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The author incorrectly speculates that the title of the magazine -- Jacobite -- is a play on Jacobin: Jacobite – which is apparently still a real magazine and
by NumberSix 9y ago
The author incorrectly speculates that the title of the magazine -- Jacobite -- is a play on Jacobin:
Jacobite – which is apparently still a real magazine and not a one-off gag making fun of Jacobin – summarizes their article Under-Theorizing Government as “You’ll never hear the terms ‘principal-agent problem,’ ‘rent-seeking,’ or ‘aligning incentives’ from socialists. That’s because they expect ideology to solve all practical considerations of governance.”
Jacobite has nothing to do with Jacobin. Jacobitism (/ˈdʒækəbaɪˌtɪzm/ JAK-ə-by-tiz-əm;[1][2] Scottish Gaelic: Seumasachas [ˈʃeːməs̪əxəs̪], Irish: Seacaibíteachas, Séamusachas) was a political movement in Great Britain and Ireland that aimed to restore the Roman Catholic Stuart King James II of England and Ireland (as James VII in Scotland) and his heirs to the thrones of England, Scotland, France and Ireland. The movement took its name from Jacobus, the Renaissance Latin form of Iacomus, which in turn comes from the original Latin form of James, "Iacobus." Adherents rebelled against the British government on several occasions between 1688 and 1746.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobitism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobitism
The Jacobins on the other hand were a French political movement/party:
The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (French: Société des amis de la Constitution), after 1792 renamed Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality (Société des Jacobins, amis de la liberté et de l'égalité), commonly known as the Jacobin Club (Club des Jacobins) or simply the Jacobins (English: /ˈdʒæ.kə.bɪnz/; French: [ʒa.kɔ.bɛ̃]), was the most influential political club during the French Revolution. Initially founded in 1789 by anti-Royalist deputies from Brittany, the Club grew into a nationwide republican movement, with a membership estimated at a half million or more.[1] The Jacobin Club was heterogeneous and included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s, the Mountain and the Girondins.
In 1792–93, the Girondins were more prominent in leading France, the period when war was declared on Austria and Prussia, the monarchy was overthrown and the Republic created.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin
- snrplfth 9y agoI can almost guarantee you that Scott Alexander is aware of who the Jacobites and the Jacobins were and what the difference is. The blog is constantly bringing up all manner of historical and political esoterica. He's making a joke based on the name resemblance.
- NumberSix 9y agoIt doesn't read like a joke. It reads like a mistake or perhaps he is assuming his audience won't be aware of who the Jacobites were and will find it funny.
- snrplfth 9y agoI've read this blog for years. This is exactly the kind of joke he makes all the time; in describing or referring to something, he folds in a fact which, while not literally true, is a funny way of imagining it to be, and which is expected to be obvious to the readership. It's kind of like the practice of Using Capital Letters to refer to a Self-Serious Idea of Something. It's just the way he writes.
- DoreenMichele 9y agoI have never read his blog. The fact that he is playing with language and in no way confused seems clear as day to me.
- barrkel 9y agoThe author of the article, pseudonym Scott Alexander, lived in Ireland for some time while studying medicine. He's probably aware of the Jacobite rebellion and events like the Battle of the Boyne, merely via intellectual curiosity about the North while in Ireland.