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I would say that about 20% of the time he nails it square on, and another 70% of the time he goes overboard but he is still closer to the truth the current main

I would say that about 20% of the time he nails it square on, and another 70% of the time he goes overboard but he is still closer to the truth the current mainstream view. I think he appeals more to people who 1) are significantly disaffected with mainstream politics, and 2) do not believe that that problem with politics is insufficient progressivism. If you believe the political situation is more good than bad, or if you believe it is bad only due to not being progressive enough, bad due to America not being enough like Sweden, then you won't find Moldbug at all convincing. But if you are disaffected with both the mainstream right and progressives, then you are in search of an alternative theory of why everything is going so rotten. And in that case, Moldbug's theories are a revelation.

dmfdmf 11y ago
"But if you are disaffected with both the mainstream right and progressives, then you are in search of an alternative theory of why everything is going so rotten. And in that case, Moldbug's theories are a revelation." Far from being a radical repudiating "the currently prevailing ideologies" I would say that he is steeped in the currently ideologies and just advocating their logical end; dictatorship. The Left and Right are both intellectually bankrupt and now just seek power for power's sake, i.e., they stand for nothing. The society is ripe for a dictator and we will get one as soon as another economic or other crisis arises. The Left and the Right secretly are hoping for such a crisis and that their gang happens to be in power when it happens. Writers like Moldbug are a harbinger of the future of the US as we drift toward dictatorship and they existed in Germany before the rise of the Nazis, laying the intellectual ground work. Fortunately there is real intellectual opposition to this fate in Ayn Rand's philosophy. You should read "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" and more importantly her intro on ethics "The Virtue of Selfishness". She identified what is wrong with the Left and the Right and proposes an alternative ethical and political theory to support Capitalism and her writings are crystal clear and to the point.
- mturmon 11y ago
  I cannot disagree more with the politics and intellectual content of this comment, and the one above. So out of touch with political reality.
- devalier 11y ago
  Capitalism is great and all. But capitalism's natural base, propertied high-caste men, make up only up only 30% of the electorate in the U.S. (and that percentage is falling). So how can democracy protect capitalism? Power is real, and power abhors a vacuum. Either you have it or someone else does. The hard problem is how to get a power structure that preserves liberty and free markets. I've never seen a good Randian or libertarian solution to this problem. I don't agree with Moldbug's solution, but at least he shocked me out of believing that democracy was the answer, and got me thinking about a lot of alternative possibilities. I also think that American's get in a trap where we think that tyranny==dictatorship. The left is power hungry and totalitarian. But it has no desire for a dictatorship. The tyranny is the distributed tyranny, peer-to-peer tyranny, of a thousand different bureaucracies, SJW's, judges, civil service agencies, etc, all with their petty fiefdoms creating problems.

dmfdmf 11y ago

"But if you are disaffected with both the mainstream right and progressives, then you are in search of an alternative theory of why everything is going so rotten. And in that case, Moldbug's theories are a revelation." Far from being a radical repudiating "the currently prevailing ideologies" I would say that he is steeped in the currently ideologies and just advocating their logical end; dictatorship. The Left and Right are both intellectually bankrupt and now just seek power for power's sake, i.e., they stand for nothing. The society is ripe for a dictator and we will get one as soon as another economic or other crisis arises. The Left and the Right secretly are hoping for such a crisis and that their gang happens to be in power when it happens. Writers like Moldbug are a harbinger of the future of the US as we drift toward dictatorship and they existed in Germany before the rise of the Nazis, laying the intellectual ground work. Fortunately there is real intellectual opposition to this fate in Ayn Rand's philosophy. You should read "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" and more importantly her intro on ethics "The Virtue of Selfishness". She identified what is wrong with the Left and the Right and proposes an alternative ethical and political theory to support Capitalism and her writings are crystal clear and to the point.

mturmon 11y ago
I cannot disagree more with the politics and intellectual content of this comment, and the one above. So out of touch with political reality.
devalier 11y ago
Capitalism is great and all. But capitalism's natural base, propertied high-caste men, make up only up only 30% of the electorate in the U.S. (and that percentage is falling). So how can democracy protect capitalism? Power is real, and power abhors a vacuum. Either you have it or someone else does. The hard problem is how to get a power structure that preserves liberty and free markets. I've never seen a good Randian or libertarian solution to this problem. I don't agree with Moldbug's solution, but at least he shocked me out of believing that democracy was the answer, and got me thinking about a lot of alternative possibilities. I also think that American's get in a trap where we think that tyranny==dictatorship. The left is power hungry and totalitarian. But it has no desire for a dictatorship. The tyranny is the distributed tyranny, peer-to-peer tyranny, of a thousand different bureaucracies, SJW's, judges, civil service agencies, etc, all with their petty fiefdoms creating problems.