Heh, of course. I see it all the time in Russian right-of-center publications. But wasn’t the blame here being placed upon stereotypical liberal-minded people? I don’t see any liberals gushing about how unfairly e.g. Fidel Castro is being treated, or how the Viet Cong were all righteous and noble freedom fighters who only wanted peace and treated enemies with respect (of course, most people—including me—are more sympathetic to them than the American soldiers when talking about the Vietnam war, but that’s to be expected given the vast objective differences in the combatants’ situations).
I don’t see any liberals gushing about how unfairly e.g. Fidel Castro is being treated, or how the Viet Cong were all righteous and noble freedom fighters who only wanted peace and treated enemies with respect
Well, those people certainly don’t make their living by writing or abstract thinking. I meant liberal/moderate leftist journalists, professional writers, political experts, etc. Celebrities known to be conservative also often say misguided ideological things, except that there’s less of them in America because conservatives there typically stay away from the entertainment industry (both due to natural predisposition and active self-segregation, I’d guess).*
(In other countries the political divide looks less sharp in general, and proeminent people tend to express their political views more subtly too.)
- I think it was pretty silly of Moldbug to spin a theory of how everybody-who’s-anybody is carrying the “progressivism” meme in America because it’s supposedly better adapted; it’s clear that there’s simple Hanson-style signaling at work in Hollywood and elsewhere; Moldbug’s assertion that academia sets the intellectual fashion might bear closer scrutiny, but clearly most people (non-intellectuals) don’t give a rat’s ass about the contents* of any fashion they’re following! They believe-in-belief that they do, of course, but e.g. the people of the US entertainment industry, AFAIK, went from cautiously admiring the Soviet Union to considering it a miserable dump sometime around the early 80s, so they clearly aren’t faithful adepts of “progressivism”. Also, consider all the psychodrama after 9/11.
The belief that people behave certain ways because it signals something about their thought process, without actually thinking that way. I.e. politicians expressing outrage to signal, not because they are actually outraged. Hanson thinks this type of insincere signaling explains a lot of social behavior, much more than conventional wisdom would suggest.
Oh! We have this thing in TV Tropes! We call it a Straw Hypocrite! Indeed, it’s a hypothesis always worth assuming, but I don’t see how much use it can have except in hindsight, I mean how would one go about predicting someone else’s genuine emotional state? It’s much easier to predict the emotional state they will allow themselves to show, than it is to try to divine what’s going in in that brain of theirs! Not to mention, they probably aren’t even actually very clear on what they feel or what they think, at all. In extreme cases, they may have less predictive ability on the topic of their inner workings than an external observer! Not to mention the remarkably ironic occasions where people believe they are “faking” feelings that they actually have and are in denial of!
By the way, here in Russia it is mostly reactionary/nationalist/authoritarian types that express disapproval at any suggestion of regime change, either external or internal, in places like Cuba. It seemingly doesn’t matter much to them what kind of dictatorship it is, as long as it continues to exist and spite the 1st world nations. (Yes, I’m biased as hell against them.)
You mean to say Russia isn’t 1st world? When was there a 1st and 2nd world in the first place? I thought “third world” was a reference to a “third party”, not an attempt to actually order parts of the world in the shape of some list. For one thing, that would be rather insulting for whoever is the 2nd world, wouldn’t you agree?
Heh, of course. I see it all the time in Russian right-of-center publications. But wasn’t the blame here being placed upon stereotypical liberal-minded people? I don’t see any liberals gushing about how unfairly e.g. Fidel Castro is being treated, or how the Viet Cong were all righteous and noble freedom fighters who only wanted peace and treated enemies with respect (of course, most people—including me—are more sympathetic to them than the American soldiers when talking about the Vietnam war, but that’s to be expected given the vast objective differences in the combatants’ situations).
Well they certainly exist, expecially in Hollywood.
Well, those people certainly don’t make their living by writing or abstract thinking. I meant liberal/moderate leftist journalists, professional writers, political experts, etc. Celebrities known to be conservative also often say misguided ideological things, except that there’s less of them in America because conservatives there typically stay away from the entertainment industry (both due to natural predisposition and active self-segregation, I’d guess).*
(In other countries the political divide looks less sharp in general, and proeminent people tend to express their political views more subtly too.)
- I think it was pretty silly of Moldbug to spin a theory of how everybody-who’s-anybody is carrying the “progressivism” meme in America because it’s supposedly better adapted; it’s clear that there’s simple Hanson-style signaling at work in Hollywood and elsewhere; Moldbug’s assertion that academia sets the intellectual fashion might bear closer scrutiny, but clearly most people (non-intellectuals) don’t give a rat’s ass about the contents* of any fashion they’re following! They believe-in-belief that they do, of course, but e.g. the people of the US entertainment industry, AFAIK, went from cautiously admiring the Soviet Union to considering it a miserable dump sometime around the early 80s, so they clearly aren’t faithful adepts of “progressivism”. Also, consider all the psychodrama after 9/11.
Forgive my ignorance, but what’s that?
The belief that people behave certain ways because it signals something about their thought process, without actually thinking that way. I.e. politicians expressing outrage to signal, not because they are actually outraged. Hanson thinks this type of insincere signaling explains a lot of social behavior, much more than conventional wisdom would suggest.
Oh! We have this thing in TV Tropes! We call it a Straw Hypocrite! Indeed, it’s a hypothesis always worth assuming, but I don’t see how much use it can have except in hindsight, I mean how would one go about predicting someone else’s genuine emotional state? It’s much easier to predict the emotional state they will allow themselves to show, than it is to try to divine what’s going in in that brain of theirs! Not to mention, they probably aren’t even actually very clear on what they feel or what they think, at all. In extreme cases, they may have less predictive ability on the topic of their inner workings than an external observer! Not to mention the remarkably ironic occasions where people believe they are “faking” feelings that they actually have and are in denial of!
Pinkie Pie mode, eh?
Pinkie Pie mode is my default mode, I just try to subdue it when I’m on the Internet, but sometimes I get lazy...
By the way, here in Russia it is mostly reactionary/nationalist/authoritarian types that express disapproval at any suggestion of regime change, either external or internal, in places like Cuba. It seemingly doesn’t matter much to them what kind of dictatorship it is, as long as it continues to exist and spite the 1st world nations. (Yes, I’m biased as hell against them.)
That doesn’t surprise me in the least.
You mean to say Russia isn’t 1st world? When was there a 1st and 2nd world in the first place? I thought “third world” was a reference to a “third party”, not an attempt to actually order parts of the world in the shape of some list. For one thing, that would be rather insulting for whoever is the 2nd world, wouldn’t you agree?
1st World—Capitalists
2d World—Communists
3rd World—The places where puppet games were played (particularly former colonies).