I can’t take most of what I read on Trump and Russia seriously. It’s not that my mind is made up, or that I’m not willing to listen. It’s because most writers are not bothering to examine even their strongest assertions, even though they’re really easy to poke holes in. The biggest one is the common thread underlying all good conspiracy theories: an unreasonable assumption of general competence.
How to deal with ideological censorship in a community? Who gets empathy and who is humanized the most? Does contemporary rhetoric about toxicity hold up to scrutiny?
“When you keep rewarding people for becoming injured, they self-modify to become injured more easily.”
“If you’re wondering whether it feels a little weird to have had someone you don’t clearly remember being make potentially life-altering decisions about you, the answer is yes.”
Radical book club examines how to organize for power successfully.
The first time I raised the idea of Righties learning from Lefties, a lot of people greeted it with derision. Plenty still do. That’s a terrible attitude, one that Righties need to overcome if we want to win.
“I see trad people, walking around like regular people. They don’t see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don’t know they’re trad.”
Radical book club examines how to organize for power successfully.
The last installment of Radical Book Club focused on decentralized organization: important stuff, particularly for Righties looking to learn from the Left. But the Left and the Right are different cultures. Righties like things like hierarchies, and clarity, and categories with neat little ticky-boxes. The concept of a decentralized Left is uncomfortable and icky for many Righties to contemplate; to even consider emulating it is enough to make any reactionary worth his salt break out in a cold sweat.
What would it look like if we gave students real advice instead of platitudes? Welcome to S451 U.
“The key is to recognize that everyone is constrained by their own role and position, even molded by it. When push comes to shove, when conflicts occur, people will retreat to the absolute minimum that is obligated and required.”
