In "The Great Realignment" @peterboghossian explains to @peternlimberg how rational fundamentalists and rational atheists are finding common cause against anti-rational political forces—as I semi-jokingly predicted.https://anchor.fm/intellectualexplorersclub/episodes/Peter-Boghoassian---The-Great-Realignment-e3vobd …
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Boghossian, a leftist atheist, is infamous among fundamentalists as the author of _Manual for Creating Atheists_ which sparked a startlingly effective "street epistemology" movement for evangelizing Christians into atheism.
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Boghossian is infamous AGAIN for attacking anti-rational pseudo-academic work in what he calls "grievance studies." He tells
@peternlimberg that he's had a deluge of "I never thought I'd say this to you of all people but I'm 100% with you" support from fundamentalists.Show this thread -
Boghossian suggests that, in a Great Realignment, the major axis of politics may be shifting to rational vs anti-rational, systematic vs anti-systematic, collapsing the old left/right distinction. I suggested something similar in 2016: https://meaningness.com/metablog/communal-vs-systematic-politics …pic.twitter.com/MKoetzBkAI
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He points also to developing alliances between groups that ignore their left/right differences to join in anti-rational causes. He cites a divisive "wokeness" movement within fundamentalism (first I've heard of this). Feminist-Islamist alliances might be another example?
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Boghossian says he thinks the anti-rational insurgency will necessarily collapse because it has no structure of justification. I am less optimistic: Removing any feeling of need for justification is exactly why it is powerful and attractive! https://meaningness.com/metablog/communal-vs-systematic-politics …pic.twitter.com/rhFxvWSRlL
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The fact is, most people don't care about rational justifications. Those were always an elite affectation. Elites conspired to keep political discourse within systematic rules, but twitter ended that. Boghossian wrings his hands over this loss; I imagine 4chan & SJWs laughing.pic.twitter.com/gIMuv4Ql5X
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Given a choice between rationalism & anti-rationalism, I will unhesitatingly choose the first. Until we create something better—which I hope we will—rationalist institutions are absolutely necessary to our survival. But the age of rationalism has passed.https://meaningness.com/metablog/rationalism-critiques …
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Interviewing
@peterboghossian, I would have been less polite than@peternlimberg, and pressed him with "yes, and"s. Standpoint epistemology is not entirely wrong; we do all have limited knowledge and understanding, which is partly a matter of social position; this does matter.Show this thread -
(I should say that it's a GREAT interview and I recommend listening! Both participants were really sharp and interesting.)https://anchor.fm/intellectualexplorersclub/episodes/Peter-Boghoassian---The-Great-Realignment-e3vobd …
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Intersectionality can be misused as an inverted standard of value, but it's a real thing. My black female immigrant lover got specific types of flak that people in any two of those three categories would not have faced.
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Postmodernism is invoked as all-purpose backing for "you have to do whatever I want you to, because my feelings, facts be damned"; but the overall postmodern critique of rationalism is actually correct. There are no ultimate foundations anywhere.
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Can we oppose anti-rationalist political movements effectively while acknowledging that their grievances and their critiques of rationalist institutions and their esoteric epistemologies are partly justified? Wouldn't that be MORE effective?
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End of conversation
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