On today’s episode of Walt Right Perspectives I speak with TracingWoodgrains, a gay ex-Mormon furry who is working to promote meritocracy / excellence in education and greater civicmindedness in our political culture. Trace and I have an interesting history—he effectively brought me back as a public figure by creating a
The friend/enemy distinction and the heavy focus on ideology vs european horse trading coalition building really reflects politics becoming a "post-religion" for many people, plus as status signaling. There really is a "missing middle" on the left of center of people that hold mainstream liberal views on many issues, but know they can't touch the sacred cows of say the trans issue or race/crime least they face professional and personal repercussions. As Coddled Affluent Professional puts it, there's safety in being wrong for the right reasons... and danger for being right for the wrong reasons.
On HBD and education... The US really should practice far greater academic selection / streaming. Identify promising and capable people in poor / underserved populations and give them early avenues to excel. Even lower middle class public schools focus far too much on lowest common denominator mediocrity. This is how you can inject some meritocracy into early education instead of continuing to funnel many children through the system as the product that funds bloated teachers unions and other special interests. We also need try to find ways to optimize specific education programs for IQ 70-80s, training them to somehow be socially useful and not a net drain on the taxpayer.
Elites drawn to populist movements? Dark motive or gifting? I can see why people want to "burn down" the system if they're excluded from it. Look at Peter Turchin on elite overproduction and counter elites. But I became a populist largely over the crazy EU human rights policies leading to the migrant crisis plus the 2008 financial crisis. MAGA is largely anti crime, excess immigration, corruption (granted you're just getting in different people!), snobbery, and performative wokeness. Maybe I just see MAGA differently? Only Trump could have broken the anti-populist uni party in 2016. But are we better off now with Trump as the nominee than Ron DeSantis? Most likely no.
I've never really thought too much about niche online subcultures (well, besides Tumblr as a woke radicalization echo chamber). I guess this is the first time I've really tried interacting with a political one.
Finally, the natural rival of MBTI NTs is SJs. I can see why Walt wants to put up some low resolution filters...
Yet another interesting listen...
The friend/enemy distinction and the heavy focus on ideology vs european horse trading coalition building really reflects politics becoming a "post-religion" for many people, plus as status signaling. There really is a "missing middle" on the left of center of people that hold mainstream liberal views on many issues, but know they can't touch the sacred cows of say the trans issue or race/crime least they face professional and personal repercussions. As Coddled Affluent Professional puts it, there's safety in being wrong for the right reasons... and danger for being right for the wrong reasons.
On HBD and education... The US really should practice far greater academic selection / streaming. Identify promising and capable people in poor / underserved populations and give them early avenues to excel. Even lower middle class public schools focus far too much on lowest common denominator mediocrity. This is how you can inject some meritocracy into early education instead of continuing to funnel many children through the system as the product that funds bloated teachers unions and other special interests. We also need try to find ways to optimize specific education programs for IQ 70-80s, training them to somehow be socially useful and not a net drain on the taxpayer.
Elites drawn to populist movements? Dark motive or gifting? I can see why people want to "burn down" the system if they're excluded from it. Look at Peter Turchin on elite overproduction and counter elites. But I became a populist largely over the crazy EU human rights policies leading to the migrant crisis plus the 2008 financial crisis. MAGA is largely anti crime, excess immigration, corruption (granted you're just getting in different people!), snobbery, and performative wokeness. Maybe I just see MAGA differently? Only Trump could have broken the anti-populist uni party in 2016. But are we better off now with Trump as the nominee than Ron DeSantis? Most likely no.
I've never really thought too much about niche online subcultures (well, besides Tumblr as a woke radicalization echo chamber). I guess this is the first time I've really tried interacting with a political one.
Finally, the natural rival of MBTI NTs is SJs. I can see why Walt wants to put up some low resolution filters...