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It makes sense.. To be a leftist in a neoliberal hegemony, you have to have either seek out and learn theory, or learn from people who learned theory. To be a liberal or conservative, one merely needs to exist in your community and voice your opinion.

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M-hm. But death-by-theory isn't constrained to the left. You also see it with libertarians. There's the same expectation that you have some perverse obligation to read X thinker before you can have an opinion. Even if there is no reason at all to rate said thinker.

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Abstraction of a conversation I've had a few times too many in my life: "This theorist, who only coincidentally happens to inspire/align with *my views*, is required reading." "What is your proof that they're credible?" "What is your proof that they AREN'T CREDIBLE?"

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But yeah, the alt-right and neocons are more po-mo. There are a few scattered facts, a lot of definitely-not-facts, and a whole bunch of narrative reconstruction that relies on a smattering of shibboleths and in-group credibility. It's not even wrong.

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"Soy boys", "NPCs" et al. are essentially fanfic. It has all the credibility of someone's headcanon of a fantasy setting. But then, credible influence is not the goal - memetic appropriation and Overton-shifting is, as well as the ever-present intellectual inferiority complex.

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I have a pet theory (obviously, just a pet theory) that the alt-right "50 tweets about nothing"-style comes from a deep insecurity. It's the fear of being caught with your pants down intellectually, a la Rand, Hayek and all the others. Rather make unfalsifiable non-statements.

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IRL? Please. The "I am very intellectual" Twitter alt-righters and Nick Land-types are not out on the streets rioting. They consider that stuff beneath them. There is a lot of conceit (and factionalism). Nazi LARPers are considered bottom tier by the self-proclaimed kings.

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I don't blame you. I learned much from developing a certain morbid curiosity. I'm still learning new aspects of the vocab, since I don't actually interact directly. It changes every so often. And yeah, it's mostly just bluster with an intragroup focus.

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Still half-expecting to see tweets like "and then the NPC's head LITERALLY EXPLODED," every so often. But that doesn't really jive with the pretend-polite pseudointellectualism.

2:48 PM · Dec 5, 2018Twitter Web Client