Tuesday, May 01, 2018

Michael Shermer: "How Classical Liberalism Can Heal The Bonds Of American Affection"

I'm on board with the general project, of course. People on both ends of the spectrum are starting to talk about splitting the Union...and even civil war. Not many; so perhaps it's worse to acknowledge it than to ignore it. Eventually a compromise will have to be reached. So better to do it before things get out of hand rather than after.
   I'm not sure pure compromise will work given the power of the PC / "social justice" left. If one side goes off the rails, that has to be fixed before merely splitting the difference is likely to help. If we see the alt-right as analogous to the ctrl-left, then it's possible without shenanigans to think in terms of knocking off the roughest edge of each side...though it seems clear to me, anyway, that the alt-right has nothing like the social/cultural power of the ctrl-left. (You can only point to Charlottesville so many times...) Seems to me that people are maybe starting to recognize that identity politics of the left are in principle no better than identity politics of the right. So it may be possible to gain some yardage by making that point very clear. In fact, I'd guess that, rhetorically, it's a winning point...though I hate thinking in rhetorical terms.
   Also, it might be better to try to attack this from a geekier direction, where we're less prone to invincible stupidity: gerrymandering may have helped to get us into this mess by exacerbating polarization. Or maybe not. But de-gerrymandering might at least help get us out of it.

7 Comments:

Blogger Dark Avenger said...

Maybe if some Americans can quit clinging to their racism, this project has a chance of succeeding.

10:07 AM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Well, we can *mitigate* racism, but I doubt we can ever get rid of it completely.

Even mitigating it has proven pretty goddamn difficult. In fact, new forms have even grown up--witness how it's now a vital part of the PC left.

Anyway, my own view now is that any solution that requires *eliminating* human shittiness of any kind isn't very promising. But we can often mitigate.

11:03 AM  
Blogger Aa said...

I'm not sure how to put this delicately, and it might just start...I dunno, something. But Shermer has been accused by numerous women of sexual harassment, and in one case of Rape. Whenever anyone points this out he gets abusive, and litigous as hell (before backing off). After reading the accounts from the accusers I believe them. Perhaps that should not matter, that's not what he is arguing, but at another level it does matter. Sorry if that doesn't make sense...it's all sorta spiraling in my head right now.

1:58 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Thanks for the info, Aa. I didn't know, but it sounds like we have about the same attitude about it: in a certain sense it shouldn't matter...but something like that, if true, would seem to taint the entire person.

2:17 PM  
Blogger Pete Mack said...


Hey look, more PC run amok, and interfering with hiring.
https://apnews.com/0c87e4318bcc4eb9b8e69f9f54c7b889

4:14 PM  
Blogger Aa said...

"...taint the entire person."

Well put.

4:24 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

PM,

I don't know what standard agreements are like when such centers are funded by such organizations, but if this is a non-standard arrangement, then I'd say it's bad.

But let's not pretend it rises to the level of the pervasive leftward shittification of the academy brought about by PC.

6:57 PM  

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