Hard for me not to see it as a pure exercise in branding. Especially in Rubin’s case.
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It’s not entirely insincere though. Part of it is a kind of cargo-culting. Some of them genuinely *want* to be liberals, and distance themselves from the alt-light crypto-fascism that is constantly threatening to swallow them.
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do you know any analysis done on *why* people think that liberalism is so cool? From my outside view of the US it seems that conservatism got tarnished bad by the Bush admin and the fact that Obama was (initially) able to big tent
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Do they think it's cool? I always thought all flavors were basically nerds with vague fanboi complexes relating to a bunch of 17-19th century philosophers in powdered wigs. It's like greek statue-head classical greek philosophy fetishists except they don't make them their avis.
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im speaking more to (admittedly hazy) assumption that there was a generational cohort who thought that conservatism was kinda dumb and who passively IDed as liberal
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I think it has to do with the way American history gets taught in public schools here, among other things.
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Also the right for a long time treated liberal=progressive, and called the one acceptable flavor "classical liberal" (which is a sort of contradiction in terms). Lately, classical liberal has become the only liberalism and schism-ed off from old ally progressive= woke.
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Labels are kinda ridiculous tbh
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Many political ideologies are obsessed with niche labels but none, it seems to me, more so than libertarians. The mileage they apparently expect to get from gerrymandering some new label just so to include only those they agree with most is extraordinary.
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To be frank, one reason I just decided to go with “liberal” without qualifiers of any sort is precisely because it’s so broad and vague. I like to think I have something to say on philosophy etc but at heart I’m a very boringly conventional person lol
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I really do not need my own unique label to express the details of my differences from others in the broad liberal pantheon. I’m good 😅
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so you deal with diffs at the individual level? like ridiculing rubin though you share the broad label in theory?
Yeah, I mean, individually but also just depending on what’s under consideration. Political factions are always of the moment. Even philosophically, you might lump Pinker and I together on some things but distant opposites on others.
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Rubin’s just a clown though lol. Sometimes I consider a clown broadly on my side. I don’t for him, and the list of names he produces in that thread completely confirms this
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