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It is also a broader cultural sensibility composed out of the steady drip-drip of bureaucratic acts, a loose constellation of practices and postures t
Scale in its practice in humanist reason is thus both a concept and a metaconcept, insofar as it represents to us not only a theory of objects and a t
Liberalism in the sense I am using it refers to the rule of law, a system of formal rules that restrict the powers of the executive, even if that exec
Supposedly mature adults with no sense of scale or proportionality.”
“If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” — George Orwell
But there remains also the truth that every end in history necessarily contains a new beginning; this beginning is the promise, the only “message” whi
To exorcise a human problem, you must use a touch of naming magic.
“Each new generation, indeed every new human being as he inserts himself between an infinite past and an infinite future, must discover and ploddingly
the life of thought, holding a position is like that: there’s a proper firmness of belief that lies between the extremes of rigidity and flaccidity.
it does involve a kind of close reading, a careful attention to the forms that organize texts, bodies, and institutions.
Wisdom lies in discernment, and utopianism and nostalgia alike are ways of abandoning discernment.
But there remains also the truth that every end in history necessarily contains a new beginning; this beginning is the promise, the only “message” whi
Charm requires proximity.
Intuitionism and the rejection of evidence and expertise are especially compatible with conservative populism.
the imaginary waxes while the symbolic wanes.
It has become increasingly possible to give almost continuous access to politicians—or that's the illusion. Think of our phones, these totemic objects
language can do so much to squash independent thinking, obscure truths, encourage confirmation bias, and emotionally charge experiences such that no o
linguistic concept called the theory of performativity says that language does not simply describe or reflect who we are, it creates who we are.
And stories make place.24 This means the metaphoric, allegorical, symbolic, and other devices that shape stories also move us and make place.
"Lies are often much more plausible, more appealing to reason than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audi
The sharing contest is what produces social gravitation in the web.
people who use social media frequently perceive significantly more political disagreement in their daily lives than those who do not.
Gamergate announced our new era, of American life shaped by social media’s incentives and rules, from platforms just beyond the outskirts of mainstrea
There is no teleological arc for digital platforms; they don’t move in one direction toward perfection, the way hard drives have been able to store mo
depend on an accurate apprehension of the context
It is this slackening that thinkers like Jodi Dean, Slavoj Žižek, Mark Andrejevic, Byung-Chul Han and others have warned of as a decline of the symbol
Intuitionism and the rejection of evidence and expertise are especially compatible with conservative populism.
A common argument for not regulating speech is that “good” speech will defeat “bad” speech. But that will not happen if the fight is fixed to give the
when people place value on the role of evidence as a means of updating their beliefs, they are less likely to believe misinformation and conspiracy th
It is also a broader cultural sensibility composed out of the steady drip-drip of bureaucratic acts, a loose constellation of practices and postures t
Intuitionism and the rejection of evidence and expertise are especially compatible with conservative populism.
the imaginary waxes while the symbolic wanes.
In other words, because the other side does it, we can do it.
Art constitutively thwarts immediacy, urgency, and utility; its most direct use rests in this indirection—but today’s immediatist art aspires to void
There are three major psychological weapons that combatants often transfer into culture war: scapegoating, deception, and violent threats.
we distrust to the point that it becomes dangerous to be a judge, a Capitol Police officer, a doctor, a librarian, a poll worker, or someone installin
What we did not understand was that misinformation and disinformation was their business and that they had no intention of using us or anyone else to
That growing alienation is a key point. This is not just about “bad” people. It is about how the death of truth, and, therefore trust, has caused so m
Much of our capacity to ‘use’ the world depends, not on an attempt to open ourselves as much as possible to apprehending whatever it is that exists ap
The reason why our pervasive cultural irony is at once so powerful and so unsatisfying is that an ironist is impossible to pin down.
The critic Roy Christopher has called irony “the most abused trope of our time, a ‘get out of judgment free’ card, an escape route, an exit strategy.”
then how have irony, irreverence, and rebellion come to be not liberating but enfeebling in the culture today's avant-garde tries to write about? One
I think we are trained, particularly on the left, to be critical of performance. And I feel we should be more honest in acknowledging that performance