I think of politics on three levels: 1) abstract normative level, 2) ideal institutions level, 3) non-ideal, “second best” level. In day-to-day analysis, people, myself included, move between these levels without making note of it, which can lead to considerable confusion when trying to figure out what label to attach to someone politically. So for… Continue reading Three Levels of Politics
Another intuition pump on the ‘defining issue of our time’
So people really are serious about trying to figure out what the truth value of the sentence “inequality is the defining issue of our time” is. Because the idea of the “defining issue of our time” is empty and meaningless, there is no serious way to debate about it. Normally if you want to debate… Continue reading Another intuition pump on the ‘defining issue of our time’
Liberals and class
I want to shortly clarify one of my points from the prior post about what I called “liberal cultural space.” So the identitarian swing among liberals (and left of liberals) has been pretty successful in disciplining people from privileged identities from arguing against the seriousness of oppression that does not affect them. A man that… Continue reading Liberals and class
Admitted fuck up Ezra Klein is less interested in inequality than you are
With no policies to explain or white papers to rewrite, Ezra Klein was sent scrambling on Friday to produce content for the Wonkblog. Working way outside any demonstrated competency he has, he produced this piece titled “Inequality isn’t ‘the defining challenge of our time’”. Now I know what you are thinking. What the hell is… Continue reading Admitted fuck up Ezra Klein is less interested in inequality than you are
Salon: Guess what, elites: Not all young people are rich
Elizabeth Stoker and I have a new post over at Salon about the stupidity of generational analysis, which is, in fact, just analysis of the well off in a given generation. A taste: A program crafted around the needs of the majority of young people would look much different, of course. Instead of droning on… Continue reading Salon: Guess what, elites: Not all young people are rich