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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   27671 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 13, 2025

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I don't think posting this exact blogpost 7 years ago would have been self-immolation. It would have been interesting and brave, neither of which it is now. Scott never claimed to be any Galileo, but what's clear is that to be a Galileo you need to have a bone to pick politically in order to be induced to face the headwinds of actually challenging Authority. It's not just about rational arguments and evidence.

What bones did Scott have to pick with authority back in 2017 outside of stuff like "unfuck the FDA somehow"?

https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/07/social-justice-and-words-words-words/

https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/12/does-race-exist-does-culture/

https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/31/radicalizing-the-romanceless/

https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/

https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/01/01/untitled/

Or in general

https://slatestarcodex.com/tag/things-i-will-regret-writing/

https://slatestarcodex.com/tag/things-i-will-regret-writing/page/2/

Some of these were likely more controversial in their original than their current form.

I swear someone made a big archive dump of the originals once. That kind of thing is so hard to find on the Internet...

He picked quite a few bones with the entire social justice memeplex, which was clearly backed by authority.

He doesn't, hence the capitulation to the consensus until the winds shifted. But Scott would mark it as a virtue that he has no bones to pick, or a vice that HBD-believing right-wing poaster is motivated politically. But it is clear that political radicalism is required to challenge strongly-held beliefs like this. The right-wingers speaking truth to power actually advanced knowledge in the face of adversity, Scott played neutral Switzerland until it was convenient to take the other side.

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