It’s not left vs right (any more)
It’s order vs populism
Reason vs tinfoil, conspiratorial thinking
Obviously the average idiot has no clue about politics
They don’t even know the basics
Politics is difficult, complicated.
You have law, sociology, economy, warfare, psychology, media, even philosophy — all coming together in strange ways
And never entirely clear, it’s always give-and-takes, compromises, choosing of the least bad option
Obviously average idiot has no clue about it
We only need their vote — because, again — the alternative is even worse (failure to peacefully course-correct)
What about pundits, however?
We have no more pundits
The incentives to sell one’s soul became too strong
Social media have bid up how much you can get for pleasing your audience
+It doesn’t help when half of the country is sending you death threats, because you “betrayed” them
So no, it’s not left vs right
Average idiot can’t even actually tell those two apart, in any meaningful detail
And pundits don’t care any more, because they have no soul to care with any more
Their god is populism now, because that’s their incentive
Left populism or right populism, doesn’t matter
The battle is not ideological, actually
There is no more culture war
Or rather, there was never any culture war
Or rather, there was never any “culture” in the culture war
Because a war is not cultured
War is about defeating your opponent, not about building something together
When it’s a war — it’s already too late
When it’s a war — it’s all about populism then
Populism and tinfoil
Populism and conspiratorial
The latter far more exciting than pondering how to organise society,
Reflecting on history
Reflecting on data
Reflecting on how to reason about data, about history
Answering ignorance with learning
Then with more learning
Isn’t that boring?
It’s easier to explain everything with a wild conspiracy,
Or wishful thinking therefore populism
Promise people the most
So I would encourage to drop the left and right labels,
And first ask yourself,
“Am I dealing with a populist?”
“Am I dealing with a conspiratorial fucking nut?”
And if you are — then it’s a different conversation to be had altogether
The populist will have to be convinced that there exists nuance,
and that NUANCE is POLITICALLY-AGNOSTIC,
AND POPULARITY-agnostic,
And that this nuance is PREFERABLE to merely PLEASING the populus
Preferable to merely pleasing him
That maybe not everything good in this world had to do with populus being pleased, or him being pleased…
Of course this will only work if he is not already utterly captured by conflicting incentives,
If it’s pleasing enough to him — MAYBE nuance doesn’t matter, or truth, or long term consequences
and
the conspiratorial nut,
can ALSO be reminded that there exists nuance,
The nuance behind his durable big ICE truck, his bulletproof vest, his high blood pressure meds, and his liberty being protected,
Where do you draw the line?
So the tech behind satellites, penicillin, nuclear energy — is legit — but not the specialists and institutions that worked on them?
Can we just agree that there exists knowledge and facts and detail and nuance?
Can we just agree that between known-knowns and secret-secrets — there’s knowledge, experience, NUANCE?
And that he covered LITTLE of it?
That when he ACTUALLY is interested in ACHIEVING something, or KNOWING something, or PREDICTING something — then he usually is… maybe just a bit more nuanced… and, DARE I say — less CONSPIRATORIAL?
Indeed it’s not left vs right. That presupposes labels, which presuppose certain boundaries. It presupposes MINIMAL NUANCE, within which to ground the discourse.
Populist is bound to what appeals to him, not to political traditions, or reasonable debate
Conspiratorial nut is bound to what sounds plausible and sensational to him, not to what he has cogent understanding of,
Only nuance is the answer
A conversation not about “left” ideas and “right” ideas, or whatever ideas
A conversation about DETAILS, instead
SPECIFIC details
And then perhaps, we’ll be able to have a conversation