So David Roberts, who writes so well on climate and economics and so forth has a thread that has gone viral, even by his standards. Inspired by (or despaired by, perhaps) the weeks long Confected Moral Outrage over Harvard University and its now-ex-President, Roberts bemoans how the “left” keeps falling into the same very old trap- of talking about what “the right” chooses. First tweet in the thread is here. This below, gives the flavour.
But Roberts surely knows why this sustains itself – and it is for very similar reasons so little has been achieved on climate. It is because you can know that the system you are operating within runs on perverted incentives, but still be constrained by them. In this case, if you break the fourth wall, and talk about how it is an artificial debate you are saying out loud that you are smarter and/or braver than the host of the show/the editor/the booker. They are quite unlikely to thank you and ask for a repeat dose. You will be replaced – there are plenty of more pliable people ready to take your spot.
All this reminds me of a) a podcast I just listened to where the hosts seemed unable of understanding how systemic racism might have defence and reproduction mechanisms and b) Robert Kagan’s piece in the Washington Post about a second Trump presidency and how speaking out would be very quickly selected against.
It’s frustrating – Roberts is really onto something, but he is trapped in this almost Hobbesian world, and can’t talk about the systemic drivers, the selection pressures that keep things the way they are. I don’t know why that is. He’s dead smart, but has only gotten to the morality tale level on this topic.
On collective cognition? Oh, look, I’ve run out of steam for this post. Suffice to say social movements used to make it possible for people to develop the tools to defend themselves from at least the crudest and most obvious forms of manipulation. Now, not so much. We’re all paurer for the sauve qui peut…
Finally – the people who are batshit crazy (but also cunning and effective) are going to render us all “botshit crazy“.
I have seen fear in a handful of bytes…
marchudson.net 
Marc, I see the issue in much simpler terms. Most of us are consumed with living, dawn till dusk, seven days a week, things that don’t directly impact us are given little thought and even less action. The 20% or less of us who are activated, aroused or angered by the way our country/world is heading, fall into two groups, those for and those against. Those for have much to lose, power, money or control. As a result they put both time and effort in maintaining their position, while the rest of us just plod along.