More from @drvolts

David Roberts

@drvolts

14 Feb

It's a slow, snowy afternoon. How about a 🧵 on "rationalists" & "rationalism"? I want to talk about what real rationalism might look like & what people devoted to rationalism might actually behave like--and how that differs from what you often see from self-styled rationalists.

Caveat up front: this is not about Slate Star Codex, which I haven't read regularly enough to have an opinion on, or about the recent controversy between SSC & the NYT. I'm more interested in the *idea* of rationalism (vs. the practice).

The core premise of rationalism, as I understand it, is simply that humans' cognitive machinery was not designed by evolution to find truth, but rather to advance the interests & welfare of the collective -- a Venn overlap, but not the same thing. Therefore ...

Read 32 tweets

David Roberts

@drvolts

12 Feb

Across the country, every day, the petty tyrants of America's local gentry hire & fire people, promote or don't promote them, for arbitrary sexist & racist reasons. These ubiquitous miniature "cancellations" don't get any press or any notice. No one writes op-eds about them.

But cumulatively, especially over the course of decades, they add up to an amount of suffering & injustice that absolutely DWARFS any conceivable estimation of "white people getting fired for racism." They are the REAL cancel culture & they're so familiar as to be invisible.

What makes prominent white people getting called out for racism so salient -- what makes it jump out to us, to feel awkward & unusual & noteworthy -- is that it is, comparatively, *vanishingly rare*. It's anomalous & thus remarkable.

Read 8 tweets

David Roberts

@drvolts

11 Feb

Twitter is so painful to read right now. People want the merits of the impeachment case to matter so badly. They want the anguish & eloquence of those whose lives were threatened to matter. They want TRUTH to matter & decency to finally win a round. But it's not going to happen.

It didn't ultimately matter when they stole the 2000 election, or crammed a bunch of authoritarian policy through in response to a terrorist attack they failed to prevent, or went to war with the wrong country at a cost of billions of dollars & millions of lives ...

... or wandered haplessly into a global economic meltdown (hastened by their deregulation), or supported racist conspiracy theories about the first black president, or degraded norms to obstruct everything that president tried to do, or elected an incompetent narcissist ...

Read 6 tweets

David Roberts

@drvolts

11 Feb

@chrislhayes

I'm a longtime filibuster hater, and I thought I understood how random, contingent, & ridiculous it is -- but even I underestimated. HIGHLY recommend this discussion b/t @chrislhayes & @AJentleson.

The Founders were intensely aware of the difference between majority & super-majority rule & very consciously did NOT choose the latter for the Senate. The filibuster was literally created by accident. It is a random historical quirk that is destroying this country.

And I would say that, to a first approximation, 100% of filibuster defenders are operating in bad faith -- defending it because it produces outcomes they support, not because it makes any f'ing sense or has any connection to the Founders' intent.

Read 4 tweets

David Roberts

@drvolts

11 Feb

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1359924294730452996

Good thread. If I may summarize: if you're a NIMBY, you're not a progressive, you're a conservative. Preserving your contingent historical privileges at the expense of newcomers is pretty much the definition of conservatism. All your yards signs won't change that.

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1359924294730452996

Example: in Seattle, there's a district called Wallingford w/ a near-ideal location. Just incredibly valuable land. It's covered w/ single-family homes & homeowners are now seeking to designate the *entire district* "historical" to prevent zoning changes. historicwallingford.org

I guarantee 95+% of the homeowners involved identify as "liberal." I bet they have hemp tote bags & would have voted for Obama for a third term. But in fact they are involved in a morally repellent attempt to reify past racism & classism. They are agents of racism & classism.

Read 4 tweets