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You think COVID would be the perfect opportunity to cohere into greater collective identities instead of fragmenting into increasingly smaller ones

But that doesn't seem to be the case

Can't cohere around religion/nationalism, liberalism didn't work

What can we cohere around?
There was much greater unity after 9/11
Although to be sure, many Muslim Americans probably don't feel that way
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Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg
"Meritocracy" changed from "How do we ensure the best rise up?" to "How do we ensure ppl get an equal chance? Who decides who's best? How?"

It was used to protect the market from gov't social engineering—now it's used to justify it.

Time to find a new word. It's been co-opted.
To be sure, it was always tricky (read: impossible) to discern talent from effort from parents and social class and environment

To unbundle what's in your control (merit) from what isn't (circumstance)

Which leads to irresolvable conflict over who's the "best" & who "earns" it
Conflict such as:

"They earned it! They had equal legal opportunity. The darwinistic market decided. The fittest survived."

"No! They had a different starting line. Not a true meritocracy b/c it was never a fair race to begin with. The best don't rise, only the most privileged"
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Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg
Post-cold war, the U.S. moved from an Offensive Realism strategy (protect U.S. interests at all costs) to a Liberal Hegemony strategy (promote liberal democracies globally at all costs).

We got high on our own supply.

For the US, "it was worse than a crime. It's a blunder"
According to John Mearsheimer:

Offensive realism:

You can never be sure of intentions of other states.

Why? You don't even know who will be in charge in five years.

Best to assume that all relationships are just temporary alliances driven by mutual self-interest.
As such, the best way for a country to survive is to be the most powerful player and limit the power acquisition of other countries.

Defensive realists hold the opposite of these beliefs.

U.S. didn't do enough to stop the rise of China in Mearsheimer's estimation.
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Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg
we're really rapping right now. come check it out:

zoom.us/j/832146144?pw…
Baby rapping:
Cat's out the bag:
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