Is Scott and others like him at fault for Trump... no it's the "elitist's" fault!
Is Scott and others like him at fault for Trump... no it's the "elitist's" fault!
We should aim for better elites
I am still subscribed to slatestarcodex on reddit, and this piece of garbage popped up on my feed. I didn't actually read the whole thing, but basically the author correctly realizes Trump is ruining everything in the process of getting at "DEI" and "wokism", but instead of accepting the blame that rightfully falls on Scott Alexander and the author, deflects and blames the "left" elitists. (I put left in quote marks because the author apparently thinks establishment democrats are actually leftist, I fucking wish).
An illustrative quote (of Scott's that the author agrees with)
We wanted to be able to hold a job without reciting DEI shibboleths or filling in multiple-choice exams about how white people cause earthquakes. Instead we got a thousand scientific studies cancelled because they used the string “trans-” in a sentence on transmembrane proteins.
I don't really follow their subsequent points, they fail to clarify what they mean... In sofar as "left elites" actually refers to centrist democrats, I actually think the establishment Democrats do have a major piece of blame in that their status quo neoliberalism has been rejected by the public but the Democrat establishment refuse to consider genuinely leftist ideas, but that isn't the point this author is actually going for... the author is actually upset about Democrats "virtue signaling" and "canceling" and DEI, so they don't actually have a valid point, if anything the opposite of one.
In case my angry disjointed summary leaves you any doubt the author is a piece of shit:
it feels like Scott has been reading a lot of Richard Hanania, whom I agree with on a lot of points
For reference the ssc discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/1jyjc9z/the_edgelords_were_right_a_response_to_scott/
tldr; author trying to blameshift on Trump fucking everything up while keeping up the exact anti-progressive rhetoric that helped propel Trump to victory.
We wanted to be able to hold a job without reciting DEI shibboleths or filling in multiple-choice exams about how white people cause earthquakes. Instead we got a thousand scientific studies cancelled because they used the string “trans-” in a sentence on transmembrane proteins.
If you were too racist to see the wood for the trees, that's your problem comrade! Well, actually it's everyone's problem now.
Really manning that steel bro. It must have taken a lot of effort not to put the echo symbols on (((DEI shibboleths))). Out of spite, I'll now proceed to somehow incorporate the idea that white people cause earthquakes into my worldview.
It’s likely that white people are overrepresented on the boards of fracking companies; if so, they don’t not cause earthquakes
im pretty sure that fracking was invented by white people
California just had a small one the other day, so maybe Scott Alexander's shitty opinions cause earthquakes.
Yeah if the author had any self awareness they might consider why the transphobes and racists they have made common cause with are so anti-science and why pro-science and college education people lean progressive, but that would lead to admitting their bigotry is opposed to actual scientific understanding and higher education, and so they will understood come up with any other rationalization.
The first part of that sentence is such a great example of what is wrong with Slatestarcodex style rationalism. It instantly fails the "Victorian Sufi Buddha Lite” comment policy (it is neither kind, charitable, nor backed up by evidence, also it is culture war). But that is only if think SSC is grey tribe, and these rules are rules. It is more rules in the way of how conservatism has rules. “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” (quote is by a Frank Wilhoit, just not the one people attribute it too). (I know it isn't directly posted in the ssc comments, but isn't that a nice way to get around the comment policy).
He’s such a complete moron. He doesn’t want to recite “DEI shibboleths”? What does he even think that would refer to? Why shibboleths?
To spell it out, that would refer to an antisemitic theory that the reason (for example) some black guy would get a medal of honor (the “deimedal”) is because of the jews.
I swear this guy is dumber than Trump. Trump for all his rambling, uses actual language - Trump understands what the shit he is saying means to his followers. Scott… he really does not.
I don't think Scott Alexander is entitled to get annoyed about excessive anti-racism programmes in the workplace given that he is well known to be very racist.
Hell, maybe he has done an above-average number of unconscious bias trainings and DEI workshops and racism book clubs, but it's because he keeps talking about how black people are mentally inferior at work and making him do training is cheaper than firing him.
"We convinced the dumbest people in the country that our made-up problems were real, and now we have a sad because they took us seriously."
At its heart I think that the real problem. The right has built up "wokeness" into this all-consuming conspiracy theory that is responsible for everything, which was an effective way to take power by offering simple plans that hurt people that large swathes of the voting public already believed had it too good, but now that they're in power they need to actually do something about this fictitious issue they've convinced themselves is at the heart of all problems, and this is what that looks like. There is no simple common-sense policy that would protect people from "being forced to say DEI shibboleths" or whatever they're whining about because nobody is forcing you to do that in the first place, but you can't sweep in on a wave of "antiwokism" and do nothing about it.
I'm actually reminded of the similar bizzaro push against "color revolutions" that seems to animate Putin and some of the other crazies in international politics. Like, it's pretty obviously bullshit if for no other reason than because it it was possible to culturally mind control a people into overthrowing their governments by throwing a relatively tiny sum of money at some artists and shouting a lot there's no way that the CIA would have gone after Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine but not Russia itself. But a lot of Russian foreign policy, including the invasion of Ukraine, seems to be at least partially in response to this imagined threat from a nonexistent conspiracy, and the blood flowing down the Dnipro is the cost that the world is paying for that delusion.
When people push for this kind of delusional shit for their own political gain I always think of fantasy demonology which goes 'do not summon that which you cannot put down'. Also why I think lying for political gain (which people keep pushing for the left to also start doing, argh) is such a bad strategy if you care about actual real things and people. And I don't get it in a way, there is enough bad shit to point to, why make up stuff.
the extreme wing of the liberal elite (e.g. Taylor Lorenz)
transmissions from the woman-hating dimension
The culture war far right has an extreme hateboner for Taylor Lorenz, it is one of those really crazy things (they have a lot of hateboners for random people, which they keep for decades, and as you said almost always women).
E: on that note, apparently culture warrior rightwingers are still mad about the 'choose man or bear' thing, and in a way that justifies the points made by the org thought experiment on how men are more likely to be malicious and unpredictable. Holy shit we suck so much at listening to people when we think the source is a woman.
We should aim for better elites
Why not a world with zero elites buddy
Keep in mind the author isn't just (or even primarily) counting ultra wealth and establishment politicians as "elites", they are also including scientists trying to educate the public on their area of expertise (i.e. COVID, Global Warming, Environmentalism, etc.), and sociologists/psychologists explaining problems the author wants to ignore or are outright in favor of (racism/transphobia/homophobia).
And of course somebody goes full transphobia in the comments (with one of the dumbest arguments, which I will not repeat here because transphobia)
So I finally actually read the damn thing fully because you fine sneerers shouldn't suffer alone, and the thing that struck me was that for all their whinging about being blamed they're not actually owning the fact that on the relevant issue they were talking about ("wokeness" or "DEI" or whatever they're calling it this week) they were actually in perfect alignment with the right-wing argument. Like, regardless of what their opinions on trade policy or whatever, they were literally saying the same exact shit about how awful the "woke leftist academic Mafia cathedral" (or what they're calling it this week) is and how to oppose it. For Christ's sake the writer approvingly cites fucking Hanania, the guy who literally wrote the book (well, one of them) on "wokeness." When people blame the radical "centrists" (is there a way to make even more aggressive scare quotes?) it's not because they should have been more consistent in opposing Trump-style populism or caveated their arguments with "but also Trump wouldn't piss on America if it was on fire" it's because on the issue they spent all their time and energy writing about and advocating for they were actively promoting him. And I'm sorry but especially for someone with noted reach beyond whatever silicon valley cult bubble he lives in like Scooter I just can't believe that they're not aware of that fact.
At least the Russian trolls who side track any discussion of Ukraine by talking about Iraq and Nicaragua usually have a point about how fucked up the CIA is. These poor bastards just seem bitter that they're not getting the respect and accolades they feel they deserve for being special smart boys because they didn't go into real academia. And I mean let he who is without bitterness at academia cast the first stone, but scientific racism is still bullshit if it is a load-bearing part of your self-esteem.