Isn't there an obvious sense that no Matt Yglesias is not a Nietzschean superman, in the same way that a communist drill sergeant is not a Nazi?
The drill sergeant might wear jackboots, he might inculcate strict discipline, he's part of a hierarchy in a large and powerful Army, he's part of a war machine with vast ambitions to rewrite the old order (and hey he might've put some people in an unmarked grave in Eastern Europe). But he is turning all these things that we associate with Nazism to the purpose of communism, the workers revolution, international proletarianism, levelling of distinctions...
Yglesias is using elements of master-morality to strengthen and serve slave morality. Yglesias wants to bring in hundreds of millions of people to the US to cement the current system as it is, to beat America's overseas competitors who might otherwise strain the system to its breaking point. He wants to turn the energies of dissenters to favour the system. There's no compromise, just appreciation for effective tactics.
All this is far too complimentary of mattY. From my POV, he's quite clear. He knows he is a partisan and a liar. He just happens to like redistribution and progressivism. So the rest of what he does is lying for those ends. He has become quite explicit in this recently.
It is one hell of a performance of intellectual gymnastics to turn someone who spends all day tweeting, reporting people for minor traffic violations, and shilling his substack, into a Nietzschean Superman.
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Notes -
Isn't there an obvious sense that no Matt Yglesias is not a Nietzschean superman, in the same way that a communist drill sergeant is not a Nazi?
The drill sergeant might wear jackboots, he might inculcate strict discipline, he's part of a hierarchy in a large and powerful Army, he's part of a war machine with vast ambitions to rewrite the old order (and hey he might've put some people in an unmarked grave in Eastern Europe). But he is turning all these things that we associate with Nazism to the purpose of communism, the workers revolution, international proletarianism, levelling of distinctions...
Yglesias is using elements of master-morality to strengthen and serve slave morality. Yglesias wants to bring in hundreds of millions of people to the US to cement the current system as it is, to beat America's overseas competitors who might otherwise strain the system to its breaking point. He wants to turn the energies of dissenters to favour the system. There's no compromise, just appreciation for effective tactics.
All this is far too complimentary of mattY. From my POV, he's quite clear. He knows he is a partisan and a liar. He just happens to like redistribution and progressivism. So the rest of what he does is lying for those ends. He has become quite explicit in this recently.
It is one hell of a performance of intellectual gymnastics to turn someone who spends all day tweeting, reporting people for minor traffic violations, and shilling his substack, into a Nietzschean Superman.
I'm in a way pretty sure it's some sort of joke, but I didn't have the time to figure out how exactly Scott meant it.
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