You’ve never touched a book outside of fucking kindergarten, yet you think you know more of communism than me, a fucking communist? Do you think im a baffoon?

  • hypercracker [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    49·
    3 months ago

    I think a big contributing factor is the articles they read are written in a way to make them feel as though they are “intellectually grappling with” the material and developing “nuance” when really it was just a bunch of keys jangling in front of their face. I read a really good essay at one point about how Scott Alexander (the last psychiatrist guy) structures his essays in this way to make you feel as though you’re being really thoughtful while not doing any thinking whatsoever. Malcolm Gladwell also has this style. This is a deep cut but it reminds me of this silicon valley triumphalist tweet from 2015:

    Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.

    Something interesting is happening.

    It’s all in the end line. “Something interesting is happening” - that is the ultimate vibe of the liberal article. What is interesting about it? What is a tangible conclusion? It just throws a bunch of phenomena at you then does not actually analyze it. But because you learned of all these disparate phenomena then drew conceptual similarities between them you have done a thought. Libs learn that this is what public intellectualism looks like.

    • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      31·
      3 months ago

      I read a really good essay at one point about how Scott Alexander (the last psychiatrist guy) structures his essays in this way to make you feel as though you’re being really thoughtful while not doing any thinking whatsoever.

      This is like when freeze-gamers feel smart after finishing a video game puzzle that was specifically curated to be solved and make them feel smart lol.

      Maybe even lower than gamer mentality.

    • miz [any, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      16·
      3 months ago

      reminds me of this line from fancy lad’s polemic against The Economist

      Here, then, is the problem with the magazine: readers are consistently given the impression, regardless of whether it is true, that unrestricted free market capitalism is a Thoroughly Good Thing, and that sensible and pragmatic British intellectuals have vouched for this position. The nuances are erased, reality is fudged, and The Economist helps its American readers pretend to have read books by telling them things that the books don’t actually say.

      How The Economist Thinks | Current Affairs

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      11·
      3 months ago

      “Something interesting is happening”

      I’ve seen almost those exact words in nearly that exact order for LLM apologia, too.

      • hypercracker [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        Yeah Adam Curtis docs are an example of this unfortunately, even though people here like them for the vibe. One time I watched hypernormalization and felt blown away, then I tried to explain it to a friend and realized I could not identify any actual thesis from the film.