Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #idw
Most recents (7)
An opportunity was lost with the collapse of the #IntellectualDarkWeb. Logic only travels so far in the absence of social trust, and building trust rich social networks across tribes is extremely hard to do.
This is part of what I argued to #SamHarris
This is part of what I argued to #SamHarris
We live in an era of echo chambers. I won't listen to your information because I don't trust your sources, because I see them as being ill-motivated and not just potentially wrong.
Wherever you stand on voter fraud, the Covid vaccine (both of which Sam and I get in to...)
Wherever you stand on voter fraud, the Covid vaccine (both of which Sam and I get in to...)
...there is a need to sustain the attention of vastly different thinking people on a singular topic where information is being discussed that conflicts with their biases.
Most of us can listen to such information if it is coming from someone whose intentions we trust. If not...
Most of us can listen to such information if it is coming from someone whose intentions we trust. If not...
All right, I'm reading the piece.
And #StevenPinker's sense of history of exclusion of speech from North American campuses is really odd. 1/
And #StevenPinker's sense of history of exclusion of speech from North American campuses is really odd. 1/
"Pinker traces the origins all the way back to 1975 and the publication of E.O. Wilson’s 'Sociobiology,' when Wilson and other biologists 'would get shouted down' for expressing the view that genetic & other evolutionary considerations determine, in part, social organization."
What a curious thing to say.
Why not go back to the 19th century when the idea that women should be allowed to study at college or uni was shouted down? When white campus populations shouted down Black students on their campuses?
Why not go back to the 19th century when the idea that women should be allowed to study at college or uni was shouted down? When white campus populations shouted down Black students on their campuses?
#SamHarris is a prominent & influential public intellectual, with whom I have a lot of sympathy, along with other members of the #IDW he is often associated with.
However, I find myself in total disagreement with his attitude towards RACE & #WhiteIdentity.
However, I find myself in total disagreement with his attitude towards RACE & #WhiteIdentity.
Firstly, to reduce Race to skin tone is absurd & unworthy of the serious intellectual I know Sam to be.
For me, race is about kinship, shared ancestry, history & prehistory, which is central to my sense of both personal & group, i.e. genuine national, identity.
For me, race is about kinship, shared ancestry, history & prehistory, which is central to my sense of both personal & group, i.e. genuine national, identity.
My reference to national identity is important, because I strongly suspect that Sam identifies as an American & that this "national identity" is important to him.
But it is by deceitfully posing as our nation that #BigBrother tricks us into loving him.
But it is by deceitfully posing as our nation that #BigBrother tricks us into loving him.
Yep.
Yesterday, Helen tweeted at length at and about me because I didn’t respond to someone else’s tweet about uncharitable reading in a way that she demands. Dozens of tweets and subtweets. Which, fine. Say what you like to say. 1/
#SokalSquared
Yesterday, Helen tweeted at length at and about me because I didn’t respond to someone else’s tweet about uncharitable reading in a way that she demands. Dozens of tweets and subtweets. Which, fine. Say what you like to say. 1/
#SokalSquared
The response I did make to the tweet about uncharitable reading: I reminded everyone of an instance where Helen showed a very limited understanding of the history of Western academia. She didn’t respond to that.
Who has a book coming out on Western academic history?
Helen.
2/
Who has a book coming out on Western academic history?
Helen.
2/
As working academics—who are currently very busy teaching and running university work under pandemic conditions—there should be a point where we can say: that’s the end of it. 3/
1/ Glenn Greenwald, @IlhanMN, the Rosenbergs, Anti-semitism, Progressives, Silence, Speech and the IDW: a thread.
Glenn is upset. He’s a skilled and very smart partisan in my opinion. But I do see him as being on a team & envy him in that regard. That’s why I named the #IDW.
Glenn is upset. He’s a skilled and very smart partisan in my opinion. But I do see him as being on a team & envy him in that regard. That’s why I named the #IDW.
2/ I don’t give hot takes on many items for a reason. Many years ago Bob Dylan made the mistake of recording, in my opinion, the rocker “Julius & Ethel” about the 1953 executions of the Rosenbergs. I think it immoral to have a position on the Rosenbergs:
3/ As I see it the execution of Julius as a filthy spy was justified. The execution of Ethel Rosenberg was an abomination. It was a “message killing” dropped like Luca Brasi’s vest on the doorsteps of progressive Jewish homes: “Go too far left and we *will* orphan your children.”
1/ There’s something VERY suspicious about the social media platforms & their new treatment of Trans issues. I now believe it’s being fashioned cynically as the preferred weapon with which to hunt those who will never give a single inch of scientific ground to political pressure.
2/ This banning of “deadnaming” is preposterous. We need to honor work attributed before transition!
How does this differ from our need to discuss scientific papers published under a “maiden name”? Or contributions before a Muslim name is chosen (e.g. Cassius Clay, Cat Stevens).
How does this differ from our need to discuss scientific papers published under a “maiden name”? Or contributions before a Muslim name is chosen (e.g. Cassius Clay, Cat Stevens).
3/ This makes being a historian impossible. Further treating Trans M/F *exactly* the same as born M/F would be medical malpractice. Etc. So what you’re really doing is saying that biology, history, science and medicine are only allowed to exist at the whim of political activists.
This is a re-thinking thread. Entertainment vs Education edition.
I cancelled #Netflix a while ago. I urge you to consider doing the same. #CancelNetflix. Obama has a 2-year content production contract with Netflix since Soros/Susan Rice took over.
thegoldwater.com/news/21760-Sor…
I cancelled #Netflix a while ago. I urge you to consider doing the same. #CancelNetflix. Obama has a 2-year content production contract with Netflix since Soros/Susan Rice took over.
thegoldwater.com/news/21760-Sor…
Yes I know you want to be entertained, you want to binge watch, but your dollars are going straight to the #EnemyOfThePeople. You give your money to #Soros/#Bezos. You are donating to the enemies of @POTUS. #BoycottAmazon #BoycottWAPO #BoycottNetflix #Trump2020
I started reading about the #C_A a few months ago. #ThisIsNotAGame. This civilian '#Intelligence"agency is at the heart of the #ShadowGovernement (#DeepStateSwamp). The #C_A was run by #JohnBrennan during the Obama years. Think of the damage done with a man like him in power.
