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Schwarzgeist's avatar

Really, really, really looking forward to the new book Ed. That's one of my pet issues, the radical rich, or especially the radical upper-middle class (who are generally worse than the radical truly-rich IMHO).

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Ed West's avatar

great! Hope lots of people are.

I guess my main idea is based on this obscure 19th-century German theoretician called 'Karl Marx'.

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Schwarzgeist's avatar

Are you familiar with the Greenwich Village crowd of radical rich in the early 20th century? Eric Kaufmann identifies them as the first politically correct/woke people (he terms that general way of think "left-modernism") and at this link here's Yarvin going on about them. I am fascinated by this crew. Relevant section is headed "The early ruling early class" but the whole socialism part is worth a read. (The "just click on 'early life'" comment is especially funny IMO.)

https://graymirror.substack.com/p/socialism-and-capitalism-are-both

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Ed West's avatar

And to your question, I'm vaguely aware and have read Eric's stuff but am reading more on the Zeroth Great Awokening.

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Schwarzgeist's avatar

I'm sure you've seen this already since it's on Unherd, but for everyone else's reference, here's Eric's Cliff Notes version: https://unherd.com/2020/01/the-great-awokening-started-a-century-ago/

And here's a bookmarked link of mine I always go back to when this comes up, featuring Yarvin talking about these people, for about three minutes starting from where I've linked (have mixed feelings about Moldbug but I like the way he tells the story here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OF1jbAjWcw&t=1729s

That "Reds" movie that keeps getting brought up when discussing these people is worth a watch.

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Ed West's avatar

thanks for the paper. I haven't read that.

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Ed West's avatar

I found Moldbug difficult to read sometimes. lots of interesting ideas but also some stuff so wacky I wonder if its ironic or a joke.

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Schwarzgeist's avatar

He's an odd duck. Takes a lot of effort to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to his output.

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CynthiaW's avatar

"Honorable and capable though Mr. Draghi may be, his resignation is a triumph of democracy, at least as the word democracy has traditionally been understood."

It is an interesting, though not unexpected, phenomenon that "democracy" has come to mean "the kind of government stuff I like" in the same way that "fascism" or "socialism" or other BadWord can mean "the kind of government stuff I don't like" or vice-versa if "socialism" is your GoodWord.

You might think that a working definition of "democracy" as "when citizens and/or their representatives vote on laws and stuff" would be uncontroversial, but you'd be incorrect. It's only "democracy" if the outcomes are what the person likes.

As a crank about the text, whatever the text is, I find it very annoying.

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Harbinger's avatar

...well, at the heart of things, those who read and write in order to know, rather than to be distracted, are looking for/building towards he sweet spot of a broad consensus reality. Peter Hitchens seems to be aware of the audience capture risk, but sometimes, in what may be an effort to avoid it, he goes au contraire rather annoyingly. No need for that Ed.

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Ed West's avatar

I will need wise readers to warn me when I'm becoming too extreme.

... And wise readers when I'm being needlessly contrarian to over compensate.

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