Thread by @akoz33

Twitter has had a really devastating affect on my view of many intellectuals that I used to hold in high regard. I could never had imagined this would happen. And it’s not just people like political analysts but also economists, historians, and even scientists, whose reputation

In my eyes has been irreparably destroyed, or at least damage. Of course it’s not just Twitter but a combination of Twitter with the “Trump phenomenon”, but it actually includes not just one but both sides of the divide. Once you start seeing people deceive themselves, completely

abandon all attempts at impartiality, all the time seeing the tiniest specks in the eyes of people on the other side while being considered oblivious to the log in their own, you can never view them again as objective scholars. The situation is, of course, when their own

professional area is completely unrelated to politics, but how many are there left of which this can still be said? Mathematics and particle physics, and perhaps ancient (but not modern) history but even medicine has now been politicized. A real “death of expertise” is taking

place but it’s only tangentially related to the rather superficial and self-satisfied Nichols book. In my eyes very few people have escaped unscathed - and it’s true of both pro and anti-Trump side. There are a few who have (I won’t name them) but far more have proved a great

disappointment. It’s precisely this and not any censorship or trolling or bulling (none of which I have experienced) that makes me frequently think of leaving Twitter. Doing so would certainly have a positive effect on both my work and general peace of mind. Still, I probably

won’t be able to do it. I would miss some real interesting people, even friends, I have made here. I can think of only one person who has successfully done it (John Podhoretz of Commentary) and I think he did the right thing. There are also several persons who admirably have

never succumbed to the temptation of becoming a propagandists even momentarily. As for myself, I think of several occasions where I did things that I regret, essentially retweeting things that turned out to be false (or at least doubtful), through carelessness, laziness,

inexperience, excessive trust and “confirmation bias”. Still, at least I make an effort not to deceive myself and constantly see others not even trying.
And of course the result of the American election has caused probably the greatest epidemic of self-deception yet, again on

both sides. The only positive thing about all this is that feel now wiser - I finally learnt not to trust anyone, at least in relation to anything that has the slightest smell of politics about it. And I don’t even mean politicians.