I found my way into the "rat-sphere" via Moldbug probably six or seven years ago, and while I greatly appreciate the insights and way of thinking it has brought me...like Cypher, I often find myself saying "why didn't I just take the *blue* pill?" Being unable to watch the news or read social media without wanting to scream about how flawed every argument is or how all news stories are either uncontextualized by statistics, or *badly* contexualized by the wrong statistics (e.g., using percentages when absolute numbers would be better and vice-versa) is a frustrating way to live your life, as is being unable to have normal conversations with your friends and co-workers about the issues of the day because you want to be able to invoke concepts like "the Cathedral" or "motte-and-bailey" as argument stoppers the same way the mainstream "woke" invoke concepts like "structural racism" or "the Patriarchy".
There's a part of the Tom Clancy novel /Rainbow Six/ which is written from the perspective of some old-school left-wing revolutionary terrorists, about going to a theme park (totally not EuroDisney, *wink*) and being appalled at all the happy families with happy children going around enjoying themselves without being able to see all the fascist and capitalist structures at work. I remember reading this in high school and thinking "god, what a sad way to live that you somehow see *children having fun* as a problem". And yet something similar has happened to me.
I’ve been reading your work for a while now. I really appreciate your perspective(s). Thankful to have quality material such as yours to read and cogitate upon.
I am fundamentally contrarian and inquisitive by nature, so I am naturally suspicious of dogman. I have thought that PCism (now called wokeness) is the new religion of the ruling class. I learned how to speak it well at UC Berkeley but I am not really an adherent.
I think this is spot-on.
I found my way into the "rat-sphere" via Moldbug probably six or seven years ago, and while I greatly appreciate the insights and way of thinking it has brought me...like Cypher, I often find myself saying "why didn't I just take the *blue* pill?" Being unable to watch the news or read social media without wanting to scream about how flawed every argument is or how all news stories are either uncontextualized by statistics, or *badly* contexualized by the wrong statistics (e.g., using percentages when absolute numbers would be better and vice-versa) is a frustrating way to live your life, as is being unable to have normal conversations with your friends and co-workers about the issues of the day because you want to be able to invoke concepts like "the Cathedral" or "motte-and-bailey" as argument stoppers the same way the mainstream "woke" invoke concepts like "structural racism" or "the Patriarchy".
There's a part of the Tom Clancy novel /Rainbow Six/ which is written from the perspective of some old-school left-wing revolutionary terrorists, about going to a theme park (totally not EuroDisney, *wink*) and being appalled at all the happy families with happy children going around enjoying themselves without being able to see all the fascist and capitalist structures at work. I remember reading this in high school and thinking "god, what a sad way to live that you somehow see *children having fun* as a problem". And yet something similar has happened to me.
I’ve been reading your work for a while now. I really appreciate your perspective(s). Thankful to have quality material such as yours to read and cogitate upon.
I am fundamentally contrarian and inquisitive by nature, so I am naturally suspicious of dogman. I have thought that PCism (now called wokeness) is the new religion of the ruling class. I learned how to speak it well at UC Berkeley but I am not really an adherent.