The “libertarian-conservative screeds” bit is made up, but let’s pretend like it’s real, actually brilliant, and Scott’s right about the countersignaling. The most obviously countersignaling bit is the phrase “THE IDIOTS ON THE LEFT.” Everything else before and after that is the bizarre brilliancy. And when this imaginary libertarian countersignals, he does it not by aiming for some sort of dumber-than-smart but smarter-than-dumb n-2 level, but for an all-caps “THE IDIOTS ON THE LEFT” ranting tone. This is extreme countersignaling!
This doesn’t change my view of the subject one way or the other. I know of, like, one or two people who would say something like “THE IDIOTS ON THE LEFT” after making a good case for a policy, and they say “THE IDIOTS ON THE RIGHT” just about as often. So I think this part is just exaggeration on Scott’s part, and the extreme counter-signalling theory doesn’t quite fit here.
This doesn’t change my view of the subject one way or the other. I know of, like, one or two people who would say something like “THE IDIOTS ON THE LEFT” after making a good case for a policy, and they say “THE IDIOTS ON THE RIGHT” just about as often. So I think this part is just exaggeration on Scott’s part, and the extreme counter-signalling theory doesn’t quite fit here.