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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Aug 14
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      * retreating —> interesting 2 tweets up. Not sure if autocorrect or obscure Freudian slip 😆

      1 reply 2 retweets 14 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Aug 14
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      Gen X witnessed the fall of the wall and a genuine if short-lived expansion of democracy. There’s a reason Fukuyama’s argument resonated so strongly then. It might have been the last such expansion. The democratic recession could easily last the rest of our lives.

      2 replies 8 retweets 47 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Aug 15
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      I find discussions of “no true democracy,” direct vs indirect, republic vs pure, to be tedious and nerdy distractions for those tempted by other things. As far as I’m concerned, boundary of democratic models is not set by idealized forms or mechanisms but a broad disposition...

      2 replies 10 retweets 40 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Aug 15
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      ...created by the urge to recognize all humans as humans and be recognized as such in turn. The democratic disposition stands opposed to the dehumanization instinct in any form. In all other aspects it can be unbelievably messy and still work. This is why to be democratic is...

      3 replies 4 retweets 40 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Aug 15
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      ... to be suspicious of political ideologies rooted in specific ideals. To cherish an ideal is to venerate those who embody it best, and dehumanize those who don’t. It doesn’t matter whether that ideal is divinity, nobility, merit, etc... to venerate X is to dehumanize not-X

      2 replies 4 retweets 23 likes
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Aug 15
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      The democratic disposition is tested most when you ask yourself if you’re willing to acknowledge humanity in its most corrupt, debased, stupid, weak, even evil individual manifestations. And of course in people very unlike yourself. This does not mean liking/relating to them...

      2 replies 5 retweets 24 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Aug 15
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      The democratic disposition is not a saintly or expansively ecumenical disposition. You can freely detest anybody and hold them in deep contempt. You can even be utterly misanthropic and hate everybody and still be democratic spirited. Seeing the humanity in others != liking them

      1 reply 4 retweets 31 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Aug 15
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      To be democratic is to recognize that others have as much right to exist as you, despite their flaws (from your POV). As do you, despite all your flaws from their POV. Perfection, perfectibility, or conformity to others’ ideas of goodness/worth is not necessary for you to exist

      1 reply 4 retweets 39 likes
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    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Aug 15
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      This leads naturally to a certain pacifism, a certain tendency to limit your own urges to dominate others, resistance to any impulse towards terminal destruction of others, and minimalism in defense of yourself against such tendencies on the part of others

      4 replies 2 retweets 20 likes
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    10. Carlos Bueno‏ @Archivd Aug 15
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      Replying to @vgr

      Like the old story of the loaf cutter and the half-loaf chooser, always try to imagine yourself in both places.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Aug 15
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      Replying to @Archivd

      Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao

      😆 https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1270479053644894210?s=21 …https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1270479053644894210 …

      Venkatesh Rao added,

      Venkatesh Rao @vgr
      “I cut the cake, you pick your half” is basically the only good political idea anyone has ever had. Everything else is either derived from that, or self-serving behavior dressed up to look like an idea.
      Show this thread
      12:26 AM - 15 Aug 2020
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      • Leon Markham Carlos Bueno
      0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes

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