s island. It took
me a long time to see it, but I eventually got it into my thick skull
that the naive Millian liberal “I may strongly disagree with your
opinions, but I am open to learning from a friendly debate” worldview is
the opening that illiberal trolls like Yarvin exploit to normalize their
repugnant opinions and recruit off less objectionable platforms.
There is no good-faith debate to be had with people like this. There
is nothing to be gained and much to be lost by offering them a platform
to lie, filibuster, obfuscate and divide. I enabled these guys, despite
my best intentions, by respectfully tolerating them on my own modest
platform and by encouraging others to do so as well. I really regret
it.
> I eventually got it into my thick skull that the naive Millian liberal “I may strongly disagree with your opinions, but I am open to learning from a friendly debate” worldview is the opening that illiberal trolls like Yarvin exploit to normalize their repugnant opinions and recruit off less objectionable platforms.
holy shit, he saw through the liberal blind spot
I do have some reservations. Both this piece and his previous were
more than a little self-congratulating in a way that is a bit
sneerworthy in and of itself. I don’t share his conclusion that having
had a libertarian phase is something to be proud of, even if framed here
as the necessary original sin at the start of his personal redemption
story.
But the Moldbug sneering here is very on point. Good sneer.
Oh yeah, i mean, i have the dude blocked on Twitter because i still think he's fucking insufferable. But the Moldbug sneers were really top-tier, so i had to share.
Same reason I love Taleb, I suppose. The guy's a right-wing wacko, but because he has “fuck you money”, he just says the quiet part loud and exposes the IDW crowd, because he just doesn't give a shit.
>Same reason I love Taleb, I suppose. The guy's a right-wing wacko, but because he has “fuck you money”, he just says the quiet part loud and exposes the IDW crowd, because he just doesn't give a shit.
Could you share some examples? Need the entertainment
Wilkinson is really insufferable. The only thing that sort of saves him is that his targets are such low hanging sneerfruit.
E: I didn't even notice OP's response to this comment, in which they also use the word "insufferable." I shall interpret this as vindicating my word choice.
I feel like this is the lesson of our age. And I feel like I relitigate it on Reddit at least once every single fucking day. It’s exhausting. Maybe I’m just too old for Reddit, but the enthusiastic, centrist naivete of this place is astounding.
I do have some reservations. Both this piece and his previous were more than a little self-congratulating in a way that is a bit sneerworthy in and of itself. I don’t share his conclusion that having had a libertarian phase is something to be proud of, even if framed here as the necessary original sin at the start of his personal redemption story.
But the Moldbug sneering here is very on point. Good sneer.
Only Land is a bigger clown than Moldbug
I can hear the sneer
🍿
https://graymirror.substack.com/p/austrian-economics-in-the-silver
>There’s only one bet that can’t fail in 2021: long popcorn.