The decision to call a tiny number of people a new political trend is a political position. It’s the kind of discouse that leads even someone like Glenn Greenwald saying recently that NYT tried to dox Scott Alexander because he’s a right-wing blogger.
People like Thiel or Yarvis make great material to write interesting articles about them but their political thought is too complex to be believed by a broader public.
People like Thiel or Yarvis make great material to write interesting articles about them but their political thought is too complex to be believed by a broader public.
I expect what matters is whether they capture the elites. If they do, then the ideas will percolate down in the same way that Judith Butler’s ideas have percolated down (what percent of the population would even be able to define performativity?)
The article doesn’t show evidence of capturing a single elite chair till now. Judith Butler’s ideas were popular with a lot of academic professors and other people who had power because of the institutional authority that they hold.
I think traditional sources of authority are becoming less important. The media is an obvious example—its influence has been diluted by podcasts and Substack. I think this applies to academia as well. For example, I think that Twitter has something of a leveling effect as it is now much easier to get a platform based on saying interesting things, rather than more traditional credentials.
The decision to call a tiny number of people a new political trend is a political position. It’s the kind of discouse that leads even someone like Glenn Greenwald saying recently that NYT tried to dox Scott Alexander because he’s a right-wing blogger.
People like Thiel or Yarvis make great material to write interesting articles about them but their political thought is too complex to be believed by a broader public.
I expect what matters is whether they capture the elites. If they do, then the ideas will percolate down in the same way that Judith Butler’s ideas have percolated down (what percent of the population would even be able to define performativity?)
The article doesn’t show evidence of capturing a single elite chair till now. Judith Butler’s ideas were popular with a lot of academic professors and other people who had power because of the institutional authority that they hold.
I think traditional sources of authority are becoming less important. The media is an obvious example—its influence has been diluted by podcasts and Substack. I think this applies to academia as well. For example, I think that Twitter has something of a leveling effect as it is now much easier to get a platform based on saying interesting things, rather than more traditional credentials.