"Woke" thinking seems to assume reality is what you want it to be. But reality exists, whether you believe it does or not, whether you approve of it or not. This as the logical outcome of non-STEM academic thinking in which feeling and belief dominate, and virtual reality becomes the basis of what passes for thought. The resulting decisions create the otherwise inexplicably incompetent decisions of our major institutions. Our political class believes that if they wish hard enough (like passing more ethanol mandates), the reality of energy supply and CO2 will go away.
Sorry, thermodynamics, physics, chemistry and mathematics are actually real, and a woke imagination is just that: "imagination".
Eric Weinstein has 3.4 million followers on Clubhouse. A lot of very IDW type conversation happens there and to a lesser extent on Callin, where you will find prolific people who are nowhere else., although these platforms are also losing momentum.
But I think they lost the battle when major media didn’t wholeheartedly defend Brett Weinstein from 2017 when he predicted jt would get much worse. Trump was loathed so much that we have a bit more wokeness now as a knee jerk reaction, but that may revert to the mean.
Just to name a few others who add to the conversation, you have James Lindsay and Peter Boghosian, Helen Pluckrose. Glen Greenwald, Andy Ngo, Jimmy Dore, Tim Pool. Then youtuber channels like Breaking Points, Triggernometry, FAIR for All. I was essentially a know-nothing before finding these people about 2 years ago. Eric got me to Tyler where I found you, Arnold.
The IDW had way too much talk. At some point you either act effectively or you're just bitching about the same old stuff.
Let's list some of the things Youngkin achieved in Virginia so far:
1) Passed legislation guaranteeing parents the ability to not have their kids were masks in perpetuity, taking it away from public health authorities (he had to get a couple of Dem votes to get this past the Virginia Senate).
2) Disbanded civil rights division on first day in office.
3) Appointed tough on crime DA that went after crime.
4) Passed anti-CRT order and added CRT hotline to report CRT bullshit in schools.
5) Called out BLM as a con scam he found repugnant even during the campaign.
6) Has the DA investigation the Loudoun County School board and has introduced legislation to make all nine board seats go up for election this November.
I can't imagine an IDW person actually accomplishing any of that. They would just write some articles complaining. Certainly they would never use such harsh language about their enemies or enthusiastically accept Trumps endorsement.
The veto power of leadership creates a formidable barrier to intellectual reform. Specifically, no matter the intensity of the "mob" the leaders of institutions have the capacity to stand on principle and say "no" to extremism. But if the leadership doesn't make the argument, then no one in the institution will be successful going against the mob.
So, while the power of the mob is real, it could be neutralized by principled leadership. Except leadership is cowardice and unwilling to take a stand, except for DeSantis. With leadership either silent or openly supportive of extremism, opposition to the "mob" is politically and organizationally neutered.
The mob's freakout over Musk pursuing ownership of Twitter is revealing of the mob's vulnerability. Open debate would crush wokeness. If discourse on social media reflected the balance of views held by Americans, the minority position of the mob would be apparent. It is only through censorship and coercion and banning of unwelcome viewpoints they appear to be the dominant force.
Until leadership takes a stand against the undemocratic and dishonest methods of the mob, the mob will control the rules of game on the popular platforms, and the independent thinkers will be relegated to the fringe no matter the reasonableness of their opinion.
Yeah, of the original core you mentioned, only Rogan remains in the zeitgeist. Peterson doesn't have the impact he did pre-illness. Eric Weinstein had an interesting podcast, but it's been dark of late as he's been very below the radar. His brother went down the Ivermectin anti-vax path on Covid and I think it's hurt his credibility. Does Rubin even do interesting, long form interviews any longer? He started losing me once he came out and supported Trump publicly for the '20 election. He's slipped into Shapiro territory and has become too partisan for my tastes.
The problem for me is the idea of "overthrow" rather than reform. There are plenty of scary possibilities (January 6, for example) of just being "anti-woke."
You end your post with the assertion that the prospects for recovering a culture of liberal values and merit are not good (I ignore your references to IDW as irrelevant to your assertion). You are right but your post doesn’t explain why and how that liberal culture is being destroyed. More importantly, you ignore that it’s also being destroyed in other countries. You have been ignoring the barbarians in your country and elsewhere.
Thought of your suggestion that Glenn Loury is part of the new IDW during his conversation just out with Peterson. Gets interesting around 18 minutes in and they make a great combo IMO, lots of steel man and devil's advocate on sex differences, IQ, racial justice, and inequality.
I think Covid was a significant blow to the IDW. The ambition of the core group was to bridge political divides, and I think they did maintain a significant foothold on the left before events greatly amplified the pressure to pick a side.
"Woke" thinking seems to assume reality is what you want it to be. But reality exists, whether you believe it does or not, whether you approve of it or not. This as the logical outcome of non-STEM academic thinking in which feeling and belief dominate, and virtual reality becomes the basis of what passes for thought. The resulting decisions create the otherwise inexplicably incompetent decisions of our major institutions. Our political class believes that if they wish hard enough (like passing more ethanol mandates), the reality of energy supply and CO2 will go away.
Sorry, thermodynamics, physics, chemistry and mathematics are actually real, and a woke imagination is just that: "imagination".
I feel like it's pretty odd to talk about the question of what happened to the IDW without mentioning the word ivermectin.
James Lindsay, Peterson and the Weinsteins went nuts and the reasonable members like Sam Harris backed away. That's a big part of the story.
Eric Weinstein has 3.4 million followers on Clubhouse. A lot of very IDW type conversation happens there and to a lesser extent on Callin, where you will find prolific people who are nowhere else., although these platforms are also losing momentum.
But I think they lost the battle when major media didn’t wholeheartedly defend Brett Weinstein from 2017 when he predicted jt would get much worse. Trump was loathed so much that we have a bit more wokeness now as a knee jerk reaction, but that may revert to the mean.
Just to name a few others who add to the conversation, you have James Lindsay and Peter Boghosian, Helen Pluckrose. Glen Greenwald, Andy Ngo, Jimmy Dore, Tim Pool. Then youtuber channels like Breaking Points, Triggernometry, FAIR for All. I was essentially a know-nothing before finding these people about 2 years ago. Eric got me to Tyler where I found you, Arnold.
The IDW had way too much talk. At some point you either act effectively or you're just bitching about the same old stuff.
Let's list some of the things Youngkin achieved in Virginia so far:
1) Passed legislation guaranteeing parents the ability to not have their kids were masks in perpetuity, taking it away from public health authorities (he had to get a couple of Dem votes to get this past the Virginia Senate).
2) Disbanded civil rights division on first day in office.
3) Appointed tough on crime DA that went after crime.
4) Passed anti-CRT order and added CRT hotline to report CRT bullshit in schools.
5) Called out BLM as a con scam he found repugnant even during the campaign.
6) Has the DA investigation the Loudoun County School board and has introduced legislation to make all nine board seats go up for election this November.
I can't imagine an IDW person actually accomplishing any of that. They would just write some articles complaining. Certainly they would never use such harsh language about their enemies or enthusiastically accept Trumps endorsement.
You start accomplishing things or you don't.
The veto power of leadership creates a formidable barrier to intellectual reform. Specifically, no matter the intensity of the "mob" the leaders of institutions have the capacity to stand on principle and say "no" to extremism. But if the leadership doesn't make the argument, then no one in the institution will be successful going against the mob.
So, while the power of the mob is real, it could be neutralized by principled leadership. Except leadership is cowardice and unwilling to take a stand, except for DeSantis. With leadership either silent or openly supportive of extremism, opposition to the "mob" is politically and organizationally neutered.
The mob's freakout over Musk pursuing ownership of Twitter is revealing of the mob's vulnerability. Open debate would crush wokeness. If discourse on social media reflected the balance of views held by Americans, the minority position of the mob would be apparent. It is only through censorship and coercion and banning of unwelcome viewpoints they appear to be the dominant force.
Until leadership takes a stand against the undemocratic and dishonest methods of the mob, the mob will control the rules of game on the popular platforms, and the independent thinkers will be relegated to the fringe no matter the reasonableness of their opinion.
Yeah, of the original core you mentioned, only Rogan remains in the zeitgeist. Peterson doesn't have the impact he did pre-illness. Eric Weinstein had an interesting podcast, but it's been dark of late as he's been very below the radar. His brother went down the Ivermectin anti-vax path on Covid and I think it's hurt his credibility. Does Rubin even do interesting, long form interviews any longer? He started losing me once he came out and supported Trump publicly for the '20 election. He's slipped into Shapiro territory and has become too partisan for my tastes.
The problem for me is the idea of "overthrow" rather than reform. There are plenty of scary possibilities (January 6, for example) of just being "anti-woke."
You end your post with the assertion that the prospects for recovering a culture of liberal values and merit are not good (I ignore your references to IDW as irrelevant to your assertion). You are right but your post doesn’t explain why and how that liberal culture is being destroyed. More importantly, you ignore that it’s also being destroyed in other countries. You have been ignoring the barbarians in your country and elsewhere.
Thought of your suggestion that Glenn Loury is part of the new IDW during his conversation just out with Peterson. Gets interesting around 18 minutes in and they make a great combo IMO, lots of steel man and devil's advocate on sex differences, IQ, racial justice, and inequality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRTU6IEepPM&t=1075s
I think Covid was a significant blow to the IDW. The ambition of the core group was to bridge political divides, and I think they did maintain a significant foothold on the left before events greatly amplified the pressure to pick a side.