Thanks Zak! Great chatting

New episode of MER with @mattpolprof.bsky.social on the viability of liberal socialism

NEW VIDEO: The Death of Free Trade youtu.be/XsOYGt7EKG8

Really enjoyed chatting about liberal socialism with Mutual Exchange Radio mutualexchangeradio.libsyn.com/mattew-mcman...

You legit lived the meme

I'm so disheartened to realize that I live in a country with a person like this and its followers.

I mean my wife did write the introduction to my liberal socialism book, but I doubt that's what did it for her. That said if liberal socialism is an aphrodisiac then boy have I found a new way to pitch it.

Ben Shapiro wrote a book about capitalism being inherently meritocraric based on philosophy that he at best doesn't understand and on his belief that he is smarter than everyone else. Spoiler: this author is clearly much smarter than him. Ben Shapiro is an Overconfident Mediocre White Dude.

Hey Ben, how's it going? Still actively contributing to the If Books Could Kill industrial complex, I see.

Okay, but as a former lit major my initial thought was ‘Shapiro can write?’

Again. Lions ARE scavengers. And neither builds anything! He’s had a stroke.

“Lions and Scavengers displays the same mix of arrogance and ignorance that we have seen consistently from Shapiro. It distinguishes itself only by the extent of its descent into a viciously dehumanizing worldview that serves to justify acts of brutal violence.”

Shapiro, like other RW shit birds, want to be rewarded for doing nothing. They think people, especially women, owe them deference by default and unquestioned loyalty. But they do nothing. They are worth nothing and are as useless as tits on a bull-hog. Parasite? Shapiro is a grifting leech.

Sigh...

Unsurprisingly Shapiro seems to have written more or less the same formulaic Nietzscheslop as every other alt right writer. I wonder if @mattpolprof.bsky.social gets tired of reading it.

I don't care that its a soundtrack. New NIN is new NIN and cause for celebration.

King of the swirlies wrote a book about “alpha males” What a fucking bitch

Thanks Prof!

Obscene that Klein discussed cooling our polarization with this guy. ❝ if you’re thinking “surely it must be a LITTLE more complicated than this, the world is more than a children’s fable about good lions and bad scavengers,” reader, we assure you, this is all there is to it ❞

Thanks!

„Intellectually serious people must make an effort to empathetically engage with the ideas they are criticizing, so as to ensure they understand them. That’s why, despite the agony of doing so, we have read every page of books by Shapiro.“ The result is an erudite and savage takedown - must read.

Yep. Ben writes an entire book about how everyone he disagrees with are scavengers and parasites. And then he's the guy meant to turn the temperature down.

...& this is the person Ezra Klein chose to interview about "political de-escalation". can't make this stuff up bsky.app/profile/greg...

The energy to refute bullshit is FAR greater that to produce the bullshit. THIS is why MAGA gets away with their fantasy world.

That is, indeed, the standard problem.

Really appreciate this thoughtful review of "The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism" by @stevepaxton.bsky.social in Theoria www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journal...

Whenever asked what my motivation is for reviewing Shapiro etc I usually paraphrase Hitchens: There is something really cute, almost adorable, about a bunch of very rich, very vain men thinking the biggest problem in society is they aren't quite rich and revered enough

What do you think @currentaffairs.bsky.social?

Indeed

Oh my, looks like Shapiro did a new version of “Unhumans”— book designed to demonize a large swath of the population. They are doing this for a reason, folks.

What profound and original ideas Ben is having that...wait for it...10,000 conservative media figures and "philosophers" had prior.

“Supposedly, the world is divided into good, noble “lions” and evil, grasping “scavengers.” Guess which one Ben thinks he is?”

Thank goodness. Finally. Just when you thought we were running low on rich white guys generating elaborate parables about why rich white guys are so awesome and everyone else sucks. So philosophy. Much reasoned debate. Ben Shapiro is Doing Politics the Right Way.

Have you read this? bsky.app/profile/greg...

This article is long-ish but very good on the problems of the modern day right wing 👇

Thanks

It’s a good review, but simply: Shapiro’s an idiot. He’s a midget intellectual who simply can’t tolerate view different from his own. Not to make too much fun of his height, but he’s obviously terribly insecure, so he’s created a disturbing worldview to make his weird beliefs feel justified.

It's an interesting analogy in that male lions are basically indolent bullies, waiting for women to bring home the antelope then eating the choice bits themselves

Thanks!

"To invoke Nietzsche, the problem with Shapiro’s dives into philosophy and spirituality aren’t just that they fail to be deep. It’s that they aren’t even superficial." Oof. Great review by @mattpolprof.bsky.social and Nathan Robinson. www.currentaffairs.org/news/ben-sha...

If culture really were on Trump's side he wouldn't be anxiously using state power to try and compel it. What we're seeing is the state being used against civil society and theres a kind of anxious ressentiment to it all. The whole point of hegemony is its invisible and people arent aware ot it.

Always worth signing up for @currentaffairs.bsky.social

The title trying to evoke a natural hierarchy is bullshit. Comparing lions, an organism with strictly defined traits to scavengers, a big tent ecological classification with subclasses within it proves he's the one confused on the natural order of the world

“Mountains of Bullshit” Indeed

Informative read and well written (the article, not Shapiro’s slop). Might be worth a subscription!

Lol

Once again I am exposed to Bens writing and as usual he makes it very obvious why he couldn't become a Hollywood screenwriter

It’s exhausting. That’s true.

If every billionaire and influencer in the world went on vacation to Mars for a year, there would be no dip in productivity at all. If a bunch of garbage men go on strike for a month, society falls apart. So, who are the parasites feeding off the work of others again?