I’m so done listening to #CurtisYarvin, aka #MenciusMoldbug. (Last time: #Triggernometry #podcast.) Don’t let me ever read or hear from him again.

I’ve given him enough opportunities already to defend his views and proposals, but specific ideas and policy proposals he has zero. There’s a limit to how much hand-waving one can do and historical anecdotes one can point to before coming back down to earth and to actual reforms.

It’s not that he’s sometimes dog-whistling, it’s that dog-whistling is all he does, devoid of any content.

Stop slipping away, stick your neck out, and answer direct questions. Here’s a good heuristic for him and his followers: if straight answers to specific issues sound absurd or alarming (dictatorship? racial hierarchies? state surveillance? empire?), there’s a non-negligible probability that your ideas are wrong.

@gasull This week I listened to this #CurtisYarvin interview by #MichaelMalice (over several days, while working, not focused).

In it, #MenciusMoldbug says he’s #rightwing because he’s for order and not for chaos. As in: more secure streets and fewer homeless people is more orderly. Who could argue against that?

Some of the other easy examples he fails to mention are: one human race giving the orders while the other races do the work is also more orderly than the “chaos” of mingling all skin colours; there’s more order in a society with no drugs than in a society where people seek inspiration and comfort and silliness in drugs. Top-down autocratic hierarchies definitely generate more “order” than voluntary agreements between peers. Heterosexual relationships, mandatory marriage and monogamy are “order”, while free love and tolerance are more chaotic. etc.

To me, more signs that he’s a very dangerous and charismatic demagogue. Shamelessly dog-whistling to advance the most retrograde of causes :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7bsZ7jJBnk

@gasull He might be a genius — I don't know him, really. But my first reaction about a writer that's “cryptic” is that either he's full of shit (most often), or he's dog whistling because he doesn't have the balls to be clear. I'm now reading a couple of his long posts, and I'd love to find the time to write a critique, because so far I'm irritated by so much bad reasoning.
#menciusmoldbug

I love listening to lunatics and contrarians. There's a lot of value in learning about unsuspected points of view. That's why I like #Unregistered #podcast so much.
Too often however, #ThaddeusRussell is just letting idiotic ideas stand unchallenged.
Case in point, the latest episode with #MenciusMoldbug:
https://www.thaddeusrussell.com/podcast/146
MM: [Blatant overgeneralisation]
TR: “Wow!”
MM: [Reckless call to subvert everything]
TR: “Oooh…”
MM: [Caricature of opposite PoV]
TR: “Nice!”
MM: [Faulty logic]
TR: “You make my mind stretch!”
:blobfrowningbig:

I'm hearing so many attacks on #democracy and so many calls from people I would respect otherwise to have “less democracy”… All those (#ThaddeusRussell, #GarettJones, #MenciusMoldbug…) seem to be confusing “smaller State” with “less democracy”.
When we #ClassicLiberals criticise the tyranny of the majority, what we are saying is that no State or institutional power should intrude so deeply into personal matters — not that we would prefer those intrusions to be orchestrated by dictators, oligarchs or technocrats instead of democratic institutions (imperfect and fallible as they may be)! We want less #coercion overall (ie, less #State) — not to move the extant coercive power from democracy to #autarchy.
Please reflect about that distinction if you find yourself dissatisfied with the status quo and flirting with the ideas of #NRx, #DarkEnlightenment, autarchy, #monarchy, etc.