Snyder's done some good historical work over the years. His "thoughts" on the Trump era are exemplary in two ways: good work in one area doesn't necessarily translate into others (this seems to be especially true of professional historians, who go on about how the past needs to
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be understood "in context" but often seem to lack all perspective on the present); and Trump's election really has driven quite a few decent and intelligent people mad.
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Sometimes genius* is burnt up. Look at Chomsky's few years as a linguist in the 1950s with the 50+ years of his "political activism" since then. * Genius might be too strong to apply to Snyder, but he learned a dozen Eastern European languages for primary source research.
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The difference is that Chomsky is largely correct and good though. He and the dissident right share much in common. He is correct about the American Empire, and those with paleoconservative sensibilities agree that the empire should be dismembered. Paleoconservatives think that
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the empire has to die so the nation can live. He is basically correct about how the media and the elite bullshit their way in to a consensus, this is true in foreign policy, but this is also true in immigration and multiculturalism. He does not deny human nature and differences
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in mental characteristics among human populations, in fact he says that HBD is likely, though he not pay attention to it. And he's pretty good at defending free speech.
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I agree Chomsky has virtues apart from his early work on linguistics, and you're right to highlight his commitment to human nature as something that distinguishes him from others on the left (just as Chomsky is right to observe that, without such a commitment, much of the left's
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positive as opposed to negative or merely destructive program doesn't make much sense). But even so, I think he's declined over time—he's been to known to say in recent years, for instance, that "Western civilisation" is "uniquely violent," something that is not obviously
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Snyder is like the weird uncle you only see on holidays. While he was supposedly a good guy back in the day now at dinner he just launches into interminable monologues about fluoride in the drinking water and other conspiracy theories. Everyone just smiles nervously and fidgets
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What's sad is "Bloodlands" is an astonishingly good book. Even if you've become desensitized about the Nazis, the sheer scope yet personal touch of the book makes you understand just how ghastly they were. And the Soviet parts are even better. But... conquest is a good thing?
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A lot of research on totalitarianism has the stench of the most dreadful kind of wish fulfillment. "Look at these people hoarding power, banishing fools more successful than they were, shaping history at a whim! Isn't it awes- Awful?"
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They came, they conquered, we died. Heh heh heh heh - Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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