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The author of this article really took a lot of time to write an intelligent and reasoned post that is, unfortunately, painfully oblivious to a core truth that

The author of this article really took a lot of time to write an intelligent and reasoned post that is, unfortunately, painfully oblivious to a core truth that underlies everything she is unsuccessfully trying to understand. Fake news, online hate, disrespect, etc are part of an extremely innovative and subversive reactionary movement (for better or worse). This movement is a reaction to the failing economies of the late 20th century (generously padded over by ever-so cherry picked statistics), the fact that secularism never really came up with any kind of raison d’etre, and the hijacking of legitimate means of truth seeking (government departments, universities, think tanks etc) by powers with ulterior motives. Saying “the earth is flat” is the best example of this. It’’s such an amusingly false claim, to continue to believe it and declare you believe it is a kind of emancipation from / attack on the systems of power. There is nothing they can do. Also the best example of the last point regarding “hijacking of legitimate means of truth seeking” is replacement of public intellectuals like James Kenneth Galbraith, who lead all rationing for the US during WWII, with the likes of those desperate for more PR, sales, and conference speeches such as serial-plagiarizer Fareed Zakaria.

renox 8y ago
> Saying “the earth is flat” is the best example of this. It’s such an amusingly false claim, to continue to believe it and declare you believe it is a kind of emancipation from / attack on the systems of power. There is nothing they can do. Hmm, reading an article about a flat earther gathering on Ars, I wondered if some of these flat earther weren't crooks who wanted to steal the other: after all by declaring 'I believe that the earth is flat' you're also saying "I'm a gullible idiot"..
duncan_bayne 8y ago
Since when were government departments and think tanks legitimate means of truth seeking? Some, sure, and at some times. But on the whole you can practically guarantee both of those methods will be primarily PR mechanisms, and / or used for the advancement of those who control them. Universities used to be, but they are becoming increasingly politicized again.
- mark_edward 8y ago
  Universities were never non political. What you more likely mean is they used to agree with you more. None of these social institutions were ever non political, the political context has changed, the national politics have changed, and you've changed and I've changed. I just want to push back against anyone thinking anything going on is new, all of these social and political institutions have always been sites of political struggle. Perhaps they used to be better at producing an aura of speaking and deciding from up above or from a mythical social consensus that "everyone" (suitably filtered) agrees on.
  - Houshalter 8y ago
    No there really was a time a few decades ago when republican professors and democrat professors weren't under or overrepresented by more than a factor of 2. Now it's something like 30 IIRC. And really a lot of the "conservatives" turn out to be libertarians, centrists, or even moderate liberals that are turned off by the more extreme people around them. That's at least in the social sciences, it's slightly better in less politically relevant fields.
    - AstralStorm 8y ago
      Oh the other hand, mainstream politics everywhere seems to edge towards social conservatism and mixed economic stances. Some countries are more "pure" on one side or other.
      - Houshalter 8y ago
        From my point of view most western nations are extremely liberal politically. Compared to how they were historically and compared to other countries.
        duncan_bayne 8y ago
        That's true; but I worry about the overall trend. Perhaps it's unfounded but my fear is that we are trending towards less liberality, rather than more, except in a few areas.

renox 8y ago

> Saying “the earth is flat” is the best example of this. It’s such an amusingly false claim, to continue to believe it and declare you believe it is a kind of emancipation from / attack on the systems of power. There is nothing they can do. Hmm, reading an article about a flat earther gathering on Ars, I wondered if some of these flat earther weren't crooks who wanted to steal the other: after all by declaring 'I believe that the earth is flat' you're also saying "I'm a gullible idiot"..

duncan_bayne 8y ago

Since when were government departments and think tanks legitimate means of truth seeking? Some, sure, and at some times. But on the whole you can practically guarantee both of those methods will be primarily PR mechanisms, and / or used for the advancement of those who control them. Universities used to be, but they are becoming increasingly politicized again.

mark_edward 8y ago
Universities were never non political. What you more likely mean is they used to agree with you more. None of these social institutions were ever non political, the political context has changed, the national politics have changed, and you've changed and I've changed. I just want to push back against anyone thinking anything going on is new, all of these social and political institutions have always been sites of political struggle. Perhaps they used to be better at producing an aura of speaking and deciding from up above or from a mythical social consensus that "everyone" (suitably filtered) agrees on.
- Houshalter 8y ago
  No there really was a time a few decades ago when republican professors and democrat professors weren't under or overrepresented by more than a factor of 2. Now it's something like 30 IIRC. And really a lot of the "conservatives" turn out to be libertarians, centrists, or even moderate liberals that are turned off by the more extreme people around them. That's at least in the social sciences, it's slightly better in less politically relevant fields.
  - AstralStorm 8y ago
    Oh the other hand, mainstream politics everywhere seems to edge towards social conservatism and mixed economic stances. Some countries are more "pure" on one side or other.
    - Houshalter 8y ago
      From my point of view most western nations are extremely liberal politically. Compared to how they were historically and compared to other countries.
      - duncan_bayne 8y ago
        That's true; but I worry about the overall trend. Perhaps it's unfounded but my fear is that we are trending towards less liberality, rather than more, except in a few areas.